What a busy weekend!

Usually, Courtney and Lexi have birthday parties on consecutive weekends since their birthdays are a week apart. Due to busy schedules we had to do both parties on the same weekend. So after Bug's b-day lunch we went home and got changed for Lexi's costume party. All the girls looked fantastic and had a fun costume party/sleepover.

Every year Sunny makes a cake. And not just any cake, she does the whole decorating thing herself (where as I just slap some icing on it and call it done,Sunny has done Transformers, Sponge Bob...) but this year she went with cupcakes. But that did not mean she did not do a great job with the decorating! She made cookies and cut them out in the shape of tombstones, and (not that you can see it in this pic) made the green icing look like grass. Girl got talent!

Here's Lexi as Marylin Monroe, and Noah as a Zombie skateboarder.

Nicole (one of the girls at our barn) won the most original for the night. Can you guess what she is?!? Yep, she's a flying pig...put in the past tense she's swine flu!! I love the creativity!

Carlee Snyder (another barn pal) was a hobo...I think she spent a long time on perfecting the face. I think this is the only time I have EVER seen her not smiling!

Courtney was a genie. Costume made by Granma. She knew she didn't want to be a princess (ie Jilly as Jasmine) so we fashioned her costume more after I Dream of Genie. She got to pick out the material and pattern herself.

Bug's 13th B-day (family party)

For Courtney's family dinner (well we did lunch this year) she opted for "make your own calzones". All the kids had a blast putting them together then eating them. Bug had cake and presents and then told us "I feel like I should feel different being 13, but I still feel the same" ...welcome to adulthood.

(I personally hate Courtney's birthday every year...it is 2 and a half weeks before mine, but I always feel old and depressed on her b-day, and now I am officially the mother of a teenager...it seems like yesterday that I WAS a teenager! Where does the time go?!?)

Mud Pie

One day in school, Jilly made "Mud Pie" which is to say a little chocolate cake, a layer of pudding, and crumbled up Oreo cookies. And the kicker is the gummie worm that's hiding in the cup. Even though it is candy, Jilly was scared to death to get too close to the worm, so she didn't eat all of it.

Meet Uncle Ralph

Before Mom-mom and Pop-pop had to leave, Aunt Dot and Uncle Ralph were able to meet us for lunch. It was the first time that Uncle Ralph held Wyatt...I love to see men melt over babies!

picking out pumpkins

The girls got to pick out their pumpkins before we headed home. Jilly wandered around for quite awhile before she found the "perfect pumpkin". Cooper just wanted to toss them (a little too much playing ball in the house with Daddy!)

As I mentioned before, Wyatt was strapped to my chest, Cooper was in the stroller, and Jilly was walking...and again I did not plan ahead. I had no idea how to get the kids and their pumpkins back to the magic van. Leave it to the 3 year old...she saw a wagon and was able to pull it through the parking lot all by herself. (But then we got in a fight, she wanted me to take it back and I wanted to leave it in the parking lot since I had everybody in car seats already. So I threw the wagon in the van and drove it back to the little stand where we had gotten it from. Then Jilly decided we needed a wagon for her pumpkins to live in...I love the way this girl thinks!)

P'ville wrap up

After sliding, and before we hit the petting zoo again, we stopped at the little playground to (you guessed it folks) ride on the pony! After a few minutes of that we hit the Moon Bounce. Many of you know my luck in life...there was NO BODY in the moon bounce, so I thought both girls could get in for a little while....NOPE! I get Jilly's shoes off and get her in, and start to get Cooper's shoes off and 5 or 6 boys show up and jump in before I can get Cooper in. Poor kid was devastated. She did get to hang out on the steps that lead in, but all she wanted was to be with her Jilly.

Jilly was scared to death (thanks to said 5 or 6 boys who had no regard for the fact that she was smaller then them and they would run right into her knock her down and laugh! Needless to say, these were NOT kids from her school, they had to be about 8 years old...) and hung on to the side most of the time, but still had a great time!

P'ville slides

There are two slides at Pumpkinville. One small one that looks like a spider, and a much larger one. Cooper was a little upset at the fact that I could not let her go down either slide. (It sucks to be big enough to know what you are missing, but not big enough to do something on your own!) But Jilly was having trouble with both of the slides...poor kid doesn't weigh enough to really get going down either slide, but still had a blast!

P'ville hay ride

Next stop the hay ride. We got down there, and it dawned on me...how in the world am I going to get 3 kids and myself on this thing?!? Thank God for such wonderful teachers. Here I am with Wyatt strapped to my chest, Cooper in the stroller, and Jilly DYING to sit by her teachers on a hay ride, and totally at a loss as to how to make it happen. But then, Mrs. Cohrs told Jilly she could sit in her lap, and all was right with the world! Both girls loved it!

Pumkinville 2009

I'm going to have to break up Pumkinville...there are just too many pics and stories. Enjoy!


Jilly's first school field trip was to Pumpkinville. (Let's keep in mind that this was the first time I had ever left the house by myself with all 3 of the little kids!) It was cold, so we got all bundled up and headed off to join the class. The first stop was the petting Zoo. Both of the girls loved feeding all the farm animals, which suprised me. I thought Cooper would be more timid, but all she wanted to do was have her hands in there right with Jilly.

Slow going

It seems to be hard for me to get any time on the computer these days. Between Courtney's homework and Jeff's fantasy football I don't get much of a chance to get this updated. I am doing my best, but right now I have to get Jilly to school and go check out the Toys-R-Us sale. Hope all are well, and I promise more updates as soon as humanly possible!