Emma's Birthday Party

I just realized I had this post sitting there in my dashboard getting more and more buried by the second.  I had all the pictures here, but had never bothered to write the words with it.  These pictures are from Emma's 9th birthday party. 

Glen had found Disney On Ice tickets for a great deal, so we did something we'd never done before---had a birthday party in a public place.  I loved the easy planning.  I loved the necessity to keep it small and I loved the clean-up factor.  :) 

We had a couple of last minute cancellations, so we ended up with a couple of extra friends there which made it all the more fun! 

Day 304--Halloween

Today was like any other Saturday with soccer games and chores....

Afterward, we got all decked out in our cool tin foil hats and vests to go get our free Chipotle burritos, but it turns out we were a few hours early and got denied. I was so annoyed that I didn't even take a picture of our spectacularly shiny attire.

We went to Fuddruckers instead, then ran home to get ready for trick-or-treating. Every single one of the kids (except Ellie) switched costumes from what they wore for trunk-or-treating last week.

Don't ask about Cami's. You don't want to know.

Really.

BOO-thday Time Again...

Being born on HALLOWEEN certainly has its drawbacks, namely it being a really busy day when everyone is so distracted by costumes and candy that there's not much time left to celebrate your birthday too.

Emma, however, is the PERFECT person to share her birthday with a holiday.

From the day she was punctually born right on her Halloweeny due date, when she won a HUGE prize basket from a local Girl Scout troop for being the first baby girl in the hospital born on the founder of Girl Scout's birthday, she has had a flair for standing out in a crowd and doing things with a BANG!

☑Red(dish) hair.

☑Glasses.

☑A beautiful singing voice.

☑A smile to light up a room.

☑Giggles and enthusiasm.

☑A peacemaker.

☑A loyal friend.

☑The best breakfast maker.

☑Creative thinker.

☑An eternal optimist.

Our little EMMA KRISTINE has been bringing light and joy into our home now for NINE whole years and we are so grateful for every day!

We love you M & M! Happy 9th birthday!

Day 303--Party Animals

Today I was the very epitome of a party animal as I stayed to help at the cupcake decorating table at Adam's first grade party for as long as possible,

Then headed straight off to Ellie's preschool party at the park,

Then it was a quick rush back to the school for Emma's third grade party and sharing of her birthday treats (Oreo spiders without the cupcakes) with her class.

All in all, it was a fun day with a prelude of the sugar overload that is coming soon!

Flashback Friday: Halloween (circa 1984)

The questions I know you're all dying to ask:

Reporter: Oh, what a cute family!

Lara: Why thank you. Yes we were.

Reporter: So I see your brother Pete was Spiderman, Kristina and Heather were clowns, Matt was a leopard, and Nate a football player. What nice, normal costumes I must say.

Lara: Yep.

Reporter: So, I'm a little confused by yours. Are you a wizard or the Virgin Mary?

Lara: Ah, you're good! I was both.

Reporter: Huh??

Lara: I'm sure pregnant wizard costumes were all the rage in the 80's.

Reporter: Either that or you were weird.

Lara: Yeah, there's always that too.

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Day 302--Baking and Playing

Today Adam was back to school and Glen was back to work, but Spencer was still sick. With Ellie, Spencer, and I hanging out together it felt an awful lot like a homeschooling day from last year, except I didn't have to bug him getting any school work done.

I randomly got this baking bug and decided to make these pretzel rolls (again)....

and these carrot/pumpkin cheesecake muffins I'd been eyeing the recipe for for a while (recipe coming soon to Recipe Shoebox).
It was a tasty and quiet day.

Heck or High Water

At the time it seemed perfectly reasonable. It was a gorgeous autumn day stuck in amongst several rainy days. The leaves were in their peak colors and it was an open Sunday afternoon. How could we not take advantage of an opportunity for a Sunday car ride to Skyline Drive?

Never mind that Adam had a fever.

Never mind that Glen was grumpy and quickly coming down with what later proved to be h1n1.

Never mind I hadn't had more than five hours of sleep all week.

We WOULD go to Skyline Drive and we WOULD like it.

Glen was too sick to drive. I was too tired to drive.

But still this did not stop us. I pulled over and let AnnaLisa drive while I blissfully dozed the rest of the way there through the horrible traffic.

Finally we arrived and I was so excited about the "perfect" lighting and the gorgeous colors. We were all getting fresh air and I was going to take some AWESOME pictures.

Too bad I brought the wrong lens for the occasion. I took over 200 photos and over half of them were "off" (too dark, too light, or in most cases blurry). While we did get a few good ones due to the sheer volume of ones to choose from, but all in all for a perfect photo-op it did not go well at all.

I think everyone did genuinely enjoy being outside on a pretty autumn day,

but looking back I know we could have accomplished the same task

by just taking a walk around our neighborhood.

The sickies wouldn't have had to wear themselves out so much,

I wouldn't have ended up in tears over my innumerable photo mishaps,

and we could have put everyone to bed at a reasonable hour

by completely avoiding the even worse traffic going home.

But then again, if we had just walked around our neighborhood we would have missed this breathtaking sight...

Hmmm....maybe I'll just try to be more reasonable when I grow up someday. :)

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Day 301--Breaking Free

Adam was still recovering from his fever/cough today, so he stayed home from school yet again. Today at lunchtime I noticed that it had finally stopped raining. I was so excited to get some fresh air, that we left on the spot before even eating.

Adam was acting pretty normal (and energetic) on his scooter ride to the park, so will definitely be back to school tomorrow!

