Will's Monster Bash

Will's monster bash birthday party was a hit!

Let me just get this out there before I continue, the birthday party was inspired by Pinterest.  I'll out myself before anyone says, "Hey, did I see that on Pinterest?"  Yes, yes you did see it on pinterest.  Nothing was original, and I'm a total copycat.  But, guess what, it doesn't matter because...

 Will loved it!

He's been super excited about his birthday party for weeks.  We invited several of his little buddies from church, his cousins and other friends and relatives were there so we had a huge group of kiddos for the celebration.  The more the merrier!  He had so much fun that he's requested another monster bash next year when he turns 6. 

Since Will is 5 I thought he'd be old enough to enjoy party games.  We played pin the eye on the monster, decorated cookies and had a pinata.  The weather was beautiful and perfect for playing outside.  The kiddos had a blast just being together and playing. 


My friend, Brandi, has made several birthday cakes for my boys.  She always does an amazing job.  She's creative and her cakes are also delicious.  Brandi is a teacher by day and cake maker extraordinaire by night.

The monster bash monster cake!

Monster Bash!

Will's ready for some fun!

Pin the Eye on the Monster

My friend, Jourdan, made the cool monster.

Getting ready to pin (tape) on the monster's eyes

Lots and lots of monster eyes!

Monster cake with candles

He's a little spooky in the dark with the candles.

My favorite photo of the entire party.  I love the expression on Will's face.

Our good buddy Dade

Blaine, Will and Jarrell

Ben found the ice cream and cake

If the cake and ice cream wasn't enough sugar, we decorated cookies with icing and lots of sprinkles.  I was surprised at how interested the kids were in decorating cookies.  We saved the cookies in ziploc bags if they didn't want to eat them at that time. 

Even the little ones had fun decorating.

Blaine loved the sprinkles.  The more the better.

Fun, fun and more fun!

 I love how they played together so well.  They didn't really need organized activities.  They had fun just running and playing, as you can see.

Pinata time!  Go get that monster Ben!

Will took a few swings.

Candy!

Will filled his bag with candy and headed to the fort.

Our nephew, Jacob, wore the pinata and posed with Mamaw.

Time to open gifts!

Will was given so many fun toys, clothes and board games.

Show me your best monster face!

Look at all of those silly monsters!

Will is 5!

Will turns 5 today!

Will is sweet, smart, curious, funny and kindhearted. 

He's truly a joy. 

The day he was born Mark and I knew our lives would never be the same.  We are blessed and grateful to be his parents.  It's hard to believe that Will is old enough to start kindergarten next year.  The first five years have flown by and it's almost impossible to comprehend how quickly the next five will pass.  I remember the day we brought him home from the hospital like it was yesterday.

Will is such a good son and a protective and caring older brother.

The expression on his face captures his sweet personality.

Will was so excited about turning 5 that he could barely go to sleep the night before.  He even said "When I turn 5, I can go to Andrea's school." (Andrea is his aunt who teaches 1st grade.)  He thought that he would be promoted from daycare/play school to elementary school on his birthday.  Isn't that sweet?

We are taking cupcakes to his daycare to share with the other children to celebrate.  He selected vanilla with chocolate icing.

Will can't wait for his birthday party this weekend.  He chose a monster theme and has invited his little buddies over for some birthday party fun.  I'll share photos of our monster bash next week.

Happy 5th Birthday, Will!

Today is your day to celebrate!

Photos by Lauren

I've scheduled this to post at 12:40 a.m., the time that Will was born on November 3.

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011

Will was Spiderman and Ben was Batman.

The boys wore their costumes to daycare and went trick-or-treating at the junior high and high school campuses.  It was fun to see the boys at school in their costumes.  I took this photo before the boys went to school, and I'm so glad I did.  We couldn't find Will's Spiderman mask for the evening festival, Halloween on the Square.  No loss because he probably wouldn't have worn it anyway.

Halloween on the Square 2011

One of my favorite community events that our small town has.  Local businesses, churches, and organizations host a safe and fun Halloween festival.  Everyone gives away candy so all of the children can trick-or-treat.

Mark and the boys. 

I almost had a photo with all three looking but I moved the camera and didn't get Ben.

Will on the bouncy slide. 

Bouncy house obstacle course.  Will wanted to play on the bounce houses so badly that he didn't care about getting candy at all.  We decided to let him play and then go trick-or-treating.  I'm glad we did because the lines got really long by the end of the evening. 

Ben played on the bouncy house slide a couple of times but he will still too little to really enjoy it.  He had more fun eating candy. 

Taking a break for some candy. 

Batman likes Reeses

We're not finished yet.  Still more candy. 

My favorite side of our downtown square. 

The boys and I posed for a photo. 

Family photo

Halloween 2011



Fall Followers Fest!

Who doesn't love a good blog hop? 

Casey teamed up with some other lovely ladies Illy, Danielle, and Jess to host the fun.

If you are new here, let me tell you a little about myself.

Sure, you could click on all the tabs at the top of my blog and find out more information about me than you'd ever want to know.  I'll spare you a step and tell you the Reader's Digest version.

I'm a 34 year old wife and mommy.

