The Wild West. A preview...

I don't have time for a full blog post, but I'm waiting for Shawn to get home, and finished my reading for the night so I thought I would make a little teaser post. :)

Color Me Mine (an overpriced but fun thing to do!)

So Wednesday the kids in our district had a half day, so Lorraine had the idea to meet at Color Me Mine, a place in our mall that lets you paint your own "stuff". So we met up at 2:30 for some painting fun!

The first battle was the fact that I am anti-clutter. And my kids are clutter people. So this is an ongoing battle. But when I'm forking out the big bucks, I win. I just could not let them paint statues, that are ceramic, that will somehow become "sentimental" pieces that they cannot bear to part with but don't really want or love on display. In addition, their shelves/dressers are *already* jam packed. So I put my foot down. It's likely they will need therapy, or become hoarders later in life. Sigh.

In any case, I persuaded *coughinsistedcough* that they come up with something practical. That narrowed down their choices to a mug, a plate, a bowl or goblet. Lucky for them, there were dozens of choices in this very narrow category.

However Evan, upon falling in love with this ridiculous fish:

Became a total pain in the butt and refused to pick anything else. Refused. So I told him he could sit there and pout. So he did. (And how he honed in on this I will never know. There was exactly ONE fish. And this was what the shelves looked like)

Here is Evan pouting.

He gave up. Of course.

Then someone there said we could print up clip art stuff and use it on whatever we chose and so I suggested we find a Mario picture or Phineas and Ferb picture and paint it on a plate for his waffles in the morning. This turned his whole attitude around and everything was fun and smooth from then on.

Margo selected a tea set, it is super cute and she came up with a great design for it.

Laura had a really cool owl but my pics came out blurry. And Lorraine painted a super cute bowl for her cat food. :)

 Kira also chose a plate. She wanted Princess Peach on hers. She did a *really* nice job!
(She also didn't wear an apron, in a long sleeve white shirt, painting, and came out of there clean. I will never know how she does that!)

  (Clean being relative, she did wear that shirt to school and played on the playground. But it's not paint)

I painted a mug. As usual, there are no good pics of me. But it wasn't for a lack of effort. ;) Margo and Kira took plenty. But my head is cut off, or the zoom is all the way on my cheek. You get the idea. And it's my blog, so I have final veto power on how much scariness I will subject you too. You are welcome!)

My mug was pretty.

I can't wait to see the colors after it's been fired, they are really bright. I'll post pics next week of our finished products.

Here is Evan and his Toad plate. :) This turned out really well, and for a kid that doesn't really care for crafty stuff, he did a really great job painting.

So that is that. We had a really good time. I'm over the heart attack I had when we paid. And I think that we will all enjoy our breakfast a little more once we get them back. :)

Kira turns 9!

So this is one of those back track posts, but I wanted to include her party story too!

We had initially planned a skating party. But we found out that two of her three best friends could not make the party, and that was really upsetting. Especially since S was moving. Literally in a couple of weeks. So I came up with a quick plan and we had a movie party at the mall. First all the girls brought some money, and we hit Justice and Bath and Body works. They had so much fun being bargain shoppers! Then Aunt Kimmi surprised Kira with some cupcakes at the food court! She was so shocked! And they were gorgeous! After that, (it was sort of rushed cupcake eating, since girls shopping at the mall can be rather slow and indecisive...) we went to see Tangled. That movie could not have been a better first "chick flick" for them to see together.

The day was wildly successful, and the girls all told their moms that they want a party like that. ;)

Shopping is serious business.

Well...mostly.

How darling are these cupcakes? My sister totally rocks. (too bad my pos Sony point and shoot does not rock, sorry about the crappola I'm calling "photo's" in this blog post)

(Hey, I made the darling girl in this pick though, so that should count for something right?)

Can you believe after eating cupcakes these girls put away popcorn, candy and a soda too? Yeesh.

But they sure are fun! I'm so glad we have these girls in our life! Kira is a lucky girl!

Evan turns 7.

So we celebrated with friends at the bowling alley! I'm telling you. In spite of my love for planning parties, by the time they get to this age, just going somewhere is so much easier! (And due to my love planning parties, it actually winds up costing less as well.)

Then for the family party, Lawson and Phoebe, my wonderful inlaws threw a party at their house for Evan again. It was a party weekend, and it was a blast. (Thanks so much again!)

So you show up and there are table cloths, plates and napkins and balloons. Doesn't get much easier than that!

Then you sweet talk your amazing sister who bakes to hook you up:

Then you bowl for a bit.

Then they bring out pizza and soda. And they serve it. Yeah. See how this is going for me? 

Then you eat cake.

Then you open up a few gifts.

So virtually I do nothing other than stalk the children with my camera. And I get lousy pics because I am out of practice. But hey, I'm ok with that.

Its not like you are going to get anything decent with a crew like this anyway. ;)

It's been too long.

And I really miss my blog. The time must be made to make a few entries, because I *need* to write this stuff down. Because I forget it if I don't. And because I still am taking photo's but I'm losing the opportunity to journal what is going on, and then they are just sort of there. Pictures without a story. And that makes me sad. Because I think the story is so important.

So while I've been gone a million things have happened.


I started school. That was HUGE. I am loving it. Every second of learning has been great. The seconds of not learning, (ie: teachers who are wasting my time) I have found still irritate the hell out of me. But that's ok. I am not bored. And my brain is not stagnate. And this is what matters.

So. Since it's just too much effort to go all the way back in time. I'm starting from here. And going forward. (Though I may put up some pics from other things that have happened, like birthdays for the kids and some Christmas pics, but I'm not making any promises.)


The biggest happening in our family in recent months though was the birth of our two baby nieces! Avery Rose made her appearance on October 7, 2010, and Della Corrine showed up in a hurry just two weeks later on October 23, 2010.

Della

Avery 

 Side by side. :) This is from New Years Day. So they are about 3ish months here.

I cannot tell you how much fun they are. Though admittedly, they are both a little on the cranky side. Smiles are starting to be given more freely. ;)

 We are so happy to have them in our lives. Babies are like nothing else. I just love these sweet girls!