A New Year....A[nother] New Start

Break? What break.....I blog every week without fail!! Okay, so since we know that isn't true, I'm making a fresh start as part of my resolutions. Done!

December is always unbelievably busy in our house -- with two birthdays, Christmas, and a never ending list of places to go/people to see/food to eat ;] -- time is always short. ***Note to self, this year both birthdays will be held on the 1/2 year mark (June) and then in December, a small family dinner will suffice***

So this first blog of 2011 will be about the birthdays :D

Even though Corben's birthday is technically first [on the 5th] Madison had hers first due to scheduling issues for laser tag. Madison chose to have a Tea Party and I kept it rather small (5 attended including Maddie). We had an amazing kitchen staff:
The staff met the guests at the door, assisted them in getting "fancy" and escorted them to the table. They served the food, poured the (cranberry ginger ale) tea and made the girls feel extra special. They loved it! Thanks boys :D Some of the activities included making party hats, dancing, singing and the favorite - playing pass the parcel. Each girl left with their own teacup/saucer, hat and fun jewelry.
Madison loved the party so much, she is already planning her next tea party birthday :D Love you Maddie-Moo and can't believe you're already FIVE!!!

Corben joined the "double-digits" this year and turned TEN! Earlier last year I made a fabulous purchase at an auction and scored a great party package at our local sports complex for practically nothing. In the fall, they built a laser tag arena and offered birthday parties there as well as the other choices. That was an easy pick for Corben -- he and 14 friends played two games of laser tag, and jumped in the inflation zone for almost two hours along with the usual cake and party favors. My favorite part? I didn't have to clean anything up :D Can I do this everytime???

We had fun creating his invitations -- we just copied some we found online, but everyone thought they were real tickets issued from Galaxy Tag.









This was the first party that just about everyone invited actually came. Usually the numbers are low since December is busy for everyone else too ;]
Corben had a blast and I'm sure it's going to be hard to top this one in 2011 -- but I think when fun, sun and water is involved it should be a little easier ;]

Happy Birthday to our awesome, wonderful, amazing, beautiful, talented and loving children!

We LOVE you!!!

Oh Fall, How we Love You!

One of the blessings that living on the Eastern side of the country gives us is the amazing colors that fall brings. I just can't get over it -- and I LOVE it. I posted about this last year, but the variety of color is so vibrant and glorious, I just can't fill my eyes with enough of its beauty! Madison and I went on a walk a couple days ago, and here is just a tiny sampling of what we saw:

The oranges and reds (and peace signs ;) down our street,

This tree has all the colors - green, yellow, red and orange,
This is the view off our back deck, and the color is so vibrant in the morning when the sun shines on it that our whole kitchen has a reddish/orange glow.














This is the tree in our front yard, the picture on the left is from last Thursday, and the one on the right is today. Pretty soon, all those lovely leaves will be on the ground - then we can play in them! :D Next year I will take the same picture every day so I can capture the change of color. Just a week ago, this tree was completely green!

The Triple C

= Chili, Costumes & Candy and we have seen plenty of those in the last three weeks. It all started on the 15th with an Army chili cook off, then again on the 16th with our neighborhood "Hotdogs and Hayrides/Chili Cook off" event. It just so happens that our next door neighbor is the Social Activities director for the HOA and was hoping for lots of entries in their first ever cook off - so that was an easy yes.

Part of the judging was for table decorations so along with my chili I made a "witches lair" complete with witch legs poking out from under the cauldron of bubbling chili. We had a lot of fun getting things ready - all the jars had different labels for crazy things like giant tarantula legs [black licorice], blood worms [gummy worms in oreo dirt], crows bones [pretzels dipped in white candy melts], pumpkin tooth [our fave candy corn and peanuts], goblin eyes [round chocolates wrapped in eyeball foil] and hair of werewolf [my vacuum helped out with this one - yes, I know gross]. We also had a spider sanctuary and some spooky candles glowing. I found all the ideas online and just put it all together. I didn't win the judges choice for chili, but did win the people's choice golden spoon award --- and I get to keep it for the year :D Many thanks to my SIL Caroline for sharing her "Pepperoni Pizza Chili" recipe with me a few years back, it always seems to please! :D
For costumes this year Lester and I decided to recycle our past outfits one last time, since we didn't have a church activity last year and we moved to a new home - no one had really seen them. So he returned as Daniel-son and I wore my renaissance dress one more time [I do love it - but I'm thinking a new one is in the works]. Corben wanted to be a Colonial Soldier, so I modified a white dress shirt, ladies vest and some boys khakis into his costume. I bought the tricorn hat [since they are readily available here] and made a haversack which doubled as his candy bag. His musket finished the look and he was very happy with how it turned out. I loved it -- he looked like he just walked out of a history book :D
Last year at Madison's preschool I wore cat ears and a tail while I worked in the classroom that day. Since that time, she knew exactly what she wanted to be this year -- a black cat. Easy enough although we added a fluffy skirt - a cat with a skirt - is what she called herself.

We dressed up for a Battalion family fun run last Friday morning [I only wore a bit of jewelry and my french hood] and then Madison had a dress up parade at preschool, then that night back to the Battalion for trunk or treat, then one last time for the church trunk or treat on Saturday evening. That was an amazing party - on a farm with hayrides, games, a bluegrass band, great food and drinks and candy, candy, CANDY! Lester won the pumpkin carving contest, and Corben won the youth costume award. :D
Corben guarding the trunk at the Army party.

[with our pumpkins - Corben - scary face, Lester - howling wolf, Madison & Mommy's - Kitty]

Knowing that Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we knew we wouldn't go out and trick or treat and were thankful for the two trunk or treats we were able to participate in - we can't believe how much candy the children hauled in!!! That box is about 8x12 and 8 inches deep -- the lid barely closes! Unreal!!!!
We've already taken down the Halloween decorations, but not before I took pictures of our growing ghost family -- we had five additions this year:
And here is "Skinny Bones" driving himself into storage......until next year.........

I Need Your Help!!!

I'm really good at waiting until the last minute to figure something out - and I've done it again ;] Tomorrow is picture day for Madison and I'm not sure which outfit I like the best...we're talking about a girl that would wear pink from head to toe and not think twice, so I snuck in a complimentary color and of course all the choices are with skirts. Such a girly-girl :D

Here are the three combinations:

#1

#2#3

The background will be white, and I'm not sure what the props will be -- which one do you like??

Projects, always more projects

Here is a little something I refinished -- I had been looking for a sewing desk after seeing a fabulous one online that I fell in love with and I would have taken it right away, but it belonged to someone else ;] After searching on my favorite go-to place [Craigslist...what would I do without you?] I found this solid wood little lovely. Those 8 drawers will make for great storage too.

Here's what she looked like before I gave her a makeover:
I love all the space that is created when she opens her wings :D

After a little sanding/priming/painting/distressing and protecting, here she is in all her glory:
With Halloween fast approaching, she's already getting broken in :D I love the way she turned out and look forward to creating fun things with her.

I also gave this desk a makeover -- she was a boring gray work desk, and now she's a fiery cherry red with a wedgewood gray trim. This is my crafting area and it didn't take me long to start creating in this space.