holidays & occassions

A little late, but here are some of our photos from Halloween. The kids made it trick or treating through the entire neighborhood, but Karli tired out pretty quickly. She kept laying on the ground resting and ended up skipping some of the houses that the boys went to. The kids seemed to have a hard time sticking together. I had to constantly tell them to wait and slow down. At the end of trick or treating I was thrilled to run into an old friend that moved away a year ago, but came back to visit with everyone. I miss her and her kids so much!

There are more pics at the end of this post, or view the entire set here.

Today Blake’s football team played in a championship game for their league. Unfortunately they lost, but they still won their division which is pretty cool. He had fun this year and really learned a lot and improved quite a bit. He will play as a 2nd year Junior next year and hopefully will get to play a lot more. Chase will have to play flag football one more year, but he can’t wait to get into those pads and tackle. Andrew of course is undecided about whether he will play football his Freshman year, but my guess would be that he will play again next year. I love football season, but a huge part of me is glad it is over and our family can get back to normal and eat healthier dinners and spend more time together in the evenings. Chase will still have gymnastics twice a week.

Sometime this week we are going to look at ceramic tile and granite counter tops for our kitchen. My (ex) brother in law works for a tile and stone company and we are hoping they will give us a good deal if we pick from items that they have in their warehouse. We still have more wallpaper to peel off. I swear this has been the slowest process in history, but now that sports are over I can get Ken to help and we can get things moving along. We need to pick out our floor and counters before we can paint anyways (to pick the right color). It would be awesome if we were done with everything by Christmas! Our kitchen will probably look way out of place compared to rest of our house. But next we plan on redoing the family room.

Ken surprised us with a weekend getaway to Chicago for next month. I’ve been there twice with Ken, but this will be the first time for the kids. I think they will love it with all the Christmas decorations. Our hotel suite is right on the “Magnificent Mile”, which is on N. Michigan Avenue right next to tons of shopping so we can walk rather than hail cabs which would be quite interesting with 6 people. It will probably be freezing outside, unless we get lucky and some of this nice weather sticks around for awhile longer. We will let the kids pick out a few gifts for Christmas and maybe we will find some gifts for family members as well.

Blake said he wanted to be a vampire again this year! Works for me!

Chase had a different mask on at school than he wore for trick or treating.

I made the mistake of googling “princess cake” with Karli and Emma. We kept seeing photos of these Barbie cakes, over and over again. I thought, it can’t be that hard, right? So I found this video on YouTube that gave the best set of directions and went at it. I about shocked myself when it actually turned out. None of the cakes burned and in fact it was super yummy. I used cherry chip cake and vanilla whipped frosting with red food coloring. Then I used these little Barbie sprinkles that I found at Kroger for the beads. I used one of Karli’s barbies and wrapped it in plastic before putting it in the cake and covering it in frosting. Karli could not stop smiling at the cake and my niece loved it so much I am afraid she is going to ask me to make one for her birthday next year.

Karli got lots of fun stuff for her birthday. We bought her the Tag reading system because I thought it would be good for her to use while I am working in the afternoons and she is home because SHE DIDN’T GET ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN!! Yes, I am still bitter. We got her a DS game and some other little stuff she didn’t need. From her relatives she got some craft supplies, some clothes for school, Polly Pockets, dress up clothes, and Parcheesi. I loved that game growing up!

Her favorite present was from her Great Grandma who bought her the specific Webkinz that she requested. She wanted the white bunny with pink ears and black eyes. My poor grandma drove all over town looking for the Webkinz and it was no where to be found. Finally someone told her that it was retired so I ended up buying it on Ebay for her. My grandma made a pink scarf for the bunny and made one for Karli to match.

4th of July was pretty low key. Andrew was in a tournament so we were at a baseball game for part of the day. Later in the evening Andrew’s buddy that now lives 2 hours away was back to visit. They had a great time letting off fireworks with Ken. No, I don’t approve of firework or teenagers letting off fireworks. Heck, I don’t even like sparklers for that matter. I prefer those little paper snappers that you throw on the concrete and they pop! Most importantly I totally HATE spending money on any sort of fireworks, especially when you can go see fireworks that are 10 times better for free. Pick your battles though right?

