The First of Many

We will be getting the "official" gymnastics pictures in a few weeks, but I couln't help post this picture when I got it from another team mom.  Maddie is in a group called "Mighty Mites" at her gymnastics center and is loving it!  If she is anything like her mommy, this is only the first of many more to come!!

Our Halloween Dinner

 For several years now, I have had several friends tell me about this little tradition they have at their houses to have a special Halloween feast. 

And I have loved it and wanted to copy ever since.

This year, I told myself that I would do it, no matter how crazy life was.

Once again we hit some serious madness this past week with schedules, Jesse's studying, sharing one car, work, etc. and I have to admit that I had already thrown in the towel on this idea. Until Miss M reminded me on Thursday afternoon that we hadn't ever done our "Spooky Halloween Dinner."

So what was a mom to do?

Well I threw all the kids in the car, went to the grocery store and tried to come up with as many things as possible that could be tied into this dinner.  All in all I was pleased with the results and have convinced myself that this will be a necessary tradition to be repeated each year...just maybe with a little more planning :)

 Our table set up

 "Worm Pie" {aka: Lime Jello with gummy worms}

 "Brains" Decoration {aka: cauliflower in colored water---thanks Bryn!}

 Pink Lemonade with a "floating hand" {aka" ice frozen in a glove}

 "Bandaged Fingers" {aka: hot dogs wrapped in tortillas with ketchup}

Building Blocks {& Friendships}

Do you ever have those toys that somehow get thrown into the back of the toy closet and seem to be lost for months at a time?

That is what happened to this fabulous box of blocks that my Father-in-law made for the kids a few years ago for Christmas.  Just recently with the weather cooling off, we cleaned out the toy closet and found these beauties all ready to be played with.  Now my kids have been spending every evening after baths building castles, fortresses, dungeons, mansions, and even "evil dragons" per Robby.  I love to watch their imaginations run wild as they talk each other through all sorts of colorful images and details of their game.  Most of all, however, I love how sweet they are to each other when they play good together!

Flashback

 I got another wonderful DVD of pictures from dad, aka family Camera Man, and it was so much fun to dig through the files he added and finds some old ones.  These pictures were taken last February on my bro Ben's 19th Birthday.  It is amazing to see how much each of us have changed in an 18 month time frame.....

 Hard to believe that Ben's hair used to be that long....so glad you chose a clean cut version these days buddy!  Also I cannot believe how tiny Mr Eli was back then

 Miss Maddie styling herself in Snow White attire at 3.5 years old

 And this picture is just proof that I do indeed gain weight in my face when pregnant and thank heavens the gym has helped get rid of those chubby cheeks :)

{Never mind the fact that Robby looks like a cancer patient in this picture}

Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday, and perhaps I will find more treasures to add to my blog!

Candy Buffet Birthday Party

This year I asked Maddie what she wanted to do for her friend birthday party.  At first she decided on a "pajama party" but when she made the decision to invite some boys that idea was quickly vetoed.  I had told she could pick to either have a co-ed party or do a girls only pajama party.  Well...of course she picked the co-ed party and so we thew together a "Swimming" themed party.  The one request she did make was for a "candy buffet".  I didn't even know what that was until she told me she wanted one.  I even asked her what it was, and she went on to describe it as a fancy table with "different sizes of glass jars with different colors of candy inside them."  At that point I googled the words and lo and behold she was right.  I am not sure if my daughter is really only five years old; sometimes I feel like she is five going on sixteen.  Either way, I felt like I had to at least put some effort forth to fulfill her one birthday wish.  We searched several different stores in search of semi-cheap candy to supply and I have to admit I thought that it turned out rather well.  Plus the kids seem to all enjoy it as well :)

We ended up inviting a boat load of people to her party.  She has had several play groups over the years, preschool friends, school friends, neighbor friends and finally primary friends.  I think we ended up with approximately 20 some odd kids at our house that day.  Even though it was quite chaotic, they all had a really good time and no one got hurt (yeah!).  We borrowed my good friends bounce water slide and blew up our inflatable pool.  We even pulled out water balloons with the intention of having a water fight, but the kids were so busy playing we didn't need any other entertainment.

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After playing for awhile, we dried off and then had cake and ice cream followed by present time.  Maddie was so excited to have so many of her good friends there and afterwards she said "Mom, this was my most favorite party ever".  Success!!  Thank goodness we have until February before we have to do another party at our house!

 Cute cousin Kaylin pausing for a photo op

 Crazy kids walking up the slide :)

 Eli wasn't too thrilled with being in the water, but he did enjoy drinking Capri Suns pool side!

 This picture of Maddie pouring water out of the fireman hat down herself cracks me up.  Perhaps if I can ever manage to get Photoshop working on my computer, I would love to crop this one in closer....

"Heavy heavy hang over thy poor head.  What do you wish this giver with a bump on the head?"

Maddie wished for almost all the kids to come over and play at her house another time.  Nice try little Missy!

And later after all the other friends had left: Maddie, Robby, Kaylin and Aleisa had a great time playing in the deflated pool.

 Party attendees: Maddie, Robby, Kaylin, Makenna, Emma, Charity, Peyton, Delaney, Kailey, Sarah, Stella, Jude, Braden, Bradley, Jaren, Abby, Ellie, Madeline, Hallie, Fiona, Zoey, Mequell, Aleisa, to name a few :)