a new year

Well.
I'm not even sure what to say.
I knew it had been awhile, but jeez...

When I finally logged in and dusted off the old blog and saw the date I actually last posted... ouch.


I mean, I've had little lapses before, but four months??!?
Never in the eight years I've been babbling here blogging has that happened.
I don't even know what to say. Not even sure I know how to jump back in. It must be kinda like riding a bike, eh?

What a crazy four months it has been.
But I'm just going to jump into January and pretend like that little leave of absence never happened and back fill things in as I go.

And so, New Years!

Our only out of town-ers to ring in the New Year with us were the Laughlins.  They came and stayed a couple of nights before and we had a great time hanging with them. We all ate lots and played lots and laughed lots and our two kids made it to midnight (which 3/4 of the adults did not!) on New Years Eve.

And then of course our New Years Day Dinner.  Eighth Annual, fyi. :)
[Here are 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007 if you like trips down memory lane like me!]

It was a bit of a smaller affair this year; The Harkins again, The Laughlins, one half of the Wrights again and us, which made 7 adults and 8 kids. We had a full afternoon with a colorful table, a symbolic menu, fun fortune cookies, kid decorated toasting cups, breaking and sharing the peppermint pig and wonderful friends...

 L-R grown-ups: Mike, Ryan, Me, Mindy, Kevin, Kelly and Kasey

L-R kids: Evan (4.5), Wesley (2.5), Baby C, Kyle (8.5), Sawyer (8), Savannah (10.5), Alex (2.5) and Micah (4.5)

Always the best way to start off the New Year!

valentine-ing

We got an early start on this year's valentines around here...
I think I've finally learned my lesson (ha! -yeah, right) in taking advantage of the quiet(er) moments around here, not having any idea when our next chaos will arrive. 

That, and I knew I had stuff going on each and every evening this week leading up to Valentines Day, so we had to be on top of it.

The kids and I brainstormed, with some pinterest browsing thrown in there, awhile ago, and they had zeroed in on a couple that they liked;
Sawyer liked the crazy-straw idea he saw here (and we added the brilliant idea of the Kool-Aid with it) and Savannah really wanted to do friendship bracelets like these. 
**I love how I had meant all along to try and steer them away from candy ideas and it turns out they could care less about candy valentines without prodding after all!**

So I gathered party straws and found single serving Kool-Aids at Walmart and then Savannah and I spent a few hours last weekend making up 20 friendship bracelets.
Okay, truth be told the 'Savannah and I' was really mostly just I... turns out she's too much of a perfectionist and each bracelet would have taken her forever with lots of frustrations, so she made a few for her out-of-class friends and her brother, while I mostly cranked out the bracelets for her classmates (we did this kind for the bulk of them, fyi).  But Savannah did put a lot of time and effort into deciding what colors should be made for each person; if she knew their favorite colors, colors they wear a lot of, favorite teams, etc.  It was fun and she's excited about giving them. :)

And after I printed out some quick cards (if you know me, you know I can't pass up a good pun for valentines!) for their goodies, they got to assembling and signing them yesterday after school:

Sawyer: Valentine, you're so KOOL you make me LOOPY!

SJ: Our class would KNOT be the same without you!

Happy Hearts Day, all!

so, christmas....

My parents arrived the day after the kids break started... they were here for just over two weeks.
We drove them around and showed off some of Nashville's Christmas lights, we baked and decorated Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses, we went down to Chattanooga and to the Tennessee Aquarium, my uncle and cousins came over from South Carolina for a visit and Grandma and Grandpa got to see Sawyer's first basketball game of the season the morning they took off to head home.
Mostly we lazed around the house, playing new games (we got this one, this one, this one, this one and this one) doing puzzles, ping ponging, air hockeying, mad libbing, taking the puppy for walks, and just plain old hanging out.

Christmas was great... low key and fun.

Savannah actually woke up quite sick... feverish and with swollen tonsils and absolutely no voice. But she rallied and pushed through and we just had a (bit quieter and) bit slower Christmas morning that usual. 

