Addendum to previous post

In my tiredness last night, I forgot to mention one exciting tidbit about Chloe's party: HER HAIR CAUGHT FIRE! As you can see from this picture pre-fire, her hair was a bit in her face and flying about the flames. Next thing we know, a piece on her right side lights up, then flames head up towards her scalp. Fast acting Grandma reaches across the table and puts out the flames with her fingertips, like the tough broad that she is. (mental note: call Grandma to see how her burnt fingers are today.) I dropped my camera and rushed to Chloe (darn it that I wasn't videotaping at the moment) and everyone was of course relieved and laughing. Chloe has a small section of hair that is now very short and a bit rough, and it took a good 20 minutes for the smell of burnt hair to leave the living room. Alls well that ends well, and we now have a fun 5th birthday story!
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Boys and Girls, when you are blowing out birthday candles, either blow hard and stand back, or make sure all hair is securely tied behind you.

Happy Birthday Chloe!!

I cannot believe that my sweet, sweet Chloe is 5!! Time really does fly. This year we are all about Princesses, so naturally we had a princess Tea party for her birthday. I let Chloe invite 10 (!!) little girls, which I normally wouldn't allow, but a). Chloe was so excited and I want to encourage her to be more outgoing, and b). it was a 4 day weekend around here, so I figured half wouldn't be able to make it. umm, wrong. All but 2 agreed to come, and 3 of those girls brought siblings. All in all, we had 11 princesses and 4 rowdy boys. I have never seen such gorgeousness as those girls in their gowns. We danced, played games (led, believe it or not, by Miss Chloe) had tea and cupcakes, hit a pinata and opened presents. I have never seen Chloe so outgoing or talking to so many different people. It was great to see. That was Saturday. Tonight we had traditional family birthday, but with 3 fun cousins, it was like a second party.
I didn't know that there were so many different types of Princess toys- I think her friends caught on to the fact that Chloe likes princesses!
My sweet Chloe truly is a princess, and is a smile with feet. I love her dearly, and she brightens my days, every day. Happy Birthday, sweetums! We love you!!!

A few more of those cute kids

Here are a couple of the cute ones . . . Billy looking divine- and just a little dirty!

Emily looking so sweet and smiley!

What a trio of lovelies- Ellie's smile is her best effort after grandma offered her $1.00 to smile.

and I have to say it . . . Here's Crabby Abi! :)

The Photo Shoot of all photo shoots

Okay, for Christmas, we decided that we would get Grandma and Grandpa a nice picture of all 7 grandkids. What a great idea, right? Well, seeing that we were all super busy before Christmas we didn't get it done in time. Instead, we got them a nice, big frame and the promise of a future picture. Well, it truly is the thought that counts, right? Last night, I gathered the family at my house for THE PHOTO SHOOT. We tried, we truly did. Chauncey was so sweet and handsome, and tried to get the little ones interested. Abi was tired and screaming. Ellie was unsure and NOT smiling. at all. ever. Hayden was being a little bit goofy, and Billy, well, let's just say Billy was diggin' for gold. I have to say that Emily and Chloe smiled a million smiles and looked adorable in almost every picture. What sweet girls they are. Out of the 200 or so pictures I snapped, we did not get a single, decent picture that included all 7 grandkids. I was showing AC the BEST one and he said, "Yeah, that's pretty bad. Now show me the good one you took." I glared. We did manage a few cute pictures, just no big "winner winner, chicken dinner" pictures.

Notice billy's finger- I'm not sure if he managed to get anything good or not . . .

Chauncey really was trying, and doesn't Hayden look THRILLED here?

And my favorite of all night- what a cute trio of boys.

Even if we didn't get a great picture, or even a mediocre one, we had fun. Grandma sprang for pizza, and made a delicious salad, and we watched the Cardinals win in a playoff game. I guess there is a limit of one miracle per evening, and the Cardinals winning a playoff game was it- not a picture of all 7 kids. smiling. not picking. not grimacing. I would have been happy with 5 out of 7 decent looking kids, but alas, it was just not meant to be. We tried- we truly did.

My favorite part of Christmas Day

So I'm a week late, but I had to post a couple of pictures of the best part of Christmas for me. I love Christmas night, when all of the presents are opened, and everyone's relaxed and playing with their new toys. AC and I have a glass of wine, and sit back and bask in the post-Christmas glow. Also, I had to rest my fingers- they were practically raw from all of the twisty ties I had to untwist that day. Hayden received Battleship from Grandma, and quickly mastered it, and a Wii from Grandma and quickly mastered that as well. I think Hayden's favorite part of the Wii was making the Miis. Hayden and Ac had a BALL making the Mii for ME-- oohh, its soooo funny to make mommy sooo short, oooohhhh, lets make mommy as fat as it can go. Hardy har, har, har!

Christmas is now officially over, and its back to the daily grind. ACs parents leave tomorrow, and the kids will have to settle for boring old me. Ac also starts busy season on monday, so we'll see him in March or so. Sigh. I foresee lots of movies and Wii in our near future!

Happy New Year!