Homecoming Parade/Powder Puff Game

Isn't this the COOLEST haircut EVER!?!?!?!

According to Addi it is SO cool!  We were sitting, waiting for the homecoming parade to start when I kept hearing Addi say "Mom..., Mom...."  I turned around to see her pointing to this man sitting a couple of benches in front of us and saying " Isn't that SO cool!  I like the way it is shaved all on the top and has hair just around the bottom and the sides."  My response was obviously "YES! should we take a picture of it?"   She was so excited and who wouldn't be to see such an awesome haircut!


Yes, the boys look like they are auditioning to be the next Ronald McDonald but in reality they are just showing their school pride.  They got to be in the homecoming parade this year with the kids from their school and it just so happens that their school colors are gold and red.

These two crack me up.  They were more interested in playing and pulling silly faces than they were anything else - AND....finding older men with COOL haircuts!

Powder  Puff Cheerleaders

These guys were the most exciting and entertaining part of the night.  OK, the flag football game was alright but seriously, some of these boys were having WAY too much fun prancing around in their cheer leading uniforms which made it that much more fun to watch.

Just Dance!

I just couldn't resist taking pictures of Britton and Jayden playing "Just Dance" the other day. It made me smile every time I walked by the family room or stole a look from the kitchen. They were having so much fun dancing to song after song after song - I am not even sure how long they played, but it seemed like a really long time.
They both have some pretty good moves and can shake it like nobody's business.

I love how serious Britton looks - major concentration on the TV trying to get the moves down. And I love that Jayden just smiled the entire time.

Britton's Birthday

I CAN'T believe that Britton turned 11 this month!
He is growing up so fast and as excited as I am and as much fun as this soon to be Teenage is, I am still a little sad.  He is already almost as tall as me, can already wear my shoes - wears my indoor soccer shoes to play futsal and steals my super warm socks to snowboard and snowshoe in.  He thinks it is GREAT and I LOVE the big smile that comes across his face every time he realizes how tall he is getting compared to me.

Britton LOVES soccer and wanted a soccer ball cake.  I had originally decided to make a soccer ball as well as his soccer Jersey but....the ball took a little longer than I had anticipated so the Soccer Jersey cake is still sitting in the freezer waiting to be decorated.

The Cake

The Presents

One of THOSE Days

Have you EVER had one of those days?!?!...

You know, the one where you had your day planned out, you knew EXACTLY what you were going to get done, where you were going to go, and you just KNEW it was going to be a fabulous day because you were going to be so productive that at the end of the day you would just sit back and think...."I am AWESOME!!!!" because of all of the things you were able to accomplish.

BUT, Nothing went as Planned!

That was exactly how my day went today.

It started out all wrong.  Gavin woke up sick and stayed home from school, Britton got up too late to walk with me up to the school so I drove him and had to do my work out later, and what was supposed to be a quick trip to the dentist to get one tooth pulled ended by having 4, yes 4 teeth pulled instead.

About a week ago Britton got hit really hard in a tournament soccer game and broke one of his teeth.  I knew it needed to be pulled so I made the appointment and took him in today.  After taking x-rays, the dentist informed me that he had 4 teeth that needed to be pulled because the permanent teeth were coming in and didn't have room.  He (the dentist) originally didn't want to pull all 4 since 1 was on the right side of his mouth and 3 were on the left side which would mean having his whole mouth numb and probably missing a day of school.  However, after taking a closer look, we decided to pull all 4 teeth!

Britton trying to drink his Mountain Dew (a big NO, NO) but the dentist said to give him something with caffeine in it because it makes the Novocaine wear off faster. - Notice his bottom lip...we all had a good laugh watching him try to drink out of a straw.  In fact his poor mouth was so numb that he was drooling while watching TV and had no idea.  Ha! Ha! 

My Sick Little Gavin

I felt so bad for Gavin today.  Normally when he stays home sick he is up an running before kids get home from school but not today.  He  felt so yucky that I found him asleep on the bathroom floor.

I tried to wake him up and carry him to his bed but he didn't want to move.  Instead, I got him his pillow and blanket and he slept most of the afternoon on the floor.  Poor little guy.  I felt so bad for him and was even going to run and pick up some sprite at the store but, he didn't want me to go.

So, as you can see, all of my great ambitions for today were quickly put to rest by having all of my kids home from school and needing my attention.

I was just

ONE OF THOSE DAYS!

Security Detail

For me the last week of school seemed to fly by...but the boys thought it would never end.  To make the last week of school fun for the kids, Britton's teacher had a different theme for each day where the students could dress according to the theme.  One day was "crazy hair day", one was "sports day", and one day was "spy day.  Britton is usually shy, reserved and very self conscious - and typically will NOT participate when the class or school has a day where they can dress different.  So, it SHOCKED me when he actually planned each night what he was going to wear the next day to go along with his classroom theme.  It was so fun to watch him come up with each part of his costume and plan it out detail by detail.

For "spy day" he borrowed Jason's sunglasses, put on his own suit coat with white shirt, and thought he was pretty inconspicuous and I just smiled the whole time knowing he was completely confident in what he was wearing.

