Cornbread and Chicken

5 on 5...on the 7th

SOoooo, waaaay back when I had decided I was going to do the whole 5 on 5 thing every month. Then life happened and the blog posts didn't. MAN, I thought the baby years were busy!

I have soo much to share and I really, really want to find time to sit down and document it all- so very much has happened! *But for now, because I literally have less than 5 minutes to do this, I'm going to stick w/ 5 on 5.
So, here is the pic from april:

 My silly crew before Easter Service at our church.

And, I'm not really sure if this was even taken on the 5th, but let's just pretend that it was.

*sigh*

So, onto May, when the picture truly was taken on the 5th!

Yippe!!

hmmm, I wonder if we need a bigger pool? They sure were having fun!

All of my babies squeezed tightly into their little nest!

*disclaimer- my "less than 5 minutes" ran out 3 hours ago. The truth- I had to stop the post, make a quick round of clean up through the house, dress Puddin for dance and appologize to hubby for not having any dinner when he walked in! ugh. So 3 hours later I'm back here wrapping up the post. :)  

**disclaimer #2- blogger has changed since my last post so it did take a me a little longer to figure out where some things were located. I still haven't found the new spellcheck button. forgive me. 

George Washington was a, a, Pirate?

This little guy

has fallen in love, admiration, whatever you want to call it, with George Washington. You can't tell by the above picture, but the book he is carrying is titled, George Washington.  The cover of the book looks something similar to this:

When I think GW, this is what I think of...

But, this is what Bud thinks of....

So when he found this old book of mine from my teaching days, a simple reader entitled George Washington, he immediately belted out, "Wook, Mommy, a Pi-what!

He then went and found an old $1 bin pirate hat from our dress up box and ta-da! a modern day George Washington, or, er, pirate, was born! He has worn this hat DAILY since early October.

Don't believe me??

See for yourself!

 He wore it while singing in the rain,

 While catching bugs in the backyard,

 while waiting to roast hotdogs in the backyard,

 While having lunch with his sister,

 while hanging with dad at the apple orchard,

 while cruising in the tractor,

while riding on a hayride at the pumpkin patch,

While eating donuts,

while climbing trees,

while making pizza

(dressed as superman)

 (yes, it was a confusing day for most people we ran into.)

and, while posing for family pictures.

whew!

It's only now that he has eased up with this little obsession.
Good thing since the book is tattered and falling to pieces.

I'm glad we were able to catch this little phase on film.
And, I happen to think he is waaay cuter than GW!
I love my Bud!  

Puddin's 6 birthday...rewind

It dawned on me last night that over the course of the past few months, I really

did miss a lot of updates..including Puddin's 6th birthday! ouch- score one for the bad momma!

Puddin the morning of her birthday, Oct. 13th.

I mean, I am supposed to be documenting memories here. Sometimes, life just gets in the way. However, there will be a new and improved system around here that I hope to share with you next week, just as soon as I recap some highlights I missed in 2011.

All dressed and ready for school in her new birthday outfit. 

So, without further a do, I give you Puddin's 6th birthday bash! I know what you are thinking.... how can she be 6??? I know- it's crazy! But what a beautiful 6  year old she is, inside and out.

Breakfast of champions...birthday donut with sprinkles. She was h to the appy, happy!

This year she wanted a "Little house on the Prairie" party. I wrapped my head around this and was ready to go full steam ahead in all things prairie related. Up until September. That's when she decided that no, she would rather have a "Goldilocks and the 3 bears" party, Ru-roh!

Daddy and Puddin before school. love.

See, I usually plan parties pretty well in advance so I can get supplies on sale. And since March is the start of our birthday season, all of the kids want to discuss their party plans at the same time. This is the first time we experienced a change up.

But, it was what she really wanted so we went with it. I was able to use some of the supplies I had already purchased since the color scheme worked for either theme. bonus.

Also, when I was 11-13 I collected bears. In fact, I got one a month from a mail order thing-a-ma-jig and all of those sweet bears were up in the attic tucked away neatly.

Turned out, I didn't have to really purchase much, except the wig prop and the food. Everything else I needed we already had.

<insert happy dance>

So here are some pics from her special day...

food table...peanut butter and honey bear sandwiches, fruit, apples and dip, stroop waffles, chocolate bear pops, chocolate covered strawberries, lemonade and cinnamon, honey cupcakes with cinnamon butter cream frosting...YUM!!

This was supposed to be photo prop set up... the 3 bears chairs were here and I had planned to get a picture of all of the kiddos in front of the mural but somehow, in he bus-i-ness of hosting a party- I did not get the picture. ugh.

Seating for the kiddos. The "tables" are made from Monkey See and Monkey Do's cribs. I added a frame and plywood to connect them and make them long enough for 10 kids to sit at each table. The table cloth is yellow gingham fabric and the centerpieces are mums wrapped in burlap along with bears from my collection. The table in the foreground has baby bear and papa bear. The table in the background has mama bear and Goldilocks. The chairs are mostly from the children's preschool. They were so kind to let me borrow them for the weekend! 

