Sydney turns 12yrs old!

This year, she wanted to do her party at home,... do a sleep over. She invited her 7 closest friends,.... 5 of them were able to attend. 4 were able to stay the night. We had 6 girls total for most the evening. *phew*

They hung out in the bedroom for the most part,... they came out and had pizza, goofed around with the cats and dogs,... they had some cake and icecream and hurried through opening presents,... then played on the Wii and the Xbox 360. They put on make up and played with the Littlest Pet Shop stuff, they painted nails and laughed and teased and made a lot of girlie noises LOL

Poor Chris, he had to work the next morning, so by 11pm we told the girls, they needed to tone it down,... they had decided to all cram themselves in the bedroom to sleep,... some in the bed, others on the floor.

Chris and I were snug in bed with lights/tv off by midnight. I dozed off,... but kept an ear to the door listening for girls. I woke a couple of times,... the last time I recall it was around 1:30 and they were still opening/closing doors and giggling.

The alarm went off far too early,.... 4:30am. We crawled out of bed, and I came into the livingroom,... heard the bathroom door shut and the bedroom door shut,... girls were STILL awake????? OMG!! I found out later it was Sydney,.... she had announced that she was going to bed as Chris was getting out the door to work LOL

Thankfully he slept through all the girl noises. Although, we were both pretty dead tired LOL

I talked to the girls later that morning and found they had a great time playing, and that most all of them stayed up really really late. So, I suppose the party was a great success :o)

Chris and I later decided that that many sleeping over,.... won't happen again LOL It was just pretty crazy. We are glad that they all had such a wonderful time though :o)

Here are a few of the pics from the party :o)


Happy 12th Birthday baby girl!!!
Mommy and Daddy love you so much!!!
xoxo

Geoffery's Christmas Program

Geoffery was Ralph the Reindeer in his Christmas program this year. A real speaking part!!! We went over his lines often,... he had them down to a "T" and was very excited about his big role.

It was great fun watching the program,... and I was thrilled that Chris was off work so he could attend too :o) We were so very proud of him as he did such a GREAT job!!!

Here are a few pics, and the video of his big performance!!





I think he's a natural at the mic!!

Holidays!

It's hard to believe that we're so close now to 2010!! This has been a pretty rough year for a lot of people. Us included. Granted, I know things could have been so much worse, but still yet. I'm sure hoping for a much better year ahead!!!

Thanksgiving was quiet, we spent it with Chris's folks. Chris had been working nights if I recall, so it was a long rough week for him. We usually will take a turkey and deep fry it for ourselves later on to eat. This year, neither of us were in the mood to mess with all that.

It was a nice Thanksgiving though, relaxing. Enjoyed some quiet. I think that was also the weekend we vegged and watched some Harry Potter. I'd not watched all of our DVD's so that was pretty fun :o) Good movies.

The month of December was filled with activity. We were trying to get a little bit of shopping done, which we managed to do online. Chris is great with Ebay!! :o)

Anyhow, on the 8th I think it was, Sydney had her band concert. They have a large beginning band,... she was crammed in the center, first row on the stage, with the teacher right in front of her. So, I didn't get to SEE her much,.... not to mention the stands in their faces too.


They played really well, and it was a great concert as always. Very proud of her for taking up an instrument. Only thing I ever really wanted to play was violin, but in school I was too shy to even consider taking band. I hope that she continues through the rest of her school years, as it would be really good for her. She would like to learn to play the guitar, and I hope that somehow this might help her or motivate her to learn.

Sometime after the concert,... one early Saturday morning, we headed to the school auditorium for Breakfast with Santa!! Geoffery was very much looking forward to this, he brought his LONG list,.... and couldn't wait to see Santa. We got in, and his number was 49. We went over and he got a cinnamon roll and a cup of milk. We went to the table where he could write another letter to Santa, and he ate and contemplated whether or not he wanted to write a letter. He finally "gave in" and scribbled out a letter. He kept saying that he HAD one with him,... he didn't NEED to write another,... but I knew he needed to kill some time. Santa hadn't even arrived yet!

He wanted to sit with a friend of his, so we did that,.... they both impatiently waited for Santa's arrival. Then they had to wait for their group of numbers to be called. During that wait, they both gave in and went and got their faces painted :o) His friend got called up to go see Santa before he did. Poor Geoffery was so anxious.

