Annual Family Date 2011

As per tradition (at least for now the last 3 years) we celebrated our family date day today. Being a big family, we don't have many opportunities to do outings let alone BIG ones but once a year (around this time) we all go out for a date. This date includes something fun and special for the kids plus going out to eat. This year we had decided to plan something different from the usual and were gearing up for a free day at the Children's Museum in Indy on Presidents day, Arcade time at the mall in Indy and food complete with one night in a hotel (our kids think they are royalty when they stay in a hotel cause they've done it maybe 3 times their whole lives). Well that was a fabulous plan until the blizzard of 2011 hit and caused 3 snow days which took out our chances of our Indy trip SO, we went to the default but not completely. Instead of eating at the mall we chose to go to Chuck e cheeses this time. 3 of our 5 kiddos have never been so this was super exciting. This afternoon we headed up to Fort Wayne and straight to Build a Bear where not only did the kids build their bears, we built 3 extra ones for some special kiddos in our lives (we get to give them their bears tomorrow after church, SO excited!).

 Waiting to be stuffed.

 Youngest goes first! Madi picked a super cute St. Patty's bear.

 Autumn and her cute pink rocker bear that she named Chasse.

 The boys getting theirs stuffed and sewn up. Colby got to make one of the extra ones today which he was happy to do.

 This horse id for someone special made with lots of love. Colby picked the rockin boy bear for himself.

 Miss Bre and her monkey which you can't really see but he's cute!

 Rodney showing how tough men make teddy bears, LOL! He chose to make one of the special bears and I made the third one but no pictures were taken of me making it. After Build a Bear, it was off to.....the potty, ok then the carousel. :)

 Waiting in line for the carousel. I love this part and yes, my hair is different. I got a perm that I had wanted to be a wave and so I now have very curly/poofy hair. Husband likes, half the kids do too and the other half are so so. I myself am so so still. After our endeavours at the mall we headed to Chuck e Cheeses but I unfortunately didn't get pics except the one below because I was running around playing games, winning tickets and cashing them in. :)

 The kids got to watch Chucke come out and dance before we left. After that, it was about dinner time but really, who's hungry after all that soda and pizza, so off to have ice cream for dinner we went. LOVE this day, I drop the strict mommyness and live on the edge.

 Miss Madi loving/lickin her ice cream.

 The boys enjoying their dinner.

Dad scarfing down his dinner and the girls in the back ground. Yes, I enjoyed ice cream too but wasn't giving up the camera for these guys to take crazy pics of me eating like I did of them. :)
I love to let loose on this day and just enjoy being a kid, I mean watching my kids have a blast. I'm exhausted and spent what little bit of last energy I had to post this so now off to curl up on the couch and doze. :)

Snow day 3

Well, yet another snow day today and being someone who lives only 2 minutes away from school I think they would have been fine going to school today however I have a feeling all the kids that live furthur out in the country would have had a much harder time getting to school. It's hard being cooped up with 4 kiddos and now for 3 days straight. We had to get a bit more creative today and thanks to my friend who sent me a recipe for snow ice cream, we had a fabulous lunch! Lil smokies in cresents, cake cookie sandwiches and snow ice cream. YUM!

 The boys did a great job fetching me a gallon of snow.

 After stirring in the sugar and vanilla I stirred in the milk and it started to look like mashed potatoes.

 How could you go wrong with this?! I think it's time for a nap now that I'm finished! :)

Snow day 2

After making it through day one, the sleet started in pretty heavy around 3 in the afternoon. My husband got home safe and we hunkered down for the night, praying we wouldn't loose our power. We enjoyed movies, hanging out and not really doing much else or having any other kind of agenda. This morning when we woke up everything looked pretty good, no ice accumulation, just more snow. Our big Tonka truck almost buried in the back yard was a sight to see.

 The hubby headed out to plow out our drive way so he can go to work tomorrow. They called a level one emergency for our county so he got to stay home and have a snow day with us.

 He's so cute and such a good man!

 It sure could have been worse! It's so pretty to look at. It's still snowing today so i have a feeling the kids will at least have a 2 hour delay tomorrow if not another snow day. We'll see though.

Snow day 1

Well, with the Blizzard of 2011 (as the news was calling it) we ended up with a snow day only after one night of snow accumulating only about 3-4 inches and the worst was still yet to come. I ran into a recipe for "snow pancakes" here and was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to make them. Well that day came yesterday and in honor of it not only being snowy, but also the first day of February I made pink heart shaped snow pancakes. The kids loved them and it was fun.

Crazy Hair Night at Pioneer Clubs

We had crazy hair night at Pionner Clubs on the 25th at church and my girls and I are always up for crazy hair night. My mom was in town so she actually had the joy of doing all 3 of our hair. I tackled Dakotah and managed to get about 5 pony tail holders in his hair and he looked pretty funny but of coarse he took them out which I don't blame him since he had to go to basket ball practice first. It was fun and crazy!

Fun in the snow!

Hanging Out with Grandpa Tom

The kids took quite nicely to meeting Grandpa Tom! The boys hung out with him and had fun while the girls....

 had him tip them around in a box. What fun and Tom is very good at being a grandpa for having to go from 0 to 60 in less than a minute in becoming a grandpa. ;)

30!

30, I can't believe it's here! I don't feel any different and it didn't bother me in any way and my husband did a fantastic job of making it amazing! He started by letting me open my present early which was a Kitchen Aide Artisan mixer, LOVE IT! Then Friday night ofhe took me to Fort Wayne for dinner at Red Lobster (I've never been but man my 1 1/2 lb of crab was amazing), then we got to stay in a hotel for the night while our friends watched our kiddos. So nice to have time alone to giggle, hang out and talk with out kid interuption!

 Saturday I got to open another present, season 8 & 9 of Little House on the Prairie. YAY! Now here is the crazy thing......he apparently was trying to keep me up super later Saturday night but I wasn't cooperating. I went to bed about 11 and he followed me. Well then he gets up to make tea cause he forgot to have some before bed. I in the mean time fall asleep. He comes barreling up the stairs and in a very concerned tone informs me that someone just pulled into our drive way (like someone was coming to break in). I freak out, he goes down stairs and I hear the screen door open and say "are you serious, they are actually going to try to come in our house?!". I then hear him open the door and start whispering to someone which at this moment i'm getting mad at him cause I'm freaked out. My mom comes up the stairs....SURPRISE! Her and Tom came into town to surprise me and spend my birthday with me. How exciting! Monday came (my official birthday) and my momma bought me a Strawberry Shortcake cake. It was yummy and such a great birthday! Sneaky man of mine, and momma!

Something smells funny!

I love it when my kids are all getting along and playing some imagination filled game together! Well one night a couple weeks ago my kids were doing exactly that. I heard a lot of noise coming from my trash can though in my kitchen so I went to go check it out. I couldn't believe what I found! Miss Madi decided to hide out in the trash can with the bag in it even though you cant see it cause she pulled it down while climbing in. Crazy girl! Thankfully nothing got on her clothes although there was plenty that could have.