These Moments in Time

Monday, November 4, 2013

Hallow-rain

For the second year in a row, we've had a bummer of a Halloween.

Last year, our inland region experienced Hurricane Sandy's high winds and crazy rains, postponing Halloween to a Saturday afternoon. Trick-or-treating in the daylight was just not the same. There weren't as many people handing out candy, either...which really is fine (less sugar consumption), but still a bummer. We didn't light our jack-o-lanterns and milk jugs because they couldn't be seen.

This year...it was raining...and it was windy. Weather people and moms alike were urging municipalities to postpone Halloween again, but many hard-headed people in charge said no. Safety-wise, it ended up okay (I can say that after the fact, since nothing happened...but something could have happened, you know? Broken tree limbs anyone?). It poured and it was terribly windy...and I stayed on the porch passing out candy.

Evander went as a Minecraft creeper (painted by me! :-) ), Emory was a Ninja Turtle and Marin was Super Girl (thanks to Cousin Anna's old costume!).

The best pic I managed to get of all three :-/

Evander's costume was ruined by the rain, and only one out of three of our kids made it beyond our little street. Poor Evander and Marin hit a hot shower as soon as they came in the door. I couldn't keep a match lit to light the jack-o-lanterns or the milk jugs. :-( How miserable.

Prior to trick-or-treating, our friends invited us over for dinner, to get the kids together, and to just be excited about Halloween together. :-) Good food, good friends and good fun!

All of the kiddies!

Two creepers! SsssssSSSssss

The loot:

Too busy to pose for a picture by his candy. ;-)

Seriously, I checked the weather records and it has never rained on Halloween night like it has for the past two years! >:-/ Here's to next year!!!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Family Photo Session!

At the end of September, we had family pictures taken. :-D

We met the lovely Kristen of Kristen Clark Photography at a park near our house. It had threatened to rain ALL DAY and during our session, but thankfully we made it through rain free. It did get dark on us pretty quickly...gotta love that about fall, right? Wait, you don't love that? At least the kids can no longer say, "It's too liiiiiiiight out, we can't go to sleeeeeeep now-w-w!" ;-)

~~There are so many good pics, it's hard to choose just a few to share with you!~~ Okay, forget it...I'm sharing most of them with you.

I think one is my favorite of all five of us:

And just as it was loading onto the page, I noticed an inscription on one of the bricks has the year 1912. Cool.

Then there's this beauty:

And these handsome guys:

But you also have to see them like this...

Marin insisted on bringing her rocking horse to sit on. She also insisted we carried it with us to all corners of the park.

Emory insisted on having his beepie with him. Photo props! :-P I do like having his ultimate lovey captured in the photo.

What you can't see in this picture, is Evander's blankie laying softly next to photographer Kristen. :-P

Look, Mom---I made this quilt!

Kids were being goofy:

Quilt!

Got some special Mommy and baby pics:

These guys are somethin' else. They certainly look like they're up to no good! :-P

They love each other. :-) <3

So now that you've seen all these...no one needs a picture Christmas card, right? :-P Seriously, I bought cards 75% off last year purposely saying in my head that I wasn't going to do a photo card in 2013. Of course, that was before we had professional photos taken. :-)

I should, however, update my blog look since we are all two years older than the current pics that are up. :-P

Thanks for checking out our photos!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Birthday, Minecraft Style!

In our You Tube Minecraft wanderings, we came across a parody of that gagnam-style song. Yeah, I don't even know what that song is...but I know enough to title my blog post with that in my head! :-P

Our weekend was full of celebrating Evander's birthday...Minecraft style! On Saturday, we confused the older generation with "Guess what this is?" when we held up various Minecraft mob heads and crafting recipes (some of you are probably confused as you read this :-P). Sunday was a party with Evander's friends. It was loud. But, it was lots of fun!

For decorations, I made a creeper on the kitchen wall with scrapbook paper. I hung balloons from the ceiling (totally my thing! Sooooo easy!) and taped Minecraft faces on them. I also put Evander's Halloween costume creeper head on the table! We had cupcakes for the family party, and just stuck print outs of the mob heads in them. :-)

Super excited for his Lego Minecraft kit!

Evander also really loved this crystal-mining kit:

A creeper kept following us around!

And a blue-eyed boy had fun with a box:

I always get nervous for kid parties. Will the kids have fun? Will they think what we're doing is cool, or just stupid? Will the kids get along? Will I have enough for them to do and not be bored?

Evander had six friends over and the first thing we did was sat at the table and made Minecraft skins. Obviously, Minecraft is pixelated, so I spent the evening before cutting up lots and lots and lots of 1.5" squares...many in browns and creams, thinking they'd make their own faces...but everyone wanted green! :-P The boys really enjoyed this! I was pleased. It took us all about half an hour to complete.

Next, we played "Find the Diamonds." Before the guests arrived, I hid print outs of redstone, lapis, emeralds and diamonds all throughout the yard. Redstone and lapis were worth one point, emeralds three, and diamonds were worth five. The boys paired up and and the winning team received a prize.

I was not quick enough to get ANYONE finding ANYTHING, so here's the one picture I got of a friend's hand retrieving an emerald! :-P

Then we played Pin the Tail on the Minecraft Pig. I wondered if the boys would be too old for it, but they liked it. I could not award a prize to a winner, though, since we had some cheaters! Instead, I gave a prize to the friend who told us honestly that he could see under the blindfold....and then we adjusted it. :-)

We made slime, because there are slimes in Minecraft....but it was kind of chaotic and of course, messy...so no good pics from that.

Minecraft slime

There was a little bit of corn hole, that I disguised as enderman! The boys had a lot of fun just playing with each other in the back yard. :-)

The birthday boy requested we listen to the Minecraft parody song---TNT---and there was some dancing going on!...

The cake at the friend party was a huge hit! My mom ordered a personalized edible cake image and it arrived *just* in time. :-)

For the treat bags, I glued a picture of a Minecraft chest on a paper bag.

I know this time of year is always crazy with birthday parties for three children...and I know I certainly don't *have* to do it...but, I secretly like it a little bit. :-P I do hope that one year soon...maybe we can combine the boys' parties or do something special instead of a party? Ha, that makes it sound like I don't like parties! Thus far, I have just strongly felt they should each have their own party time, with their own theme and their own friends. We'll see how I feel next year! :-P

BIRTHDAY QUESTIONNAIRE

Evander, Age 8

Nicknames:

Eems

How old are you?

Eight

What is your favorite color?

Yellow

What is your favorite animal?

Rabbit, cat, bee

What is your favorite book?

I don't really have favorite book...ummmm...Bad Kitty, Clifford books and my natural history book