Throwback Party

Eddie and I attended a retirement 60's, 70's and 80's party this weekend. It was so much FUN! Seriously! We went back to the 70's as Foxy Brown and a Pimp Daddy and Jene and Andre threw it back to the 80's.

Check out the pics!

Friends forever!

Andre and Jene.....it's not fun unless they are around!

Thanks to my Mommy ... she mailed 1/2 the outfit to me - love you Mommy!

Eddie won the Best Dressed Male contest!

Watch Out for Falling.........

ICICLES!!! With over 40 inches of snow in 7 days (very normal for the winter time here) we have some special concerns that we have to look out for now. Here are some pictures of what we see everyday during the winter :)

Imagine the extra weight on that poor tree.

After a snowplow comes and clears the parking lot ... only to have to do it again in 2 hours

Certain walkways are plowed for you to 'safely' walk on

Snow bends too!

P.S. I did not take these pics, one of my friends took them, but to be fair when she was taking them I did tell her that I was going to 'steal' them from here and use them for the blog, because there was no reason for BOTH of us to be out in the cold with our cameras.

P.S. to my Phoenix friends: Cold is 19 degrees...21 degrees is the high for the week!

Happy 9th Birthday Elijah!!

Elijah's football cupcake cake that went to school on Jan 10th to share with his classmates. I managed to get 21 cupcakes in there. Pretty good because he only has 16 students in his class! He was happy and I was happy that he was happy :) He is getting so big, so very fast! It was much easier to make then I thought it would be --- and incredibly easier than LAST year's creation!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We will miss the snow when we PCS!! It is so peaceful as it falls and makes everything look so white and clean :)

On a mound of snow the snow plows made when they plowed the parking lot for the 4th time in 20 hours! I am thankful that I don't have that job!

Looking pretty cold on his way to school :) Yep, they still have recess in this weather, too! Snow pants, winter coat, hat, gloves and snow boots are required!

He really does enjoy playing in it (for about 30 min) - he has a sled and goes downhills near the house with his friends.

This is what my truck looks like --- every morning it snows. I end up brushing the snow off at least 4 times a day. In the AM before the gym, after the gym, before I go to work and after work.

Christmas 2010

Our last Christmas in Misawa. Here are A FEW pics of Elijah's gifts....he had a great Christmas!

Karate Kid collection (yep the originals) 1, 2 and 3!

Lego World Racer set....he loves putting these together

WWE wrestling ring

WWE wrestler action figures (not dolls -- he corrected me earlier)

Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 and 3

Computer to hook up to his keyboard....please notice me on the right hand said of the pic. By this time, Elijah had been opening gifts for at least an hour (I am not exaggerating). He hasn't caught onto the 'RIP OPEN YOUR GIFTS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE" thing yet.

Happy EARLY Birthday to Elijah!!!!

No, no , no you didn't miss his 9th birthday :) We celebrated early (Dec 28) because friends that he has celebrated his birthday with for 3 years are PCSing next week, so Elijah wanted to celebrate with them before they left. After gathering the gang, this is what we did:

Took or met all the kiddos at the Weasel's Den

I 'think' I got everyone in this shot????

Each child had a specific request about where they wanted pictures taken....hmmm those were the ones that made the final cut :)

Pizza making at home --the kids LOVED this part! I did too....SUPER cute!

Enjoyed their creations:)

He was a bit apprehensive about the sparkly, relighting candles. Yummy, Yummy Baskin Robins ice cream cake!

So my plan for his actual birthday is to make a football shaped cupcake cake for him to bring to his classroom.....cross your fingers that it works out well :) It's going to be hard to top last year's classroom birthday cake.

Christmas Cookie Factory

As noted before, Elijah enjoys cooking with me. Since we are officially on Christmas Break (woohooo) we rolled up our sleeves and started baking for our family and the neighbors.

This year we made cashew brittle and sugar cookies with sugar sprinkles, hazelnut and cinnamon sprinkles and decorations. We put each of the desserts in Christmas ziplock bags and placed them in Christmas canisters for our neighbors. My little elf, Elijah, always delivers them to everyone.

rolling out the sugar cookies.........also known as making a great, big, gigantic mess :)
taste testing the first batch.....he gave it one thumb up!
Sidenote: I think parchment paper was one of the BEST inventions ever! Sprinkles up front and hazelnut-cinnamon in the back.
Elijah took all the leftover sugar cookie dough, rolled it out, formed himself the largest cookie he could make and threw a ton of sugar AND sprinkles on top. He waited an extra long time (in kid time) for it to be done (8 whole minutes). He gave this one 2 thumbs up!

Hmmm what shall we bake next??? Any suggestions?