Wizards Party

We are fans of the Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place. Tonight was the last show and when they revealed who the family wizard was! So me loving little theme kid parties used it as an excuse to have fun and have a little party! So we invited the girls I babysit and a couple of girls on our street. The show started at eight and I wanted to start at 7. Matthew was so excited when we got home he got the neighbors! So I had the girls do the cake mix for me! What a big help that was! While I was making dinner, Shane was practicing his magic act! We got a little kit from the dollar store and wizard Shane did a couple of tricks!

I lost Shane and found him studying his magic tricks! How sweet is that!

 

He had their attention!

Shane's bag, err box of tricks!

 

He has imagination! He is wear a pair of shorts on his head and underwear around his neck! He was chasing the girls and making them scream and screech.

 

 

We had soup and subs for dinner. The family owns a sub shop so that's why I went with subs. I found this soup while walking down the Spanish food isle. It was really good and cheep! I told the kids since the mom on the show sometimes speaks Spanish that is why we are having the soup. LOL They loved it:) I also had deviled eggs and pretzel rods with the subs. The pretzel sticks represented wands!

 

Wizard potion for drinks.

Lastly they had wizard hats for dessert! I coated sugar cones with melted chocolate! Use your imagination if you need too:)

We then watched the show. It was cute. One of the girls that was here lost her tooth!! All in all it was a very fun night and I am so tired! I feel like I did a regular birthday party.

Back to School Woes

     Spending the morning preparing myself for the start of the new semester next Monday. Not this day after Sunday Monday but next. LOL I was online ordering my books and aggravated by how much my philosophy books are!. Not so much the books themselves but the fact I have to take this stupid class again! So I looked over my transcripts and see that two did transfer over! So now I am patiently waiting till 8 so I can call and see if I really do need to retake it. And if so why.
     Shane is on his way to new student orientation this morning! He earned his Associates in December and has transferred to Coastal Carolina University. His classes start this Monday and he has orientation today! I am going to school online at Liberty University.One of our classes are the same. I noticed that and got excited thinking we could share the book and some $$ NOPE different books! Oh well It was an exciting thought for about 5 minutes.
     It is hard having us both in school full time at the same time. Add to that the kids in school and we at times have a hectic house! LOL Funny thing is this hectic school schedule has become normal. So normal the holiday break felt like it dragged on to long. And I have to wait another whole week for classes to start back up!

How Did You Ring in the New Year?

     As I sit here at the table blogging Shane is yelling because Michigan just got a touch down!! Awesome! So how did you ring in the new year? We stayed in. Matthew had a friend spend the night. (Yelling at the t.v again) The kids stayed up and enjoyed sparkling juice! With New Years on a Sunday we went to church. Shane and the kids went to our church and I went to a new church. It felt weird going someplace else! We have a friend who launched a new church on new years day. So I went out to support their family. Aspen was working with the children and Matthew's friend goes to church with us. (Again with the game! Our cat Rascal couldn't take it anymore and left him!) So we decided I would go and Shane would stay with the kids. Our friend did a great job!
      Later in the day we went to the state park for a hike. Matthew and I were excited, Shane and Aspen not so much! They were good sports and ended up having fun.

He is ready to go with his new walking stick! He ended up leaving it in the car after this picture.

She did not want to smile. That is her fake "this is the best I'm giving you" smile.

Last year during the cub scout camp out this tree was planted by the boys! It has grown a lot!

Shane climbing a tree. I just noticed he is wearing one of his Michigan sweatshirts. That's funny! I am posting this while he is enjoying the game.

The moss on the tree made it slippery. He didn't want to attempt climbing. He decided to crawl up the tree.

Notice all the lines made by a woodpecker! That was one busy bird!!

This tree had some sort of growth. We called it the big butt tree.

My family hiking:)

Aspen is now smiling! And yes she is taller than me!

He found these glasses on the trail. Later on he found a cool place to put them for the next boy.

She found garbage on the beach and automatically picked it up.

      A fun afternoon was had by all!! We then went home and finished off the day watching football!

New Year New Name

    This is a little aggravating! I want my photo to go across the whole top, not just a little square off center. Grrrr.....guess I will have to Google how to do that! I want to grow my blog this year. It is my goal to blog more often maybe even every day! Most definitely more that once a month!
     I didn't make any New Year resolutions. I did make a 101 in 1001 list a few weeks ago. So I will work on that list a little every month. A few of my 101 I will work on this month are, teach Matthew how to tie his shoes. His current shoes are Velcro but he still needs to learn. I am a year or two behind on this one! Another is take my vitamins daily for 30 days. 2 down 28 to go. I know once I do this it will become habit. Make my blog pretty! I am trying but I need help from Google. I still have some time. Make a business plan. I have an idea for a business I am starting so this week I am making my business plan. Last for this month is blog daily for 30 days. 
   There are other goals I have but they are long term such as lose 40 pounds. I broke that up into smaller manageable goals such as 10 at a time. Another is hiking with Matthew once a month.  Have 20K in our retirement fund by June 2013. These are more long term that need work every month, some daily. When I am in the home stretch with them I will post them as a monthly goal!
     I hope everyone has had a blessed first couple of days of 2012!
  

