Best Birthday EVER!

Well, that's according to Winnie. Due to Derek's schedule, we held Ellie and Winnie's 5th bday party this weekend, their first with school friends being invited. There were 16 kids and 12 adults in all, and all went well. The kids enjoyed the bounce house and those who stayed a bit longer had a great surprise when some horseback riders came through the woods and let all the kids take a turn sitting on a horse. The timing was perfect and we couldn't have asked for a better ending to the party. Planning a bday party for twins can be a little chaotic. Derek and I said from the very beginning that Winnie and Ellie would always have their own cake and party theme. This year Ellie, who is a little obsessed with Justice League, chose Batman for her theme. She saw the invites and that was it - she stuck with her theme when ordering her cake and picking out her dessert plates. Winnie on the other hand.....finally chose My Little Pony for her invites which surprised both Derek and I. Then she went with Derek to pick out her cake and went with...Barbie Fashion Fairytale....and stuck with that for her dessert plates as well. Even though all she wanted for her bday as Rapunzel's tower from Tangled (they got it). But with two different and distinct themes you can't combine that in the decor....so we just go with Pink/Yellow/Blue/Green for the tablecloth, plates, balloons, streamers and all the rest. Oh yeah, and the bounce house? Disney Princesses which would make theme #4 if you're counting. Next bday party being planned? Zoey's 2nd which we'll celebrate at the beach. Theme? Dora...unless the obsession ends, which at this point doesn't seem likely.

The Turkeys!

How could I forget?? We woke up this morning to 2 wild turkeys walking through our back yard, with one right at the steps to the back porch. We've lived here 5 years and have never seen this before - it was crazy and the girls loved seeing them. Wish we had gotten some pix....I'll be on the lookout - maybe they'll come through again soon! Unless someone got them for dinner.....

Call Me Michelle Duggar

No, not because I'm going to have 16 more children to catch up to the Duggar family, but because we made one of their favorite dinners last night - Tater Tot Casserole. Overall vote on it? Not too bad....we will probably try another version the next time I make it just to test things out. Tonight it's Beef Stroganoff in the crockpot...not sure why I feel the need to let anyone know this, but so be it.

Overall we had a good weekend - Derek took the girls to the park yesterday and completely wore them out. Zoey was fearless and went on the biggest slides all by herself. Winnie and Ellie made friends as they usually do and played a lot of tag. They came home completely exhausted and didn't really eat much of the tater tot casserole with the exception of Zoey - she seemed to really enjoy it. Today we picked out bday party invitation for Winnie and Ellie ( My Little Pony and Batman respectively) and hit up Sams Club - always a fun adventure.

We are back on the field trip cycle this week with one at least every other week until the middle of May. This week we're off to Barney's Birthday Bash - ugh. Not a big fan of Barney but the kids will all love it I'm sure. Zoey included.

And we are proud to report that Timmy Keenan is the undefeated regional wrestling champ for his weight class - way to go Timmy!!!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Wow - only 4 days since the last post?? That's pretty good considering how long it has been in the past.....

Had a great weekend with family. Winnie was soooo excited that Jody, Josie and PopPop were coming down, but to be honest she was most excited about Jody. Asked several times throughout the week "how much longer until Jody gets here?"...had to explain "2 wake-ups after school", then "1 wake up after school", then "today after school"....and then Jody met us at school. Both Winnie and Ellie loved showing her their classrooms and cubbies.

Zoey has really come in to her own this weekend - she mimics almost anything her sisters say which is very scary from "I want milk" to "oh, okay" to her personal favorite "DORA!". She's a bit of a Dora addict. She hears the music and just runs in to see the TV with her favorite show.

It's been a weekend of non-stop eating and drinking....back on track tomorrow. I hope. We'll see!

Wow - 2 years....Really?

Wow - almost 2 years since I've posted anything on this blog. How time flies....a lot has happened in those two years. We welcomed Zoey's arrival in June 2009, Derek deployed in September 2009, I finished my MSW in May 2010, Winnie and Ellie started Pre-K in August 2010, Derek came home in Septembr 2010 (1 year to the day after he left) and Derek received word that he made the list for the SGT MJR academy in 2011. So that's what's been keeping me busy....

What are we up to now? Preparing to move to Ft. Bliss TX in July of this year - which is exciting and stressful at the same time. I just keep looking around the house and thinking of all we need to do to get it ready to go on the market and mentally making a list of what will go in to storage while we live in smaller, on-post housing for 10 months. But all in all I'm excited for the change of scenery in addition to the fact that Derek will be home much earlier every day and will have plenty of long weekends which will result in great family time. As well as the opportunity to explore another part of the country. I'm already trying to plan a trip to the NM Hot Air Balloon Festival...should probably make hotel reservations now.

So that sums up the past 2 years in a nutshell - I will try to get back on track with the blog....will probably be better for the next few weeks since I've given up Facebook for Lent....so is this cheating in a way??? Probably.

Snow Day!

Big happenings on Jan 20 - not only was it Inauguration Day (yay Barack Obama!) but we also received some snow in our neck of the woods. Hey, the approximately 4 inches we received is big happenings in our part of NC - schools AND Ft. Bragg were closed. But of course Derek had to go in for a meeting....won't show you what happened to my car as a result. (Derek is fine.).

Once Derek got home we all went out to attempt to build a snowman...kind of hard when the snow won't stick together. They did make some snowballs and enjoyed a mini-snowball fight. All in all the girls both LOVED playing in the snow and didn't seem fazed by the cold.

Enjoy the pictures!

Getting in to character

Winnie and Ellie love to play dress up in their Disney Princess dresses....we have "Ariel the Mermaid", Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, a Fairy Princess, Jasmin, Sleeping Beauty and Tinker Bell. I think that about covers it. And when they dress up, Winnie really gets in to character. She refers to herself and Ellie as whatever character they are dressed as. But today she took it a step further....as she was dressed in her Belle outfit, she started calling Derek "Beast". All day. Anytime she needed him she'd start calling out for Beast, Beast. And good sport that he was, he went along with it. And it was just a coincidence that Derek had on a Bruins jersey with a big B on the front.