New Year's Eve Par-tay!

We are currently hosting a New Years Eve party at my house. Savannah is here for a sleepover, and the girls are off doing girl-y stuff and not hanging out with me at all! Here they are in their matching pjs.

And here they are getting ready to leave for the fireworks.

We took them downtown to see the fireworks, and that was the only 10 minutes of silence we have gotten so far tonight :) After the fireworks, we went past Clark Griswold's house.

They are currently playing the Wii fit and we have plans to watch Santa Buddies with popcorn in a few minutes.

Sledding

Santa brought the girls several sleds for Christmas this year. So yesterday, Briana tried them out in the back yard.

This next video just about gave me a heart attack.

So today, we took the kids to Zorinsky to go sledding. It was a huge hit.

Kindergarten gingerbread houses

I got to go up to Sydney's classroom to make a gingerbread house with her yesterday. It was very fun, and I must say, we had the best looking house in the classroom!

Letters to Santa

The girls wrote their letters to Santa the other day. I think they both did a great job. I really, really hope Briana was good this year because I also want a mansion!



Sydney wrote hers all by herself, and I was very impressed with her sweet letter, and all the words she sounded out and spelled!

In case it is too light to read, it says:

Santa Claus

Thank you for all the presents.

I tried to be good.

I want a Smurfs bed please.

To: Santa Claus

Love: Sydney

(picture of Rudolph)

Look what I did on my snow day!

Aren't those so cute? The are magazine Christmas trees! I saw it on Martha one day, and they are super easy, and best of all, all you need to make it is a magazine. That's it! If you want to make one, here's the link. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/magazine-christmas-trees

I know Martha's trees are all glittery and pretty, but I think mine look great just like this!

Snow dog

Sunday conversation

While Mike was looking through the ads this morning, this is the conversation we had.

Mike: Stacey, come look at this. I really want it!

Stacey: (looking at picture of girl on excerciser in ad)

Stacey: do you want the exerciser or the girl?

Mike: You can get me the exerciser, and then maybe it will turn you into the girl!

Stacey:

Mike: Uhhh....

Mike: I mean....

Stacey:

Out with the old & in with the new

Over the past month and a half, I have learned that there are two things I should not pursue a career in. Cake decorating and furniture assembly. I took apart Briana's loft bed yesterday.

And then I put together her new captains bed. I have sort of hated that loft bed ever since the day we got it, and it felt really good to get it out of her room. I got her new bed about half way put together before Mike got home from work and informed me that I had done the whole thing wrong and had to take it all apart and fix it. That was after I put about four hours of my day into that bed. But, it's together now, and it looks really good in Briana's room and she loves it. We took her dresser out of her room since the bed has storage, and I get to have her old dresser in my room now. Yay!

Here's her new awesome bed:

She'll be sleeping good tonight!

Thanksgiving Pies

Look what the girls made today!

pumpkin pie

cherry pie

The finished products.

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Program

Today was Sydney's Thanksgiving program at school! She has been very excited about it and today was her big day. The kids all sang really, really well and they did dances with their songs that were super cute. Most of the kids had a small speaking part in the program, including Sydney. She got to hold up a picture she made and say what she is thankful for. She said "I am thankful for my family." So, so, so great!!! I'm so proud of her, she did a great job!

Here she is walking into the gym at the beginning of the program.

Here she is saying she is thankful for her family.

With her picture.

More singing.

Right after the program. So proud of herself!

With some of her fans.

Sydney and Mrs. Epstein

My day

This year, my family has agreed to let me have Thanksgiving at my house. I am quite excited about it, but I have never done it before, so I'm a little nervous too. I've been getting my Christmas decorations out all week, because I want my house to be very festive by Thanksgiving. I got everything out except for the tree, and today, Mike got that out (he's on vacation from work this week). We got it all set up and ready for the kids to decorate when they got home from school. Right before I left to pick them up, this is where I found Ellie.

I know. She's so cute!

The kids dug into the ornaments right away, and we now have a beautiful tree! I was a little sad though, because they are tall enough to reach the top of the tree now. When did they get so big? I don't even have to rearrange the ornaments to get some on the top half of the tree.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Smurfday Party

We had Sydney's bday party last night. She had a blast!

Getting ready to open presents.

Chixos!

Her new poley, Snowflake.

Papa Smurf's lab. That's right, lab. Not house. Lab.

Here she is with her Smurfette cake! It was just as much of a pain this time as it was the last time. Here's a better shot of it:

I also made a very yummy spinach dip for the party last night. I loved it, and I think everyone else did too. Here is the recipe:

HOT ARTICHOKE SPINACH DIP

1/2 cup spinach (frozen)
1 cup artichoke hearts
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp crushed red peppers
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
dash pepper

Finely chop spinach and artichoke. Boil spinach and artichokes in 1 cup water on medium heat for 10 minutes. Drain well.

In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the cream cheese for one minute or enough to soften. Add all ingredients together and serve.

May be kept in a slow cooker to keep warm. Recipe may be doubled.

I omitted the crushed red peppers and the dash pepper. So yummy!

A bouncin fun birthday party!

front row: Mila, Andrew, Austin, Zach, Sidney, Emma, Briana, Isabella

back row: Mikey, Carrine, Aubrey, Anabel, SYDNEY, Stella, Eleanor, Sloane, Kennedy

We had Sydney's birthday party at Bounce U today. It was a super fun time! I think all the kids went home happy and tired. And, most of the injuries were not life threatening.

Carrine, Sydney and Isabella on the big slide

Sydney and Isabella getting ready to go down the big slide again.

Kennedy, Carrine & Sydney taking a break

Briana got to have her friend, Emma come to the party too, and they had a blast together!

The birthday girl in the big chair getting ready to open presents!

Happy sixth birthday, Sydney!!

Something cute I found...

Just to put you in the mood for a Smurfday party!

Look what I got today! I can't wait!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SYDNEY!!!

Today's the day! Sydney is six years old!! Where does the time go? She had a very fun day. We opened presents about 9:00 this morning, and she was VERY excited about everything she got. She even said at one point, "This is the best day EVER!" Here she is with some of her loot:

I made her a Smurfette birthday cake. It was a HUGE pain in the neck, and I think I could probably live my whole life without ever doing one again. But, I will be making another one next week for her big party. So, I will post pictures then (I know. The suspense!) Anyway, after tearing apart my entire kitchen and yelling at everyone (well, mostly Mike) for two hours today, I got the cake done, and it looked really, really cute. And then I almost started crying when we had to cut into it after dinner. I guess that's just a small sacrifice I can make for my SIX year old!!

More stories

Briana came home from school yesterday with this story in her backpack.

I'm sorry, but she does write the best stories.

This morning, Sydney showed me this book that she made all on her own:

Look at all those words she is sounding out! And is it just me or is her handwriting really, really good? Better than most kindergarteners.