Minute-To-Win-It!

Today we had Reese's 7th birthday party!  He wanted to have a minute-to-win-it party so we did:)

I planned about 6-7 games and hoped for the best!  It was super crazy but fun!  We had about 10 boys and 2 girls so it was a little nutty but I remained calm, most of the time! ha!

Everyone wanted to do every challenge and I didn't expect that but thankfully I planned for it so I had enough supplies to go around.  It was fun to watch the kids and I know Reese really enjoyed himself.  He said his favorite was pushing the car with the party blower (see below) because he won twice:)  that's a boy for ya huh?

I really do love planning the parties for the kids and I really don't mind it BUT I guess with the kids birthday's 10 days apart and the Rangers playing in the World's Series (I don't want to talk about it:/ --ughh!) it just makes it a little nutty around here for a few weeks/months:)

Speaking of parties I better get off of here because now that Reese's birthday party is over I need to plan Abby's!  T minus 6 days.....C.R.A.Z.Y.

Friday we will have 9 nine-year old girls spend the night.  Thank goodness girls are calmer than boys!

Let the game begin! 

Go Nathalie!  This is my friend who volunteered to show the kids the ropes:)

Cookie on the Forehead into your mouth with no hands!

you can't see it but they have Vaseline on their noses...  

...so they can pick up as many cotton balls as possible and place them in a bowl

Abby and her friend, Emilia

Ready to catch the marbles
Here they had to roll marbles to knock over the pencil.
We had marbles everywhere:)  

Eager Beavers!

Me being bossy probably:)

ok here they used straws to suck up M&M's and get as many in a bowl  as you can

Cameron was the master!  He got like 30 M&M's in his bowl in one minute!  Amazing!

You use a bday blower to puch you car over the line.  This one was a hit but the blowers kept blowing- fail:)
*if you ever want to do this have PLENTY of extra party blowers
p.s. they are very annoying when you put them in the hands of 15 plus children. 

Reese won!  Love this picture!

Reese wanted a cookie cake that had a clock on it.  I tried.  It was kinda lame but tasted good:)  Just needed to put more in more time.  Again, I blame it on the Rangers.
I have lost lots of hours of my life watching the Rangers. Well spent but still lost!  :)

Way to go Greg...perfect timing!!!  Make a wish buddy!

Gifts! Gifts! Gifts!
This is a conversation I had with Reese on Friday night (night before the party)
R-"Mom, I really want it to be tonight already!"
Me- "Why buddy?"
R- "Because then right after I wake-up and it's party time and I get to open gifts!!!"
We like birthdays around here.  Ok, lets be honest, We like GIFTS:)
Giving and receiving!!!

Check out those dirty feet.  What a boy. :)

My nephew, Charlie holding my new nephew Colson.  He's a doll.
*and that's sweet Eden (my friend Becky Brooks daughter) in the corner.  She's also a doll:)

Happy Birthday Reese!

Today our sweet boy turned 7!  7 years old?  Is that possible?  He keeps getting older but I don't seem to age...weird huh?:)

Today we woke Reese to a birthday cupcake and his wish for the day was that the Rangers would win the World's Series on his birthday!  OH please Jesus!  PLEASE!:)

I remember the day he was born 7 years ago tonight.  We were living in DC, actually we were right outside in Reston, VA and I was induced at about 6am and he finally arrived at 5:56pm right before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004.  We will never forget that day.  Reese broke the curse for the Red Sox, we're convinced:)  We'll see what happens tonight!!! Go Rangers!

Anyways, on another note--Granny and PaPa came into town TODAY!  My Dad hasn't been here in over a year and HE'S HERE!  He's doing awesome!  He's getting stronger everyday and Mom and him actually drove all the way down from K.C. no prob!  They are gonna stay 2 weeks and cover lots of ground with the kiddos activities!  Tonight we watched Abby preform at the High School with the drill team.  She went this past weekend to a junior drill team camp and she loved it!  Granny and PaPa are also gonna see flag football games, eat with the kids at lunch a few times, go with Abby to musical theater class and much, much more!  SO fun!  I am just so overwhelmed with praise and gratitude to have my Dad with us still.  Honestly things were looking pretty grim there for so long.  I remember praying he would wake-up at least a little so we could spend a few more minutes with him and now here he is recovering!  Praise God!   

We are gonna have some great fun....so glad they could make it!

Good morning buddy!

TREE HOUSE!

The kids and Greg have been tree house brainstorming for some time and yesterday the project began!

The kids were ECSTATIC the whole time and "helped" as much as they could.  Today Greg finished up the job and tonight the kids had dinner and watched Tom and Jerry from their new fort...very fun!

The tree house is dangerously high which gives me and Greg some anxiety but I think the kids will use "discretion" when playing up there:)  We hope! ha!   I asked them to sit down the whole time they play up there and they looked at me like I was nuts then they started laughing! Ha!  Ok, ok I admit that was a little much but I fear for their lives!!!:)  

let the building begin!

Abby handed Greg all the tools he needed...very helpful!

Platform in place...this took alot of brain work for Greg and I but we were able to figure it out!  (Greg did ALL the work)

First trip up!  Yes, I know it's high:/

Abby made a pulley  

Ready to roll!

Dinner and a movie

So fun!  Thanks for all the hard work Greg, you're the best Daddy!!

The Ultimate Fan!

Reese came in the kitchen dressed like this last night....
Mavs shorts, Rangers shirt and Cowboys helmet:)
Nice Reese...way to support those teams!

My New Favorite City!

                                                         I love San Francisco!  

A few weeks back Greg surprised the kids and me by booking a mini vacation over fall break!

