Happy Anniversary to ME!!!!

John and I celebrated our 6th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday May 5th. I made him a special dinner and dessert for the occassion. The dinner was a hit, of course, I mean who doesn't love Santa Fe Chicken tortellini casserole. I know it sounds more complicated than it actually is. For dessert I made this scrumptous Strawberry Brownie torte. We all picked fresh strawberries that day to use in the dessert. This double layer morsel was made more for me than John, but don't tell him that. I even spiced it up by putting fresh chocolate covered strawberries around it. The kids loved all of the chocolate, they were pinging off the walls all evening.

Duck Season is Offically Over!!!

I happened to be walking through Wal-Mart Saturday afternoon getting a few things when I walked by the domestics area and a flurry of colors caught me eye. A light bulb went off and I said, I am going to repaint kids' bathroom and I couldn't resist the too cute multi stripe shower curtain. I came home paint swatches in hand and showed them to John, who seemed pretty enthused I guess, and we picked a color. Okay, it really wasn't that simple. I kept bugging him asking him what he thought of 3 different shades of green. I thought one was kind of minty, the other maybe too bright and so on. Well he grabbed two swatches from my hand threw them on the ground, looked back at my hand and said that one, let's use that one. What did I do? Looked at him like he was crazy and then said, yeah I really like this one too. After church on Sunday, the kids and I went and got the paint, wall paper remover, and a few accessories. I took all of the border off Sunday afternoon and cleaned the walls. Monday morning bright and early I tackled the job. It really wasn't too bad. I had already painted this room once four years ago when we adopted the duck motif. Here is the kicker though, I am almost finished with the second coat on the main part of the bathroom when a realtor calls and wants to show the house in 45 minutes. Talk about Super Woman, I don't think have ever moved so fast in my entire life to clean up a paint mess along with the rest of the house. Hope you like it!!

Old bathroom decor

New Bathroom decor...OOOHHH AAAHHH

The kids picked these out, I think they are so cute!

Skateboard - Helmet = Big No No!

The number 1 rule around our house for outside play is....If it has wheels you MUST wear a HELMET!!!!! Hayden being the show off he is, thought he was too big for his own britches the other day. The concrete driveway, however, showed him who is really in charge. Hayden was running and jumping on his knees onto his skateboard showing off for a neighbor kid, with out a helmet. I am blaming this one on Dad, because John was out there, but I guess he was too consumed by working on his mustang that he failed to notice our little dare devil. The second attempt at this crazy stunt ended in disaster, he flew over the front of the board and face planted right into the driveway. John brought him in the house covered in blood and Hayden was hysterical. After stopping the nose bleed and cleaning his face, this was the end result we were left with. As the days go on, it has looked a little worse simply because the scabs are forming, but he will be fine!! My advice to any parent who has boys...Keep on hand a big supply of Neosporin and Mederma for Kids

Pink Poodles in Paris

Let the Birthday Extravaganza begin!!

We celebrated Abigail's 1st birthday last Friday! Since she is our little poodle, I couldn't think of anything more fitting than a pink poodle party. There were15 kids here including the birthday girl. We had planned to blow up the water slide for the bigger kids and a kiddie pool for the little ones, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was a little windy and temp was only 67 degrees. I was however, able to find a castle bounce house at the last minute. The kids totally dug it. Abigail even got inside for awhile. It was hard to keep the big ones at bay while she and the little ones bounced around or I guess I should say fell all over the place. It seems as though everything we or more like I do always has a little bit of drama. So, here is the drama of the party. The party started at 6:00pm, trying to stay on top of the game I decided to order the pizzas around 5:30 so they would be here shortly after the party started. Well my planning paid off, because they were here at 6:10. However, as I started to sift through all 9, yes I said 9, of the pizzas I soon discovered all of them, except the top one, were slammed up against the left side of the box. As I am scraping cheese off the top of the boxes and trying to piece back together 8 sausage, cheese, and pepperoni pizzas, it dons on me "I just paid $90.00 for this mess!" Yeah, I don't think so. So I excused myself from the festivities and called the pizza place. I explained to them the situation and I what I believed to the result of a careless driver. After being passed to 3 people I finally spoke to the owner, who was very apologetic and nice. I now having coming to me 8 free pizzas for my enjoyment whenever I would like them. Now, had I not liked this pizza place so much I would have made them refund my money and we would have kept the pizzas, but it wasn't their fault, it was the stinky teenager who delivered them, and they do have the best pizza in town. Other than that, as you will see from the pictures we had a GREAT time!

Here's the Birthday Girl in her poodle dress for her poodle party!
Everyone still enjoyed the pizza

Somebody loved balloons
I can't believe I finally made it in a picture!


Poodle in the bounce house

It's Pinata Time

Keeping with tradition, we always have a pinata. I find it's an easy way to get rid of all the leftover Halloween, Christmas, and Easter candy. Just kidding! Of course, the first hitter is the birthday girl. Since the bat and the pinata are almost as big as her, mom stepped in for a little support. Abigail did very well. The first thing to go was the poodles head, then the butt, I think she lost a front paw too, and finally she was cranked wide open.

I know I can hold this bat, just watch!



I hit it!!!
Now hold it still Dad!

One last hug for good luck!
The paper nose isn't too bad!

How many cakes does a girl need?

I can answer that question. A birthday girl needs two cakes! On my kids' first birthdays I have always made them their own special cake that goes along with the theme of the party. Hayden had a big Elmo face, and had Papa and Grandma's house not burned down, I am sure we would still be cleaning the red icing out of the grout and the blinds 5 years later. Ethan had a big Mickey Mouse head, which by the way we wised up and moved the cake festivities outside for him. So Poodle gets the same treatment. This is her first cake that everyone else gets to eat. Yes, yes, it is the famous Wal-Mart chocolate cake. Would you expect anything less...it's the best cake ever!

Cake #1

What and Why are these people singing?

Big breath in and blow out

AHHHH..... Cake #2
I made this cake from scratch all by myself. Ok, well I used a box cake mix, but I cut out the design, made the frosting, dyed the large marshmallows, and carefully cut the licorice to size. This was such a fun cake to make and why not make a poodle cake for a little Poodle. She was very prissy when easting her cake. She did not make a mess and the clean up wasn't too bad. When she was finished eating marshmallows, she simply pushed the cake away. We tried to give it back to her, but she pushed it away again. It was absolutely precious.

He just wants some of my cake!

Everybody is stealing my marshmallows !!

Oh yeah mom, these are good!!

I'm all done now, thank you!

They were like a bunch of vultures. Plus, they had just finished the other cake. Pigs!!!!

And Finally......The Presents!

Nothing says birthday party like a truck load of presents. Yes, the princess was spoiled and received probably way more than she needed, but oh well!! She was very attentive during the process, once she realized eating the paper really isn't that fun. Mommy did most of the opening, but she explored and played with every gift. My friend Amy made her the cutest tutu, that she wore until 10:00pm that night. Her brothers got her a black and pink poodle purse with a pink poodle inside of it. As soon as she opened it, she instinctively put her arm through the straps and hoisted onto her shoulder, it was so precious! She is such a girly girl. She got two cell phones, keys, another purse that matches her poodle overalls, a weebalot castle, a rocking elephant, a bounce and spin zebra, the cutest Polo dress from her Aunt Val, another dress, sunglasses,a Cinderella baby doll, and a kitchen just to name a few.

A tutu ballerina

She was getting the hang of ripping the paper

How precious is that?

Thanks Papa Mike and Grandma Teresa for my Zebra!

Thanks for my kitchen Papa Joe and Grandma Kathy