A Perfect 10!

Can you believe that this cute little nugget:

looks like this?

Oh, so handsome....a perfect 10, for sure!

Well, to ring in the double digits, this handsome fella celebrated his birthday with his best buds and a military theme! 

The overnight party (are you thinking that I'm crazy) was based on their favorite Xbox game, Call of Duty - Black Ops.  Let me clarify (insert disclaimer here) that when playing this game, we do have all parental controls in place and we ask all parents for permission before they are allowed to play.  

So the afternoon kicked off with swimming (which resulted in Sam having swimmers ear three days later.  We were congratulated on being the "first swimmers ear of the season" at the pediatricians office!)

Then the pizza was delivered and we filled their bellies.  (These three boys have been friends since they were 18 months old!)

Followed by the perfect cookie cake!

 

After a little video game playing, and when the sun went down, the real fun began!  I had done a lot of planning ahead and coordinated a "Night Vision Goggle Scavenger Hunt"!  The boys were so excited!

Earlier in the week, I had made 6 camouflage"care packages" filled with misc. goodies.  I asked some of our neighbors for permission to hide the bags in their yards, then wrote missions for each boy to go hunt for the bags.

 
Each boy donned a headband and a dog tag with their name.  (One friend was not able to attend, so Lily was gracious enough to take his place!  Wearing his headband and all!)  We headed out into the dark with the group and the goggles and the hunt began!

After about an hour, the boys completed all of the missions and I think I was successful in working out a little of their energy.

They retired to the basement to watch a movie and play a few more games.  After lots of giggles, chuckles and other miscellaneous noises (remember, it was a group of five boys) the quiet came around 1:15.  You may think I'm off my rocker, but after hearing about other overnight parties -- this was a success!  **I took the evening shift and hung out downstairs until everyone was asleep and John took the morning shift, to be awake and make breakfast when they woke up.  Can you say TEAMWORK?!?!?

They woke up around 7:00 and were greeted with a chocolate chip pancake breakfast!  (We felt it only fair to send the boys home full of sugar, since we had kept them overnight!)

What a fun birthday celebration!  These boys are great kids and I'm so glad they are friends with Sam! 

 

Fully Recuperated~

Laurie

A well deserved break!

April gave way to the long awaited "Spring Break!"  I kinda feel like we crank up our locomotive and go full steam ahead in August with "Back to School", then we chug chug along and hit the crazy fun of the holidays, then we chug chug along until Spring Break....then it hits -- warm weather, a break in the homework, a break in the activity schedule and finally a time to sit back and breathe! And that's exactly what we did!

We headed up to the mountains for a little family get away and started out trip off with a fun night at the drive in theater!  Yep, that's right; the Tiger Drive In!  We told the kids that they had a surprise for the night and they were guessing all day long.  As we packed up some snacks and drinks, they thought we were headed for a picnic; then we pulled in to the d.i.t. and they were so excited!  The movie of the night was Dr. Suess' "The Lorax" and it was great!

 **If you look REAL close -- my kids are the two on top of the slide!

**Well, of course Sam had to have a funnel cake!

**The Lorax!!


The next few days were full of lake water and sunshine -- well a little bit of rain, too; but it was a splendid four days of family time!

**P.S. Sam and Lily made friends with the neighbors granddaughters.  The fun part is that they are from London!  It was so neat to hear them playing outside and listening to the different accents.  When it was Lily's turn for the game, they said "Would you like to have a go?" -- Miss Lil thought it was time to leave.  :-)

Paddle boarding is a new hobby for us and it is so fun!

 **Zac eagerly awaits on the dock!

 **Hey...that's me!

 **Sam is trying his hand at balancing!

 **After a day at the lake, Zac looks like this!

 **Hmmm...not your normal breakfast visitor!

After the lake, we headed home for a 24 hour unpack and repack and then headed out to Alabama!  It was a fun but fast weekend of aunts, cousins, great aunts and Easter Fun!

