Welcome to Bikini Bottom!

Going thru my list of unpublished posts that Iforgot I started, I came across this one from the Bryce and his best friend's birthday last Oct. In my busyness of getting the party together, I missed taking pictures of most everything. Here's what I did get!

Welcome!

YUM! Squidward dogs, Gary's snack mix, Spongebob's Seaweed salad-we forgot the hamburger for the Crabby patties-no kid noticed:)"who lives in a pineapple under the sea?!"

Birthday cakes for EACH kid courtesy of Bryce's best friend's mom-she made 6 cakes:)LOL, Aidan got Mr. Crabs--wonder why?!?The main cake for the rest of the guests
THe Birthday boys-Bryce and his 2nd best friend (TJ still is number 1!)

Local sightseeing

In an effort to have fun, spend less and learn a little local history we have been scouring all the local free museums within an hour or so of us. Last month we visited Fort Christmas. Don't follow your GPS-it was wrong! By the time we found it we only had an hour and a half to play which was not enough time to explore it all. On select weekends they offer re-enactments and festivals. Kids had fun exploring the fort, and although not all are old enough to read about the history about the fort (did you know the fort was only in use for 3 months?) we (the hunny, Garry and I) found it quite interesting. It is on our list to visit again during a festival.

There is a LOT to read! Not only is there info on the fort, there is history
on our local American IndansPrior to picture Aidan hollers "no picture, no picture!"We had an extra visitor with us, our very sweet nieceGarry of course, was counting the money-think he can use it to pay for more trains?!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! This was the first year my hunny has been home for New Years in about 8 yrs. Not wanting to go out, we decided to have a little in-house party. To make it fun (and hopefully less asking on when it will be midnight) I put together our countdown bags. Starting at 8pm the kids were able to open one bag. I included some things we had around the house and a couple of items from the dollar store. That way each hour was filled with an activity, keeping us busy until the very end. The kids had a great time and it helped us big folks stay awake (in the end Aidan missed the ball drop by about 15 min-he was out cold). I'm sure I have started something and will probably be expected to do the same next year:)

Game time, puzzle competition and singing karaoke was some of the fun that night. I actually over packed some of the bags and we barely had time to finish what was in them before the hour was up. Guess that was a good thing!Bryce making his bean noisemaker-gotta make lots of noise at midnight, right?Our first bag!
A serious game of chess. Garry likes playing against me because I don't know how to plan ahead (lol, it applies to all aspects of my life-the goodie bags were finished about 7pm-just in time!)

December 2010

Wow, looking at these pictures make me realize why I was tired in December! Enjoy some pics from some our holiday fun! This post is long, sorry!My friend and I host an annual cookie party-kids go home on with a sugar rush,moms go home with some great cookies!The balloon lady was awesome! My partner in crime, I mean cookies:)

We dropped in on the Handel's Messiah presentation at the local theater....at least the first half. Although all kids did well, I decided not to press my luck and we left during intermission.

The bells found in the foyer during the intermission were a huge hit.
All the kids played a song, with a little help!

Love the Macy's parade balloons at Universal!

LOL-as I was going thru pictures for a photo book, I came across last years pictures at Universal. Same photo, younger kids-I think Garry was wearing the same jacket!

Why do the kids insist on riding the one ride that gets wet?

It was only 50 degrees that day!

Santa's helpers!

Gma and Papa provided the kids (us) with a barrel

train and bounce house. We had a blast!

Awe, aren't they cute?

Well, they were! Uncle Jim thought it great fun to turn off the air to the house!You know we had to get in and ride, right?!
It's all good.....Until it's time to get out!Uncle Jim decided to try a different method (Charmin would
have made the ride much better, though!)We had one minor injury attributed to the bounce house. Aidan came out of the bounce house holding his hand and crying. We bandaged it up, figuring he had sprained it, but the following day we decided to have it checked out. Thankfully it was not broken, it was something called Nursemaid's elbow. A quick turn from the Dr put it back in place and he was good to go. As you can see from the picture, he needed a little Grandma help opening his presents:)
It's Christmas eve. Who should show up at our door but Old St. Nick himself?
I got lousy pictures-sorry:( No visit is complete without a present!Couldn't get the dog to turn TOWARD the camera:)Merry Christmas!

Homemade Christmas

Before I go any farther in my Christmas reminisce, I want to show you my exciting ( to me) Christmas project. Shelby has been asking for a kitchen to replace the one she has outgrown. Unfortunately, most play kitchens are designed for 3 year olds, and are much too short for the girl. After admiring all the kitchens on blogs (this being one of my favorites) I set out in search of my kitchen. Scouring craigslist for a couple of weeks, I couldn't find a center that worked with my budget. I decided that I could just use an old cabinet I had available and modify it a bit, when low and behold as heading to the grocery store, there was the very cabinet that I had been looking for sitting on the curb not 10 houses down! After asking the neighbor permission to take it, I zipped back home for some extra muscles, loaded her up and headed home. Gotta love free! So it sat in the kitchen as I worked on it for the next 2 weeks. This is last year I can work on a gift right in front of kids, but happily she never guessed what it was. Checking thru my pictures I am suprised that I didn't get a before picture, but it was a typical smallish entertainment center made of particle board. I had to do some tightening and gluing, but overall it was pretty sound. It was a huge hit, although in typical Shelby fashion, she asked for some "minor" adjustments. Lol, she is her grandmother's daughter!

The only modifications I did was remove the back board-it was falling off (she asked for it to be re-applied!),cut down one of the shelves to hold the microwave, removed the doors from the bottom and rehinge the one door to make it an oven. I primed it using Zinsser 1-2-3 so I didn't have to sand. The most expensive purchase was the spray paint -Rust-oleum Painter's Touch is my best crafting friend:) She did ask for the other door to be re-attached so" she wouldn't get confused when cooking!"

I had plans to go the the Goodwill Re-store for the faucet, but couldn't seem to get that direction. So I ended up with some plumbing from the big orange store. Faucet moves side to side, and the knobs turn. I didn't get a couple of things finished before Christmas, cutting out the sink was one of them. Since it was in the dining room, I didn't think I could convince Shelby that the hole in the center was for books. So that will get done this week:)We love Ikea! Curtain rod, dishes etc. came from there. I had the curtain material already on hand. . I did splurge on a personalized apron, but all in all I spent about $80 for everything used to create and accessorize the kitchen. The colors in the picture are a little off- inside the fridge area and under the sink are a bright green. It's a very colorful kitchen-I asked her when I started what color should I paint my new "bookshelf", so the color choices are all hers!Happy chef!

Now into December!

Still trying to get pictures uploaded from December. I'm trying, Ma!
Our annual tradition for the past couple of years has been to cut down our tree at a local tree farm. The kids enjoy the time spent there as there is plenty to do besides cut trees. They added a zip line this year so the big boys took a quick trip down the line. Should I mention the a couple of trees got a special watering from several small boys?!

Really, he's having fun!

A trip in the reindeer always bring lots of smiles

Giddy up

On the hay ride out to the treesI guess Garry was getting out of line?!

Say Cheese!