Fun with pictures

Dan likes to take pictures with his iPad. Unfortunately, he likes to use the warp feature and I get surprise pictures on the computer like this:

I wouldn't mind so much, if there was a normal original to go with it. But no.

All you get is the fun-mirror picture. Which, as you can see, is oh-so-flattering!

On the plus side, it gives such joy to the children. And to Dan.

And it occasionally produces pictures that probably are better than the original!

Lazy Sunday

It is a Lazy Sunday afternoon. I'm all sleepy from a lovely nap and debating the merits of making Macaroni and cheese vs popcorn for dinner. This means I have no leftover brain power for an exciting post today. So you get pictures.

We went to a fantastic fun park this week. It was so much fun that I was incredibly sore the next day from trying out the great equipment myself. The kids had a blast and even Joshua never complained he was bored. You may notice that my children do not use playground equipment quite the way most other children do.

Fun Times!

My brother was kind enough to drive his family down to visit us over the weekend. I cannot even tell you how excited my children were to see their cousins. I am really glad that Andy arrived before bedtime, so that the kids were not up all night bouncing off the walls. They only did that till well after they should have been asleep! On the plus side, we did learn that it is possible to cram 15 people into our little house. This was a good trip for that- short and sweet. The downside is that it was a short visit. Callie cried when they left.

Yep, Delaney was THIS excited! Just kidding. She was being silly for me and laughed and laughed and laughed over this picture. I may need to set it as my desktop screensaver!

Matthew really was happy to hang out and play with his cousins. Delaney was so sad though, because he was more interested in playing with Callie.

Aaron had a very good time running around with Marian, and anyone else who would play.

Joshua wanted to pose with Charlotte. Such cute kids!

Callie wanted in on the photo action. Charlotte is happy to be a star.

Me and my fabulous sister in law. Maybe next year they will stay for all of Mardi Gras!

A Birthday and a Haircut and Mardi Gras.... Oh My!

I'm sure this should be separate posts, but I have been lax and not posted all week. It has been a busy week and it has been fun. And someone had a birthday. Delaney said it was the very best day ever! The fact that it was Valentine's Day and there was candy and love everywhere may have helped.

She wanted a round chocolate cake with a heart on it. I was happy to make a simple cake and she was pleased with it. I believe the term "The Greatest Ever" was used. I love it that she is easy to please!

After blowing out the candle- we weren't fast enough to get the actual blow.

Devouring the delicious cake. Yummy!

Joshua thinks he is SO funny.

And well, he kinda is.

I love the look of sheer delight on her face as Delaney (and all her helpers!) opened the big box from Grandma and Grandpa.

Delaney had a great birthday and enjoyed her presents. She is such a sunny child and so easy to please!

Now, you may recall that a few months back, Delaney hacked into her hair. While I was able to take her to a salon and get it evened up a bit, she still had chunks in front that were shorter. I let it grow and finally decided it was time to give it some help.

This was suppose to be a "before" shot. I could not get a picture that showed the true chaos that was her shaggy hair. I do put a ponytail or two in it so its not horrid, but it was still pretty wild.

This is her "after" shot. It too does not convey the true look. The stylist did an amazing job of bobbing it in the back and it is super-cute! Delaney was marvelous and sat so very still for the 30 minutes it took to get it perfect. I asked her to even the front, but not trim it because I would like it to all grow the same length eventually. So the front is not as cute as the back. As we finished up and I was about to pay, the guy who runs the salon suggested that a girl as good as Delaney might need some pink in her hair. I was skeptical, but he assured me it would wash out. So, you can see she does have some lovely pink streaks in her hair. She loved it and so did I! (The pink was gone in 24 hours, after a fantastic time playing in the rain the next afternoon.)

It is Mardi Gras down here! Crazy stuff, I tell you, crazy stuff! On Friday, the base put on its own little Mardi Gras Parade and it was quite a lot of fun!

Callie was so sad that the horses were not going to be part of a pony ride; they were just for the parade.

There were some cute floats, and you can see that the Coast Guard didn't need to do anything to look cool. Everybody tossed beads and the kids had a blast cheering and grabbing them.

Here's Delaney making some noise. She shouted "Go, Parade, Go!" for most of the time. So cute.

Joshua taking a break from snagging beads.

Callie and her loot haul!

So, fun times have been had this week. And that doesn't even account for the cousins who came to play! I am a bad, bad person that I didn't take pictures till 10 minutes before they were leaving. We did squish 15 people into our little house, and it went surprisingly smoothly. I'm not sure we would survive more than a week like that, but a few nights was fine. And the kids were so sad to say goodbye to their cousins. I am so happy that we live close enough to my brother to make little visits like these possible!

My funny Valentine

Someone is about to turn 5! Someone who is adorable and funny and wonderful. Someone who is SO ecited to celebrate her birthday that she can hardly stand it.

Yep, this is the kid! She was only 3 here.

And she was 2 here.

She sure was an adorable baby!

And to think she started out as a 9lb 4oz gargantuan bundle of troubled joy. Here I am, delighted to finally get to hold her when she was 3 days old.

Delaney is a silly child and so much fun. She has been described as the most random child ever. That she is! She is a joy and a delight and makes me laugh every day. Here's a little gem from this morning:

Delaney dragged her feet getting ready to go to the Library for Story Time. She did not want to have to go upstairs to find socks and then did not want to put her shoes on. She was angry and in tears by the time I got her into the car. She was not a happy girl. And then, suddenly, she was happy. Delaney giggled with her sister and life was sunshine and roses. Then she asked, "Are we going to be late?" I said, "Yes."

