Crazy Conversations

The craziest convo at my house in ages!!!
K: Mommy! E says when we move out of the house you and daddy are going to be divorced!
Me: (to E) You don't even know what that word means.
E: Yes I do!
Me: No you don't. And we're not going to be divorced, we're going to party like rock stars when you move out!
K & E: What?
K: Can you really marry your brother or sister? Because Elliott wants to marry me.
Me: NO! Not ever!
K: See? You have to find your own woman!
E: But I want to!
K: No, you have to find your own woman!
E: I need to find a plain woman like mommy.
Me: What? Get out!

Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 9 - Cheer Competition

Hooray! We've finally reached the end of the 2010 Football & Cheerleading season with Lil' C's Cheerleading Competition! Our girlies worked all season on their routine & they really did know it. However, on the day of competition it didn't turn out so well. I think they were just nervous and for some reason the crowd was really loud during their performance even though they weren't during the other groups. It made it hard to hear the music. :(

The girls love competition, though. They always think they've won because they get a participation medal. (They're really just practicing at this point; no real competition until the next age level.) Plus, the mommies go all crazy like we did for homecoming and get them swag bags, flowers, etc. This year we also went to CiCi's Pizza for an end-of-season/birthday-party-for-the-coach celebration. It was fun and I'm glad we got to celebrate with our friends before we moved.

Here is my layout of the best pictures I have. I honestly don't know why they are so grainy and/or pixelated. It's really quite frustrating, but here ya go:



I also have this video taken on the same camera as I took the pictures with so, same effect. Again, sorry. This is the first time I have uploaded a video so I hope it works.

Thanks for following along through our 2010 football & cheerleading adventures! :)

Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 8 - Homecoming

Homecoming is fun & funny all at the same time. We make & buy & do all this stuff to make our little kids look and feel like high school homecoming kings and queens. It epitomizes Texas football. Of course, the girls love it. The boys pretend not to. :)

Please excuse all the overexposed pictures. The sun was ridiculously bright that day. And hot. I believe most of our games took place on days where the temp was well above 95 degrees & felt much hotter because of the humidity.

Well, that just about wraps up the 2010 football/cheer season. The only thing I have left to post is the cheerleading competition. I know I'm way behind so that's why I posted a bunch today to catch up...please keep reading so you don't miss any!

Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 7 - Western Week Parade

Sometimes the Western Week Parade falls on the same Saturday as the Pop Warner homecoming and some years it does not. This year, obviously, it did not so the kids got to participate.

Here are my little cutie pies riding on their float!

 Can you spot the BeazHive babies big kids?

Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 6 - Lil' Trojans Night

Every year the high school football team has a Lil' Trojans Night when they invite all the young football players and cheerleaders to attend the game for free & get recognition at halftime.

Bug waiting to run through the tunnel!

This picture of Lil' C didn't turn out so well because they performed their cheer in a different place and time than we thought they were going to, so I had to hurry to get over there & this was the best shot I got. For some reason they didn't let the girls run through the tunnel this year, even though they had every other year, so this was disappointing. Nevertheless, they had a good time.

Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 5 - Regular Season Games

Here are some of the fabulous things that we take pictures of at football games. Like Bug getting to be one of the captains for the coin toss, or Lil' C turned around or with pom-poms in her face, or Pinky Lee screaming at Lil' C because she didn't share the ring pop, or Boo trying to eat discarded peanut shells from the bleachers! I've spared you the pictures of clouds and people's feet. You're welcome!



Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 4 - Hurricane Game

Have you ever watched a sporting event that took place in horrible weather conditions? Ever had to play in one?

Bug had to play during a hurricane! Technically, it wasn't really a hurricane. It was just the bands of the hurricane as it unwrapped itself down in Mexico. Still, there was torential downpour for days on end, yet they did not cancel Pop Warner football. We were even late because we had to navigate flooded roads. Luckily, they didn't make the cheerleaders stand in 6 inches of water and cheer so Lil' C was spared. The rest of us found a good parking spot & kept our bee-hinds warm and dry in the car! :)

However, this is what the boys endured:

Apparently there were ants and/or other bugs floating in the water & biting the boys as they drifted by.

 Every time they ran on the field, the water just shot in the air. Tackles were like water cannons. It was rather entertaining.

 My tough guy after the game. :) He totally enjoyed it!

Umm, yeah...I made him strip down completely in the back end of the van & change before I let him in the car. We had to wring out his clothes! What? I wasn't the only one!
The best part? The next time we played at those fields I noticed a sign (that had been there the whole time) that read

 "Do not use fields when wet"

Football & Cheerleading 2010 Part 1 - Watermelon Social

We started out our football and cheerleading season back in the summer with a car wash & bake sale fundraiser. A lot of girls showed up, but Bug was the ONLY football player there. Go figure. I'm betting that the $$ got split between the two groups even though only one group participated. Maybe I'm just too cynical. I snapped one whole picture of my kids working, because I knew I'd probably never catch them washing MY car with that much enthusiasm!