Finally it was his turn!!! Here are a few pictures from this day :o)



Then we go into the class parties. These are always the last day of the school year. This year, on Sydney's 12th Birthday. Dec 18th.

Sadly, I was informed by Sydney that she did NOT want me to attend hers. *cries* I couldn't believe it. She doesn't need me anymore. "It's embarrassing" she tells me. EMBARRASSING???? "I'm embarrassing????" :o( "I didn't say YOU were, just that it is embarrassing when you're there" *cries* I don't dress silly, or talk funny, or hug and fawn all over her,..... hmm okay, maybe the later part I do a little bit??? :o) Ahhh well, I knew this day would come eventually.

So, we're driving to school, when we realize she forgot her soda. Dang. Doesn't that just figure??? My plans were to drop them off, go home and get ready and go up for Geoff's party. Well, now it would be: go home, get ready, grab Sydney's soda and drop it off to her first, then go to his party. Meant I got to sneak in there anyhow HA!!! I win.

Or so I thought. I got there,... and the hall was quiet,... the kids were all in their rooms. Hmmm odd. I know they've changed things around a lot there, but sheesh. I went into the office, and waited,... finally got to drop off the soda and told them the "She doesn't want me here at her party" story,.... also mentioned how it was her Bday,... found out that they weren't doing the whole big party like normal. They were just having fun class time, having some food, exchanging gifts,... simple. So, I didn't feel so bad :o)

I headed over to the elementary building,.... and enjoyed Geoffery's party. He is such a character that kid. He was so very excited about his party. We had already had a long talk about being thankful for whatever gift he might get. A $3.00 limit on a gift doesn't buy much, and he is usually always disappointed.

Here are a few pics from the party... lots of good food,... kids had a great time,....




Well, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that he was not pleased with his gift. I took this picture, and inside I was giggling. How I managed to capture this so perfectly,.... I looked at him sternly and put on a smile to remind him of how he was to behave. *sigh* Sadly though, even through his fake "I like this" smile, he was pretty upset. He's not been into trucks since he was very small.

Once in the truck, we had another long detailed talk about the art of giving and receiving through the holidays. We also talked about the art of regifting!!

In the end, the day was great since it was the last day of school, they got out early, it was Sydney's birthday!!! so much excitement for one day!!!

Of course, I did fail to post about Geoffery's big performance!!! I'll do a different post and show pics and video of that next :o)

A tad bit late, but Halloween pics!

This year, it was just Sydney and Geoffery to take out trick or treating. We had initially planned on going to the big church here in town. They always have a big fun deal for the kids. Since Chris was working that day, we thought it would work out perfect. He'd get home from work, kids would be set to go,... and we'd go down there and let the kids run around and play games and get candy.

Sadly, the church started and ended much earlier than past years. After finding this out, it was too late to try and hurry the kids up to get ready to go. I ended up getting them ready and took them trick or treating. We got home just after Chris had. Spent a good hour walking around a neighborhood getting all kinds of yummy candy!!

There were a couple of really fun things though. Geoffery year before last, was a HUGE Star Wars freak. We went to a house, and out front in the driveway, was a man dressed up to the hilt as Darth Vader. He had the saber and everything. Totally decked out. I watched Geoffery, as he stood there in awe.

He's gone from Star Wars, to Sonic the Hedgehog and now Pokemon. Still yet though, this man dressed as Darth Vader was a bit much,... all he could muster up to say was "Holy smoke" He didn't even go up to the folks to get candy he was so dumbfounded LOL It was totally classic!!

From there, we came to another house, it was such a nice evening,... that most everyone was sitting out in chairs on their porches or driveways. This group was lined up against their garage door,.... they had chalk outlines on the driveway, flashing lights, eerie music,... and they were dressed up big time,... I couldn't see everyone, but there was one up there that freaked Geoffery out enough that he was like "HECK NO" he wasn't goin up there to get anything from them :o)

It was so much fun, I laughed and just enjoyed being with them that night. It's great fun to look at things through kids eyes.

Here are a few pics I took at the house,.... Sydney was a "Pumpkin Fairy" and Geoffery, the character from "Scream"