Fish-House Parade...

The Day after Thanksgiving found us at the Fish-house parade again...same as every year! The kids are always so excited to go to the parade. My dad has always brought my siblings to the parade for many years...somehow I always managed to get out of going...but now that I have kids I have gone every year! Jon, on the other hand always gets out of going...he is either shopping the Black Friday sales or hunting...so this year was his first!

 James fell asleep on the car ride to the parade...and he continued sleeping while we transferred him to the stroller...why do they never stay sleeping when you want them to or wake up when you want them to?!

 The parade starts out like all other parades...lots of military people and firetrucks...after that it is float after float with a fish-house/ ice-fishing theme. Some are quite comical...some throw out strange things...like cans of tuna...other just throw out candy, much to the kid's delight!

 Our little group watching the parade...

 James finally woke up when the parade was about half over...just in time to see some big trucks...a happy little boy!

The fish-house parade...a perfect way to spend the afternoon!

Thanksgiving 2011

My blog has been pretty quite the last few days...Jon has been home since last Wednesday...so we have been soaking up as much family time as possible! He has been gone doing 2 and 3 week tours...so when we have the opportunity for family time, we take advantage of that!

We did the same thing we do every year for Thanksgiving...I love that about Holidays...the same traditions...when they get messed up it feel wrong all year! Anyhow, we enjoyed a lovely meal with all the fixins' at my parents house. Elsie made all the place-cards this year...we saved toilet paper rolls for a month so we would have enough to make little turkeys for everyone! Elsie got a little creative with some of the turkeys...she gave them hair, bangs, eyebrows, ears...she is creative!

 The 3 little girls all in a row on the bench...

 Jon was getting annoyed with my mom and I for taking pictures while we were eating...he appreciates photography so long as it doesn't interfere with eating, I guess!

 James enjoyed his Thanksgiving meal...his favorites were the Sweet Potato Apple bake and the homemade baked beans. He had seconds of both!

 My Thanksgiving plate...it was yummy! Maybe I went back for seconds of some of it...okay I even had thirds of the potatoes and gravy...because I am a pig like that! Actually I don't know what my mom did to the gravy, but it was amazing...and I don't even like gravy! The stuffing was all gluten free made from Udi bread...it was a little crumbly...but the flavor was delicious...I had seconds of that too!

 After dinner, we looked at the Black Friday Sale ads and mapped out or plan of attack...in the end we slept in and just Jon went in to town later to pick up all the things we couldn't live without...like the bright purple skinny jeans for me!
 Anyhow, after that we enjoyed some home-made ice-cream and pie...made from scratch by me...pretty amazing tasting in my opinion! After the pie we went over to Becky's to visit for a bit. Jon's brother and his family were up...so the kids enjoyed playing together...

 For some reason the kids always enjoy playing in the bay window...I am sure someday they will all have warm fuzzy feelings and think of Grandma B. when they see a bay window!

We had a very happy Thanksgiving...we went to bed that night with a very full tummy and lots of warm fuzzy memories...

Happy Thanksgiving...

As you read this we are probably off enjoying a little Thanksgiving feast at my parents house...surrounded by family and feeling very gratefully for all we have. We are blessed!

Pinatas and Sunday's...

Keeping with Elsie's birthday outline, after opening the gifts it was time for the Pinata! It seems that lately no Birthday at our house is complete unless we have a Pinata!

 Even James got a turn at whacking the Pinata. James actually spent most of his time dancing to the Crazy Frog cd we had turned up...he loves that cd!

It seems that most things you buy in town are cheap and not made very well...Pinatas are not like that at all! I will have you know that no matter how hard the kids whacked at that darn Pinata it would not break!

 Finally someone whacked it hard enough to make a corner break open a little, tiny bit...so Jon just shook the candy out...and we discovered that Pinatas are really just a cardboard box all decorated up! No wonder they are un-breakable!

 Candy, candy, candy...too much candy! The Pinata was filled to the top with candy...one of the perks of having a birthday right after Halloween is buying 50% off Halloween candy to fill a pinata with!

 After the Pinata, it was time for the Ice-Cream Sunday's! Jon bought several containers of dairy-free ice cream while in Iowa and stored them in his cooler with lots of ice! {we couldn't find any large containers around here...but HyVee in Iowa has everything!} We even bought some little Sunday cups from the Dairy Queen so it would feel like we were eating Dairy Queen Sundays!

 We had a little collection of sprinkles and toppings...a Make-your-own Sunday buffet! Very fun...and a special treat for everyone since ice-cream is a very rare treat!

