Andrew's Birthday Party 2014

And. . . more birthday!!!  Andrew turned 8 this year and he was very insistent on a football cake.  Since the Niners were in the playoffs, it seemed appropriate to shout out to our local team.  When I saw this little football launcher it seemed like a no brainer to give our active little boy an active birthday cake.  He was surprised and delighted  -- and we had to launch the football over the candles, of course.  He had his first sleepover with four friends.  They were even asleep by midnight!!!

 

Anika's 10th Birthday Bash

It is the birthday time of year again!  Our little girl is TEN.  Wow!  Where has the time gone.  It is hard to believe that this  young lady made us parents a decade ago.  She was so excited about her KitKat cake, her friends, and a special double-digit visit to John's Incredible Pizza. 

Besties!  Such a great group of wonderful girls!

Christmas & New Year's 2013 in Review

Just a month late. . . Here are some pictures from our Christmas break.  (Unfortunately, there are any of Lloyd - so tragic!)

 

Selfie:-)

 After our Christmas service, we packed up and headed south to spend a few days with Lloyd's side of the family in SoCal.  It was a great visit.  We had cousin time, gift time, tea time, parade float time, bowling time, movie time. . . and the list could go on.  Here are a few shots of the Rose Parade floats.  We watched the parade on TV and then headed to Pasadena to see them all parked.  It was PACKED.  But the floats were incredible!

I liked this monster truck:-)

Nene with her grands!

Trunk or Treating 2013

Our tradition of creating costumes from what we have in the house continues!  We have so much fun piecing together fun "looks".  Here are the kiddos all ready for "Trunk or Treating" at a few churches around town.  We walked around with Anika's best friend, Raegan, and her family so Mom and Dad enjoyed the social time too.

 

My Hello Kitty, with her Hello Kitty pumpkin in the background!

How can you go wrong with the 80s looks.  (I mean really, anything goes as long as you have BIG hair).

Andrew is still pleased with a Star Wars theme so this year with did a young Luke Skywalker.

Pumpkin Carving 2013

Better late than never was our motto this year.  Last night we finally carved up a few pumpkins.  The kids were so excited and every year they are able to participate more and more.  Kathryn really enjoyed it this year!  The funny thing about last minute plans is that they can often go so much better.  I was so pleased with this year's carving results. 

 

A Long Weekend

So, here is a long post about a long weekend.  Our kids had a Friday off of school in early Oct. Being the fantastic parents that we are (wink, wink), we made plans to head down south. We had so many great reasons: Lloyd had to meet with his DMin. group, we could visit with family, Anika could go to San Juan Capistrano for her 4th grade CA Mission project,  . . .  However, the best laid plan often end in upheaval.  We had a member of our church die and so Lloyd had a funeral scheduled smack dab in the middle of our "vacation".  Because we had so many great reasons for going south, we also had no way to get out of them;-)  My poor husband drove to 6 hours on Thurs, turned around and drove 6 hours on Friday. Then 6 hours back on Sat. and 6 hours home on Sunday.  Long story short, it was not a vacation for Daddy - and I think in hindsight we would do things differently. 

However, the rest of us had a great time.  We went to see the mission and learned a lot. We went to a petting zoo and the kids were able to ride a horse (BIG wish-come-true for Anika).  We took Chloe to Huntington Beach and the kids got SOAKED.  We spent time with family and I conquered my fear of driving in southern California (kind of.)