Tink Time!!

I am currently on Birthday overload!! We've got so many of them to celebrate in the month of December it would make your head spin. Breanne is the first one this year and it was all about Tinkerbell. (for a little girl who can't stand the thought of playing with dolls I was shocked when she decided on a Tink party...but we'll applaud her enthusiasm for traditional girlie things when they come)

I started with a Tink cake (I'm pretty sure I swore years ago that I'd never make one of those "Barbie" cake but low and behold here I am breaking my oath) and since the family's too big, one cake is never enough so I whipped up some "flighty" Tink cupcakes too! (notice the pixie dust...you need lots of pixie dust)Since all the cousins (even the WY ones) were attending I decided on some birthday games and this is what I came up with........a Tinkerbell Treasure Hunt with clues to the chest that was filled with pirate prizes for the boys and Tink prizes for the girls.

Here the kids are openning the chest and reading it's contents. We also did pin the star on the magical wand!!

Breanne got lots of fairy dress up clothes from her aunt Lillian so all the girls (even one big fairy at heart - Jesse ) dressed up for the occation.

It's amazing how quickly time flies. My baby is now 4!!! And she thinks she's ready to conquer the world these days!! I can't wait to see all that she does and whom she becomes!! She's a beauty for sure! Happy Birthday Bre!!

Thankful Day

I had a double whammy this year! I volunteered to host two meals this Thanksgiving at our home. A larger than life "brunch" around 11am and a dinner at around 5pm. Thankful there wasn't much food prep on my end. Each family member is an expert at one course or another so they stepped in an prepared that for me.

The kids got real excited about decorating place cards this year. Trey wrote all the mens names and Bre did the womans. Then Trey took a stab at choosing where everyone should sit. I couldn't believe how good he did. He got husbands by their wives and Pop-pop and Grammy at the head of the table. He's good!Jason and Dar flew in for the holiday along with their kidos.There are all the Beiler grandkids.

Sorry, I didn't attempt to take a picture of the extended family dinner in the evening. It was too big and I would have needed a better camera and some hot shot lens to take that picture.

Is it Snowing Yet?

These little piggies want to know if it's snowing yet?

And so do these!!!

Trey got his new ice skates in the mail last week and ever since then my dining room rug has transformed into an ice skating rink.

They've got good balance on the rug....but I'm sure the ice will be a different story. Trey did a little skating last year but this will be Bre's first attempt.


Look out amish neighbors....here we come!! (our little amish neighbors are superb on the ice and they're only 7 years old)

Little Late

Well, I'm a little late on this one but it was fun nonetheless. I always loved carving pumpkins. We did it as kids and it was always something my dad was in charge of....being an artist and all, our pumpkins were always brilliant!! I have a lot to live up too.

Last year it was smiley face or scary face. This year it was a tiger or cheetah for Trey. I opted for the cartoon-ish, sorta tiger-ish face.

Breanne wanted a butterfly or Mittens the cat (from the movie Bolt) All my attempts at a Mittens type cartoonish sorta cat looked just like Treys tiger. Soooo to the Internet I went and to the printer I printed a blown up copy of one!Just by looking at this photo can you tell who my neat freak with a spoon and my I love gettin' dirty kids are?Every year the kids pick out the tiny cute pumpkins in the patch and as much as I try to talk them out of it they become too attached to the small ones and I cave every time! Unfortunately when Arlan saw the size of them he turned red in the forehead meaning.. How the heck am I going to carve those things, Dana!! So out came the power tools.

I was worth the hassle don't you think???? Well, I like them. Arlan doesn't want to talk about it till next October!

Go, Go, Go!!!!!

It's fair time! And you know what that means.......Tractor Pullin'This was Bre's first year to enter and they were practicing hard in hopes to get the "blue" ribbon as they put it!Well, as you can see we got "green"....do you see the "I'll smile even though I'm disappointed" face here. She got over it by the time we hit the rides.
Trey was doing good but kept stopping at the finish line before his sled got over too. I think he had a misunderstanding when it came to the "rules" conversation.

Anyway, he got green too and we were on our way. Better luck next year.

Princess in Town

Way back in September (yeah, I know I'm a little behind here) I took my mom and Breanne to the Opera House to see a production of Cinderella.

It was FANTASTIC!!!! I can't say enough about it. Breanne was glued to her seat and thought so much of the performance was cute and funny. (she now likes the step"sisters" as much as Cinderella because they were so funny!)
But we were hungry after the show (despite the free Twizzlers they handed out to the kids afterwards) and headed to the Creamery for yummy ice cream. That was our lunch....you got a problem with that?

Breanne sure didn't!! Although I'm sure my mom went home and consumed something healthy and bland tasting to even out her splurge......notice I said my "mom" did that....I didn't....you got a problem with that?

Sports...What's the Big Deal?

Well, as some of you may know my son is more interested in identifying all the intricate parts of our tractors then playing any game of football or baseball out back. However, hold the tractors back, we found a sport that he finds completely fascinating! It's golf! (we haven't dusted off the ice skates yet for hockey on the pond so Arlan's not ready to rule that one out yet.)Look closely at the torn up grass and our crazy dog laying right in the line of fire.

I think Charcoal, our dog, finally got the the swift idea to move after seeing Trey's killer swing.