MACE IN THE MIDDLE

of buckeroo
and bedtime stories
a game of elefun
elefun can really take it out of a puppy
of gift opening
and grocery loading...

DATE WITH DAD

~making the "Bob" crown for dad~

It's really amazing how much Sully has grown up since getting the stress of Christmas behind him. I'm grateful, but it's really starting make me sad. He's my baby! On the way home from school today he said, "Miss Debbie said I not breaking her heart that I growed up so so much." Guess he thinks I'm holding him back!

MONSTER JAM

I guess this is one of the benefits of having all boys....
no disney on ice 'round these parts!

the boys:
harrison has now added monster truck driver
to the long list of professions he hopes to pursue

sully was overcome with excitement...
or maybe it was his inability to sleep past 7:30 am

talon

and rylee...they liked it, too!
the dude in front of me paid for the whole seat,
BUT HE ONLY NEEDED THE EDGE!
gravedigger and friends
and then sully thought about joining us...
jacob and uncle pat made a few bets. uncle pat won. harrison and sully got new shirts with jacob's money. the stakes were low and so we got the bootleg ones from the people by marta. they only had adult sizes left. oh well. didn't seem to bother the boys...especially since sully had had a two hour nap.
yep...they look ready for bed...
and for those of you that don't know,
mitzi is having a girl!!
that means rylee is going to be a big brother.
they are going to name her after me! not really.
disney on ice...here we come!

SAMURAI JACK PARTY!

I don't think there is a parent alive that likes the idea of fourteen little boys with swords in a moonwalk. So this is how we celebrated Harrison's seventh birthday Samurai Jack style... the best part was the onion volcano
or maybe it was watching the kids trying to
catch rice with their mouths


or getting to sample all the good stuff.maybe the best part was watching
the kids after the fire ball.
yeah...that was so much fun
we did it again.

or it could have been hearing Alex scream,
"It scorched my eyes! Tell me what
my eyes look like now!?"
the best part might have been Sassy's chocolate cupcakes...or the fact that I didn't have to clean my house to have it destroyed by a bakers dozen of busy first graders...or it could have been that all four grandparents were there for moral support and crowd control.

But I think the best part was Harrison got to celebrate his birthday with his buddies and we got to celebrate another year with Harrison!

A LULLABY...

I sometimes sing to Sully when I'm rocking him to sleep. Yesterday, the meaning changed when the father that requested it passed away at the age of 28. I thought I would share it with you all...

THE DELTA FAIRY DIDN'T COME,

but we still got to play in the snow.
and lots of it...for georgia!

the snow-chunk fight.
harrison thought he was being sneaky.

I totally saw it coming.

they say the grass is always greener on the other side and sully had to size up the snow, too. he kept disappearing into the neighbor's yards and eating their snow. he said ours taste the best.

can you see him on the ground? he's such a nut!
I wish he had gone one more yard down and snagged those red sleds. mace ate a lot of snow, too.

then came the snowmen.
here is harrison and bob's-

here is mine and sully's. it's actually a snowman wedding cake complete with the newlyweds on top. she has pine straw hair and he has a pine cone hat. they were holding little twig hands...until sully pulled them out while I was gone to get the camera.

then there was much sledding (or trashcan lid-ing and cardboard boxing). you can tell by the snow in the two pictures that we made more than one trip down the hill.
it was so exciting for the boys to finally get to play in the real stuff...not that last year's trip to tony's tube world wasn't fantastic. I thought the delta fairy was going to have to put some plane tickets to colorado under my pillow for us to experience the real thing! :) and the best part was the power never went out and the roads didn't freeze. our hibachi birthday bash went on as scheduled...pictures coming soon!

SNOW!!

So it's snowing and beautiful...
what better time to defend yourself
against the "white bombs".

Guess that's life with boys...speaking of which,
I heard Sully yell, "I'm melting!". I turned around and found this:

So we went inside to warm up...
then back out for a snowball fight at dusk-

Then once the sun had set, we went back out for round three. Notice Harrison's mini-snowman to his left. For Sully, simply opening his mouth to catch the flakes was way too slow.

He found a way to expedite things. For the record I have a snow museum in my freezer...including, but limited to, two muddy footprints. Bob was in transit from Nebraska when it started falling. I tried to convince the boys that Dad had seen snow already that day....but he hadn't seen "our snow". So I agreed to create a little tribute to the flurries of 01/16/08 amidst the frozen veggies. The only thing that wasn't allowed was the snowman. And here is Harrison's reaction when he found out it had melted two days later...


He's been learning about the water cycle at school. I told him that his snowman was now part of the cycle again and the next time it rained, we would be blessed with "snowman guts". It's really hard to say "snowman guts" without smiling...go ahead...I dare you try.

JUST ONE OF...

Sully's many "tricks".

THE LAST DAY

I can say he's six...

MY BACKYARD

Once I imagined my backyard as an oasis. A beautiful space where we would entertain while the children pick flowers and chase butterflies. I would serve everyone drinks as the sun streamed through the pines and poplars. We would have little pathways leading to secret places. Swings and benches. The boys could climb trees and tend their garden while I devoured a book....reading it from cover to cover without stopping. Instead








plastic toys come here to die and the only things that flourish are the unfinished projects and dog bombs!