They must first complete two weeks of conditioning before they are allowed to have normal practices. At the end of these two weeks, the high school football players and cheerleaders invite the little people to join them for a watermelon social. It's a tradition. They are all supposed to meet and mingle while eating watermelon. I'm not sure if you can tell by the pictures, but the high schoolers don't really interact with the kids. There's watermelon, but no social. A bummer really, because those big kids could pass on all the infinite knowledge they think they have to fresh, young minds eager for...anything. Hmmm. At any rate, my kids had fun devouring enormous slice after enormous slice of watermelon, getting ridiculously sticky & running around the adults and high schoolers like we were some kind of human maze. Good times. :)

Baseball 2010

Bug played baseball again this year. Lil' Coconut did not. This makes me doubly (is this a word?) sad that we lost all of the pictures from last year. We did get pictures from this year though & you can see them in the slideshow below .above. (Because every time I try to label my slideshows it makes them not show up...this makes me insane!) This year, Daddy was Bug's coach. This was both good and bad. Good because Daddy is a great coach. Bad because we don't think Bug played to his full potential because Daddy was his coach. Plus, Dad had to umpire either the game before or after each of our games. For some reason they couldn't get official umpires this year, so the coaches were supposed to fill in & they would get paid. Well, they didn't get paid, most of the coaches didn't bother to umpire which left Dad all by himself on the field sometimes, & holy heck batman can some adults spoil a good time! Daddy's not sure he wants to put up with all the negatives of coaching again next year, but he has a few months to think on it.

This year was also totally different because Bug went from coach pitch to the minors. It went from being really fun & learning how to play the game, to MLB intensity with the addition of score keeping. We were shocked at our first game when the other team spent the entire game stealing bases. Some kid tried to steal home on a walk. Yeah. Wasn't just that team either, it was every team but ours. Oddly enough, we hadn't taught our team to steal bases. We thought 8-11 year-olds should still be learning the fundamentals of baseball instead of just learning how to win. Who knew?

At any rate, Bug seemed to have fun, and THAT is the whole point!!

The Big 1-0!

A Decade! Double Digits!

Bug turned 10 last month! It was fairly traumatic for me, but he thought it was the coolest thing ever. I can still remember the day he was born. Like it was yesterday. Wanna hear it???

We celebrated with pizza & cupcakes after baseball practice one night, but I forgot the camera.

On his actual birthday, Bug helped make this Marshmallow Cake from MADE. The first night we made it, it was only so-so, but after sitting in the fridge all night? SOOOO good. My pictures do this cake no justice. You MUST go see hers. I'm sure this isn't the only yummy thing you'll find there. Daddy & Bug lighting 10 candles!!

My handsome young man!

Make a wish birthday boy!

My cutie-patootie crew sharing in Bug's birthday joy!

BTW, why is that when little boys turn not so little, all we can think of to get them is money? Hmm, there must be a solution somewhere! Gotta figure out something before Christmas. Any ideas?

A Funny Story

The other night I made cookies on a piece of aluminum foil rather than a cookie sheet (I hate doing dishes) and when I pulled them out, a corner ripped dropping several cookies down inside the oven. Today, I turned on the oven to make lunch & could smell smoke after a few minutes. That's when I remembered that I forgot to clean up the cookie mess. But when I opened the oven door, there were flames!!! The leftover cookies were on fire! I dumped baking soda on them, turned on all the fans & waved the door opened and closed to get all the smoke out. Luckily, Boo Boo Bear had dumped out half a bottle of carpet deodorizer earlier in the day, so the two smells sort of mellowed each other out.

It's A Wild Rumpus!

To celebrate Pinky Lee's 4th birthday and Boo Boo Bear's 2nd birthday we decided to throw a Wild Rumpus based on Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where The Wild Things Are". Pinky Lee loves this book, especially when we do the wild rumpus!
I spent three weeks planning and crafting for the event, but somehow managed to not get everything done come party day. That is what comes from wanting to do to much. However, all of the kiddos had a great time & most of what I tried to accomplish turned out. Here are some really great websites that I got most of my ideas from. I think I remembered all of them. Thank you to everyone who had great ideas for me to borrow!

My Rumpus - masks, boat & clipart

Metro Baby - magnets (I made these, but didn't get any pictures!)

Toy A Day - again, no pictures. Look for all 3 (Max, Moishe & Sipi) on his site

Caitlin Creer - bubble wrappers (nope, no pictures...but mine were orange with polka dots that resembled bubbles & had the same words as hers)

All of the following websites have great inspiration as well: Hostess with the Mostess, Simply Creative Insanity, Gauhaus, Creative Party Place , Mommy Star, Party Perfect, Skip to My Lou, Se7en, Fantasy Jr., and Story Connection Blog

I'm sure there are plenty of others out there, but these are the ones I found. Please check them out & explore their sites because they've got good stuff!