That evening I caught him and Gavin out side sword fighting in their "spy gear".  Jason was having scouts at our house and they were pretending to "spy" on the scouts as they came and be their body guards.  I asked if they were spies with swords - which we all laughed about and then they decided they were security guards instead.

Moments

This is one of my all-time FAVORITE Pictures.

I have always loved pictures taken of just the grandparents and grandchildren but I had never thought of taking a picture with my aunt and her great nieces and nephews.

It was definitely a challenge - mad kids, crying kids, uncooperative kids, but in the end all we needed was one good picture.

Mia (my niece), Britton, Trevon (my nephew), Gavin, Earlene (my Aunt), and Addisyn

It SNOWED!!!

My kids have been looking forward to the snow for sometime now so when it snowed a couple of weeks ago they couldn't contain themselves.

Addi made one snow angel after another, and rolled and played in the snow until she was too wet and cold to move.  She FINALLY came in "needing" hot chocolate and telling me how "yummy" the snow tasted.

Britton and Gavin immediately hit the slopes with their sleds, sandboard, and snowboards.  It wasn't a GREAT hill unless it had at least one JUMP on it that allowed you to "catch air".

I smiled all day thinking about how much fun they were having.  BUT, I am NOT ready for snow!!!

Trick-Or-Treat!

Halloween 2009

Halloween couldn't have been over soon enough for me this year. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Halloween, but once again I was FRANTICALLY trying to MAKE another costume. I thought I was going to have it easy this year.

CINDERELLA

Addi decided to be Cinderella and she NEVER changed her mind. She was so excited when the cute neighbor girls brought over "her dress". She came running into my room all excited telling me "mom, my dress came!" After that, everyone that came to our house got to see her Cinderella dress. We even made her a cute necklace out of ribbon to match Cinderella's. The only thing she wanted that she didn't get was blue Cinderella hair. She has a Cinderella Barbie with a streak of blue hair and she decided the night before that I should spray her hair blue like Cinderella.

GRIM REAPER

After Britton's werewolf costume last year I was ECSTATIC when he said he wanted to be the grim reaper this year. I already had the make-up and the robe, I just had to make the robe a little shorter. The only thing I had to find for him was his scythe which only required a quick trip to Party Land.

LEPRECHAUN

Gavin, on the other hand, made Halloween very challenging this year. In March we walked into Target and he saw the stuff out for St. Patrick's Day. He got all excited and said he was going to be a Leprechaun for Halloween. So, I bought a hat and a bow tie thinking this will be great! What an easy costume right? WRONG!!! Have you ever tried to find stuff for a Leprechaun in October!?!?!

I made a trip to DI and got lucky. I found a very small pair of boys dress pants that were a dark, sage green. I found a green crochet vest in the women's department and another small cream colored vest in the boys department. I thought I could dye the small vest green. - DIDN'T WORK - the dark green R.I.T dye turned it khaki brown. SO, I got to sew once again and make his vest smaller, remover the buttons and sew on new gold ones, cut off the pants and sew elastic in the bottom of them, sew elastic to his hat to make it smaller, and try to make a beard. After looking at fabric stores I ended up at the Dollar Store and found an orange fuzzy purse that I cut off and sewed elastic to. To finish it all of he wore white tights - because I could NOT find any green and white ones, and we sprayed his hair orange with orange hair spray. He was a little upset in this picture because we ran out of hair spray Halloween night. He had already been in his costume 3 other times for a school program, a school parade/party, and his aunt Cindy's Halloween party.

Needless to say, I made several trips to several stores and was completely ready for Halloween to be over.

Britton , Gavin, and Addi were lucky this year. They got to trick-or-treat with two sets of cousins. First Kim showed up with Ryker and Haylee and the five of them took off around the neighborhood and then around 6:30 Jayden, Tegan and Mayci came over to trick-or-treat the rest of the night. Once the kids were done trick-or-treating, we headed over to Kim's to hang out and enjoy the rest of Halloween.

Just for you Sis.

I know it is a little early for Halloween pictures but my One and ONLY sister keeps reminding me that Halloween is coming and that she still hasn't seen my kids Halloween pictures from last year.

Every time I look at these pictures I just smile and hope that this year won't be so hectic.
I am reminded of what a challenge it was to find a cape for Gavin.  It shouldn't have been so difficult but we could NOT find a kids cape anywhere and finally found a short adult cape which luckily worked just fine. Plus, I borrowed a red vest that had to be tailored to fit. 

Then there was Britton who wanted to be a Werewolf - BUT - he didn't want the werewolf costumes in the store that had masks and "just made you look like a wolf."  So, after looking at every possible Halloween/Costume store, I ended buying fake fur, ripping a pair of old jeans and a flannel shirt, and SEWING, his costume together. Then, we had to put brown make-up on his face and glue, yes GLUE fur to his face.

I am actually really proud of myself, because I am not a seemstress.  What should take no time at all or looks like it should be really easy takes me FOREVER! 

Regardless, their costumes were super cute and they LOVED them.

The other reason I can't quit smiling when I look at these pictures is that little Addi was
TERRIFIED
of her brothers.  It took a long time to convince her that they were not going to hurt her and that they were "nice monsters".  In fact, it took a lot of convincing for her to believe that the "monsters" were actually Britton and Gavin.