**Ready, set, HUNT!

 **John wins "Top Fisherman" for the day!

 **Incredible moth visitor!

  **My loves!

Ahhh, if only Spring Break could last until the summer!  (But, I guess it wouldn't be Spring Break at that point.)  So, the countdown to summer is officially on!  And, we're at 4 weeks!  Next up, Sam's birthday!

Bring it~
Laurie

A long awaited post....

Well, I will be updating the blog with all of our Spring Break excitement...but not now - this is another installment of "Conversations from the Back Seat of my Minivan"! Oops - scratch that. Numero Uno - I have matured to the ranking of an SUV! I'm now the proud owner of a Nissan Armada! I love it! I am a little bummed that I can't hunt for pictures of tricked out minivans, like this:


But, I love sitting up high, still having lots of room for car pooling and being able to tow whatever I want! (Not sure what that will be, but I feel very powerful! Beware!)

Anywho - Numero Dos: It actually wasn't a conversation in the back seat, because Lily was alone back there. But she was talking to me, so - here goes:

Lily Clare: "Mom, I need something for my ice skating lessons."

Me: "What?"

Lily Clare: "A little bling bling!"

Me thinking "What in the world?!?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Lily Clare: "Look in the mirror."

And I see this precious smile in my rear view mirror!

Lily Clare: "See my "bling bling"? It will make me skate better!"

Her "bling bling" was the glitter lip gloss that the Easter Bunny left in her basket yesterday! That bunny sure knows what a girl likes!

Hippity Hop~
Laurie

Our happenings...

It has been hard for me to find the time to sit and blog lately; and I hate it! Number one, because I like to keep all of our family up on what we've been doing and number two, because I want to use this blog as a "cyber-scrapbook" and I don't want to skip anything. So, I can assure you that my silence isn't because of lack of interest...just lack of quiet time!

Some of our fun has been taking place in Clayton, GA at the lake house. We have really enjoyed having warmer weather because it has allowed us to venture into the woods!

*Lily making "sand cakes".


*Zac getting in on the fun!
*How long do you think this sign has been hanging on that tree?!?!
*Sam showing off his muscles and his new buzz cut!

We finally received our Girl Scout cookie shipment and Miss Lil' had to distribute her orders. Can you see how successful she was in her sales campaign?!?! 100+ boxes!


Lily and I went to Chattanooga for my niece's baby shower. Lily was so excited to be a part of the fun! Here is part of the gift we gave to Tara. (I like to make gifts, but give something store bought, as well -- you know, in case my craft falls apart! HA!) The baby will be named Anna Marie.


*We are looking forward to her arrival in the next few weeks!

I bought a new vacuum cleaner...no, not very exciting, but what's that old saying about kids and boxes?!?! Lily begged me to let her keep the shipping box. This is what became of it! It seems that dogs take a liking to empty boxes, as well.

*(And I was not very pleased to see Zac all comfy/cozy on MY Snuggie!!!)

On Sunday, the kids and I joined some friends and participated in the Hunger Walk, benefiting the Atlanta Food Bank. The weather was perfect and the cause is one that is dear to my heart! Remind me again why someone should be going hungry in America??? Oh yeah, there is NO reason!!! We have too much of an abundance to have families in need of food! So, we were happy to make a donation (the kids donated their own money, as well) and to walk to show our support!

*Always a beautiful view!

*Pam posed with the kids as we walked over the interstate overpass!

*Still don't really understand the big deal with mustaches right now, but we got some free ones and sported them with pride!

*We were walking with our friend Pam. She works with Coca Cola, so we joined their team and donned their logo!

That, my friends, is what we've been up to the last few weeks! We have Spring Break coming up and believe it or not, the school year is winding down. (YAY!) It seems that even more fun times are around the corner!

Chugging along~
Laurie

P.S. The Occupy Atlanta supporters -- err, I mean supporter-- was in full force at the walk. Ha!