Snow day!

I am so spoiled, I can't believe it. I am realizing just how great it is to have a teacher living with us today. I snowed a couple of inches yesterday, and last night. The kids were delayed 2 hours to school. The older ones are off to school now, and Eric just came up and asked if he could take the little ones out to play in the snow. For the last little while, he has been playing "snow dog" with them, and has been dragging them around the yard on a sled. His school district has been canceled today, and so he doesn't have to teach. I am inside, warm and comfy, catching up on my blog, and he is outside mushing my kids around the yard. Isn't this the life? Darn! I just heard Eric's exhausted voice call, "All DONE!". I guess that my blogging reprieve has come to an end. It was great while it lasted.

Family

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with Jeremy's cousin Karl & family. They had their entire immediate family in Deleware to celebrate. It was the first time in 10 years that they were all together at the same time. We were able to see J's Grandma as well. It was nice of them to include us. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we were able to witness the blessing of Karl's newest addition, Trevor. It was a fun, relaxing trip. We celebrated Thanksgiving as it was meant to be celebrated with lots of family, relaxation, and fun.

Pictures

New Pictures

We finally got our pictures back from the photographer! I am a photo freak, so you can understand my excitement. We have our first decent family picture in years. Thank you Jennifer Anderson for sharing your fabulous talents with our family. I posted a few of my favorites.

Ok, so here's the situation. I am finally ready to publish my pictures, and the blogger is down. I guess that this blog will have to be a teaser, if I am able to publish it at all. Pictures are forthcoming. I just do not know when. Stay tuned.

American Girl Amber

FINISHED!!! I was sewing the last buttons on Amber's Colonial Days costume while she was getting showered up for school. Whew! Talk about cutting it close. Sigh, now I get to put the house back in order.

This costume was for Colonial Days today at Amber's school. They have all the teachers, volunteers, and 4th grade students dress up in period costumes. Not only do they ask that you dress them appropriately, but they also request that their lunches be as colonial as possible as well. They want them to have cornbread or homemade bread with homemade jam, cheese, apples, etc. Their lunches should also be packed in the method of the day, either a basket or in a cloth. No baggies or containers. Its just a little bit of work for the parents, as you can imagine. I was going to volunteer, but had a difficult enough time making Amber's costume and homemade lunch items in time. Maybe next time... I seem to get it a little more put together each time. Maybe by the time Cora is in 4th grade, I will skip into the school with my authentic colonial outfit, carrying my handmade, fully authentic colonial basket, full of tasty colonial food. Hmm... it could happen...I have a few years.

BTW: My apologies for the sideways photo. I am not yet up to speed on the blog program, and can't find how to turn the photos.

A Halloween Kiss

Its been a while, I know. Life has been crazy busy lately with the kids starting school, softball, baseball, piano, cello, girl scouts, activity days, and so much more. I have been living from week to week, project to project, and haven't come up for air for a while. I finished our Halloween costumes in time. I had already made the girls' Hogwarts costumes for the summer movie/book openings, and so I just had Trenton's Captain Jack Sparrow, Layton's Grim Reaper, and 4 adult KISS costumes to make before the Halloween festivities began. To top it off, Hannah, Amber, and Layton all were on different ball teams. Each team required 2 practices and 2 games per week when the season started, and then switched to only 1 practice per week as the season finished. Layton joined Hannah in taking piano, and Amber started playing cello. Both girls joined girl scouts. It was crazy, we had multiple activities on the same nights all week long. We had Sunday off, and an occasional Thursday evening free. Jeremy & I had to divide and conquer, and on the nights that Jeremy was out of town, our house guest, Eric would fill in with the carpool/ cheer squad.
Did I mention that we have our dear friends the Robinsons staying with us while they try to sell their house in Washington? The Robinson family has been here since the beginning of Aug. Rebekah is working with Jeremy in the basement office, and their family is staying in the guestroom down there. So far things are going pretty well. Cora and Andrew are enjoying their odd little "sibling-esk" relationship. Andrew is learning what it is like to be part of an extremely busy large family.
Oddly, the Robinson segway brings me back to Halloween. We had 2 Halloween party invites prior to Halloween, and wanted to come up with a unique and fun Halloween costume for 4(us and the Robinsons), and somehow decided that dressing up as Kiss would be both unique and fun. Rebekah and I pulled out the Bedazzler and hit the fabric store before creating our fabulous Kiss costumes. We were a "HIT" at the ward Halloween party. (Yes, we actually wore them to the Trunk-or -Treat at the church, and everyone loved it.) Our second party occurred the next night at our friends the Erickson's Halloween Gala. Kiss won the first prize gift certificate to the local wine shop. Ironic huh? Mormon rockers win alcohol. They also sell chocolate and gourmet foods as well so we should be able to find something. Trenton won 3rd prize in the children's contest for his Captain Jack Sparrow, and Hannah & Amber won the joint 1st prize for their Ginny Weasley, and Hermoine Granger costumes. We had a great time. We, the adults did not dress up for the actual Halloween night, however. We caused such a stir at the other two parties, that we decided to make Halloween the kids night. We had a great time trick-or-treating the neighborhood with its decorations and spook alleys. The younger kids were tired at about 8pm, and returned to the house to get ready for bed and help Daddy pass out the rest of the candy. ( We ran out by the way. 25 lbs. of candy... I guess that is what happens when you have such an amazing community that parents dive in from the tri-state area to participate. Crazy! The streets were lined with vans filled with kiddios, and when they ran out of space along the neighborhood roads, they parked at the school and baseball fields across the street!) After dropping off the little ones, I took the older three to the old burnt mill for the bonfire and ghost stories. Another fun Halloween.
Now that Halloween is checked off my list, I am on to finishing up a couple of Christmas projects, sewing colonial day outfits for Amber & myself, and then planning our hotel stays for our Thanksgiving trip to Delaware. After that...Christmas & Christmas trip to Wa., birthdays, & Layton's Baptism. Will it ever slow down? I'm not too optimistic. Oh well, such is life for a mother of five.

Yesterday we took the crew to Six Flags. It was a daunting task, but we managed through. The kids had a great time. It was fun to have their friends with them. We ended up staying until they booted us out of the park at 8 pm. I was proud of myself for making the drive into NE DC with five kids, and then returning at the end of the day with all five, and correctly navigating the belt loop and DC traffic with out Jeremy. The kids were great. We only had one "tween" incident. The older girls seemed to think that they were old enough to go around the park unsupervised. The other mom's didn't have a problem with it. I just wasn't ready to release my 10 year old into a park that is located in the middle of NE DC. I was the wet blanket when I told them that I did not care what their girls did, but Hannah was not going to be able to join them unless one of the moms went off with them. Not wanting to leave Hannah out, one of the moms agreed to stay with the older group, and the other two of us took the younger group around. About halfway through the day, the resentment of the tween group grew, and they met up with me to beg me to allow Hannah to go off with them. I told them that they could go on, and I would keep Hannah. A couple of hours later, the daughter of the supervising Mom had had enough, and mutinied. She yelled at her mom that she was not going to have a grown up follow them around anymore, and then ran off. The rest of the pack, including Hannah followed. We met up with the mom a few minutes later, and she tearily told us what had happened, and what direction that the girls had headed off to. I headed up my little possy and marched off to find them. I spotted them within minutes, and I could tell by the look on Hannah's face that she saw the storm a commin'. I laid into her, called Jeremy and let him lay into her, and then grounded her to my side for the rest of the day, and from friends for the rest of the week. It was a hard lesson to learn.