Thanksgiving 2012

 We spent Thanksgiving this year with my parents in Virginia. We missed having Christie and her family there, but she did send me some African stretchy pants that were perfect for the big dinner. Don't be jealous!

 Besides the sick, whiny kids it was a wonderful lunch! Jason even took a close up picture of his plate (which I will not show you) like he did in Europe when he expected the food to be fabulous.

 There was lots and lots and lots of wresling this weekend. Dad's face, went from pink to red to purple. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it at times.

 There was a train exhibit at the Science Museum that all the boys went to while mom and I did our black friday shopping.

 Chase likes trains a lot but is not obsessed with them like Kaleb was at his age.

 We dug up Christie's old trumpet while we were there and the boys had fun "tooting the horn"

 Kaleb actually got some sounds out of it.

Gigi and Papa with their grandsons.

Kaleb's 5th Birthday Party

 Kaleb has been obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog this year.  He loves to be fast and Sonic is all about speed.  I was planning to make a really cool cake that was shaped like Sonic's head but Kaleb didn't like it. He said he wanted Sonic figurines on it...So I did my research and pulled some ideas together and did a blueprint of the above cake. I asked Kaleb if he liked it...He replied with, "What if I don't like it...What if I LOVE it!" Now that made me a happy mommy!  I still can't figure out how to get the cake from coming up into the icing.

 Here is the silly boy group...Can't wait to show this to them when they are all hanging out in high school!

 Since Sonic is all about speed...and b/c we had about 20 boys at our house that needed to run off some energy, we planned different "speed" games to play.  They did a sack race, a 3 legged sac race, an egg on a spoon race. It was really fun to watch too.

 This is Mr. Eggman piñata (made by moi). Mr. Eggman is the villain in the Sonic series, so it was perfectly okay to beat him with a bat!

 Kaleb went first and then every single kid got a turn to beat it a few times.  One of the bigger kids broke the back but candy didn't fall so Kaleb got to hit it again until Jason "helped" him a little and ripped it open.

 The after mass...This was the weekend after halloween, but the kids all seemed to still want candy...

 Kaleb blowing his candles out...

This is Kylie, our across the street neighbor...Kaleb's smile seems to get a bit bigger when she's around.

 Here is a close up of my masterpiece! There are not many party decorations with Sonic (just plates and cups) so I had to improvise. It took me about 20 hours to make this piñata. Jason was very skeptical and kept saying, "It's going to break when the second kid hits it". I was so proud when everyone got a turn! And when you spend so much time doing something you get attached to it...it hurt to see it get mutilated.

Here are the Mr. Eggman eggs for the egg walk. They were a hit with the boys. Some wanted to keep them...I hope no parents found them weeks later under the kids bed...eeeewe! We had a lot of fun and the day was gorgeous. It was about 70-75 degrees on Nov. 3rd and there was a forecast of rain.  It literally started pouring 5 min. after everyone had left. Thank you God for the beautiful day!

Fall Fun 2012

 Fall is one of our favorite times of the year. Not only do we have 3 birthdays but lots of other fall activities. Two miles from our house is Shuckles Corn maze where there were lots of things to bounce on...

 face painting...

 and hayriding...

 The neighbors threw a halloween party for the kids this year and Kaleb got to bob for apples for the first time.  All the boys were really getting into it.

 Kaleb with the neighborhood boys...

 Go, Granddad, Go!

 Hiding in the corn maze. It was sooo cold that day we had to retreat to the corn maze to shield us from the wind.

 At the corn maze there was this gigantic slide that used sleds. You FLEW down them. Kaleb must have ridden it about 50 times.

 Our pumpkins. Kaleb designed the one on the right all by himself.

 And now...to pick out just the right halloween costume...Elmo and a dragon??

 Uh, No! Batman and Ironman???

 Uh, no! Yoda and Darth Vader it is!  The boys together with Flash. We went to a neighborhood halloween party for dinner and then went trick or treating with friends.

 "May the Force by with you!"

We also went to "Boo at the Zoo" where we went trick or treating a couple weeks before halloween. There were also bounce houses, a haunted hayride, haunted carousel and dance floor. Darth Vader was busting some major moves to the Monster Mash. Wow, I'm tired just writing about all of it!

Chase's 2nd Birthday

 Well, don't most 2 year olds eat breakfast with their marshmellow gun?

 On Oct. 27th you have to carve your pumpkins. Some morning birthday fun.

 We invited some neighbors over for an "impromptu" party to share some cake with us. All of our family was coming in the next weekend for Kaleb's big party so we celebrated Chase's birthday the next weekend too.

 Chase was very excited and ready to open his presents.

 Chase loves spider man and it was a fun and pretty easy cake to make.

 Chase just fits right in with the big kids in the neighborhood.

This is after the party...I imagine Chase was sitting there in his diaper looking around at the wrecked room thinking "Wow, that was some party!"

Kaleb gave Chase this yellow motorized car for his birthday which was Chase's favorite...it also happened to be Kaleb...they fought over it for a whole week.  We kept saying..."Kaleb, it's Chase's car and you can take your birthday money a get one for yourself in a week". Now, as I am writing this blog a month later, neither of them play with the car...Arhhh!

30A Vacation

 We went to the beach in Florida in October for vacation. We went with Jason's sister and her family b/c her daughter, Nylah was on fall break. I've seen those 30a bumper stickers and just thought it was some form of yoga until we ended up on 30a ourselves. This is the route between Destin and Panama City in Flordia.

 Here's the whole gang and the best picture of the vacation. This man with a funky hat came and asked us if he could take our picture for it and all of the kids were staring curiously at his hat.

 This was the most active beach vacation that I have ever had. Even sitting around the kids were drawing.

 The boys love to race on the beach.

 We went to Destin one night and went putt-putting. Jason and I have a similar picture in front of this elephant when we were dating.  Now we have added a few extra smiling faces.

 Chase used do be so careful and cautious.  All of a sudden he's getting braver and trying new things. He rode in the airplane that actually rose up in the air. I was a bit nervous but he had a blast.

 Getting a little crazy..

 We rented a bike trailer for the boys and went for bike rides several mornings.  They loved it, although they fought and hit each other about 50% of the time they were in it. The weather was awesome in October and it was crisp in the morning and warm in the afternoon. The water was only a foot deep for about 200 yards so it warmed up quickly each day.

 Yum Yum ice cream!

 We ate on our rooftop most nights. We had a view of the ocean and it was perfect!

 Fun in the sun!

 So, there was this giant hole in the sand near us every day. This entertained the kids more than we could ever imagine. They would run, jump, play all in and around it. We told everyone to stand on one leg for the picture.  Check Chase out...he's on one leg.

 Hip..Hip..Hooray

 We spent the afternoons at the pool. The water was freezing but we liked hanging out feet in the water.

 Look at those cuties...We told them to think of eating a big ice cream cone...

 and then we hopped in the car and got one...

We rented a paddle board for a few hours. Jason took Kaleb out and they saw sea rays. The water was so clear. We also rented a kayak and got to do some family paddling. We now love the "30a" area and love Florida in October.