Sawyer got his coveted pogo stick and SJ got a Santa-crafted dollhouse to house all the Calico Critters paraphernalia that was on her list.


My parents got a Kindle Fire from Santa this year, so lots of the rest of their vacation was spent playing way too much Draw Something.... ;)

And here's one last shot of the aftermath...

second verse, same as the first

Happy Halloween!












I feel like I'm repeating the same thing year after year around here... quick slap up the kids' Halloween stuff while we're busy with family here visiting and a birthday to cover tomorrow followed by the actual birthday party later this week. Exactly the same, every year. :)

So as per the norm, here are a few quick pics of the kids' Halloween adventures.
Sidenote: Halloween is when I find myself missing our old neighborhood the most. Halloween is not a holiday that ranks very high on my list, but our previous neighborhood converted me. The good old fashioned fun spirit of being creative and dressing up and making the night all about fun for the kids and the whole community enjoying each other out on a (usually) beautiful fall evening with not only candy but surprise treats and firebowls and fun kiddie haunted houses and donuts and hot cider and cold beers and friends passing by and neighbors mingling in the streets and kids just having so much fun... it was the best.
It's just [so far] not the same here. :/

Anyway. We of course won't let that stop us from having fun. And we did see a few people (kids from school) that we knew out and about. And Savannah went to a schoolmate's Halloween party and had a blast. Didn't hurt that she brought home a trophy for Best Costume!
Her plan for Halloween was to be a paper doll and she was super excited about that one. However, she was concerned about her (posterboard) costume getting ruined at a party full of third and fourth graders with games and food. So she last minute thought up (herself) an alternate costume; a granny. I slipped out and grabbed her a dollar pair of glasses and a pair of knee high panty hose from the Dollar Tree and we tossed a little baby powder in her hair and she was ready to go!




























































Then for actual Halloween, she was the Paper Doll she had set her heart on....




















And everyone loved her costume.
Even Ryan...





















And of course, we can't leave out Savannah's faithful sidekick; Frankenstein...






Handsomest
Frankenstein
I've ever seen. ;)













And that concludes our yearly speed version of a Halloween Holiday recap in the midst of houseguests and birthday prep. Oh, and NaBloPoMo too! haha!!












Hope your Halloween was Happy!

happy 4th

Our friends left bright and early Monday and so the four of us headed out to get some bike riding in before the heat of the day. (who am I kidding, it was already hot. we rode and played on the playground and were home by 9:30!)

























































We spent the rest of the midday of the holiday in a combination of movies and naps on our big comfy couch before heading down to Franklin to check out their 4th of July festivities. Super disappointed in that, since it's advertised as "free" but the only thing that is free is the local music on stage and walking by all the vendors. They had a huge kids area with inflatables and rock climbing and bungee jumping, but that all cost $$. Did I mention $$$? Like $20 just to do the inflatables. Per kid. Uh, no thanks.
We were really missing our great fourth of July festival tradition back in Missouri. :(

After a couple of $8 bungee jumps, $3 waters and $5 kettle corn (which was yummy and worth it), we ditched Franklin and stopped by home to grab some dinner, a cooler and blankets and headed to another festival closer to our house for the evening and for the fireworks. We seriously considered just camping out on our roof (I thought the kids would get a kick out of that!) and scoping out what we could see from our own place, but I'm glad we ventured out and found this little festival after all.
They had a whole big kids area with (FREE!) inflatables and games and facepainting and tattoos... when the kids tired of that we wandered thru the sponsor booths and vendors, got some free balloons and glow sticks, bought some ice cream ($1 each, thankyouverymuch) and then camped by our cooler, with Sawyer playing ball with some other boys and Ryan, Savannah and I playing cards on our blankets. Then the kids did some crazy dancing as the sun set with their glow sticks/necklaces. When it finally got dark, the fireworks show was great (Savannah even captured it on camera) and all in all it was a really nice, small town feeling celebration.