Ellie was thrilled to enjoy a little push on the swing.

They played happily for almost an hour at the park, then went into melt-down mode for the walk home. I probably should have left about 15 minutes earlier.

It turned out to be a seriously GORGEOUS afternoon--with blue skies and temps in the mid-60's. I was shocked when they ended up canceling Emma's soccer practice (for wet fields), but I didn't mind the freer evening schedule and the kids certainly were excited to just go outside and jump and run and play on their own!

Notification of Lawsuit

October 27, 2009

All Media Outlets of America + President Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed is a copy of the lawsuit that I have filed against you in a court of law on October 27, 2009.

The reason the lawsuit was filed was due to your completely overblown reporting about the H1N1 virus that has induced a hysteria amongst the American people that could only be likened to the manic state of my children when dinner is 30 minutes late.

Ever since my husband and oldest son have become the hapless victims of the heretofore mentioned virus, my entire family has been unapologetically discriminated against day and night.

I'm tired of my perfectly healthy daughter's babysitting jobs getting cancelled because her brother is sick. I'm tired of people not wanting to see ME, because I might have germs on me.

Basically, you either need to make some kind of proviso allowing entire families to be able to put their lives on hold for the duration of the illnesses of the people around them OR pay me a trillion dollars.

I prefer the trillion dollars, but if you choose the first option I will expect you to buy and deliver my groceries to my house and clean my fridge while you're here, pipe in closed-circuit tv of the kids' school classes so they don't get behind (heck--you should help them with their homework too since I might have germs on me), build a playset in my backyard so we don't have to go to the park, an exercise room in my basement for me, a check for lost babysitting wages for Cami, and an in-home office for Glen.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Lara

Day 300--Cabin Fever

It's rainy and half my family is sick, so I got a little bug in my bonnet to do a craft with the kids. We stopped by Michael's on the way home from preschool and picked up a few supplies and came home to paint our beautiful autumn trees.

Ellie and Adam loved the concept of sponge painting...

and ended up thoroughly enjoying their afternoon of art.

I also enjoyed MY afternoon of art.
Ten bucks. Ten bucks. Do I hear ten bucks for this masterpiece?

Day 299--Sick House

So it's official now. We have a sick house. Adam is home sick with a fever. Glen is knocked flat on his back with h1n1 (confirmed by the doctor) and Spencer came home from football with the same symptoms as Glen. Pictures were sparse today. This one was snapped by Emma. We're in for a long week!

Halloween Awards 2009

Continuing with a tradition I started last year, here are the 2009 Halloween Costume Awards:

Ellie as the cute little princess cupcake monger. She won FIVE cupcakes from the cakewalk and was going back for more when her stash disappeared. Luckily, she was too busy trunk-or-treating by the time she noticed and didn't really care anymore.

Adam as the saddest dinosaur EVER. He had to wear the dinosaur costume for the FOURTH year in a row and the mere thought gave him a fever (or maybe it was just that he's been sitting in a petri dish all week at school. There were ELEVEN kids out sick from his class on Friday).

Emma once again takes the creativity prize with her vision of a "Build-A-Bear" costume.

Cami blatantly refused to wear her lavender lame pantsuit, but still won the award for best excuse not to fold your arms during prayer costume.

Spencer wins the lame-o award for his "Recovering Nudist" costume.

And me? I don't know. You decide.

I'm thinking something like the "Blank Stare" award, since not too many people seemed to get my costume.

I had been hoping that at least the Three Wolf Moon shirt would bestow some magical powers my way, but neither my chili nor my not-so-famous apple pie even placed in the top three, Adam went home sick, all the cakes I stayed up until 2am making went to waste when they cancelled the school fall festival for too much illness (after I'd already dropped them off), and now Glen is sick too.

Wasted effort.

Oh well. So much for staying up late. So much for "magical" powers. So much for trying to do too much.

At least I've got the mediocrity and self-pity awards in the bag just fine.

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Day 298--Skyline Drive

Sometimes I am unreasonable. Today was one of those days.

I was bound and determined that we would go on a Sunday afternoon drive to the Shenandoahs to enjoy the peak colors on a beautiful fall day.

Never mind that Adam had a fever. Never mind that Glen was feeling yucky (later proved to be h1n1). Never mind I hadn't had more than five hours of sleep all week. We WOULD go to Skyline Drive and we WOULD like it.

Glen was too sick to drive. I was too tired to drive. So AnnaLisa had to drive.

The traffic was horrible and the kids were grumpy.

But it really was a beautiful day in amongst several rainy days and the leaves truly were at their peak.

We took tons of pictures, most of which did not turn out due to me bringing the wrong lens with me, but dang it all we did it!

Day 297--Emma's Birthday Party!

It was Emma's year to have a birthday party, so in honor of her upcoming 9th birthday she got to invite four friends to go to a Disney on Ice performance with her. It was a really hard for her to narrow it down to only four, but we really wanted to keep the cost from getting too outrageous so we stuck to our guns with the four. In the end, I think the smaller size made it a little cozier and easier for Emma to spread herself around to all of her friends.

We started off here at our house for a craft, dinner, presents, and cake.

We ended up a little rushed at the end, trying to get to the performance on time.

Adam was also supposed to come along with just one friend (since it was not his year for a party), but when Adam got sick, Cami decided not to come, and Glen had to stay home with Adam we ended up bringing a few extra people with us, so the tickets would not go to waste.

The girls (especially Emma) had a fantastic time
and were in complete awe of the beautiful costumes and fun performances.
It was a great way to celebrate Emma's 9th birthday!