happy 8th birthday peanut

Here is Alex's cake. I was overly impressed that they actually had Pokemon at Walmart this year. He was so excited to see the cake when he came home.

Eight balloons for his eighth birthday! Also a plastic decoration in the kitchen.

Some presents for his day!

I added some crepe paper to his doorway while he was sleeping.

Daddy and I delivered balloons to his floor the night before his birthday as a surprise.

Inside his room looking out.

Plastic decoration in his room. I am pretty sure this will move behind his door so he can have it.

 Hallway decorations.

There is my birthday boy!! He is getting so big.

Present time!!

Oh look.... Lego's. Lots and lots of Lego's! Yes all those boxes above were Lego kits. All but one box was the Super Hero sets, the last one is a city set so that they Super Heroes can destroy the city while capturing the bad guys.

Little bit happy.

Big breath. It took him a few tries.

Cupcakes that I made for his class to enjoy. They also received a Pokemon pencil. Pencils are always a good choice for kids.

Happy 8th Birthday Alex!!

february 5

Daddy's birthday. Poor guy had to go out and snow blow the driveway. At least it wasn't a foot but it was still enough! One of those chores I am so happy he does for me.

We got his presents all ready to go while he was working outside.

Cute cake!! Don't mind the leftovers of frosting which equaled part white and part orange frosting. Both of which were homemade just not enough of either to cover the entire cake. It worked and was delish!!

Here's the dining room table... are you sensing a theme yet??

Streamers photographed by Alex. Great angle.

I put up the signs and streamers the day before since he was going to be home on his actual birthday and we couldn't surprise him. He was quite surprised!!

hee hee... more Avenger fun.

On his desk!!

We decorated his chair!! BTW... check out the great Vikings quilt my mom gave to him Christmas 2012! It is so cute. I need to take better pictures of it.

Here are the big decorations! They were way bigger than I had planned on at the store and had to put them downstairs instead of upstairs. It worked though.

I put this on our bedroom door!!

Daddy and his girl.

Daddy and his boy.

Daddy can't believe that mommy is making him smile and blow the candles out!! But he did it.

And as a public service announcement....

GET THE FACTS AND VOTE YES FOR A NEW SCHOOL ON MARCH 11TH!

syracuse birthday party

Just a couple of quick pictures from Kira's birthday celebration in Syracuse. After much deliberation, Kira and nana decided on a dog cake. Kira added 11 plastic dogs to the top to complete the look. Very cute and delicious!

My family before the party. Love them to pieces.

The playroom is coming along. Hoping to do some painting tomorrow so the hallway will finally be completed. Then off to tackle the kids rooms. I pulled a bunch of stuff to put into the playroom. Most of the toys that were in there, the kids had outgrown so they shall be donated off.

sketch challenge, field day and birthday....

Yes I have been quite busy, but in a totally great way. Below is a sketch we were given to use in my sketch challenge group on FB. It is pretty neat and think it will be used again in the future. I can also see where I would add extra pictures!! I love taking pictures.

And here is my layout inspired by the above sketch. After I took the picture and loaded it to the computer, I realized I did not put the date on the layout so that has now been done. This was Christmas Eve 2008. Kira looks so tiny!! She got to make reindeer food in her class and then another teacher gave her the small bag of food. We had some very happy reindeer that Christmas!

Field Day for the kids was on Friday. The day started overcast and not looking too great. By the time they did the roll call of nations/ classes... the sun was out and stayed out all day. Which was a great thing since the school had rented two bounce slides and turned them into water slides!! The kids LOVED it. Even Alex who hates to have water on his face.

Each class was a different nation and they designed puppets and made flags from their nations. The theme this year was the Olympics. All the kindergartners were Ireland. You can see Alex in the front by the white of the Irish flag. And his amazing teacher in the red shorts on the left.

Kira's class was doing Fiji. Here's a picture of my little lady with her puppet which she made into a tree kangaroo and her flag. She did such an amazing job on her puppet! I love it.

And a friend of ours, took mine and Dave's picture after the ceremony. Something that doesn't happen often since one of us is always holding the camera! Aren't we cute?? I then went into the school and helped with Alex's class while they did their events.

Then it was Saturday and a special Saturday it was. My little baby girl turned 11! I mean seriously. How does one lose eleven years?? I swear she was just being born and look at her! Heading into sixth grade and looking oh so beautiful. I'm afraid to blink since she'll be in college then!

For her day, she wanted me to make her a Piplup cake. ummm sure. I can do that. I found this image on the web and posted it to Pinterest since I am like that. Dave printed it out and off to town we went. This was my first time making a layer cake and learned a few lessons. One... you don't need a ton of frosting in between the layers (but I do like frosting) Two... make sure to level them so the cake doesn't wobble. Three... if you are going to decorate with additional frosting... you don't need as much of the base frosting. We are getting on quite the sugar high eating this cake. Totally not complaining... just explaining.

The black gel we used, was fighting us a bit and running when we didn't want it to. Hence poor Piplup's lazy eye and his crooked beak. But the cool thing is that the gel was glitter gel so Kira didn't mind these imperfections and was quite excited to see it after her bath.

Tomorrow begins our last week of school. Not sure how much learning will be happening, but it will be the end. Alex will find out his teacher for next year on Friday and they are having a step up day. I do believe I will have to be there taking some pictures!!