Happy December 1st!

While my family is in the living room watching a Christmas movie, I am on my laptop in the kitchen doing homework:( 14 days left in this semester and 10 more class till I have my degree. Little sacrifices like this will be worth it when you look at the big picture. This time next year I will be preparing myself to receive my bachelors degree! It does make it easier knowing the end is in sight and near! Now back to school I must go. Off to write replies to two other posts. *sigh* It would be easier if I didn't hear the Swedish Chef from the Muppet's in the background!

Your Never To Old To Learn

My son broke my heart tonight. Well I hurt his feelings and didn't realize it. That is what broke my heart. Shane and Matthew took down Christmas decorations last night while I was with my mom. I came home and he had a billion Santa Clauses on the bar. And my Christmas village on a little stand instead of the table behind the couch where I always put it. So I fixed it. I shouldn't have done that. I concentrated on the wrong thing. I thought about how cluttered it looked and wanted it to look "nicer." I didn't think about the fact I told him he did a good job then undid what he did. While Shane and I were at our class he told Aspen how upset he was. Now I have to wait till he wakes up to say sorry and hope he is not discouraged and is willing to fix  my mistake!

It Now Feels Like Christmas!

I love the Christmas Season! For me I like the days before Christmas better than Christmas. I love all the excitement and traditions we have. One of them being "Merry Christmas!" We yell Merry Christmas when we see a house decorated. The only rule being you have to wait till you SEE the lights before you yell it. We end up memorizing the houses in our neighborhood and some people try to yell Merry Christmas before the houses are in view so we try to level the playing field:)

I took this with my cell phone so it's not that great but this is 3 houses together that put up an awesome display of lights in the Olde Mills neighborhood off of 707. They have done it for years. Every time we come home that way we take a detour to see all the lights. We let Matthew unbuckle and drive REALLY SUPER SLOW so we can take it all in.

Another tradition I love is Elvin the Elf! This is a mischievous elf that visits and reports to Santa daily. He leaves messes or does silly things for the kids to find in the morning. Last year Aspen helped out with Elvin. She knows who he really is but still likes to see what he does. Last year on his last morning (Christmas Eve) he left Dunkin Donuts. Matthew was sad to see him go! Tonight is his first night here this Christmas season!

I forgot to disguise my handwriting! I hope Matthew doesn't notice!! Aspen watched me do it so I guess she knows! lol I get so excited when I think of stuff but forget the mess I have to clean up! I used spray snow on the mirror then wrote the message. I now remember I don't like that stuff! Oh well, I can't wait to see the excitement on Matthew's face when he sees it!
I love receiving comments! Leave a comment telling me about some of your favorite Christmas traditions!

Black Friday Sales

I am NOT a morning person! I am more of a night person. So when I saw Walmart was having a sale on digital cameras I thought it MIGHT be worth venturing out. Matthew is always "borrowing" my camera and taking pictures and video so even though he didn't ask for one I know he will LOVE his new camera! The sales started at 10 but the camera was part of electronics and didn't start till 12. Aspen and I got there at11. We had to hike across the parking lot and WOW!!! The store was crazy!! Aspen and I walked around and got a few things off my list, most of what I wanted was already gone. Then at 11:35 I walked over to the pallets where they had the cheaper electronics. At 11:40 an employee handed the person closest to the pallet (more like the one with her body draped over it lol) a box knife. She cut into it and a surge of people went forward. I was push some by the crowd but it wasn't that bad. I didn't see anyone get ugly. Actually a person towards the front started passing back cameras. So I yelled, "Two please!" She passed them back and I was on my way! I got home about 12:15. Not to shabby for my first get into it Black Friday! I actually bought two cameras I don't think Aspen realized but I had one for her too. I looked around before I went to make sure this deal was worth it. I saved $30 per camera! So I think I did well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

    Our company is gone and we are now watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving together.  Oh wait Matthew didn't last he is sleeping on the couch wrapped in a fitted sheet! That's his latest thing, he wraps himself up in a flannel fitted sheet at night. Go figure:) Anyway before we started watching Charlie Brown we read 54 turkey feathers worth of "I'm thankful for."  
    I made a turkey body on November 1st. Daily we were suppose to write what we were thankful for on a feather. We forgot many days but still had lots to be thankful for! I also had visitors write on our feathers too. Like my Granny who is now 82. She was very sick this time last year and we thought she wouldn't be with us very long. She is now doing great and even flew in September!