 And just to make it a little more festive we had fancy little umbrellas...everything is better with a fancy umbrella!

So...my baby girl is 4 now...what a fantastic little party...she went to bed a very happy little girl that night...

More Birthday...

After swimming we all headed back over to our house for the rest of the party...

 Elsie is a planner, I tell ya...a few days before the party she and I sat down with a paper and pencil to plan her party...all I did was tell her, "lets talk about your party"...she had the whole little party all planned out already! Her list, in the order she wanted things done...1. hot tub. 2. Eat cupcakes 3. Open gifts 4. break open the pinata with Crazy Frog turned up loud 5. Ice-cream sundays.

 My four-year-old girl! Where has the time gone...it seems to slip away far to fast.

 "Making a wish..."

 We use the Betty Crocker gluten free cake mixes for our cakes and cupcakes...but they only come in boring chocolate or vanilla...so we made our funfetti by adding lots of Nerds Candy to the vanilla batter...they tasted pretty good and looked fun!

 I think James ate his whole cupcake in about 3 bites...3 very large bites...like so large I don't know how his teeth could even touch to chew!

 Love this picture! There is nothing better than a full house to help a little girl turn 4!

 The Party hats we had on the table were a huge hit...

 After the cupcake eating was checked off the list, we moved into the living room to tackle that huge pile of gifts...

 The Golden Brithday Girl opened so many lovely gifts...I love all the thought and love the little aunties put into their gifts. Emma made Elsie a little book of clothing she cut out of fancy paper...Elsie loves to look though that book!

 Auntie Marissa knew how much Elsie loves sparkly things...so she found a perfect size rock, painted it gold {because this was a golden birthday} and glued lots of golden glitter to the rock! Elsie has the rock proudly displayed in her room! Love the giving hearts of those aunties...

 Elsie got lots of other fun gifts too...like a new dolly outfit, paints, window crayons {which I HATE!} , a scooter, some barbies...

 Last Christmas auntie Emma got a little guitar...and since then Elsie has been begging for her own little guitar also. So, after drooling over every guitar she saw for almost a whole year, you can only imagine her surprise and excitment when she opened up her own guitar!

 She told me, she though she would sound just like Taylor Swift when she played her guitar...so when I saw the one with hearts on it, I had to get it for her! Personaly, I think Elsie sounds just like Taylor...maybe even a little better!

 She was just as happy with her new pink cowboy boots too!

She is one lucky girl...everyone knows how to spoil a Birthday girl pretty good!

Pool Party...

Elsie decided that everyone should go swimming at the local pool to celebrate her special day. Well, she really didn't say "swimming"...she really said "relax in the hot tub!"...I am not lying...Elsie would much rather sit in the hot tub than be in the cold pool...my kids are crazy like that!

As it turned out, the day we celebrated Elsie's birthday everyone could come...all the big aunties even had the day off work...Elsie was super excited about that! I think everyone had an enjoyable time at the pool...

For some reason the hot tub was not working properly so the temp was quite cool...James liked it because he could get in!

The Birthday girl, cuddling her little brother...I love watching those two together...

It was a pretty calm day at the pool...Jon was busy with James, my Dad didn't swim and Ted was off hunting...the only wild one left was Colter...and with no one to be wild with, he was pretty mellow. At one point though Laura and Colter were tossing a ball back and forth...and someone threw it a bit too hard, the other one missed and the ball went flying into the little shower on the opposite end of the room...and there was someone in the shower! There was dead silence from everyone...then the ball came rolling out again from under the shower curtain...and laughter erupted in the whole room! My mom, the only sensible one, yelled out, "sorry in there" to the person in the shower {Who remained silent through it all!}. These are the moments memories of made of!

Frosting...

This week I am finally getting around to posting Elsie's birthday party pictures! We had a fabulous birthday celebration! Jon surprised us all and came home the night before Elsie's birthday...she was a very happy little girl to wake up and find Daddy was home for her Birthday! For her Birthday meal we went to town and got a gluten/dairy free pizza...and she got to stay up late! After James went to bed Elsie, Jon and I all sat around the dining room table and frosted and decorated the cupcakes for her party the next day. It was a fun evening... 

 Elsie decorated a special cupcake for herself...I think she used about 20million little crown sprinkle...she placed each sprinkle on the cupcake very carefully!

 One day while Elsie was looking at Cakes on Pinterest she came upon a picture of a crown cupcake...she fell in love! We did our very best to create our own version of the crown cupcake...we used gum for the crowns!

 We had some very lovely {and yummy} cupcakes...and we created lots of fun little memories by decorating them together.