"Oh ," She said sadly, "I'm sorry I made bad choices."

Getting Creative for Valentine's Day!

I saw this idea on a blog I love and it looked so cute and simple, I decided that this was finally going to be the year we did personalized Valentines! I know, I picked the year that 3 are in school and the last 2 are in preschool. Sigh. But I really wanted to do these so we did. I was lazy though. I went for the "get it done" method over the "make it cute" and I am fine with the results!

130 results. Did I mention we made 130 of these guys?!! 30 each for the older 4 and 10 for Rylee. My hand still aches!

Here's what I did.... I dragged the kids out and made them let me take pictures. They complained about the sun being to bright and I said too bad. They complained that their clothes weren't cute enough and I said too bad. I snapped pix till I was satisfied and then I uploaded them to Walmart's 1 hour photo. Yes, it was kind of pricy to order 130, but the total cost of everything came out to under $5 per kid. AND it makes us look all cool and everything!

So I got the pictures, I did the standard size, but wallets might have worked too. The instructions said to use an exacto knife to cut slits above and below the fist. I do not have an exacto knife (and have an irrational fear of them since the leg-stabbing incident when I was 9), so I thought I could use a hole punch. My scrapbooking cutter was going to be my back up. Fortunately, the hole punch was able to be my main tool. For most of the pictures, the fist was located close enough to the side that it worked. For Marian's cards.... there was no way.

This is how I had to cut Marian's cards. It might have been worth the $7 to get the exacto knife, because this thing was wildly hard to place properly and a lot of the cards had very large slits in them. These took the longest to do. Thank goodness I had great helpers!

Marian was delighted to place lollipops in her cards. As hers were the only ones without a picture denoting who it was from, I made her write her name on the back of all the pictures (with a thin Sharpie marker). Being Marian, and being awesome, she also drew some animals on some of the backs. I recognized an antelope and a giraffe. So cute and clever!

Joshua's cards. He would NOT give me a decent picture. He kept trying to do an evil grin. He admits he looks a little more Chinese than evil though. Note the hole punches. Callie was awesome at punching most of them herself!

Marian didn't want pix of herself, so she chose this shot of a cheetah instead. I confess, it came out better than I expected, but it was much more work than the others.

Callie's hand was barely close enough to get with the hole punch, so I did a punch on the top and a slit on the bottom. You can see how I've sliced off her wrist as well. Still, I figure the kids won't care!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... by the time we got to Delaney, I didn't care how far off the hole punches were going to be!! I was not going to use the cutter. So they're a little off, so what!

Rylee's were adorable. And only 10 to do!

So that was my burst of creativity for the month. It took about an hour to do all 130, with help from the kids. I also chose poorly in buying long lollipops that needed the ends trimmed. Maybe next time I'll just do dum-dums. I was pleased with the way they came out and the reward vs effort gets an A+ in my book! However, I would not recommend leaving the lollipops in reach of your youngest child who may ingest too many of them and then puke it all over just as you are sitting down to dinner. I'm just sayin'.

Crazy Busy Day!

I long for the days when all I had on my calendar was... nothing. The days keep getting busier and busier. Somehow I even have a book that I checked out from the library over a week ago and I have not even read it yet! What has happened to my quiet, leisurely life?!! Today I pulled out the camera and took pictures of our adventures.

Not pictures of everything. The day started with getting the big kids out the door at 7:45, then a 45 minute date with my elliptical machine for me, followed by a shower and breakfast and a hustle out the door to be at the function at 10am this morning. I was already pooped by the time we got there!

This was our first time to attend the Toddler Time put on by the base. They made some Valentine's cards, which involved paint, and therefore required close monitoring, so no pictures. Then it was cookie decorating! Yum! Delaney was so careful with her frosting spreading.

And she poured a mountain of sprinkles on her cookie.

Delicious!

Rylee chose the white frosting and quite enjoyed spreading it all over.

Dumping on the sprinkles... although I think more frosting ended up on the sprinkler, than sprinkles ended up on the frosting.

Mustn't waste the frosting!

Tasty!

Then we were off to the commissary, but lo and behold! The Budweiser horses were visiting this week and one was hanging out right in front of the Exchange. Delaney just HAD to go see it. We waited our turn to pet him. Here's Delaney, chickening out now that I am not standing right next to her. (It was quite the massive animal.)

Rylee is screaming "Not pet horse!!"

We did get to the Commissary and I survived the experience.

Yes, I bribed them with little ice creams. I told them that well behaved little girls got ice creams today. Delaney was delighted to be a well behaved girl.

After groceries and naps and lunch and stuff, the big kids got home and we were off to the Chiropractor. Love her! Everyone got adjusted.

And thank goodness for friends! They told us the big park (which has been under renovation for 3 months!) was having it's grand opening this evening. So we stopped by on the way home from the chiro for fun and free dinner! All the hotdogs and chips you could eat. The kids had a blast checking out everything an playing at the "new" park.

Delaney was pleased to have free reign on chips. I rarely buy them, so it was a real treat.

And the bounce house! They had put one up and the kids kept asking who's birthday party it was. They bounced, they climbed, they ate, they played.... life was good!

It ended at 6pm and I dragged everyone home, and now it is bedtime. I don't know why they are all still running rampant, I'm exhausted!!