More Fun

Chocolate helps make our little girl a little redneck!
Nothing better than Monster cookies!
The spy gang
If you look closely, you will find Baby Boppy (a small piece of his blanket) in his hand and ballet slippers on his feet
All cool spies carry a finger light!

Seems to be the trend these days that I find everything in the world to do but update this blog. It isn't that I don't want to do it, but rather that I just find other fun things to do instead! To prove it, I just had to post a few photos of the kids playing dress up and pretending. After loading them up on some homemade Monster cookies, they always find lots of goofy things to do. The pictures above are dressing up and playing spy. Some other big hits lately have been attacking an unsuspecting family member with multiple varations of Nerf bullets, building a new version of Thomas' train track, Barbies, sliding down the steps in a sleeping bag, riding their new bikes (Will has FINALLY decided that riding a bike is fun since he learned to make skid marks on the driveway!), playing Wii games and reading Goosebumps books.

That being said, I am guessing that anyone reading this could figure out why I haven't been sitting in front of the computer as much! :) I will, however, try to catch up on the blogging while both Jack and I are under the weather.

Kids are Fun!

Since I am obscenely behind on posting, I thought I would do a generic blog on the kids. The pictures below were all taken during November and pretty much highlight some of the fun that we had. Basically, with three kids, there is never a dull moment in our house and there is always fun to be had. Most of the time, I am there to capture it all with the camera. I am beginning to think that I will need a computer solely designated to our pictures and videos! There are just so many! That's a good thing though.

So, back to our fun. We did a lot of goofing around (as always) and spent some time "creating". We tore out the old bread machine and the kids were in amazement at how it worked. The finished products were devoured immediately. YUM-O! We also made pretzels which is always a huge hit in our home. The kids get to play with the dough as much as they want and then turn it into whatever their little hearts desire. The best part though is eating them! They are incredibly yummy and rival the ones at the mall. The recipe can be found at http://www.copykat.com/component/option,com_rapidrecipe/page,viewrecipe/Itemid,28/recipe_id,706/.

During our trip to Charleston, the kids left Bruno's house with giant pine cones. We decided to turn them into bird feeders and coated them with peanut butter and birdseed. Needless to say, the peanut butter ended up on more than just the pine cones! Our feathered friends thoroughly enjoyed them and they have been licked clean! We need to get busy and add more goodies to them soon.

Birthday #7

The first (and last) birthday cake I ever bought.
Will has a big role in the acts.
Happy Birthday to Will, cha cha cha!
Everyone donning their balloon hats from the magician
The birthday boy gets the biggest and the best hat!

Well, we bit the bullet. We went ahead and had a birthday party for the big guy. Not that we are against birthday parties! They are fun.....when they are at other friends' houses, when you can leave at any moment and when you don't have the stress of getting everything ready. Nonetheless, we felt it was time for Will to have a birthday party.
We opted to keep it simple. Invite a few of his best buddies from school and call it good. Anyone who knows Will, knows what a struggle that was to slim down the list of friends to the mere number of 10! Nonetheless, it was accomplished and the invitations (created by Mom) were sent out.
Although Will had a Harry Potter birthday cake for his second birthday, the child is still in love with him and begged to have a Harry Potter theme. I didn't fuss too much because it made my job of planning the fun very easy. Hire a magician! I have to say, IT WAS AWESOME! The guy was great and kept everyone laughing at all times. There was never a dull moment the entire hour that he was in our home.
All in all, the party was a huge success. My only complaints were the energy level and lack of manners. All I can say is, now I know why no one else does this at their home! I think I will leave it at that.
Will had a great 7th birthday party and we all had fun.

Weekend in Charleston SC

Well, we are way behind in updating the blog. I guess we'll start with our trip to Charleston. We got a phone call to come check out a time share property in Charleston. I'm sure you know the deal - spend an hour and a half with a sales person and they give you a great deal on a room for the weekend plus some cash. All in all, not a bad deal. We had a great time. We toured several Navel vessels (submarine, aircraft carrier, destroyer), went on a horse drawn carriage, hung out downtown and went to the Isle of Palms beach. Here's Dad with the kids on a pier close to downtown.
Mom and Emma at a city park fountain.
Check out the set of guns!
It takes a crew to drive a boat that big.
Emma watching out for airborne attackers.

Emma's Actual Birthday

Emma started her "real" birthday off with a couple of gifts from her cousins. What a great surprise to have gifts waiting at your breakfast spot, first thing in the morning! At school, Emma and her friends were treated to a couple of stories read by her Nana and then a cookie cake. We could tell that Emma was loving every minute of it, but was rather shy about getting so much attention!

After school, we picked up Subway subs and headed for the park. There we had lunch, played on the playground and visited the ducks and geese. We were hoping to take a boat ride, but no one was at the rental booth. Huge bummer!

Since we had already overloaded on cake a few days earlier during her party, we opted to buy a couple special desserts for the evening. Emma enjoyed a berry creme brulee with a couple of sparkly candles on top.

It was a great birthday and having Nana to share it with made it even more special.

Halloween 2007

I guess I have gotten enough inquiries about Halloween and the kids' costumes that I have decided to actually take the time to blog it. I have been so wrapped up in entertaining, holidays, birthdays, etc., that I just haven't been blogging much lately. Sorry out there!

So, I have to say that this was probably one of the best Halloweens ever! Will had early release from school, so we were able to have some time to goof off before "getting ready". We also decided to have a neighborhood party here this year. We started early, at 5:00, so the little ones in the neighborhood could have a chance to trick-or-treat before bedtime and before dark. It worked out great! Allan made his famous ginormous batch of chili in the King Cooker. We also had hot dogs and any type of beverage imaginable. Neighbors brought all kinds of snacks and yummy treats. It was incredibly warm, so we had the feast in the garage (yeah, no mess!). The kids had a ball trick-or-treating at the 13 or so houses in the neighborhood. Just the right amount for our little ones! It was a really nice evening and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. We then had the next two days off school, so it was a great beginning to our Fall Break.

Here are some pictures of the kids in their get-ups.

Will, aka Harry Potter.

Jack the pirate. And, Miss Emma as Ariel. Gotta love that long red hair!

Jack enjoys one of Miss Pat's popcorn balls. You can't tell very well from the picture, but trust me, his whole face was orange and sticky! Yes, I, Tanna, allowed sugar before bedtime. Shocking!

Emma is FIVE!

Our little princess has turned five years old! We just can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday that we were in the delivery room with lots of nursing students watching (and crying behind their clipboards). Then, Allan and I got to hold our new baby girl. She was so tiny compared to Will. And we were worried to death about her foot being all bent up and the bright red birthmark on her chest. Little did we know what a feisty, confident little lady she would become! Well, with Will as her brother, we had some idea!

To celebrate, Emma decided to invite her neighborhood girlfriends over for cake and ice cream. Actually, she had it in her head that she was having a big party with lots of friends and activities like some of the parties that she had been to. We played the "party" up big and she was so excited, she could hardly sleep for a week! To top it all off, Nana came to help celebrate! Emma was in heaven! We had the celebration a few days before her actual birthday because Allan was going to be in New Hampshire during her birthday. It was a gorgeous day and everyone had fun playing with Barbies. In case you don't have a daughter or are living under a rock, Island Princess Barbie is just THE thing right now. Emma got the Barbie Princess, her prince and the video. I think she is set now!

Emma with her Barbie cake
I think Jack is ready to eat the cake!
FINALLY a boy Barbie to play with. No more girls kissing girls!
Emma and her friends, Jordan, Abby and Cassidy