just had to share this one...

THE PARTY POST

It has been a year of parties and the ol' blog hasn't been able to keep up. So here is the cliff's note version of some of the fun and craziness...

January
We had Grandmother a hat party since she lost her hair to chemo. Rere is demonstrating how to wear the fur nobody was allowed to wear...or even touch. February
Talon turned two and had a fantastic party
on a very warm winter's day...

Jesse found a little shade...
March
Rylee is five!

He had an awesome monster truck party because the boys were still pumped from monster jam...
awwwww.... this is sam. I love sam.
April
Sully's class had a sweet little party for the moms...

with poetry and gifts.... awwwww...
May
Lisa got married!
there were lots of family....

and lots of food....
(this was only the non-wedding cake table)
and cute punkins- Aidan and Olivia Grace
and some studs...
June
Granny's 80th Birthday
We had an ice-cream social at the flower shop. It was very yummy and a little crazy (it was also the day Mitzi had Reese, I had an early meeting at a strangers apartment to buy a camera from craigs list because he was leaving for China and vbs set-up. I used that camera to take these pictures.)
and there were more cute punkins- Alex

told you it was yummy...
some cute old punkins-
Dutch, Dad and Uncle Terry
and more punkins- Lizzie
no ladies-
eating ice-cream does not increase your cup size.
it's not that kind of cup...
but nice try...

July
We celebrated Grandpa's 75th birthday. Bob smoked us some BBQ and it was sooooo good. Grandpa was very excited to see his Star Wars cake...and so was I...ummmm...cooked icing. ok I'm getting hungry now...no more cakes!!
August
Sully turned 4!!
He's such a big kid now. He even has chores. I've never seen anyone so happy to empty the bathroom trash. But here is his Clone Wars party. In my opinion, George Lucas hasn't gotten many things right with the new Star Wars releases, but he couldn't have timed this one better.

so I guess there is one more cake. It was parve and not nearly as good as Sassy's cooked icing, but Sully LOVED it...

10 adults and 10 kids at the movies! woo-hoo!
I'm sure he wished for some Star Wars toys...
He would totally freeze mid-bite.... After the movie, we went to the lobby and opened the gifts. He loved everything this year. It was so much fun to watch.

only four more months in 2008 and many more parties to come!
...and cake, too :)

HEARTWORM HOUSE ARREST...

is back. 26 days and counting...

IF EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT...

we wouldn't have a broken driveway with all these huge cracks... and the cracks wouldn't catch water and we wouldn't be able to play in the puddles...
and if the lawn was perfect,
we wouldn't be able to easily scoop up dirt and create something muddy and fun...
but when the afternoon showers roll in and there isn't any thunder,
it all seems quite perfect to us...

SIGNING SULLY

It's hard to believe that Sully turned four today. I just stared at him in disbelief...and also bursting with pride because he is such an awesome little fellow. Things have just been a blur since he came along. I don't think it has to do with Sully as much as Harrison starting school, people moving, illness, and so on. So much has changed.

It is also hard to believe that he stopped using sign language almost two years ago. It disappeared shortly after his second birthday. Lolly mentioned the other day the time I bought him a Barbie tricycle and he would stop and sign thank you over and over. I had forgotten all about it. (If you are wondering why he had a Barbie trike- it was because he would go after the girls' bikes at the park because they had streamers and really were just more attractive. So I found one at a yard sale....along with a Britax for $12...yard sales rock!) anyway...I decided to look back for some photos of him signing. They say not to make them sign for show, but I seemed to get a few...

this was his first sign at 8 months...no surprise...look how big he is!
eat

and also just has handy-
more

help!

thank you
I guess for letting him color the inside of his nostrils... apple
he also used to do banana a lot. Lolly would say,
"He's pointing his finger...what do I do?"
fire or hot
gentle
please
I loved it when he would combine more fish please when he wanted goldfish crackers. And dance was always really cute, too. Or doing where in his sleep when he heard a train whistle with Lolly and Pop-Pop. And hurt when he was teething. He would also ask for a bath or tell me when he was cold. One of my favorites was rain. He would get so excited and his hands would start flying when I opened the carport door. I started doing it for fun, but it really was more helpful than I ever imagined...and so sweet.

I really miss my signing Sully...

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

INSTALLATION ART

I present to you...

Fire with Farting Lemons I don't make this stuff up...they do!

SUPER FUN DAY!!

we had an afternoon on the town trying to wrap up our list of things to do this summer. we didn't get them all accomplished, but we put a pretty big dent in it. we took sully to camp and harrison and I hit the ground running. we purchased school shoes, new lunchboxes, restaurant bowls from crate and barrel (that was for me), chick-fil-a for lunch and registered harrison for school!

first stop after picking sully up from camp was the children's museum. I expected fernbank with rounded corners, but it was like a big playground....but it was air conditioned and that's all that matters sometimes. if you are interested, we got tickets at the half price ticket booth at lenox.

we ran into one of sully's school friends and his little brother

I didn't understand why a seal was doing the cat pose and the bear was the camel?? isn't this place supposed to educational...this just confused me. ;)

harrison at work at the moon sand table... harrison's...ummm...statue.... sully getting comfortable so I could read him a book and a little more comfortable...
and a little more comfortable...
(it was a long book)
then we went fishing...
and tumbling...
and swinging... and building...
and ball dumping...

and then they closed...
so we started on our next project-
drum roll please!

the mom and dad history tour!

first stop:
where dad went to college and mom worked as a liaison officer for AOB during the '96 games. fyi- they were much more impressed by my watching men beat each other senseless for gold than bob's silly accomplishments.

next stop, as granny would say:
where we set up housekeeping.
oh how the old neighborhood has changed!

and so has the house. here is a peak from the
backdoor into the kitchen...
you know you wanted to look, too!I left out parts of the story, but did tell them if we ever own pet
rats, they will be appropriately named leary and hillestad... harrison was relieved to see the dancing mailbox made it through the construction and many renovations... if you care to know the back story- pop-pop and bob sent me on a mission to depot to get a mailbox. this one was really warped... I identified with it. I said it looked like it was dancing. pop-pop was born with an internal plumb line and level. so they thought I was crazy!
...imagine that?
next stop:
the church where we got married.
we looked through the windows there, too. sully said, "wow! I think God might be in that place." I wish I could have shown them the sanctuary. It really is beautiful.
we passed the location of our first date, r. thomas,
and then to mama fu's!

and super fun day totally lived up to its name!!