Trunk or Treat

 Poor fourth child, I totally failed to get a picture of Mystery Baby dressed in PS's old Sweet Pea costume (we're saying he's a green bean to make it more masculine).  Good thing I still have regular Halloween to get a picture of him.  Unless Hurricane Sandy messes that up...

Angry Bird, Bomb Bird

http://mckaylaisnotimpressed.tumblr.com/

US Olympic Gymnast

Soccer Referee

 At the Ward's Trunk or Treat 10/27/12

A friend from church captured this cute picture of Little Guy.

4th of July

The cousins invited us down for the Fourth of July so we headed down Tuesday the 3rd, watched their swim meet, stayed up too late and woke up bright and early (sort of) for their neighborhood's parade, followed by swim party.

(flipped the picture so the tattoo was correct)

We all got super sunburned after close to 5 or 6 hours at the pool.

We came home, showered, ate dinner and headed to Ray's for custards and shaved ices.

 Guess who got a shaved ice - blue raspberry.

Then a minor league baseball game where we watched the Flying Squirrels play the Mets.

It was SUPER hot and we were all tired and sunburned.

But it was worth it for the fireworks after the game.

Fourth of July Wreath by Princess Sparkley

6/27

Using this as our guide, Princess Sparkley (with some touch up work by me) created a Fourth of July wreath today for our front door.  Instead of using a foam wreath, we used a quilting hoop I got off Freecycle awhile ago.  And all the fabric was stuff I had from abandoned or leftover projects. 

Memorial Day

Our ward had a Memorial Day pancake breakfast.  Buddy, as a new Cub Scout, was asked to be there to help with the flag ceremony.  It turned out that only he and one other scout were there at the start of the breakfast to be a part of the flag ceremony.  Buddy had the choice to carry the flag or do the speaking part, he of course chose to carry the flag (which he told me afterwards was VERY heavy).  Here's what I captured with my cell phone camera.

President's Day Book Club

We belong to a little homeschool book club that changes location and topic each month, meeting at a different family's home.  In early February we had a President's Day book club and talked about Lincoln and Washington.  They made hats, and they had a log cabin building contest.  One of the other moms took pictures.

New Year's Eve

We were in Richmond for New Year's Eve last year as well and it involved banging pots and pans out on the street at midnight so this year, it was tradition.  Here the kids are with their cousins getting ready for the countdown.  We also went out and made S'mores.  Yum.  I love that the weather was warm enough to do this on December 31!

Gingerbread House

Princess Sparkley made this Gingerbread house at Girl Scouts this week.  (And cookie sales have started!  Let us know if you want any!)

Holiday Photo Shoot

 B thought it would be funny to have Little Guy lounging across the coffee table in the middle of the picture.  Each of the big kids needed a turn as well.

Holiday picture photo shoot one.  I didn't realize until we were done that I'd taped the Santa hat ball on backwards. Argh!

Thanksgiving Week: Turkey Cupcakes

We left early Wednesday morning (but not nearly as early as I thought we were planning on leaving) and arrived in Richmond to Aunt H and Uncle G's right before lunch time.  We were also lucky enough that we convinced Grandma and Grandpa M to come out here to our two families rather than our two families (the only of the M families) traveling to Ohio (9 people) vs. them (2 people).  They were nice and obliged our request.

Our first night, Aunt H had exactly five left over cupcakes from a classroom party, which is exactly how many kids we had at Thanksgiving.

The cupcake is next to its creator.

Little Guy also made this Play Doh ice cream cone.

Cincinnati Reds vs. Cleaveland Indians

July 1

The grandparents were trying to take us to their local minor league game, but they were sold out.  Then they decided if they took us to a Friday night Cincinnati game there would be fireworks, and we wouldn't have to make a crazy stop on our way home to see a fireworks show in West Virginia somewhere. 

At the beginning of the game, Princess Sparkley, who isn't as excited about baseball, asked if I'd ever been on the giant tv at a baseball game.  I explained to her that we've been to a lot of games and never known anyone on the jumbo tron.  Flash forward several innings, the jumbotron pans across Buddy's arm (he says he's sure he saw it and it was waving) to Little Guy, me, Grandma M and PS before it heads to the baby Reds fan next to PS.  Very fun!

