Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

The annual Ugly Sweater party has come and gone. It truly is great fun wearing those amazing sweaters. We ate, we drank (Eggnog), and were quite merry...in an uplifting way of course.


Chad's special table

playing pin the square on Bill Cosby's sweater. Derek was elated when he won a "grown up game"


Christian and Katie won the ugliest sweater prize this year

A game of Christmas trivia

Thank you to everyone for coming and bringing such holiday cheer, we had a great time...and it appears you did too. (photos from our "photo booth")









"I'll see YOU next year"

Halloween Portrait

At Christian's work party they took family pictures...so here we are. Derek was Optimus Prime, Audrey a Pinkalicious butterfly, and Chaddy Tiggy Tiger. Happy Halloween

"The Candyland Party"

Posting a month later...not too bad.
Pre-Candyland Departure
On the actual day of Audrey's birthday Mom and Dad made her (and her brothers) German pancakes in bed. They savored it while watching cartoons. Does it get any better than that?




Candy Land or Bust, would be an appropriate title.

Audrey and I had planned her (and Chad's) "Candy Land" party for months! I spent weeks ahead of time preparing all the fabulous details {how to space and size the construction paper spaces to fit our 60'x30' cement court, layout of tables, cake design, Candy Castle and its delicious spread, cardboard cutout characters and landmarks, other games and accessories, invites and thank you note designs...}

However, nothing seemed to go as it was so fabulously planned. The week before the party I kept getting vertigo, and fell quite far behind on the detail preparation. Two days before the party I resigned to the fact that it was not going to be the grand Candy Land adventure I had been preparing for. Until, Mom called Melinda and asked for help for me. Melinda came up on Friday (my birthday) to help do all things party; I must say the list was quite long. Between Christian, Melinda, and myself we were able to color, glue, tape, and decorate all night and day to have everything ready to go with 3 hours to spare before the party started.

Just when I thought all was well and the grand party was saved...a thunder storm rolled in! we pulled all the characters and signs in so they wouldn't get ruined. Then...as we watched the rain soak our yard, and began cleaning the house up for an indoor party, Derek started puking. He threw up on the carpet, then the sink, then the couch pillow. I'd say this was the point I realized the huge dream party was unraveling pretty fast.

Then came another turn in the story. The rain poured for 2 1/2 hours, but stopped 30 minutes before party time. As a team we decided it was all or nothing; we were laying out the Candy Land board whether it was going to rain again or not. So, Christian got out the leaf blower to dry off the court as much as possible. Out went the decorations. Out went the candy table. I dried all the linens that got soaked. Out went all the cake and snacks, and we started taping squares down as fast as we could. Since we only had a half hour to set everything back up again we had to shorten the game board, but it worked out just fine.


Children came. We played "Licorice, Licorice, Lollipop" (AKA duck, duck, goose), Gum Drop Hopscotch (which Audrey and I made gumdrop shaped bean bags for), and then Candy Land! It was so much fun to watch all the kids excitedly working their way toward Candy Castle. No one was more excited to play than Audrey! As the big kids played the game all of Chad and his little friends were running back and forth from sneaking licorice at Candy Castle, to the Lollipop Woods balloons, to the "Castle tower" (a kid sized circus tent), then back for more licorice-adorable.

Derek looking a little green still at the candy table & the cute b-day girl with the treat bags.

After the mad rush and pure thrill of filling their bags with as much of their favorite candies as they wanted, we headed over to the cake and present tables. Audrey and Chad both blew out the candles on their beautiful Candy Land cake.

Audrey opened presents first and got all things Hello Kitty and Barbie. She was LOVING it. A while later we convinced Chad to open his gifts. He opened first a big bouncy ball. When he saw what it was he said, in his adorable little voice, "oh, its awesome." All the adults that heard laughed and Lynette Bodell said, "I have never heard a 2-year-old say that while opening presents at their party!"