Here are the things I did:

The King of All Wild Things Tent

Here is my interpretation of the King of All Wild Things tent. I was drawing on the colors from the book & found these gorgeous fabrics. The top is supposed to come up higher, but I was working without a pattern & was off in my measurements. Oh well, still cute, the kids think it's fun & it's about to be a nice addition to the family room.

The Boat
In the story, Max reaches the island of wild things by sailing in his little red sailboat. Without it, this party would have been incomplete. Each of the guests got their picture taken in it. The credit for this project goes to my DH, and he did a great job!

Cupcakes

I was so behind on party day, that I had to frost these as the guests were arriving :0! My plastic bags that I was using to frost both ripped, which has never happened before, so they just got smeared with icing using my giant spatula. Not ideal. However, they were still quite yummy. Knowing I needed to use three cake mixes, I made layered vanilla, strawberry and chocolate cupcakes. The wrappers and the toppers are so cute though. I wish I had better pictures of them. The toppers are various monster faces or "Where the Wild Things Are". The wrappers say "I'll Eat You Up!"

Wild Rumpus Banner

The Thank You Cards

I made these thank you cards THEN realized that I didn't have envelopes that would hold them. So I had to make them by hand. It was more involved than I imagined since I had to make my own template. After completing all the envelopes I felt they were still lacking, so i made a collage of party pictures in black and white to line the inside of the envelope. The thank you cards have two pictures of the party guest, the group photo & one each of Boo Boo and Pinks.

The Invitations

For the invitations, I just used some clip art from the book (courtesy of Nat from My Rumpus), then added my own text, using lines from the story.

Other projects not pictured: magnets, bubble wrappers, personalized treat bag labels, food label cards with cutesy names like Monster Mac n' Cheese, decorate your own crowns & paper toys.

My Wild Things

The first slideshow is of each partygoers pictures in the boat (plus some others). The second slideshow is everything else at the party. There are lots of pictures so be prepared for it to take a while to load. Oh, and look for the cute little "Wild Thing" t-shirts I made for Pinks & Boo!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our Wild Rumpus!

Boo Boo Bear Turns 2!

As you can see, my baby has reached a milestone. The terrible terrific twos! He is such a big boy now. He can say all kinds of words. "NO!" is his favorite. He posesses all sorts of gross motor skills. He is most adept at hitting his siblings. He likes to use the potty. This involves standing, fully dressed, with both feet in the toilet. Hahahaha! Life with a toddler is like a roller coaster. There are the lows (as described above) and the highs, such as when he smothers you with hugs and kisses. Or when he says "I love you" and remembers to say "Please" and "Thank you" without any prompting.

So please excuse the mess on his face (he had just finished his favorite supper of pizza!), as you witness his delight in opening packages & playing with the contents. He LOVES cars. In lieu of cake, we had homemade brownies topped with chocolate ice cream (per Boo Boo Bear's request), raspberries, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. He could have cared less about the lit candle at the top, and just grabbed that spoon as fast as he could and started shoveling. It was precious!

Lil' Coconut's 8th Birthday!

For Lil' C's 8th birthday, she decided on a bowling party. She's wanted to have one there ever since she was invited to someone else's bowling birthday party. A couple of her friends came, and they all had a great time. They even did a great job bowling! We made personalized cupcake holders and labels for the bubbles & play-dough. Everything was in a blue & white snowflake theme and it was so gorgeous. Even the cupcakes had light blue frosting with white "snow" sugar sprinkled on top! I love kids birthday parties!

Lil' Coconut's 8th Birthday Slideshow

Christmas Parade 2009

Saturday night Bug & Lil' Coconut were in the lighted Christmas parade our town has. Either this is the first year they've had it, or I've just never heard of it. At any rate, both kids were thrilled. Bug got to be on his football team's float. This would, of course, be because they were undefeated 11-0. It was a trailer with hay bales that all the boys sat on, with some Christmas lights, otherwise not too decorated. It was mostly about the boys anyway. Lil' C was on our homeschool group's float. It was divided into 2 parts. The first part (where Coconut was) was mom and dad reading stories to the children by the fireplace. She had to wear her pajamas, which as you can see by the photo, didn't make her terribly happy. She was cute, though. The second half was the nativity scene, complete with a real baby playing the part of baby Jesus. He had on the cutest outfit with a bear face flap in the rear. Tee hee. Probably not what Jesus was wearing! The rest of us found a vacant curb to sit and watch the parade. It was only about 50 degrees outside, so it made for a pleasant time. Except the curb was wet, so we all got a little damp. That's okay, everybody had a great time!

Christmas Parade 2009 Pix