New PJ's!

One of our traditions is to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  The kids cracked me up tonight wondering what it was when it's always the same thing, New Pajamas! They were all so excited though which was definitely a good thing!  We laid out cookies and milk for Santa, and another plate of cookies for the elves that come and prep for Santa. I thank the new movie Prep and Landing for that one, but hey, what's one more plate of cookies? ;)  We read The Night Before Christmas and then I gave each of the kids a handful of oats to go sprinkle on the yard to draw Santa's reindeer to the house. They had a blast with that, although Riley told me that it needed to have glitter in it so that they can see it, I told her that that probably won't taste very good and that the smell of the oats will do it's job to get the reindeer to our house.  They're all tucked in now and should be sleeping here shortly and I'm off to bed myself.  Merry Christmas!

Gearing up for Christmas!

Peyton's got the kids in the bath and I'm downstairs finalizing Christmas Eve preparations.  The kids will be down shortly to open their one gift, pajamas.  They'll put out milk and cookies for Santa, we'll go out and spread the Reindeer Food and then curl up together and read the Christmas Story and The Night Before Christmas.  Tomorrow I'll upload pictures of everything.  Merry Christmas Eve!

Riley's Gingerbread girl

Riley brought home a naked gingerbread person that she had to decorate and of course she wanted it covered in pink and purple. I think it turned out really cute!

New Job!

Not exactly, but I start teaching at my LSS (local scrapbook store) on Sunday, December 6th. I'm so excited! Ivy over at Scrappin' Happily Ever After did a nice write-up of me and my class. Click here to check it out.

Let's play a little game of catch up!

Little Miss Caroline turned 3, but if you ask her how old she is she'll tell you 14.
I only got a handful of pictures of her on her birthday, the rest are videos.
Sorry about that!

Also, I have no idea why my words are underlined now. Still trying to figure out blogger on my new iMac. It's not the same as my HP laptop.


We celebrated Halloween just 2 days after Caroline's Birthday.

The kids' October craft was making these cute little ghosts to hang from the tree in the front yard. We made them with foam balls, a white plastic table cloth and some fishing line.

Caroline was a "titty tat"! LOL

Riley was a spooky witch!

and Ethan was Luke Skywalker

I know it's not a lot, but I had to get something on here. I'm hoping to start updating at least weekly again. See you soon!

Locks of Love!

Riley decided that she wanted a haircut. Her first real haircut did take off about 6 inches, but this time she wanted something different. So we decided to go short and to donate it to Locks of Love. After showing her what to expect by finding some info online, she thought it was a good idea.


11 inches of hair!

Always being crazy!



Before


After

Car Conversation

Riley: Mama, how do you spell piffle?

Me: Piffle is not a word.

Riley: yes it is

Me: Do you mean pickle?

Riley: No

Me: Can you use it in a sentence?

Riley: What does that mean?

Me: For example, I put a pickle on my hamburger.

Riley: Oh, ok. HOW DO YOU SPELL PIFFLE?

Crazy kid?!?!?!

Brickyard Craft and Vendor Fair

I'm doing my first craft fair on Saturday. I'm excited and a little nervous. I don't have a huge amount of items to sell, but I'm going with what I have. I'm not breaking my back making things and chancing them not selling. I'm hoping to book some workshops and get some orders at the show. We'll see. I've been going round and round about keeping my demonstratorship. I think I've been thinking too hard. I'm not working it as hard as I can or should, so here's to hoping that Saturday brings me some more customers. Wish me luck!

The Strawberry Patch

Peyton and I saw a painted wooden sign that said "Strawberry Patch" on the way to our favorite Mexican Restaurant. We thought it would be fun to take the kids and let them pick strawberries. After we went to Frankie's Fun Park during Spring Break, we went straight to the patch. Caroline fell asleep, so for the first part of picking I was holding her while trying to take pictures of everybody else.

They got right to it, they were old pros!

Show me whatcha got! (and try not to look at the camera:)

Ethan started with this little basket

then upgraded to the bigger one because "it holds more!"


Look how huge this one is!

Caroline woke up and got right to work. I asked her to show me what she had and she took a huge bite and said "my bite".

I think we ended up with about 20 pounds of strawberries. We filled up 4 of those baskets full!

They keep asking me when we're going back to pick strawberries. That might have to be on the agend for this weekend.

Frankie's Fun Park

The Friday of Ethan's Spring Break we took a trip to Frankie's Fun Park. We didn't do much over Spring Break so I wanted to make sure we did something memorable. There is so much to do there. We started with lunch and then hit the park. The first thing the kids wanted to do was go on the big slide. Ethan took his time going up, you can see through the steps, but he made it up no problem. Peyton had to go down with Caroline.

Ready, Set, Slide!



Next, it was off to play Putt Putt. I thought it would be funny if Ethan stuck his head in the alligator's mouth for a picture. Caroline wasn't sure what he was doing and had to check it out for herself.

This was Caroline's first time playing and Peyton was giving her a crash course in putting and proper form :) She drug her putter around the course until she got tired of it, then I got to carry it.



It was such a pretty course and there were lots of places for photo ops.

Ethan and Riley were old pros! I love Riley's hand on hip pose! She's so prissy!


Here they are under the waterfall. I couldn't get Caroline to cooperate for most of the pictures. Oh well!


Ethan accidentally hit his ball in the water and Caroline thought that was really cool, so she did it on purpose. Peyton was able to save it the first time, but when she hit it in the pond, it was a lost cause. Note to self: grab a few extra balls next time!

Off to the bumper boats. Ethan drove a boat by himself and Riley rode with Peyton. Caroline didn't get to ride and it broke her heart. Life's just not fair when you're a tiny little thing! She cried the whole time they were out there.

Everybody got pretty wet. Their boats bumped and Peyton's tipped forward and water splashed up in the boat. He got pretty wet. Ethan's behind was soaked! Both kids agreed "that was sooooo much fun!"


Next was the go carts. Caroline was still upset about the boat incident and wanted a drink, so Peyton took her inside to get something and left me with Ethan and Riley. Here's Ethan getting ready to drive. Poor baby has short legs and had to have a booster put behind him so he could reach the pedals. He was so excited to drive by himself.

Riley was equally as excited, at first! She was a little apprehensive in this picture.

And they're off!


This is one of the only pictures I got of them at the same time. I think this was Ethan's third go round. Still Riley's first! She was going so slow, she would press on the gas and then just coast, and then press the gas and coast. Ethan was constantly looking beside himself, not in front and bumped her.


Speed Demon!

Slow Poke!

She's had enough at this point. She started crying really LOUD! She drove to one end of the track and just stopped. The guy had to go out and bring her in. When she got to me I asked her why she was crying. She said she was going too fast. I couldn't help but laugh!


I think we managed to pack a week's worth of fun into 3 hours. The kids had a blast for the most part. But it wouldn't be a day out with my family without some drama. They can't wait to go back.