Gearing up for Advent

With Thanksgiving on the 28th and Anna's birthday on the 29th, that leaves me one measly day to get all things advent up and running for December 1st. 

The calendar. 

Oh mercy, the calendar. 

This isn't as simple as it used to be. When the kids were little, I would just make up little things to do so that we could fill all the days with something fun. 

Now, we have SO MANY concerts and parties and scheduled events already on the books. I have to double most of the days up so that we can still fit in all the good stuff like gingerbread houses and movie nights and minivan express. Don't even get me started on the special gifts! 

It took me till midnight, but it's done. And Ethan will pick out first. When you have 8 people in the family and you know your times tables, the first person will always be last....waking up victorious on Christmas morning with an extra turn and the rights to pick out the star before opening the presents. 

It's caused many a fight over the years. And the funny thing is, half the time we're so excited about Christmas coming, we forget to take the star out at all. 

But that's the kind of stuff that makes families tick.  

And I bid you....good night.

Anna turns 9...family style

Anna's friend party was last weekend, but that doesn't mean we won't mark the day with some fun times together and a dinner and cake of her choice. 

She woke up to a big box of Lucky Charms to share with her siblings. Strict instructions were given to eat the brown "healthy bits" along with the radioactive marshmallows. I mean, that's just common sense.

We hit a matinee of Frozen 2 and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. It's our new favorite! It's always extra nice to get our money's worth out of the popcorn and soda refills. Big families are singlehandedly keeping movie theaters from going straight to H-E-double toothpicks with their cheaty ways.

Restoring balance to the universe.

We opted out of Christmas decorating and enjoyed a simple day of not shopping on Black Friday. Anna asked for a pot roast with all the fixins for her birthday meal. Luckily we had about 3 dozen rolls leftover from Thanksgiving yesterday. Dad popped the roast in the oven while we were at the movie. I baked her cake at the Flynns because our roast recipe takes 6 HOURS to cook. It's worth every minute.

Anna wanted to help frost her cake and light her candles. Getting bigger has it's perks. Wielding fire is the best one.

Just as we were ready to sing, she had a great idea....what if we sing each line and then she sings the last word? She felt like it would be awesome and who are we to shy away from birthday silliness?

 Ha ha!

We wolfed down are cake and Anna ripped open her presents! She got a boogie board! Now she can sketch paperless with her two sisters! I think her favorite gift was her new scrunchie collection. She doesn't wear them in her hair, but on her wrist....because fashion.

Her Grandma Kathleen sent her a beautiful porcelain box and she was instantly in love. It even had a pretty bracelet already inside!

Next stop was a family night sing along with Mark's band. The have no name....because they simply can't decide.... but at this point, I'm thinking it's a tie between Split Decision and Lemonwrench.

Megan played keys for "Closing Time" and killed it. She doesn't relish the attention, but she always has that spark in her eye and a tiny smile that she can't help getting when she is doing something fun and getting in on the action.

Mathew stepped up to the mic for "Island in the Sun". He honors our family allegiance to all things Weezer.

It was SUCH a long day. And so fun. I love these days full of family and music and new friends.

Happy 9th Birthday, Anna Jane!

Friendsgiving 2019

Last year we traveled to Arkansas to spend time with Mark's side of the family. This year, we opted to stay and town (3 cheers for no driving!) and spend it with friends.

We spent all day Wednesday making the pies and prepping the sweet potatoes. We had 28 people coming, so we borrowed a table and chairs and brought up our craft table as well. We even dusted off the old high chair. (ack) My goal was to have everything set and have a peacefulish day, making rolls and reading my book. 

I was pretty excited that we could finally use my extensive salt and pepper shaker collection. 

 And the grand daddy....

So, prep work was done....the house was clean and I was feeling on top of things. 

I woke up at 6 to sneak in a batch or two of rolls. 

Then we headed out to On Track for Fight Gone Bad...an unapologetic bid to maximize the amount of food we can stuff in our faces at our feast. 

The girls watched the Macy's parade. This is the very first time we've had it on. And all it took was getting double practice points for band class.

