Am I crazy

I like being busy. I like when I have too much to do (probably so I can put off what I really need to do like unpacking the last few boxes in the office) so I create things to do. The past five years I have been a secretary for the woman's organization at our church and that has kept me very busy.

This year it looks like making crafts for Mackenzee's kindergarten classes is going to keep me busy. Today was their "Friendship Feast" (heaven forbid we celebrate a holiday in elementary school because that would not be politically correct). They brought their favorite food (or whatever they want) to the feast. Mackenzee's loves pork chops but I not at 9:30am so she decided on mini cupcakes. Easy, right? Oh no because I had to make pilgrim toppers for them!!! Mind you this was my doing not Mackenzee's but she does love them and I have to say they are pretty cute.

Mackenzee in the Friendship circle showing her Indian medallion she made.

All the yummy food.

It was a fun little feast. They sang songs and then shared about their friends. I was so happy that I got to attend.

After school we had our parent teacher conference. Mackenzee's teachers said she is doing great. She passed off everything and had an amazing report card. All top marks!!! I am so glad she is doing good. We knew she was ready for Kindergarten but it is nice to hear it from the teacher. Thank you to her preschool teachers!!! It was also good to hear how impressed her teachers is with her behavior and citizenship. Sometimes we dont get to see that side of her at home :)

This is what I made for Friday to hand out after class. I really don't know what my camera's problem is sorry about the fuzzy pictures.

What have we been up to

Mackenzee is READING!!! We are so excited. She is doing really good in school. She also just started back up in gymnastics and is loving it.

Parker on his way to being POTTY TRAINED!!! We are just at the beginning. If we would stop traveling it would be better. After Thanksgiving we will loose the diapers. He is also doing gymnastics. He loves climbing, running, jumping and just being active. He is actually pretty good too.

Eliza is TALKING!!! The other day we were eating dinner and she said "There you go" Mac and I both just looked at each other. She talks a ton and some of her favorite words are: book, baby, stop (I wonder why?), up, please, thank you (which she told everyone while trick or treating). She also says the normal mama, dada and has started to say Parker and Mackenzee but those are really hard! She also love giving hugs and very slobbery kisses.

Party Time

We were finally able to have Mackenzee's birthday party (almost 2 weeks late). It was so much fun. My sister thought I was crazy for having it the day after Halloween but I could not push it back any later. (Sorry if this is really detailed I want to be able to look back and see what we did)

The theme: Tinkerbell

The cake:
(I made it half choc/ half vanilla) it turned out better then the practice one on her actual b-day.


The games:
The played: Musical Wand, Pin the star on Tinkerbells wand, Pixie- Pixie- Pixie Dust (duck duck goose), Pixie Dust tag (freeze tag but you have to have pixie dust thrown on you to be un-frozen), Tinkerbell freeze (freeze dance- when the lights come on you have to strike a pose like Tinkerbell) and Color Tinkerbell cutout.

Cake and Ice Cream:

The presents: (click image to see larger)

Princess bag, nightlight, frame and HSM unbrella

Tinkerbell and friends purse and candy

Barbie and Kitchen set

Webkins (her 1st)

Twister Hopscotch

Make your own blanket set and purse

She had a great party. It was so much fun to see her with her little friends. When they left she gave them little gift bags and a balloon. Eliza slept and Parker and his little friend played so good upstairs, they only came down for the food :).

That night, as a thank you to her for being so good while we were gone, we surprised the kids and took them to see:

All 3 sat there eyes wide open and intently watching the show. (this is the only picture I got because it was so dark. I didnt even think to get one of our family all together.)

Happy Birthday Mackenzee

Mackenzee turned the big 5 this year. She has had the longest birthday celebration ever!!! It started Labor Day weekend with a girls trip to NYC (a tradition I think we will keep who knows where Parker and Eliza will go). Then her actual birthday, October 20 to her party November 1.

The tradition in our family (since I was a little kid) is doughnuts on your birthday but Mackenzee didn't want it she just wanted her normal breakfast of Coco Puffs. This was better for me because Mac was not home and getting all 3 kids to the store before school was not my idea of fun, but I would have done it.

