Happy Birthday Alaina

My sweet niece Alaina turned one today!  She is the cutest sweetest thing.  She lives far far away and I finally got to meet her last summer when she came for a visit.  She is coming to visit again in a few weeks and we are so exited to see her again.  Happy First Birthday Alaina girl!  Here's your Birthday video:

Click here to see all my Birthday Videos.

MODA's Birthday

MODA, AKA Mother Tricia, has a Birthday tomorrow.  Our little gang took her out last night to celebrate the fact that she was born unto this earth and by so doing forever changed the course of our lives.  On our way out of the hood I had to take these ladies to do their civic duty.  We were recalling the fact that exactly one year ago that very night, we were pretty much doing the exact same thing.  We went out to eat and on the way home we found out our beloved President was reelected.  And then almost as a sign we found April's cat freshly run over in the middle of the road.  We gathered him up and took him to her house where she and her children buried him the next day, only to find him alive and well again a few days later.  It was an election night miracle!  April had to make an announcement in Relief Society the following Sunday that if anyone was missing a cat it was probably buried in her back yard, but that she did provide a lovely service for it.  Oh fun memories!

After voting and much debate about where to eat (or to more adequately describe it- after much indecisiveness)  we decided to try out Twigs.  It was delicious.

I have eaten then before, only under slightly different circumstances.  BTW- the concrete floors in the joint look AWE-SOME!

FYI:  Don't eat at Twigs if you only have an hour before your movie starts (even if the movie theater is just a few feet away).  About 12 minutes into the actual movie (even after all 10,000 previews) we finally made it to our seats, even though Mama Foster threw away the tickets with her toothpick before we actually got to the theater.  Thankfully the nice man still let us in.  We saw Ender's Game and yes, I did stay awake through the whole thing.  Although with about 5 minutes left in the movie I leaned over to April and told her if it didn't end soon I was going to put my head on her shoulder and take a nap.

 

 

Halloween 2013

The Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins.  The only finished product I got a picture of was Aubrey's pumpkin.

On Halloween Aubrey and Addy had a costume parade at their school.  You can read all about that fun time by clicking here.  Later that day the Jr. High had a dance/party which Emily claims was horrible.  I wasn't there because I was helping in Addy's class with her party.

That evening we went to our friends, Ethan and Allison's, house for "Gross Dinner".  There wasn't much gross about it.  It was all fabulous!  I had asked Ethan what I could bring and he said "Something gross that we can eat."  I interpreted that literally.  I should have known better.  Ethan is a professional chef and his idea of gross was  awesomely funky fun yet fancy Halloween themed food.  I was kinda embarrassed to bring in our bloody fingers (complete with fingernails) and our bloody used band-aids (graham crackers with cream cheese centers and red food coloring).  Ethan's food did not disappoint.  It was so delicious! 

Our cute little neighborhood bunch.

At the very most last minute Aubrey decided she wanted to be a mime.   She made a rather cute mime if I do say so myself.

Addy had been planning on being a little girl zombie for months.

Zac went as Uncle Si Robertson.  

(yes I know that is a Phil beard but that was the only beard I could find after going to several stores)

Emily was informed by Mario and Luigi the night before that she was going to be Princess Peach.  Thankfully Allison had a Princess Peach costume we could borrow.

After dinner we all went Truck or Treating around the neighborhood.

We live in the most awesome neighborhood for trick or treating.  It is so fun to walk around and visit with everyone.  Here are the kids at one of our neighbors where they had to play a game in order to get a full sized candy bar.  Then at our friendly neighborhood dentist's house we not only got toothbrushes but we also were treated to freshly made scones and delicious raspberry butter.

Then we stopped at another neighbors house and got the scoop on why the police had to make a visit to the hood. We were there for about 20 minutes and totally lost all our kids.  Thankfully we found them down the street at the neighborhood Halloween night gathering place having hot chocolate.  It was a fun night with friends!

Saturday In The Park

Today was a gorgeous day.  It was in the upper 60's here.  We anticipated this being our last nice Saturday for many many months to come.  So we decided to get out and enjoy it.  We took a picnic lunch to a park.  After lunch the kids headed over to the playground to play tag.

 Addy hitching a ride with Zac.  He is such a fun big brother.

They were pretty darn rambunctious.  At first there were only a few other kids on the playground, but after a while there were a ton of kids and they were all really little.  And my kids are really big.  I knew they had to be making the parents of the little kids nervous.  So we left the playground in search of safer places to run wild.

 The kids found this amphitheater and immediately Aubrey and Addy ran to it and started dancing. 

Then Zac got there and it turned into a wild game of  tag again.

Then Emily joined in and it progressed into a friendly game of butt tag.  (you had to smack the booty of the person you were wishing to tag-it's harder to play that way)

 Then Steve joined in...

 And then suddenly I was in the middle of it.

 Addy photo bombing 

 Steve photo bombing the photo bomb. 

 Awesome berries we found growing on the trees

Then, someone-who shall remain nameless- started throwing acorns at innocent people.

This resulted in a lot of acorn gathering and an all out acorn war.

Addy's ammunition stockpile. 

 Emily and Aubrey had their own ammo stockpile too.  I went to get a pocketful of acorns from them and Emily asked if I wanted some berries from her berry belt.  For some reason this was really funny to us all.

At the end of the war, we all gathered around to make peace.  We had a little spiritual thought to get us ready for Fast Sunday tomorrow.  Then it was time to head for home.  It was a fantastically fabulously fun day and I am so thankful I got to spend it with the people I love the most.