Happy Birthday!

Today my son turns 11.  I'm so proud of the young man he is turning into.  Here's a picture of his birthday cake.

Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, surrounded by Kit Kats and topped with M&M's.  Yes, it's a sugar high just waiting to happen.  But that's ok, I'll deal with the sugar coma's later, I'm just blessed to have had 11 years with my boy and am looking forward to many, many more.

Surprise

I recently made snacks for our youth group.  Today the pastor dropped off my casserole dish that held the snacks. 

I went to put away the dish and took the lid off because I don't store it with the lid on.

What's this?

Candy canes may not seem out of the ordinary just over a month before Christmas.  These candy canes however, have a life of their own.  You see, my best friend moved to Pittsburgh a little over 3 years ago.  The Christmas prior to her moving she came over and left these at my house one night, and knowing that she was going to be moving, I decided to play a little game.

When she started packing her belongings I had her husband hide these in a box with a card from me saying the game was on.  She had to find a way to get them back to me, making her visit me or during one of my visits to her.  For the last 3 years we've been passing these back and forth in creative ways.

This August I slipped them into her car just before she left my house to go back home.  I haven't seen her since. However, since our church went on a missions trip to her church in October, she enlisted some help.

While I'm not sure the rules of the game require us to personally hide them, I think it's cheating for these to come back to me without a visit from her.  Anyone agree that she needs to visit me to make up for this?

Either way, it was fun to find these and I can't wait to actually talk to her about them.  She got me good and it was a fun treat that I certainly needed today.  I miss you, Becky!

Summer Vacation

Today is officially the last day of summer vacation.  #2 and #3 start back with their cyber school tomorrow and #1 starts her first job tomorrow.  It's been a fun summer and we're spending our last day with Grandma coming over for a birthday dinner for my husband.  Here are some pics from our fun summer.

#3 in her ballet recital.

#2 playing chess with friends.

Seth, #2 and Grandpa shooting BB Guns.

Seth and his mom eating crabs.

Me with 2 friends in Kentucky at the National Volunteer Workshop for the Army National Guard.

Kid #1, my brother Sam, #3 and #2 at a Phillies game.

Kids #1 and #3 at a special Tinkerbell Tea party.

Wordless Wednesday

The story on these fun cupcake pops will come tomorrow!

2 Tulips

Wordless Wednesday

*The story on these tulips will come in the next week.  :)

2000

Wow!  I hit 2000 visitors!  Thank you all for coming and reading my site.  I hope you can be encouraged and laugh with me as I go through life in the way that God has laid out for me.  Thank you for visiting!

One of Those Days

Wordless Wednesday

April Fool's Day!

This morning I woke up and went downstairs to the kitchen to make my husband breakfast.  I took one look outside and walked right back upstairs.  I told my husband to look outside and asked him if he was still going to work.  What a lovely April Fool's laugh God gave us this morning. One more morning of beautiful snow.  

Happy April Fool's Day!

I've never been one to celebrate April Fool's Day.  Mainly it's because I'm not quick enough to actually come up with pranks that will fool anyone with a brain.  Thankfully, God made me smarter than my kids!  Well, at least for now He did.  

I decided this was the year that I'd have some fun.  I didn't really plan anything in advance, I just saw some facebook posts from friends and some ideas from blogs and started having fun.  The first thing I did was break out the glue and the pop tarts.

 

Yes, that  plate is upside down.  The kids came down for breakfast to find their pop tarts glued to their plates.  They found it funny till they realized they couldn't eat them because they were stuck.  Lucky for me them, I had some more pop tarts waiting for them to enjoy.

The rest of the day continued like normal, school, lunch, finished school. Grandma & Grandpa stopped by for a visit and they stayed to watch the Phillies win their opening game.  (I'm now very happy.)  Now, on to dinner...

The kids came to the table to find a special treat.  Ice cream sundae's with caramel sauce!  Too bad for them it was mashed potatoes and gravy.  They were both so very excited, and they dug in first to their special dinner treat!  Before the spoons even got to their mouths they could tell the consistency was off.  tee hee!  After dinner it was time for grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert.  Wait, what?

That's right, we had grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert!  Actually, it was pound cake slices that I toasted with my mini blow torch.  I dyed vanilla frosting with some yellow and a drop of red food coloring to make that cheesy color.  My son, even after learning that it was cake, still thought I put cheese into it because it was just the right color.  Score one for mom!

