A trip to the Zoo

Kutter's preschool class recently had a field trip to the zoo and Brielle and I were able to tag along. It was a bit colder than we had planned (and we all know how much I love cold!) but the kids really enjoyed it. We were technically with his whole class, but two of my friends and I kind of went off on our own. Maybe not our best idea ever. We had three moms, 6 of our own children, one that I borrowed, and two (empty, of course) strollers! It took me days to be able to remember my own name! Fortunately, we got a few cute pictures to prove we survived.
I love this one, because it is evidence that Brielle and Kutter thoroughly enjoy each other's company -- at least for now! The lions were part of the zoo's newest addition -- and they received their due respect. I only wish they could've got the children to hold this still for another hour! This is the only part of 3 hours when we weren't chasing them all!

This is my final signing-off before the big drive to Texas. I will be missing you all desperately, and I promise to get my Internet squared away as soon as I can (because I know that you will all be completely lost without me!)

Happy Birthday Breje!

It's not technically her birthday yet, but the computer'll be out of business by the time she reaches 12 (we'll sort of be on the road to Texas by then!) and we couldn't let this landmark birthday slide by without a big party, so we had one early!
We chose a polka dot theme (Thanks, Yvette, for the awesome idea!) and the girls really humored me. I was worried that they would think they were too old for such silliness, but they jumped right and we totally polka dotted to our hearts' content!
The decorations were easy. Balloons, sticky dots from the dollar store, fun colors, and round plates that spelled "Happy Birthday". We had polka dot napkins and I spilled Skittles all over the table for them to snack on while they played. Breje and her friend almost had more fun decorating than they did at the party! While we waited for the pizza to arrive, I let the girls make polka dot magnets for their lockers. I somehow managed to skip pictures of this but it was a huge hit and they turned out great.
After pizza, we had a ton of fun making polka dot flip flops. The girls really seemed to enjoy it and each pair turned out so uniquely different. I think they look adorable all together, don't you?

We also played "Who has the most polka dots". We put a bunch of questions into a bowl that asked things like "Who has the longest hair?" and "Who is the most boy crazy?" Whoever was chosen as the "most likely" received a polka dot sticker for her face. We had a tie and the girls were sweet enough to share their funny polka dot prize.

I tried to jazz up Breje's requested ice cream cake with some homemade polka dots -- not as cute as I had hoped, but it was definitely tasty!

She got tons and tons of fun presents-- her friends totally spoiled her, but the best part was just watching them all sit around and giggle together!

We sent them all home with polka dot goody bags, complete with "dots", gumballs, butterscotch candy, and round lip gloss. I'm thinking that I better apologize to all the moms for the inevitable sugar high! I seriously can't believe that my little girl is already twelve years old! She is really turning out to be an amazing young lady. She is smart, beautiful, friendly, and talented. She is usually a huge help with Brielle and puts up with her brothers as well as she can! I'm really proud of the young lady she's become, and thrilled that she is becoming such a good friend!

Visitors!

Jody's mom and sister made it out last weekend for a quick visit before we take off for Texas! I must say, they were real troopers, driving all this way for a rainy weekend with no plans! They got here late on Friday, just in time to help put kids to bed, and we spent most of Saturday morning getting ready for the boys soccer games -- only to have them canceled due to nasty weather. We finally did make it to one of our towns' few attractions-- double fried egg rolls at the local Chinese place Yummy! Afterwards, Treva had the insane idea of burning off all the extra calories with a rousing game of kickball in the rain! Notice that she is the only adult out there?! The rest of us mostly observed from the front porch, and eventually, the windows. I was going to edit this picture, but I loved seeing crazy Treva running around with all the kids in the rain, my poor trees about bending in half because of our famous "light breezes"! What a trooper!
We finally convinced everyone to come and spent most of the afternoon playing cards and munching on candy. There was one brief moment in the afternoon when the sun thought about shining, so Jody got out the motorcycles. I'll be forever disappointed that I didn't grab the camera in time to get a picture of Jody riding the kids' motorcycle, but I couldn't resist posting this picture of Treva getting her turn. What a goofball!

Each spring, I get a guaranteed shopping day with my mom, my sister, my sil, and NO KIDS! We plan it for springtime so that we have an excuse to buy summer clothes that the kids are needing (and if cheesecake and a new purse are haunting us, well it would just be a waste of gas money to go back for it later!) I wasn't going to blog about our fun girls' weekend because Hayley already did such a great job. If you want to read a sappy post about how wonderful we all are, just log onto her blog.

I couldn't resist a quick post, however, because it does happen to be one of my favorite weekends of the year. It seems to get more fun every year, especially since Breje comes along now. The five of us tend to be very different in a lot of ways, but our combined passion for bargains and tasty food brings us together and it is ridiculous how much time we spend giggling like kids. I don't think we've had a year, yet, where someone (usually a waiter) looks at us like we're drunk. I'm not sure why that makes it more fun, but it does.

I seriously feel so lucky that I am so close to these women and that we have such fun together. Hayley blogged about all our best qualities (leaving out her bravery, mothering skills, creativity, etc) but I think my favorite thing about all these women is how willing they are to just get silly. Without sharing too much, let's just say that...

... if you ever get Amy a special treat, do it quick and then stand back -- she's liable to lick you! And if Hayley is in a rush to get to Target just get her there fast -- or you may encounter a crazy astronaut in depends moment! My mom? Just ask her about gestures. Not obscene ones, they're well, just gestures. Memorable gestures!

Thanks, ladies, for all the fun! Can't wait til next year!