    After everyone went home the four of us sat and took turns reading feathers. Some were everyday things like fuzzy socks and snakes others were health and brand new baby sisters (our neighbor Hunter).We laughed at some and had tears in our eyes for others. It was a blessing to have that time together as a family!

The naked turkey November 1st.

Thankful supplies. Paper feathers from scrap paper, pens,markers and masking tape.

Our turkey last week! He looks more turkey like! LOL

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!!

State Competition

Aspen's marching band made it to state this year! We drove 3 and 1/2 hours to and fro to watch her group compete yesterday. They did great! They placed 12th out of the 17 bands that made it to state. So they moved up three spots since last year! Pictures coming later:)

Tricked Ya!

So I have been duped by my 7 year old! I have not been to a haunted house in at least 9 years! That streak will be over tonight. *gulp* Matthew has convinced himself and Shane that I said I would go with him tonight?!?!? How did that happen? I'm pretty sure he talked to me about it when I wasn't giving him my full attention. I think I said yes without fully paying attention. Any other moms ever do that? He went on Saturday night to Dr. Screams with Shane and loved it. All he has talked about since then is taking Mommy with him and how funny it will be when Mommy screams. So wish me luck tonight! I'm scared!!!!

 This is more my kinda scary, Matthew said, "Hey look I'm the headless horseman!"

Google Bar

While using Firefox I don't have a favorites list. So when I want to go to Pinterest I look in the Google tool bar to find it. Just now I did and here are some topics in my history:
dumb laws in Alabama
funny facts about Alabama
Chuck E Cheese in Alabama
 The rest were expected titles for a research paper. Think someone is doing a paper on Alabama?!? I thought these were funny and cute and had to share! Aspen said they each had to pick a state for their paper. I asked why she picked Alabama thinking it's because she knows someone from there...nope. She said no one picked it and she felt sorry for the state! I love the silliness!

Going to State

Lat night I drove to Hartsville, SC to watch Aspen's marching band perform in lower state.  I went by myself since Shane went with Matthew to his cub scout event. Shane also had tons of homework. It was suppose to be a two hour and fifteen minute drive. It took me almost 3 hours. I went to the actual high school instead of their stadium. I literally got there JUST IN TIME!! I paid as the band before them performed. I should have been able to see 3 other bands perform before her. They did great and out of 15 bands they ranked 6th! So next weekend they are going to state competition!

Can you see her? she is the one in black pants and blue uniform top. LOL I sent that picture and text to family and was asked your joking right?! I keep forgetting to take pictures. I get caught up in watching the performance that I don't take any. I must next weekend!

Almost Halloween

Wow a week and a half before Halloween. I need to get busy on our costumes! Matthew refuses to wear a homemade costume. He thinks it is not scary enough. But a $14 one from Walmart is? LOL We do this thing called trunk or treat at our church the Wednesday before Halloween. The adults stand by the trunk of their cars and the children dress up and trick or treat car to car. So people go all out and decorate their trunks. We decorate but not all out. This year though..... A commercial inspired me! Watch and take a guess on what I plan on doing!

If you guessed dressing and dancing like a hamster next to my KIA Soul well then your right! I have been practicing the dance when no ones around. Hahahahaha
Aspen wants to be an owl. I have been working on that costume based on one I saw on Pinterest. Then Shane? Well he never dresses up. I take that back We did convince him a few times. Maybe I'll go to Goodwill and try to get ideas for him. I love this time of year! But not the cold coming up! Bleh

I Want To Be The President!

Today in the car this is how a conversation with Matthew went:

Matthew: Mommy when I grow up I want to be the president.

Me: The president of what?

Matthew: *sigh* The president of the United States of America!

Me: Oh wow that's cool! What made you decide you want to be the president?

Matthew: I want to see my name and face on the 44 president's poster.

Me: Do you also want to be president so you can help people?

Matthew: No I just want to be famous and hang on the wall in kids bedrooms.

Gotta love him!

Blank Piece of Paper

After not blogging for a while starting back up is kind of like looking at a blank piece of paper. Like getting ready to start a paper for class and not being able to get those first few sentences out.

I can't believe it is October already! This summer went to fast! The house is almost finished being decorated for Halloween. All I have left is hanging a cauldron and lights. Shane hangs Christmas lights and any other holiday is up to me. So I will hang them today.

Last night Matthew twisted my arm and forced me to go for a walk with him after dinner around the neighborhood. Not really all he said was please:) It was nice. Since it was dark my 7 year old son insisted on holding my hand. I liked that. Not many times anymore does he request my hand. We talked about school, the stars, the moon and of course Halloween. We even went out of our way to see a house with lots of items on display. I would like to make this a part of our routine. I don't want to miss out!

