ringing in 2010

we love new years eve in this house. totally and completely love it. usually we ring in the new year with friends, but this year we had family in town - Yeah!!

however, we were not as lively a bunch as we could have been because the night before we were up until after 2:30am playing munchkin. does anyone else know how to play that game?? at first i thought it was really, really weird. but once i got the hang of it, i decided it's my new favorite.

we can't celebrate new years without fire works. this years illegal explosive of choice was bottle rockets. yes - i'm sure our neighbors loved us.

this is how many you can fit into a pvc pipe. but then how do you light them all quickly??

with a blowtorch of course!!

happy new year!

a couple of weeks late

the man party

this weekend was larry's birthday.

in the past we haven't been very good about celebrating each others birthday's.

i'm not really sure why this is. i think it might have something to do with the fact that we tend to be out of town on our birthday's.

or it could be that as a kid my parents didn't really celebrate theirs.

anyway, i decided that it's time for that to change!

so i tried to quickly organize a man party for larry.

and no man party is complete without a "manly" cake.

our friend stacey is such a cake genius!

she only had a couple days notice and this was what she was able to put together

larry loved it of course.

the trophy pose

the entire cake was edible so we couldn't resist

getting some silly shots of the disassembled body parts

the only pictures i got guest wise were the two dans

dan h. enjoying an ear

dan r. chomping on an antler

and even though it was a "man" party, i couldn't leave the kids out

when the cake was so awesome!

bella chowing on.... i'm not even really sure what that is

after cake the men went off to see sherlock holmes and had a good ol time.

all in all, i would consider the first man party a success.

of course without the rocking cake it would have been lacking so thanks stac for taking an idea and bringing it to life! you are the best!!

when family comes to town

larry's sister colleen and her family came to visit us right after christmas. we had sooooo much fun with them. their older kids stayed with us and it was such a blast. it's been a few years since we have seen them and the kids have grown so much. so much in fact that they aren't even kids anymore. they are totally like little adults now. and if you want to get to know someone; well, just have them spend a week at your house. we were up till all hours of the night watching movies, playing games and just finding out more about them. it was awesome. and during the day we did some cool stuff as well.

they brought some fabulous tubes with them so sledding was way fun. i don't think i have ever gone down a hill so fast in my life.


lily loved it. and the best part was - it wore her out!

ben was a mad man. i'm hanging on for dear life and he's all but standing up. craziness!

brooke and her friend p* enjoying a little break.

brendan's victory shout as he smoked daniel coming down the hill.

just how many people can you fit on those things anyway???

apparently a lot.

the "big cousins" were so good to our kiddos. they played with them endlessly and were always there to lend a helping hand. i tried to kidnap ryan and have her live with us forever. but wouldn't you know, she'd rather go to college than hang with us. talk about having your priorities out of line ;)

our first, and hopefully last, mohawk

awhile ago, lily cut her hair. and when i say cut, i meant to less than an inch in a couple of spots.

it was more like she scalped herself.

at first, it wasn't too noticeable. i just did the little comb over routine.

but now that it's starting to grow out;

well...... let's just say it's not so easy to hide

any suggestions how to camouflage this??

christmas 09

we had a great christmas this year.

here is a rundown of the favorite gifts

every three year old needs a giant candybar. even though i told "santa" she didn't need one, it magically appeared in her stocking. i guess "santa" knows best
the girls were dying, crying and sighing for zhu zhu pets. i looked for months. my mom and her friends looked for months. finally i found some three days before christmas. the best part; these things are highly, highly breakable.

so while the joy on their faces made it worth while at the time. i'd like to have a serious conversation with the makers of these fine toys.

brendan desperately wanted a guitar. he starts lessons with mike the guitar guru this week. he is so excited!!