Part of the crowd. We were blessed with a beautiful Autumn day and it actually got a little warm! Under the canopy is where we designated the gift opening center and the bear making activity. I precut teddy bears and we had a sort of build a bear shop going for each of the girls. I think they enjoyed having a bear of their own to take home.

It's pinata time! This year I just couldn't see whacking baby bear or Goldilocks for the pinata so we opted for a bee hive... bears like honey and honey comes from bee hives.... it was easy and unexpectedly durable! It took some real hammering before we finally got it to break! Here is Puddin giving it the first whack!

I think this is Monkey See's favorite part of birthday parties... next to the cake!

Puddin blowing out her candles. Her request... "roses on my cake". She was beyond thrilled!

Uncle Tim hanging out with Monkey Do under the canopy.

The girls eating at their tables. Each girl also had a basket of goodies to take home and to keep their bear in. We served the lemonade in the honey bear jars. It turned out pretty cute.

Daisy and Bud... someone LOVES ice cream!

 Opening presents! This was one of her favorite gifts... frogs! Courtesy of Aunt Katie. :) She was so very happy! And I am happy to say that Charma and Princess (the frogs) are still with us!

 Sweet smiles from my girl!

 Bud finishing off Puddin's cake!

 6 is for being silly!!

apparently, Monkey Do is also a fan of the silly glasses. In fact, he eventually pulled the nose off of his pair and wore them day and night as his "pwetend" glasses, even to preschool! My silly monkey!

SO, Puddin's birthday was lots of fun and she is a happy, sweet and precious 6 year old! wow!

The Christmas Story

How to find the Perfect Christmas Tree

So, we decided that due to our busy schedules this year we weren't going to be able to go on our annual Christmas Tree Pilgrimage on a  weekend. Instead, it would have to be after school/work one day. We didn't really take into account the fact that is would get dark while we were hunting. It did. I must admit, there was a moment or two when I thought I could possibly be stranded in a Christmas Tree forest with 5 little people and require a search and rescue team.... a little scary! However, this family's got skilz and we made it work-without a flashlight... unlike some peeps who came prepared!

I must say, I think we have a new tradition! Momma doesn't particularly LOVE crowds and neither does Bud. Together we can be a bit much for Hubby I think (poor thing). But here's the thing... searching for a Christmas tree in the dark is virtually crowd free!!! As Puddin would say, "Yipee-Hallelujah!"

Yes, you have the dynamic of making sure you don't loose any children, but, as we discovered, they don't wander far when they can't see! It's a win-win I tell ya! And if I must say, This is my all time favorite tree evah!!

So here is our "pilgrimage" in photos.

 Christmas tree farm arrival...still some sunlight. 

 Look intimidating for the "crowds"

 getting his game on...

 ...and they're off!!!

 The pilgrimage has begun!

 The fresh air was exhilarating! It smelled soooo good! About this point, one of the kids was left carrying the pole and the other 4 were cutting loose!

 Balancing on tree stumps was a very popular past time...

 as well as sword fighting!

 We still had some light as we entered field #2 in search of the perfect tree. We even managed to wrangle the kids back into the task at hand....

 for a moment anyway!

 And a quick stop for a photo...say "Cheese!"

 Remember "Where's Waldo"? Well, here you have field #3 and Where's the Fabulous 5?? Can you spot them all? They are all there- promise!

 Finally, after moving to field #4 and losing sunlight, we thought we found the right tree! Everyone was on board, this was the one, except Momma. Something just wasn't right. But the daddy and the kids sure are cute!

 Bud was standing firm on his decision until little sister stepped in and they had a "meeting of the minds". She's little, but sure is Spunky!

 We found it!!! YAY!! Right before the camera died too! At this point we had already lost the saw and pole in another field and had to go back for it. It's easy  to get distracted when you are having fun with this crew! After playing a bit of  "Marco Polo" Christmas tree forest style we found each other again and got to work. Yep, it's dark.

And wouldn't you know it... as hubby is sawing by the moonlight, not only does the camera die, but the saw blade breaks! I don't know how he managed to finish the sawing process but I do remember this is when I started to wonder about the possibility of an emergency rescue!

Once we made it back to the barn safely with everyone in tow, the "farmers" prepped our tree and tied it to our van as we sipped hot chocolate and then...we went on a HAYRIDE IN THE DARK! It was so much fun! Cold, but fun! The stars were beautiful and the moon was so very bright. It was fantastic! but- no pics...dead camera.

Finally, after stopping for a quick pizza at a converted gas station because everyone is starving and cold, we finally arrived home with our "Torpedo" Tree!!

 picture, coutesy of my Iphone.

 unwrapped

          So... there you have it... how to find the perfect tree! Definitely a tradition we plan to keep!