Will you be my Valentine?

Em and I decided to "make" the Valentines for her class this year.  Since I wanted Emerson to actually sign each one we started early on account that it might take her a while to write Emerson 20 times.

We made butterflies with Tootsie Roll Pops and some "googly eyes."

All done and ready to pass out on Monday!

"It's like Thanksgiving!"

That was the exact phrase that came out of my son's mouth as I was preparing the snacks to take over to our neighborhood Super Bowl party last Sunday.

It was our usual crowd plus a few extra.....about 20 people.  However, there was enough delicious food to feed another 20!

This was the main food table before Adam got here with his platters of meat from the grill.

 And of course there was Sangria!  For some reason I am always in charge of the cocktials at these gatherings.

While I couldn't tell you who won or by how much I can tell you that I loved the performance by Blake and Miranda, Madonna put on a pretty good show at age 54 and the Honda CRV Ferris Bueller commerical rocked!  And we had a great time celebrating with our friends!





Today....we BOWL!!!

The kids and I spent our MLK holiday doing a little bowling.  I took them to RedPin downtown in Oklahoma City.  Paul was out of town so I needed to get creative with my sad little chickies who "missed Daddy."

although they don't look too sad here

my little bowler......she won round 2

Look at that form!!!

I realized once we got to the bowling alley that her size 4t shirt was clearly too small.  Nice.  No one told me she was beginning to outgrow her clothes.  I gotta stop feeding these kids.

Speaking of eating, they thought it was pretty cool to have pizza while they bowled. 

I sure enjoyed hanging with these two!  They are growing up so fast.  I have to figure out a way slow time down.

Hanging with the Animals

Today was a first for me.  I definitely had never visited the San Antonio zoo wearing a jacket, gloves and a hat.  Typically we were usually sweating   Paul was off on the 2nd so we took the kids to the zoo.  It was chilly but it actually made a pretty enjoyable trip.  The kids were frisky and the animals were wild or did I mean the animals were frisky and the kids were wild? 

 Their favorite part of this zoo has to be the "children's petting zoo."  Em wanted to bring home some goats.

 

This little elephant was my favorite.  She was born just last April and she is the cutest 300 pound baby I've ever seen.

 Me and my little raccoon.

So far 2012 is looking pretty good.......the kids are hoping for some snow again.  Me....I'll take the snow minus the blizzard.

Ringing in 2012

The absolute best part of having great neighbors that you enjoy spending time with is that you can plan an impromptu New Year's Eve party in less than 24 hours and no one has to worry about driving home after having a little too much champagne.

 These two couldn't wait for the party to start.  They love a good neighborhood gathering, especially when there is lots of yummy food involved.

 We played Pictionary and Tabu.  It was so much fun!!  Tyson proved to be a very worthy opponent!!!

Boys versus Girls

It was fun night and even Tyson stayed up for the stroke of midnight.

See ya 2011, it was real but bring on 2012!

Back to normal

After Christmas it's always tough getting back to normal, especially for the kids.  They miss Grandma and Grandpa already and all of the excitement has come to a slowdown.  We had some unusual warm weather toward the end of the school break.  The kids and I took advantage of it.
 We spent almost three hours at the pond in our neighborhood.  We "hiked," played, ate a picnic lunch and fed the geese.

By the way, this is "Grace."  Em's new American Doll from Santa.  She came from Santa just as ordered, "blonde hair, blue eyes and purple glasses."  Emerson named her Grace (after someone we all know and love, Grandma  Grace) and she goes almost everywhere with us.