When we came home Aspen was outside doing homework and what not. I like this time of year. It is a little cooler and the mosquitoes are not as bad. I do dread the cold that is coming though. I hate winter! Even the mild winters in South Carolina.  Brrr I just got a chill thinking about winter. LOL
 
 Well there it is: my first blog post after months! A little all over but hey, you have to start somewhere!

Gold Medals

Last weekend our family was in Charlotte at an ERLTC convention. LTC stands for Leadership Training for Christ. We are given a theme, book from the bible and a verse. We then interpret it and come up with drama skits, speeches, songs, puppets, art work and other things. The kids work hard then at convention show all their effort. I lead an elementary drama group to gold! It was our first gold. I have had drama for three years. The first year they gold bronze, then silver and this year gold. They and I have improved each year. We write our own skits by interpreting the scripture and theme given to us. This years theme was More Than Conquerors. Here is My drama kids performing!

 

Next the middle and high school drama group which Aspen was a part of!

                                                 

Finally our chorus group.

 

All three performances earned gold! I am so proud of our youth. They participated in other events such as bible bowl, art, speech. bible reading and song leading. The children earned gold and silver. Way to go guys!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

We went to a baseball game with Matthew's cub scouts last night. Our local minor league team is the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

  

We were lucky with seats right behind the home plate. The team we played against was the Fredrick Keys. 

The wind up and the pitch!

 

The weather was perfect! I love this time of the year!

The best part was seeing Matthew goofing off with his friends. That's one of my favorite part about baseball games. They are relaxed and you can talk to each other while watching the game. Even though it was Matthew's scout night we all went as a family.

She is always ready for a picture:)

For once a picture of mom and dad! We are usually behind the camera!

Yeah the Pelican's won!!! We were in the lead most of the game then it got close! Even though we enjoyed the game we did not want to see it go into extra innings! After the game Aspen and I went home and Shane and Matthew spent the night. The scouts got to camp out on the baseball field! Matthew loved this! They watched the Sand Lot on the big screen with popcorn and soda then settled in for the night. Here is the badge from the camp out.

Shane doesn't take as many pictures as me. He didn't even want the camera. I should have MADE him! So no pictures of the actual camp out.

If you are ever in the Myrtle beach area during baseball season I suggest a Pelicans baseball game. If you check out their site there are many fun evenings coming up this summer!

Myrtle beach Pelicans

A Royal Day

     I don't have pictures because for most of the day my camera was in the couch cushion. I searched high and low for it and didn't find it. Then this afternoon it magically appeared! I think that had something to do with the little ones in the house. LOL
     The girls brought their dress up clothes and were princesses:) Matthew couldn't resist and put one on for about 2 seconds. Then decided it was stupid. We also watched bits and pieces of the wedding. Of course during down time we watched Cinderella! We had lunch on fancy plates and milk in glass cups! The kids were most excited about that. I made rice crispy treats and chocolate covered strawberries for our royal snack picnic. We "talked fancy" and said everything was lovely. Rebecca the 4 year old loved it the most. She would say, "Mrs. Alissa this apple juice is lovely." lol

     Tonight was parents night out. This is when at church once a month we have free babysitting for 3 hours. We take turns as couples babysitting at church. Most years we have enough families and we only have to babysit once a year. Not to shabby! Our plans were to go to River City Cafe. A burger place then walk on the Inlet. This WAS the plan till a very excited Aspen called. She was asked to play in the varsity game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is the JV goalie and the Varsity goalie couldn't play tonight's game. She was so excited!! We couldn't miss her big debut on varsity. The varsity girls are good! The are currently 6th in the whole state of SC. So Aspen touched the ball twice the whole game. The girls won 10-0. The ball didn't make it's way back to Aspen many times. She still had fun!

She had very little action.

I got action shots while she was practicing.

 

She had fun and seeing her game was much better than a date night. Matthew still went to parent's night out so he could play with his friends. So we got some bleacher time:)

    

Walking to Disney

Yesterday I posted about exercising and walking the same amount of miles as going to Disney as a goal. I am a visual person so I made a fun little chart to help keep track of my mileage.

I used Velcro to attach the numbers. This way I could easily change them out. When we got home from Cub Scouts I walked and already changed my numbers!

I walked 2 miles tonight. Only A LOT more to go!

While we were gone Aspen worked on a school project. They are having a recyclable fashion show tomorrow! Here is the dress she designed using only recycled material. 

She used her dad's accounting homework for the main part! She thought it was funny.

And last but not least here is Shane giving Matthew his awards he earned last month. Shane loves doing this with Matthew. He is Matthew's den leader. He was also Aspen's soccer coach for many years. I have been blessed with an awesome husband who is very dedicated to his children.