Party Success!

Yesterday's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese was a success. And how could it not be? The kids went ape over the games. There was food, cupcakes and ice cream. Blake got to spend time with her friends and she ate up being the center of attention!

The big day.

Scene: 7am in a pink bedroom.

Daylight streams into the room casting a warm glow over the sleeping child. The door opens slowly. Silent feet gently tip toe up to the bed.

Mom singing: Happy Birthday to you...Happy birthday to you....Happy birthday dear...

Child groans while covering head with her comforter: Mooooooommmm STOP! Your waking me up!


...And that was how our day started. But after some errands we stopped at OMSI and the day became all about Blake and having fun.






By the end we were both super exhausted. But she managed to have enough energy to open presents. Thanks to all family members who sent gifts and for those gifts still in transit.

Tomorrow we have her birthday party. She requested a Chuck E. Cheese extravaganza this year. After two years of planning and throwing parties I was more than happy to let someone else cook, entertain, then clean up the mess.

And honestly, wouldn't you subject yourself to Chuck E Cheese madness for this cute face?

Has it been that long?

Blake turns 5 tomorrow...can you believe it!








Where or where has the time gone?

St. Johns Rocks!

The bridge.

This has to be one of the coolest bridges EVER and I get the pleasure of driving over it every day. Blake and I have this new tradition. On our way home, just as we are crossing over the bridge, we lower our windows and scream like we're on a rollercoaster. Our voices are usually trumped by the wind gusts and the cold breeze wakes us up from the commute!



The water.

We are surrounded by the river so there's always someplace to take the dog swimming. Last night we decided to get food on the go and headed to Cathedral Park for a little outdoor loving. The dog swam, the kid danced on the dock and I enjoyed the non-tube time.

St. John rocks. We have settled and we are looking to stay!

Another birthday celebration

My friend Kate turned a young 30 this past weekend.

She wanted to celebrate with roller skating and a white trash evening. I wasn't able to make it for the roller skating due to prior commitments and truly wanted to bail on the evening festivities. You see driving at night freaks me out and add downtown driving to that and I'm practically in tears. But Chris demanded I go and offered to drive. How could I say no? And I'm glad I went. Not only did I get to hang with my favorite birthday girl, but I got to see friends I haven't seen in a long time and meet some new ones!

the boy turns 9 and other wonders.

This week the boy turned 9. It blows my mind how quickly the kids are growing up. When I met Ranen he was 6, Blake was 2. It's crazy to see where Ranen was and where Blake is headed right now. Wow, a lot to wrap my head around.

We celebrated with Pokemon...his favorite game at the moment. We bought him pokemon books, pokemon cards and characters. We even decorated his cake like a pokeball. It was seriously hard picking out gifts because he's getting past the age of action figures and into the age of video games. And since niether of us want our kids to be completly jacked into the electronics, we tried our best to find alternatives. I think we did an okay job.




This week we also checked out Ranen's new classroom. His school went through a huge remodel this summer and we were glad to see him out of the trailer! Blake has been to so many school functions that she is becoming quite accustomed to the "vibe". She talks about going to kindergarten often. "Soon honey", I tell her. But in my heart I am so glad she'll be my baby for just another year longer!



In other news, we have finally finished painting. Or should I say Chris has finally finished painting! Now we can concentrate on putting the floor trim back up, eventually getting crown molding and decorating! What a process but the house if coming together. Yeah!!



At least Noro thinks so...

wisdom teeth extraction

(picture by Miss Kate)

I had two wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. I would say it was horrible, but honestly I can't remember any of it because I had them put me to sleep. Before I knew it I was sitting up in the chair laughing because I couldn't feel my nose.

My recovery has been really easy. No swelling. No pain (yeah percocet!) And being waited on hand and foot isn't so bad either. Thanks to Miss Kate who sat with me and watched a cheesy movie while discussing housing projects. And super thanks to the kids who let me sleep even though they were desperate to wake me!

I felt so good in fact that I started a sewing class today! Watch out Martha Stewart! (bah hahahha ).

knit knit knit knit knit

I have been knitting up a storm lately but since most of the items are Christmas presents, I can't really share with you the FO photos.

But I do have this. During the Stitch N Pitch I was able to complete this button tab hat. Does the yarn look familiar? Yup...I was sweating up to the very end that I had enough yarn to finish and I just had enough!


The best part was picking out the buttons. I even got hippie boy involved!


Last weekend I was able to get the kids to 'help' with a little construction project of mine. Taking my cue from some folks off Raverly, we made this....a Tinkertoy Swift! It fell apart after I finished winding my ball, but it did it's job and doesn't it look good with the Socks That Rock Socktopus?


It worked great and here is the project I started with it (modeled by Molly). Can you guess what it could be?