She did bring juice and doughnuts to school to celebrate with her class. And on their birthday they get to share something. She shared her Playbills from the 3 shows we saw in NYC. After school her neighbor came home with us and they got to play.

That night we had cake and ice cream and opened presents and our friends came over.

She got a cute outfit from Nana and Papa and another from her aunts (not pictured)

Great books from Granma and Papa Grapes

Coloring stuff, bag, notebook, pencil case and cute stuffed dog from her friends.

Way to many presents (but you are only 5 once right?)

She was all about Tinkerbell this year. This was my trial cake for her party. It is a chocolate sheet cake that had Tinkerbell traced on the top. It turned out okay but we decided to go with a whole body in the shape of Tinkerbell and I made sure to get skin color tint for the icing.

Happy birthday!!! We love you so much Mackenzee. Thank you for being sweet, caring and for making us laugh.

Dont you just love kids

Parker was playing with my hair and says, "I have white hair."

I said, "Yes you do. What color is mine?"

Parker "White."

Me "Uhh no."

Parker "Yes mommy. See." (he pulls a small piece of hair down for me to see)

This is every mothers dream to be told they have white hair.

This next one is Eliza's new favorite face. We call it the snotty potty face. (I got her to do it this time for the camera but normally she does it to let us know she is not happy about something). The lips are normally more puckered and the arms are folded. Sorry this is a cell phone picture.

Halloween festivities- Friday

Friday Mac made pumpkin pancakes (orange colored pancakes in the shape of pumpkins) for breakfast.

Then it was off to school for a "real school day" (that is what Mackenzee's teacher says every morning). Mackenzee and I were twins sporting our black and orange Modbe shirts. She handed out these little spiders to her friends after school:


After school Mackenzee's friend, and neighbor, came home with us. We made Pumpkin Pizza tortillas. (uncooked tortilla with pizza sauce and cheese cut in the shapes of pumpkins) After lunch they played for a little then switched houses. Parker even went over to their house (they have a cat so this is a big step). Next it was dinner and get ready to TRICK OR TREAT!!! Dinner was Witches Brew (taco soup).

It was not cold, thankfully, but very overcast and a few sprinkles. It was a perfect Halloween night. I handed out candy at our neighbor's house while the dads took them trick or treating. Eliza walked the entire way draging her bag behind her. Parker perfered to ride in the stroller even if it was from one house to the next (a whopping 10 feet). Most houses were okay but there were a few scary ones from what I heard.

When the rain picked up we headed in to hang out for a little bit before it was home to bed. I had to get home to finishe Mackenzee's party cake (I will post more later on that).

We hope you all had a Happy Halloween.

Halloween festivities- Thursday

Thursday, Mackenzee's class had Scarecrow day. My cousin had watched Mackenzee Sun-Wed while the rest of the family was in Vegas. She was so kind and stayed until Thursday afternoon so I could go to the party with Mackenzee. I had made sugar cookies for decorating (the thick soft kind :) ) Mackenzee was so excited to come to my station.


When we got home I STARTED making Parker's costume. I didn't have a pattern for the vest so had to eyeball it. I think it turned out pretty good considering. Then the pants. We then took my cousin to the airport and picked up Mac. As soon as we got home it was the mad rush to find the sewing machine and all its parts (it was in one of the boxes in the office we have not unpacked). I finished sewing the costume (vest and pants) at 5:50pm, our church's Trunk or Treat started at 6:30.

We invited our neighbors and had a blast. They had a costume parade and were so cute. There was a really cute family the dad dressed like the man in the yellow hat (he looked just like him) and the baby was Curious George. Mackenzee and her friend hung out on the stage. The looked so grown up, not like they were 5!!!

This year we went with the Aladdin theme. I figure this is probably the last year I will get Mackenzee to play along. Parker was Aladdin (he picked out the fabric for his costume, yes I know Aladdin has a purple vest), Mackenzee was Jasmine and Eliza was Abu.



It started to rain at the Trunk or Treat but held off while they were walking around to the different cars. I don't think I have ever seen so many in attendance even with the rain. I ran out of a HUGE bowl of candy and I was just giving 1 or 2 pieces each. After some pumpkin bread and apple juice it was time to go home. It started to POUR down when we were walking to our cars. Sorry I didnt get any more pictures (it was due to the rain).