Sunday, December 12, 2010

Winter Weekend

Gearing up for the Holidays

Well here we are and just about 2wks. till Christmas time! Finally ready and caught up for all the action! We have had a busy couple of weeks. I helped host a Ladies Holiday party with my friend Kim and we had a blast exchanging cookies, elephant gifts and playing Bunco with some good friends a neighbors.
This weekend was Aaron's 35th birthday. Kay and Mike came up to visit Saturday afternoon and we had the Wilke family join us for a fun evening of good food, Bunco, Just Dance Wii! We even were able to get Kay to give it a whirl! I did something a little different this year for birthday gifts for Aaron from the kids. I took both of them to the dollar store and let them pick out a couple of things all on their own that they thought Dad would like. Grace got him some football cards and a glow in the dark cover for his blackberry phone. Owen decided on a ice scraper with mitten for Dad to keep in his car! They each picked out their own card and a balloon. Aaron got a kick out of it and you can't beat the dollar store for affordability!
This afternoon we went to see Santa in the blizzard weather. We opted to go to Walgreens which was advertising visits with Santa along with affordable picture packages and a free 5x7! The Santa was a little lame but it ended up being the first year Owen didn't cling to our leg in tears so I was happy! He didn't know what to tell Santa so Grace suggested extra tracks for his train set. Grace asked for an Easy Bake oven. Of course neither gifts are what "Santa" had planned to bring! We ended the day with Barbie dress and TeePee making for Grace's school project. They are studying the Cheyenne Indian tribe and she had to make a project to tell a little bit about the Tribe. We ended up making a native american dress for her doll complete with two babies, one in a backpack carrier. Also a TeePee for the Indian doll which was the hardest part of the project, yikes! But, it turned out really well and we were both quite pleased!!
So, onto another week of 2 birthday parties for Jesus at Awana for both Owen and Grace as well as the salon open house and my Simple Diva open house, whew. I will be looking forward to the the last open weekend before the holiday craziness! Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

My favorite holiday

Its Halloween time again! We started the holiday off early with our camping trip to Montello at the end of September. We had gotten a free camping certificate from some neighbors and it turned out that it was Buffalo Lake's Halloween weekend! It was a chilly weekend for camping but they kept us moving with lots of activities. Site decorating contest, pumpkin carving, makeup lessons, trick or treating and a haunted house! Dad and Holly came over for the afternoon to hang out with us. We brought along a few decorations for our site. I thought I did a pretty good job until seeing some of the sites during trick or treating. Wow, lighted pathways, coffins, fog, and so many decorations I don't even know how they got them there! Sure was a good time!


Saturday October 30th
We enjoyed a fun filled family evening with some of our neighbor friends at the Edgerton Community Center where our neighbor across the street Christy threw a 30th Birthday celebration for her husband Brody. The theme was 80's throwback roller skating party. The community center rents out the gym where they have roller skating every Friday night. Roller skates were provided and they were even allowed to bring in beer, soda and food! Might have something to do with the fact that Brody is a cop in the town! We planned to go with our friends Rich and Kim and their 4 girls. Of course we all dressed up, how could you not with that sort of theme! Aaron and Rich went as Hans a Franz from the 80's Saturday Night Live skit. It was perfect seeing as how Rich is about 6'3"! Kim and I were able to dig up some gray sweatsuits at Goodwill, Aaron was able to find back braces that appeared to mimic a weight belt. Aaron and I put our heads together and were able to take some t-shirts and ace bandages to make some big muscles for him. Kim went as a roller derby girl, I went as a 80's Valley girl along with the rest of the girls, Owen was a punk rocker. I was even able to find one of those studded leather bracelets for him and a wild vest at Goodwill! He sported a small Mohawk and whenever someone said they liked his hair he said, "no, its a Mohawk". He was very proud of it! The important thing is that we all left w/o any broken bones and had a lot of fun! Later that evening we ventured over to an adult party down the block. Quite the costumes for this crowd! At this party we found, the 34th Chilean miner, Brett Farve with no fly jeans, Dog the Bounty Hunter and wife, characters from the Brady Bunch, Richard Simons, Snookie and The Situation! It was quite the party and I am feeling it today ;)
October 31st:
Trick or Treat day! Our tradition has been to join up with our neighbors before hand to have some pizza and hit the streets together. We did that once again this year but maybe at a little slower pace. Grace and the older kids kind of got ahead of us so Aaron, I and my friend Kim got to hang with the little ones! It was a good night, a little cold but not unbearable. Home a little early but nothing wrong with that!

Bragging Rights

Ok, so this should be a safe place for a Mom to brag a little, right? So I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed being a Mom lately! I feel like I have the best kids a Mom could ever ask for! My little Owen is just so darn cute and sweet right now I wish I could bottle him up! I am loving this age and it makes me sad thinking that its not going to last forever. He has such a great personality and makes us laugh all of the time. He lights everyone up in his presence! We recently went to my Aunt Linda's for a visit. Grace and I went out Thurs. night with my good friend Teresa and her family to the Haunted Trail Ride in town. Aunt Linda offered to keep Owen home with her but I could see that she was a little worried as to what to do with this 3 yr. old boy and if he would want to stay with her when Mom and Grace walk out the door. I really think she was waiting for a melt down from him. We don't see her a whole lot so to him she was kind of a stranger. I reassured her that he is a easy kid and a movie and popcorn would easily coax him into staying. Sure enough as we were leaving he says, "Come on Aunt Linda its time to watch our movie", and runs off! Just goes to show you what a easy going kid he is! Just hearing his little voice as I am sitting here typing makes me smile!
Then there is my Grace! Just as easy going as her brother and such a beauty. With the age she is at she does have her moments but for the most part she is a wonderful kid. I love that she is so caring and thoughtful and it makes me so proud when she takes her little brother under her wing. I wish a lot of times she was 3 again with Owen and I could coddle her the way I can with him. She is getting to big for that now and even when I try she just thinks its a joke. We do have some nice Mommy daughter moments, most of it with conversations. So I guess I can say that we have a new thing growing between us and just cross my fingers that it sticks! Never knew until this very moment how rewarding and happy being a Mom would make me :)