Other highlights of the party: Chad's pants kept falling off, and even tripped him a couple times. Tristen, who is potty training, decided that the blue square just past Lolli was a good place to poop [that went over well with the 5-year-old girls].


All in all it was a great party, despite all the setbacks. We shared cake and treats and fun with lots of friends and family; we didn't get rained on; Audrey had a great birthday celebration and was so happy to be with all her friends and cousins.

Picture Details {a document must for me}

our favorite life-size (if you are 5) Candyland characters

One Year Ago This Month

Every time a birthday rolls around, I like to be sentimental and look back at pictures of what our children looked like the year before. So, a year ago this month...


Just after her 4th birthday Audrey chopped off those lovely curls...but she looked just as cute with short hair.



The prettiest 4-year-old I've ever seen

They are so cute together


He didn't like dirt so much...he still doesn't


He liked his first chocolate cake.

Curious Chad

This is Chad. Chad was a good little boy, and always very curious. This week chad was very intrigued by color. He loved to make color appear in unexpected places. Especially color made by pens and markers. He found all sorts of things to color; pens on the computer monitor, in books, on chairs and couches, pink marker on the freshly painted walls, and of course on hands and legs. color makes everything look better.

In every room he entered he found something new to explore. Cars were particularly interesting. They had all sorts of trinkets and holes to put them in. He found some coins that fit perfectly into the CD player. Pencils kind of looked like those key things and kind of fit in the ignition. This was all fun, but eventually Chad got board. He saw a room filled with junk just past the garage, and wanted to explore.

So, as a curious little boy, he ventured into the mud room. There were lots of little things to play with there. Chad was again drawn to the color. He found a box of all different colored chalk, and began to draw. First on the walls, then the boxes, and then in the cats food and water. He figured if he liked color so much Ooki the cat would definitely appreciate having blue water instead of plain old clear.

After all this exploring Chad realized he was getting a little hungry, and he knew just where to find food...the Kitchen. He couldn't remember what was in all of those drawers though. He dived in and found the most interesting things. Whisks that made music, these long sticks everyone called chopsticks that fit perfectly up his nose, a pretty orange burning candle & a cellphone that looked dreadfully dull in a muted blue color.
Dullness was not acceptable in his opinion. Chad picked up the cell phone but accidentally dropped it. At first he was startled. Until he realized that it made pretty squiggly cracks on the front screen. Then he looked at the candle again. "I bet if I dip this in the candle it will turn this ugly blue phone a bright and cheery orange." Chad thought this was a great idea. So he moved the chairs; climbed the table onto the stove, like only a two-year-old can, and dipped. It did turn the phone orange, but not as bright as he had hoped.

Just then he spotted a cup across the counter. "Mom, I need drink two," he shouted. The mom who loved yellow came and quickly took him of the counter. She gave him a sippy cup with milk in it. Milk was his favorite. Curious Chad took a few sips then wondered why there was only a somewhat small hole on the top of this cup. It wasn't at all like the other cups he was used to. They all had big round openings and you had to be careful not to spill with them. What would happen if he tipped it upside down? Would milk still come out? Chad was curious. He tipped it upside down and milk spilled all over the floor and onto his legs. He did not like that at all. Maybe he had better find something cleaner to do.

Off he went to the basement. There were always things to do and find down there. The first thing he spotted was a stack of library books. There were so many neat pictures to look at. After a long time of flipping through the colorful picture books, Chad noticed the sound the pages made when they turned. It was a fun sound. Would it make an even louder sound if he tore the pages of the library books? Chad had to find out. He started by taring a cover page in half. It did make a different sound, but nothing too exciting.

Suddenly a yawn came on. It was getting late, and Chad was getting tired. He called for the mom who loved yellow and asked for his blanky. The mom who loved yellow sang him a song and tucked him into bed. As Chad drifted of to sleep he thought, "hmmm...what new things will I explore tomorrow?

{all events actually took place this week}