And the fireworks afterwards were awesome!  We tend to hit baseball games around the 4th of July because we're already going to be in a a crowd, why not skip the 4th of July fireworks viewing crowd and just enjoy the fireworks at the game.  This show was really long and super impressive.  Very loud as well, which PS didn't enjoy.

Also, I have a cousin who lives in Cincinnati.  I figured there was no point calling his family when we'd only be in the town for a short period of time during which we'd be at the game.  I found out the next day via Facebook that his family was at the game!  Based on their pictures, they were a few sections to our left and down.

Happy Mother's Day

Little Guy and I went grocery shopping yesterday and all on his own he was super interested in everyone with flowers and wanted to buy some white ones. So he picked out a bundle of white carnations for me for Mother's Day. Princess Sparkley made me a felt corsage and a candy flower bucket (at Activity Days). Buddy created a Lego corsage, and some giant Lego flowers for me. And I baked myself this cake.

Egg War 2011

 Egg Wars.

Easter

Easter Prep: 

Saturday our cousins stopped by.  We fed them homemade pizza and dyed Easter eggs together.

Matchy Easter:

I sewed Princess Sparkley 's skirt following this pattern and Little Guy's tie following this pattern.

Princess Sparkley asked why B and I never try to match the kids, so this year we did.

Easter Bunny:

Egg Hunt:

Valentine's Day

Valentine Bunting
(I ended up moving the little bunting to my bookshelves.)


This was Princess Sparkley's creation from Hello, Cupcake! that she got for Christmas. We were supposed to use an old Valentine box but I found this tray that was perfect at Walmart for $1.50.






We adjusted the recipe and made brownie cupcakes instead of cake. And I added a Valentine themed cake bunting.


Little Guy made these Valentines to give away, stuffed full of jelly beans.


Buddy's Valentine idea came from here.


Princess Sparkley got her Valentine idea from here.



Our friends had us over for a little Valentine party.
[Buddy, E, PS, H, Little Guy, and S)


Oh, and they had a huge hill in their backyard and even though the snow was melted their sleds were still out. Buddy discovered you could still "sled" down their hill.








And, apparently PS can hula hoop. This wasn't one of her best runs but it's the only one I got on film. And, you didn't get the full outfit because it was such a warm day, she'd stripped some of it off. The outfit: two shades of pink striped pants, socks that are nearly identical shades of pink and also striped, gold shoes, a long sleeved pink waffle shirt covered in various colors of pink and purple owls, over top of that, a yellow Snoopy t-shirt she got for Valentine's Day. AND, over the pants, she was originally wearing the bright pink and brown flowered bubble skirt I sewed her for the Cherry Blossom Festival last year. And I took her out in public like this. And to the doctor's office!

U.S. Botanic Garden and the National Tree

I read on someone's blog that the United States Botanic Garden had a fun train display for the holidays with everything being made of plant material. I wanted to make this work with a trip to see the National Tree and luckily on Tuesdays and Thursdays the Botanic Garden was staying open until 8 (normally it closes at 5). So we waited for traffic to end and headed into DC arriving just after 7PM.

Here's the description from their website:
Don’t miss this popular exhibit which includes Washington landmark buildings all created with plant materials set amidst pathways and pools of blooming poinsettias and other holiday plants. Our famous garden railway will feature world landmarks from the continents of Africa, Asia Europe and South America.


The trains.


The kids LOVED it! They love all the different famous world buildings (some which I'd never even heard of, and one B hadn't which is really saying something). And of course, they loved the trains. They even had a Thomas train and a Percy train as well as a cool caterpillar looking training.


The Washington Landmarks.


The Capitol at night at Christmas time. It's in the background of the kids' picture too, you have to look closely above Buddy's head.



The National Tree at The Ellipse. Our camera did the best it can at night (and we used B's cell phone some). All around the base of the tree are small train displays. Buddy declared this the best train day ever. He is also making plans for rearranging the presents under the tree and setting up his battery operated Thomas the Tank Engine under there.


The White House.


Princess Sparkley and the White House (which you can't see in the picture).


The Virginia tree. Each state, territory and the District of Columbia had a smaller, uniquely decorated tree around the National Tree.

It was cold! And windy. Brr. Mid-thirties, felt like low-twenties. We parked near the Botanic Garden and the drove and ended up parking in front of the Museum of American History so we had a little bit of a walk to get to The Ellipse. Brr.