These pictures sort of stink, but oh well…

One day last week we went to the Jamie Farr LPGA. My dad got free tickets through work. These gals make golfiing look so easy. Well except for putting. Is that how you spell putting? PUTT – ING. You know what I mean. They suck at putting. I can’t believe how many of them miss close shots. They drive the ball an insane amount of yards, but putting 5 feet away and they miss. So apparently these girls are IT in women’s golf. The first picture is Michele Wie. I forgot the other’s gal’s name. Everyone was following these two girls though. I have more pictures, which you weren’t suppose to be taking pictures, but oh well. I thought it was cool that the golfers would toss their balls to nearby people, mainly kids. We didn’t stay very long, but it was something new to do with just Blake and Andrew. Personally, I had the most fun checking out their outfits and wishing I was that darn skinny.

Funny for the day….
Andrew is constantly telling jokes about Chuck Norris. Today he was telling some to Blake and Chase and Chase said….”I thought Chuck Norris was the President a long time ago?”. oh lord.

Sunday was Blake’s 9th Birthday and we celebrated with his friends and family last Friday. He had begged to invite a bunch of friends, many whom I had never met. He took a bunch of invitations to school and since school has been out since the beginning of June we weren’t really sure how many kids would show up. Luckily only half of the kids he invited came to the party. We had plenty of food and candy just in case! I was nervous about having that many boys to keep track of especially around the pool. We had one minor injury. One of the boys was on the diving board and he fell to his knees before he jumped and the diving board scrapped up his knees pretty badly. He was a trooper and he didn’t mind having a Hello Kitty bandaid either.

It’s hard to believe that Blake is 9 years old. He has grown up the fastest of all my kids. I think that sort of happens automatically when you start popping out kids every other year. He is still a sweetie though and he is the shy one when it comes to showing emotion. He seeks approval in all that he does and he gives 110% at most everything. He became an awesome reader this year in school and I am so proud of him. He struggled there for awhile, but I knew it was only a matter of time for it to “click” for him. His favorite books right now are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He was one of the best players on his baseball team this year. He hit a Grand Slam and was very very proud of himself. He tells everyone…believe me! He is the middle son and I know that isn’t always easy. He is the only one of our kids that looks exactly like Ken. His dimples and bright green eyes are going to get him out of trouble for many more years I am sure.

Pictures can also be viewed larger at my Flickr account here.

My Mother’s Day weekend started out with sleeping in a bit and then we all headed off to Blake and Chase’s double header baseball game. After freezing out in the 50 degree weather for 2 1/2 hours we went out to lunch. When we came home Andrew and I worked on his History project that was due on Monday. He claimed he worked on it during the week, but the work he had done was very minimal. We ended up working on the project for 5 hours. By 11pm we were both so tired off looking stuff up on the internet we couldn’t stop giggling over the most stupid stuff. For example, the fact that I couldn’t seem to spell Saudi Arabia correctly.

On Mother’s Day we went to church and when we got home Andrew and I had to finish his history project. I sort of did a bad thing and took over the painting of the project. 13 year old kids are not very neat with painting, especially non – artistic ones like Andrew. The kid is smart, but lacks any kind of art skills. I have never been artistic either, like I stink at drawing. Though I can paint decent enough. (There are a couple of other pics of the project at Flickr.) The center 3D part is made of homemade clay and the rest is made with felt.

Later in the afternoon my parents came over and we celebrated my mom’s birthday along with Mother’s Day.

The kids (except for Andrew) showered me with homemade gifts. Poems and cards and handmade photo frames. Everything was so cute and sweet! My darling dear husband actually bought a Kindle 2 for me! I absolutely love it. I was so hesitant at first because I do love books. So much that I have to avoid walking into bookstores as much as possible. I visit the library quite frequently. Well not anymore! For anyone who has no clue what a Kindle is, check them out at Amazon. It is a digital book, but it is even better than I imagined. The screen does not look at all like a computer screen. There is absolutely no glare. The screen looks like the words are typed onto the screen. You are able to read it out in the sun too unlike a computer screen. I have already downloaded 18 books! Of course the entire Twilight Series, including the unpublished Midnight Sun. It is the Twilight book rewritten from Edward’s point of view instead of Bella’s. Sadly it is only half the book, but it is still worth reading. I am almost finished with it. I am not sure what I am going to read next. I will probably get back to the Vampire Academy series. The kids and Ken also got me a really nice red leather cover for the Kindle and also a light that I can attach to it so I can read at night. I have been reading so much more especially because one of my favorite times to read is during my lunch break and it is easier to not have to hold the book open! Want to eat soup while reading? No problem with the Kindle! The screen has many screen savers such as this one shown below. They look like hand drawn pictures.