We were all SO excited and thankful for such an awesome Daddy and husband to always plan fun stuff for us!!!

We had a wonderfully packed weekend with everything you could ever want to do in San Fran!  We were actually only there for just over 48 hours because the cheap flight tickets that Greg got had to be on certain days.  We didn't care though we made the best of every minute and saw everything we wanted to!  

We got in Thursday night about 5:30pm got to the hotel and had a great Italian dinner and walked around Union Square and enjoyed the night life in the city.  Friday we hit the ground running catching a boat over to Alcatraz and toured the jail for about 3 hours.  We did an audio walking tour and even the kids enjoyed it...it was very informative and interesting.  Before our trip Greg made sure that we watched Escape from Alcatraz so it was really cool seeing all the stuff in the movie and having some point of reference... brilliant Greg:) 

After the tour we ferried back to shore and went to Fisherman's Wharf.  We had fun walking around, seeing the sea lions and eating at Boudin Bakery (wonderful sourdough bread). *Abby's new favorite place to get a burger:)  We were also wanting to go to the Golden Gate Bridge and the kids were kinda getting tired from walking so we decided it would be fun to bike to the bridge.  We rented tandem bikes so the kids were connected to us:) Don't get me wrong they could have done it but we (I) felt more comfortable having them hooked to us instead of going wild and crazy on their own possibly riding off the bridge:/

Now for the story...

It was a hilariously HARD ride.  Little did we know it was about a 4 mile ride to the bridge that culminated in about a mile long, 1,000 foot climb from the shore to the bridge level.  And the bridge itself is an incline (who knew, right?) Oh and I was wearing a silk shirt, brown boots, leather jacket and skinny jeans...ha, I looked really funny:) I was struggling keeping my jeans up!!:/

The kids did awesome though and LOVED the ride so Greg and I tried not to cry on all the hills. (Greg did a little;) The kids worked hard pedaling and were a great help and after all was said and done we had a great time...sweaty and happy! We made it to the first tower on the bridge, enjoyed the views, and then started the 4 mile mostly-downhill-but-sometimes-uphill return trip.  haha! 

After the ride all we wanted to do was take a shower, eat and go to bed...and that's about how the night ended!:)  

We ate at a great Crepery in the city and then were in bed by 9:30!!  Hey, we needed our rest because we still had to be able to walk the next day;) Don't judge!! 

Saturday we had our most epic "eating" day to date! (in the States that is--nothing will ever top Italy:)  We went to the Ferry Building Market.  I'm not sure I can explain it and bring it justice but just trust me...YOU MUST GO there if you ever make it to San Fran.  It's like every "foodie" in the country all comes together and tries to top everyone by making the most incredible food! It's ground zero for foodies in the U.S. of A.  

We just walked around all morning spending a few bucks here, a few bucks there eating. eating. eating.  I was so sick. sick . sick.  I should never, ever eat again.  ever. :)  

Reese loved this fried bread with lemon custard inside.  Basically it was a glorified doughnut BUT it was like no other thing I have ever tasted...it was out-of-this-world.  crazy good.

Greg loved breakfast at il Cane Rosso.  It was the best breakfast food we both have ever had. The kids got to have bacon waffles....they were happy:) We also ate gelato, cheeses, salami cone, candied almonds, chocolates, etc, etc.  The most unique thing was a very thin, crispy rye bread covered in dark chocolate.  Seriously??  And of course it was incredible.  

After that we needed to walk it off so we headed back towards the hotel (many, many blocks away) and we just walked through the city.  We stopped where we wanted to, got coffee, rested here and there, and had a wonderful time to together, our sweet family of four.  I love my family.  I love to travel with them and experience all the wonderful things each place has to offer, oh and by the way, my new favorite city is San Francisco....sorry all you other amazing cities but this one beats you hands down!  So much to offer, so much culture, so many hills:), so many amazing people (not as crazy as I had heard) and great eats!  I hope everyone gets the opportunity to go...it was wonderful!  Thank you Greg for such a great gift!  We love you!

Ferry Building Market!

enjoying the beautiful weather

My kiddos

busy market --amazing food!

resting while the kids eat gelato

playing as we stroll through the city
Reese carried a tennis ball everywhere and bounced it along the way (he found it in a bush somewhere:) 

Chinatown

Greg and the kids in Chinatown

Reese with the plate he cracked with his HEAD!  He was showing us how to do the old pie-in-the-face and he slammed the heavy ceramic plate into his head---he was hurt a little bit but he was more proud of the crack than anything else:)

Getting on the boat to Alcatraz

on our way...

the whole fam

Alcatraz in the background

taking the kids to jail!:)

listening to the audio tour

Abby in the rec yard

Reese:)

Good picture Greg! (view of Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz Gardens)

this was as serious as Reese could be:)

behind bars

Library...listening intently:)

so serious

yikes I would not like to live here!

my funny hubby:) (she made me do it --Greg)

Escaping Alcatraz:)

Bye-bye!

It was Fleet Week in San Francisco so we got to watch the Blue Angels air show--bonus:)

SO beautiful! 

Reese and me watching the Blue Angels!  Awesome!

one happy chocolate girl:) (and one happy Italian man --Greg)  click on picture to see this guy's killer mustache.

dig in!

all gone:)

Reese wanted a cupcake instead;)

Cute little biker with the bridge in the background

Reese and me on our bike to Golden Gate Bridge

Greg and Abby

Made it to the bridge...yay!

Big Bridge!

walking the hills....lots of hills!

on the airplane headed to Cali!

view from hotel window

again...

Union Square with my Abby

Sweet boy...not sure where this is?

Lombard Street...very curvy:)