Madison's 14th Birthday

Madison has been very patient in waiting for her birthday party this year! Because her birthday is so close to Christmas, we sometimes wait a few weeks to celebrate it with her friends. We let her choose what she wanted to do on her actual birthday and had cake and gifts with family but waited for her big party.Madison picked a friend to go with us to a local shop to paint. They painted their projects then left them there to be fired. Afterwards, we had pizza and cupcakes at home with Madison's friend and Jeff's parents.Madison loves the Ultimate Cakeoff show and wanted to do something like that for her birthday. I decided to do a scavenger hunt at the mall first. The loser of that had to sit out the first 10 minutes of decorating the cakes. No one had ever done a mall scavenger hunt, so it was a new experience for everyone. I was amazed with how many people we saw doing the same thing, especially considering the fact that the stores were trying to prevent any picture taking...which is how we documented doing/finding the things on the list. We thought sneaking pictures only added to the fun. After the hunt, we had icecream before heading home for supper....homemade hot tamales and burritos that my sister's mother-in-law made.The winning cakeGinger dressed up for the party

The "birthday season" is over for another year. It's always such a busy time with lots of planning, but I enjoy it. I will give birthday parties for as long as my kids will let me!!!

Valentine's Day 2010

Valentine's Day felt very different this year since it fell on a Sunday. We usually take the day off from school and spend it baking treats and doing crafty things. This year, we got the kids up early enough to get their treats and bake cinnamon rolls with red icing. I wasn't feeling well, so Jeff took the kids to church then brought lunch home. We spent the afternoon making Valentine cookies and some homemade Valentine cards for a party we were going to the next day. We went back to church that night then got McDonalds for supper. Jeff said he didn't want me to have to cook on Valentine's Day :). My friend, Chelita, invited us to a Valentine's party at her house on Monday. It was so good to get together with friends to exchange Valentines and eat LOTS of yummy food. All of the kids got along so well, and the adults enjoyed the visit so much. Thankyou, Chelita, for a wonderful day!

Snow 2010

It's a joke that when it snows in the South that everything shuts down. It's true but not for reasons that some might assume. It isn't because we can't drive in it, though in my case that's probably true, but because it is such a rare thing for us to enjoy that we take the time to, well, enjoy it! It isn't that it never snows here....just that it doesn't stick. The last time we had snow to stick was New Year's Eve 2000. Madison remembers only a little of it...the boys none, so this snowfall was like a new experience for them. We went to bed on Thursday night with it snowing and woke up Friday morning with the snow still coming down. It was amazing...magical!

Thursday Night

Friday