Thursday, December 8, 2011

Disney on Ice

The girls and I had a magical evening at Disney on Ice.  We LOVED it.  They didn't allow me to take my SLR in.  (Something I wish I would have known before I walked all the way from the car to the Coliseum!)  So, these are the best pics I could get with my point and shoot.

All dressed up and ready to go!
They told the stories of three princesses.
 First up, Tiana.
I don't really care for this story.
They had a couple of fun, jazzy songs, though.

Second:  Cinderella
The stepsisters were funny.
And spent lots of time bumping into each other.
And falling down.

With her mouse friends and fairy godmother.

Dancing with her prince.
 Third (and easily my favorite):  Rapunzel!
Mother knows best.


Maximus and Flynn

Pang!

How many people can say they ice skate while holding a frying pan?

The floating lanterns.

Flynn and the post-haircut Rapunzel.

At the end, ALL the Disney princesses come out 
dressed in these gorgeous white and gold dresses,
skating with their princes.
What a finale!

And for some reason, seeing Mickey and Minnie there
TOTALLY made me want to go to Disney World!

As an added bonus, Caroline and I got to attend a
Royal Reading storytime at the library,
where she got to meet...
Rapunzel!
Eek!

 She (of course) wore her pink cowgirl boots for the occasion.

And now I REALLY want to go to Disney World
and get caught up in the magic of that place.
When I came home and told Andrew, he said,
"Well...we should be getting a tax refund soon..."

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tennis date

On one of our other days of Thanksgiving break, we took the kids up to the park.  Andrew and I played tennis.  The kids ran around, played on the playground, colored, rode bikes...and followed in their mom's footsteps by acting as our sports photographers.  And they did great!  They're naturals.











A couple of Whitney's artistic shots:




How our matches always end:
with a smooch over the net.  :)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Turkey Bowl 2011

The weather over Thanksgiving weekend was divine.  A perfect day for football!  It is fun that Brandon's getting old enough to participate and we don't have to worry about him getting smashed...or at least not as much as we used to.  The guys had a blast.  I loved being the sports photographer.  The girls played on the playground.  And there were no major injuries. 

It was hard to choose out of the FIVE HUNDRED that I took, 
but here are a few of my favorite shots.

Andrew going for the interception

Drew trying to figure out how he'll get past Greg

 Touchdown!  (Just barely.)

B-train trying to juke Jeremy

Four men in pursuit of B

Drew with the tackle

Greg and Andrew battling for the ball

Ben and Greg celebrating in the end zone

Chris with the leaping catch

Jeremy juked B-train

Andrew and B chasing down Trey

B and Drew celebrating a touchdown.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Out of the Mouths of Babes--November

11/2--Brandon's humor has grown up.  He still cracks us up, but most of the funny things he says are not one-liners that are easily captured in a blog post.  Here's an example of how his mind works, "I hate diabolical laughs!  Why does the bad guy always diabolically laugh?  Then the good guy takes his weapon or escapes.  When is he going to learn NOT to laugh like that?"

11/4--Andrew and Caroline were getting ready to race up the stairs to get ready for bed.  Drew tried to talk smack, telling her, "You are going down!"  It went right over her head and she said, "No, I'm going UP."

11/10--I was reading Care Bear a book about ponies.  It said, "Caring for a pony is hard work."  She said, "Yea, ponies are heavy!  Carrying a pony WOULD be hard work."  Apparently I need to work on my annunciation.

 
There go her dreams of pony ownership.

11/13--We were sitting in sacrament meeting at church.  The kids usually draw or take notes while we listen to the speakers.  Caroline had drawn a picture for Andrew, but couldn't find it.  As we were looking around our pew, she told me, "Maybe you ate it!"

 
Or did SHE eat it?

11/20--We were getting ready for church this morning and all three of us girls were in the bathroom at the same time.  Whit was looking in the mirror and asked, "Why are my eyes so sparkly?"  Caroline told her, "Maybe because you're a rock star!"

 
Awfully camera shy for a rock star.
(Unlike her mom who's hamming it up in the background.)

11/20--I wore my favorite dress to church today--a pretty red one.  I don't wear it very often.  When I came out of my room, Whitney said, "You...look...fabulous."

She knows how to make a mom feel good!

11/21--Caroline has started noticing stop lights.  We have talked about the different colors and what they  mean.  Shortly after that, she got very concerned when I would go through a red light because red means STOP.  We got to have a driving lesson about turning right on red.  Well, she is obsessed with that now.  At just about every intersection, she'll give us a driving play-by-play.  "Straight on green."  "Right on green."  "Oooh, left on yellow."  But her favorite is, "Right on red!"

 Backseat traffic cop

11/22--I don't know if this is a nationwide phenomenon or just a North Carolina thing, but many of the pawn shops that buy gold hire someone to stand outside on the street corner and draw your attention to their store.  One of our local stores has the man dress up in a huge banana costume.  Hilarious.  When we saw him today, Care Bear told me, "I want one of those giant banana costumes for my birthday!"



Birthday wish

11/23--Christmas music has started playing on radio stations.  When we were listening to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and there's the line that says, "He sees you when you're sleeping..."  Brandon piped up from the backseat, "Stalker!"

You can't fool this guy, Santa!
A couple of random photos:

Yee haw.

B-train is into origami right now.
This is one of my favorite creations he's made.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a fabulous holiday weekend and are in denial that we have to resume our normal routines tomorrow.  Andrew, especially, needed a break after a terrible and emotionally draining week at work. 

The kids had school off on Wednesday.  B-train spent some time at a friend's house.

The girls and I started baking.
Mmmmm...pumpkin pie.

This year, we got together with our friends, Chris & Tiffany and April & Ben.
 We've been friends since we all moved to NC,
when we were young(er) couples with one kid each.

Look at what happened in the last eight years!
 
Tiffany agreed to host at her house (Yipee!) and all of us pitched in with the meal.  Andrew was in charge of the turkey.  He brined it again and it was his best turkey yet--moist and tasty.  We also brought a chocolate toffee pie, Grandma Cuca's red jello salad, rolls, a veggie tray, and asparagus--my kids' only request. 

Our feast was scrumptious.

And we had pies galore.

The kids had a BLAST together.
jumping on the trampoline,

watching the big kids jump,

playing the wii together,
board games,
and just hanging out.

And we didn't break up a single fight among these kiddos.
How is that possible?
We didn't ask, just counted our blessings.

The grown-ups had fun watching football,
playing a little game of football with the kids,
burned off some of our calories playing Just Dance,
played Apples to Apples and Scum.
And watched more football.

When we can't be with family for the holidays, 
I'm grateful to share them with such good friends.