This was one grilled cheese sandwich that they could enjoy!  Before bedtime they asked for a drink.  Well, being the extra special mom that I am, I made them some lemonade to enjoy. 

What a shame that they couldn't actually drink this lemonade!  In fact, it was lemon Jell-O in cups.  Muahahahaha!  My little girl tried so hard, she finally was able to start drinking it and managed to drink half of her Jell-O through her straw.  

Overall, it has been a most fun day!  The kids enjoyed the jokes and no one played one on me!  That is a sign of a successful April Fool's day for me.  I like it when I'm not the one getting pranked!

Exciting Things!

Can you believe that this is my 101st post?  I've broken the 100 mark!  How very exciting for me.

Speaking of exciting, I've got some interesting news this month.  For starters, my parents have an apartment now and will be moving out next week.  It will be wonderful to have my house back, but I will miss them too.  They have been an amazing help to me, especially over the last month during my recovery from surgery.

Second, starting Friday, I'll be posting on a monthly basis over at Today's Housewife.  On the first Friday of every month, I'll be posting something on the topic of faith.  I am honored that I'll be joining a wonderful team of ladies who blog on the topics of faith, family, finances, home, food and hobbies. 

Lastly, this month my husband is starting a new job.  He will be working with the National Guard on a full-time basis, training teams as they are getting ready to deploy next year.  It's not too far from home, so we will still be able to have dinner every night together. 

Overall, there are quite a few things for me to be excited about.  Not to mention the fact that I am officially restriction free as of tomorrow regarding my post-surgical limitations.  I'm looking forward to exercising tomorrow and running around with my kids.  I haven't had a chance yet to use my new Dance Dance Revolution game that I got for Christmas.  I think I'll be playing that as soon as I can!

Going to the Ball

Yesterday, Tom Corbett was inaugurated as Pennsylvania's 46th Governor.  Last night I was able to go to the Governor's Inaugural Ball.  My husband and I went with State Representative Seth Grove and his wife, Kasey. 

We went to dinner first and then headed over to the ball.  When we arrived there were about 1,000 people there.  By the time the Governor's cabinet was introduced, the room was packed with 2-4,000 people.  We were over on the side platform talking with friends when the Mummers came out.  Being a Philadelphia gal, I was excited to see them!

The platform we were on was rather far away from the stage, as you can see in this next picture.  We saw Governor Corbett's cabinet introduced and then Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley and his wife were introduced.  They danced on stage then headed down to the crowd.  After they exited, Governor Tom Corbett and his wife were introduced.  They danced as well then headed down to mingle with the crowd standing below the stage.

At that point, with so many people in attendance, we figured we would not be able to see or speak to Governor Corbett.  We took a few pictures, including this one on the left, and just started enjoying the music and the friends.  It was quite a shock about 30 minutes later when a large crowd started to gather up on the platform where we were standing.  We looked over and not 10 feet from us was the Governor and his wife. 

Governor Corbett and Seth.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, my husband was able to find his way into the crowd and speak to Governor Corbett for a minute.  After they chatted, we decided to head down off the platform to check out the food.  There were several stations set up all around the room with foods from the different areas of Pennsylvania.  There were perogies from Central Pennsylvania, mushrooms from Southeastern Pennsylvania (my neck of the woods), candy apples from Northeastern Pennsylvania, and even a salad with steak and french fries on it from Southwestern PA.  We didn't get to try all of the different foods, but we did have some delicious cherries jubilee and cotton candy, along with some Hershey's hot chocolate.

After our tour of Pennsylvania foods, we decided to take a rest on the platform on the opposite side of the room.  Surprisingly enough, Governor Corbett decided to visit that platform while we were up there.  At this point, many of the attendees had left and the party was back down to about 1,500 people.  The crowd was considerably smaller surrounding the Governor and I decided to put myself out there so I could write this blog.  After all, what good is a blog post if you don't have some fun pictures?

Asking Governor Corbett for his picture.

Kasey Grove and I with Governor Corbett.

Mrs. Susan Corbett and myself.

The entire evening was wonderful.  I wish I could dress up and go out like this more often!  Congratulations Governor Corbett!  May you do well as Pennsylvania's 46th Governor.