Around 2 o clock, families started to show up. Hursts, McDonalds, Flynns and Wadas. It may seem like a lot, but here is the beauty of it all....I only had to cook a couple pies, sweet potatoes and gobs of rolls. That is much less stressful than trying to make the whole spread and time it just perfectly. Not to mention, it's so expensive to buy all that stuff! Instead I blew all my money on eucalyptus branches and white hydrangeas at Trader Joes. 

Courtney made the turkey. She always makes the turkey because when she makes it, we actually enjoy eating it. When I make it, it gets pushed around the plate in hopes that my feelings won't be hurt. It's better this way. 

Todd carved it up. And by the looks of those cheeks, he's sampling the goods.

Alisa and Larrin made the glazed ham. It was gorgeous.

Everyone found a spot to park and start feasting.

Dax, Bruce, Tami and yours truly.

Todd, Courtney, Larrin, Alisa with baby Mika, Lannea in the highchair, Jessica and Ethan.

Jessica, Ethan, Emma, Cameron, Aidan, Mathew and the back of Miranda's head.

Oh hey...check out my "Fun for Everyone" sweet potatoes. This way everybody can have their marshmallows toasted just how you like them. It wasn't an accident, that's for sure. 

Oh. And did I mention we are petsitting the most adorable bird in the world? His name is Flynn and we wish we could keep him. You should see him play in the water. Crazy adorable.

We had adorable to spare. Look at little Mika! She's getting so chubby! And she obviously doesn't trust Todd one bit.

Mathew snatched his turn and got to rock her to sleep. The grin on that boy the whole time he was holding her. What a sweet heart he has.

The kids room...looks crazy in there! Save yourself, Emily!

And then it was time for pie! It was also Miranda's 18th birthday so she got to pick which dessert to stick her candles into. I was honored that she chose my chocolate lasagna. Which also shows how smart that girl is....its' stupid delicious.

Is she 81?

Or 18?

And then one by one, the families packed up their dishes and headed home. The Flynns lingered and Courtney and I had a chat while the girls watched youtube videos and let the cutest bird in the world roost on their heads.

Seems right.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Under threat of company

Sometimes you need to invite 28 people over in order to really get your house clean. And to force yourself to face the fact that the living room rug is seriously RAT NASTY.

So maybe it's time to buy a cute new rug that inexplicably makes you feel better about every single thing in your life.

And now I must go take my turn standing guard over it to make sure Daphne doesn't poop on it.

One-sided

Anna's Winter Pool Party

Having a birthday in November means that you have more cocoa parties and less pool parties. Maybe it means you have zero pool parties. 

Unless you give your mom that sad dejected look in the rear view mirror and you've timed it just right...about 19 years into this parenting gig and her defenses have been worn down to sad little nubs. Then a pool party shall be yours.

There will be much rejoicing in the land!

Is there anything better than a pizza party in room already hung with festive streamers? 

Yes...it's knowing that a couple cute teenage employees will be helping clean it all up.

I love this girl and her beautiful smile.

She's really not very shy!

And she has exceptional appreciation skills.

Every kid should be the center of attention now and again. She did such a great job of being happy for each gift and detailing exactly why it was SO AWESOME!!

Before you know it, they had grabbed their towels and they were off to the pool. I stayed behind to transport gifts and leftover supplies back to the van. And wouldn't you know it...Laney had left behind her artistic tracks....little sketches of the what some of the kids at the party might look like as adults.  I mean...right?

The rest of the party was spent watching the girls (and Luke) horse around in the water and dare each other to jump off the high dive.

Meg and Everly had no playmates. So they banded together. Sisters are the best.

Happy Birthday Anna! I'm so glad that you finally got to swim on your birthday!!

Laney leaves a trail

I find these little sketches everywhere.

I mean....LOOK at them! And to her they are just passing the time with a little doodle.

I stand in awe....of the paw.

Mango twins

I hope this girls will always want to share their mangoes. 

Bells and Guitar

It's new. 

And it's going to take off. 

Reader

Everly LOVES books. She has been pretending to read to a whole classroom of kids for as long as I can remember. But she gets frustrated when asked to read the actual words. She will get exasperated and say, "I can't READ!"

Those days are over.

She read every word out loud to me over the last two nights. Now she's got confidence and we decided she'll never say she's "not a reader" ever again!