I'm married to my best friend, Mark.  That may sound cliche but it's true.  He makes me a better person and there's not anyone else I'd rather spend time with than him.  We've been happily married for 9 years (it'll be 10 in June 2012, woo hoo!).

I have two incredible little boys.  They are AMAZING!  Will is about to turn 5 and Ben turned 2 in June.  Life is an adventure with them.  As I type this, they are playing in the dirt in my garden.  I love little boys!

{Photos by Lauren}

 I'm also a junior high history teacher.  I've taught for 10 years.

I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Texas.  I started blogging because I loved reading other blogs.  When I started blogging I had no idea that I'd find such a community in the blogosphere.  Since I live in such a small town it can be hard to find people who have similar interests.  I've "found my people" through blogging.  I've made so many special friendships with people from California to Long Island.  The connection is hard to explain to others who don't blog.  You know what I mean?  I'm sure you can relate.

If you are new to my blog, some of my writing has been more serious lately.  It's just a reflection of life, which has been a challenge.  I've been heavyhearted in the last few months.  We've struggled with the death of my grandfather and other challenges like my father-in-law's diagnosis with cancer.  Through it all we've been able to remember who is in control.  I'm forever grateful for the love of Christ and the grace and patience of God.

I'm thankful for my faith which sustains me.  I'm thankful for my church, friends, family and so many other things, big and small, I'm blessed with.

This blog is all about our family, faith, life in a small town, traveling, friendship, clothes, maybe a recipe here or there and lots of other randomness.  Sometimes serious sometimes silly.

Thank you for stopping by and leave a comment to say hi.  I'd love to get to know you!

HipstaFriday

Since I use the Hipstamatic App instead of Instagram, I titled the post HipstaFriday--get it.  I can't think of anything clever to call these posts so that's as good as it gets.  I suppose I could just title it InstaFriday and put the date, but that's about as original and creative as my WIWW post titles.  I could also call it Phone Dump Friday, but that's not very appealing.  Anything with the word 'dump' shouldn't be in my title.  I will stop there.

Let's get to the photos!

*These are in no chronological order whatsoever.


I have been known to try take photos of my boys at inconvenient times.   A couple of weeks ago we went to the grocery store to buy milk.  We trying to get in and out quickly but I just had to take a couple of photos of Ben and Will by the pumpkins.  I love fall, can you blame me?

Ben cooperated, but while I was taking this photo Will was knocking over piles of pumpkins.


I finally got Will to sit still so I could take one photo of him.

Saturday we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Yum-O!

The boys enjoy playing in the country store as much as I enjoy the pancakes and bacon.

Ben really likes to look at the fish at Wal-Mart.  I do, too.

Will is not a big fan of hats or caps.  I have no idea why he decided to wear this one. Since he rarely wears a cap, I knew I'd better take a photo because he won't wear one again.  Ben's the opposite.  He loves to wear caps.  On a side note, Will looks so big in this photo.  I can't believe he will be 5 years old in less than a week!  Where does the time go?

This is the entrance to Fuddruckers.  The boys thought the footprints were so cool.

Those are awful big shoes to fill, Ben!

This should be after the pumpkin photo.  It was taken the same day.  I wasted time here because I had to get a photo of Will and Ben pushing the little shopping carts.  Thank goodness the grocery store wasn't very crowded because the boys can get a little crazy pushing the carts around.  Mark and I took several hits to the ankle and calf.

This was taken at the beginning of October when we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday.  Will thinks every birthday meal has to be followed by frozen yogurt at Yumi-Licious.  I have to admit that it's not a bad idea.  Papa Jerry shared his yogurt with Ben.

Mamaw Carol and Ben

I didn't know that Honeycrisp apples were seasonal.  The lady at Sam's who offered samples informed all about Honeycrips apples.  I bought a huge bag at Sam's and I also bought a gallon of Honeycrisp apple cider. 

I got some earrings from Ike and Co today in the mail!  I might be just a little obsessed with her shop.  No seriously, Angie is the best and her jewelry is beautiful.  You'll definitely be seeing the new goodies in my WIWW posts.

This week Will and Ben have had a stomach bug that's going around.  Yuck!  Thank goodness both are on the mend.  The boys' bathroom counter looked like this.  I have an arsenal of cleaning supplies and disinfectants.  I also have my old standby bleach that didn't make the photo.

I've done countless loads of laundry.  It's not easy to operate the washing machine at 3:00a.m.

Texas Rangers
World Series
So intense!  My husabnd is true fan of all the Dallas sports teams--Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers.  I didn't think anything could top the Mavs winning the NBA championship this summer.  A Texas Rangers World Series definitely could.  Game 6 was intense and my husband may have a few more gray hairs because of it.  It's so disappointing that the Rangers lost and have to play Game 7.  For my husband and all of the other loyal Rangers fans, I hope they can make it happen.  I know he wasn't the only guy going crazy during the game.  All I had to do was check my facebook updates and so many people posted that their husbands couldn't take it.  I could relate.  I was texting back and forth with my brother the entire game.  He was super disapointed, too.  I'm still a fan...Let's Go Rangers!!!

Silly Will

Silly Ben