A Non superbowl party

I know I am still 2 months behind, but still feel the need to go in Chronological order.

Many people watch and get involved with the Super bowl. We are not football fans, but wanted an excuse to have bean dip and have some friends over the evening. So we decided the Superbowl for the perfect excuse for a little gathering.

We invited about 6 friends and their families. 1 family showed up. Those are the same odds that I tell my hosts about for Pampered Chef shows. 1 in 4 will be able to attend. We still had a great time, eating yummy food and playing games. The kids decorated cupcakes and Jim decorated a cake. I forgot to take a picture of that.

Look at all that yummy food. My friend Lora went all out and made a variety of sweets:)


Lora said she wore her Pittsburgh Steeler shirt because it was black and yellow. Somebody should tell Lora the Steeler's didn't make it to the Superbowl this year.

Christmas 2009

At Parker's school the kids put on a little program for the parents. My son is the one in orange. Everyone else was dressed in festive holiday attire and it didn't even dawn on me to do that. In fact Parker picked out his own clothes on this day of school. He even had his orange snow boots on, at least he was color coordinated.



On Christmas Eve morning, I found lice in my hair. (Ewww gross I know, that will be another post) Our uninvited critters got us uninvited for Christmas. We made an appearance at my mom's Christmas Eve party at the church. I had shampoed that morning and wore my hair pulled back. I didn't even take a coat in the building.
We had yummy appetizers and desserts to eat. All surrounded by festive decorations. There a several childern included now that everyone's family's are growing. So I was in charge of the craft table to keep them busy.

When we returned home that evening there were luminaries lighting the street of Warriors Mark towards the church. It is an old tradition that the lights lead the way to the church. Many years I have seen them set up, but left before they were lit. It was really beautiful. I tried to take a picture, but it just did not do it justice.
So this was our first Christmas at our own house. What a neat experience. It revolved solely around our boys.

We have carried on the tradition of stockings. We have also chosen to allow the kids to open one gift the night before, new pajamas so that Christmas morning pictures are cute. We put those items on the chair, so that if Parker got up in the night he could get into them. They fell asleep on the way home and didn't get to open their jammies.
The boys got most of the gifts. Jim needed his gift early, and I picked helped to pick mine out and was already wearing them (new boots). It was just fun watching them open their gifts.


The best part was the boys played and played with their new toys all by themselves for hours.
And it wouldn't be Christmas with our kitties.

Herbie is trying out the blanket that my mom made for our family.
The boys got new church outfits, but would not pose together. So here you go. I also want to note that Parker's outfit went through the wash and came up missing. Not sure where it is Mom, that is why he is wearing last year's outfit to church.

And finally the Christmas pjs.
We got our gifts in the mail from Jim's family and the fun began all over again. They loved getting packages in the mail. Here is Parker posing with one of the new puzzles.

Ginger bread houses

I still feel the need to go in chronological order and wanted to talk about Christmas and our month of December.


A friend of mine decided it would be fun to decorate Ginger bread houses. We got together one Saturday morning and worked on our creations. It was a lot harder than it looks. They kept falling apart. Luckily I was smart enough to make the kids out of graham crackers.

The best part was eating the treats. Here Parker is already eating the "decorations" and it is barely finished.


It took some time to make the dough and then to roll and cut out shapes. Then we didn't have stiff enough icing to keep them together. My friend's family actually uses caulk. They don't lick their fingers while glueing I guess.

There was no way that mine was going to support a traditional roof, so I had a solar roof. How cool is that? An environmentally friendly ginger bread house.
Of course Stanely wanted get involved with the late night baking when I was preparing my walls. He left an autogragh.

Then there was the question of how to transport this home. As I was trying to put the lid on my cake transporter I smooshed it and had to reglue it again. It crashed shortly after I got home. when the kids asked to eat the candy I was sure, what ever. I was frustrated with my ginger bread house. Next year I am sticking to graham crackers or buying the kit.

My friend Lora worked and worked on hers. I went back at a later time to got a picture of the finished result.

Great Wolf Lodge

In the beginning of December, Jim's company treated us to a weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. It was celebration for the Energycap having record level sales. There was a brief meeting that Jim had to attend, otherwise he was ours to hang out with.


I had never stayed in a resort, but I could definitely get used to something like that. They had entertainment going on most of the time. So you know at night when you want to do something, but there is nothing to do, this place had it all. And you didn't even have to leave the hotel to do any of it.

I was really excited to go to an indoor water park and wondered about stripping down to a bathing suit in December, but the place is kept pretty warm. Kind of reminds you of those rain forests I have been to in a museum.

The Poconos is about 3 hours from us. We decided to cut out trip in half by going a 2 hours the night before and then getting there somewhat early on Sat morning. Parker was very excited to be staying in a hotel. The hotel had an exercise room and I took the boys down to run out some of their energy while I did a little excercise. We did not go swimming that night because we didn't want to deal with wet suits.

Parker was so excited to wear his bathing suit that he wore that day to drive to the resort. We arrived around 11 am. The prime time for check out from the night before. The place was packed. Once we were checked in we could access the water park.

Jim's work picked up the tab for our meals. The food was yummy. Although I had to sign to slip for lunch and with a tip it came to over $55. Dinner and breakfast were served buffet style with several choices to pick from. My favorite was the pasta station. I even went back for seconds. In the morning the pasta station was replaced with an omelet station. The picture below is of the dining area.



The water park is really geared for kids. There were a ton of things for kids to do and a handful of rides for adults. The rides for the adults were enough for me. After a spinning a few times I had had enough. I used to love this sort of thing, but after having babies I get a head ache all too soon. I guess then I can concentrate on my boys having a fun time instead. Parker had a blast. Preston is not quite the water loving boy that Parker is. He tended to be Daddy's boy. He would do the lazy river. I tired to take in the kiddie area and as soon as we entered the water the life guards closed it down due to someone having an accident.



The rooms were spectactular. The kids had bunk beds with their own tv. They thought this was great and so did I. Did I mention the night before we had an awful time getting them to sleep. They were so excited to be in hotel. And we had to go to bed when they did because they wouldn't sleep with any distractions. At least here I could watch my own tv show.


Did I mention that my wrist band that got me into the water park had a chip in it that unlocked our room? How cool is that?

When it was time to leave the next morning, we were all tired and rested in the car on the way back home as Jim drove us. What a fun weekend!

What is Parker doing?

Parker can sure find ways to get into mischief. When it gets quiet that is the que to go and see what is going on.

He dumped out oatmeal and then jumped on it here.

My Mom had come up to help me clean up and then he destoyed it all. So frustrating. Yes I did make him help clean it up.


So you may not know this, but I like to sleep. I am not a morning person, but sometimes Parker is. He has been known to get into mischief while I am sleeping.

The following are things that I have woken up to find.

He moisturized Preston.
and himself.

He has emptied countless boxes of Kleenexes. I thought of buying him his own box to pull out all the tissues, but feared he would then think it is ok to pull out all the tissues.
He has eaten various sweets. He always is kind enough to share with his brother. This is a cake left over from our cake decorating class. He has gotten into chocolate chips and brown sugar to name a few.This is our stove hood. It was secured by 4 screws that you slide into a groove to hold it into place. I keep treats upbove the stove in these cupboards. He was climbing up to get something and the stove hood came down.
Sometimes Jim pulls me out of bed when he leaves for work and Parker is up and ready to take on the world. A lot of good this did.


And here is Parker taking a self portrait.