For those of you that follow Jenny’s blog, you know she had a dinner party tonight. We were one of the lucky people to be invited and we had a fabulous time. Jamie and Cassie won’t shut up about dessert. She took cake, tore it up, shaped it into mushrooms and stood them up in green jello. Kids totally dug it (and it was good too!).

One of the people there was a lady named Laura who does photography. She does Upon My Lens. I need to start doing her challenges because lately I’m just not taking pictures. Or I’ll take them, hate them all and delete them without putting them up. I dunno what my deal is lately.

The other gentleman there was named Curtis and he was one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. We had a great time. Thank you, Jenny!

Jamie had a special message for you though…

I wish I had got a pic of Tom on his big day, but we had such a great time with his party that I forgot. I’m glad I remembered to get pictures of his Battlestar Galatica cake though! My friend, Julie, made it and it was fantastic!

I’m so proud of Tom. He stuck with it and made really good grades. It was hard work, I know it was, but he DID IT. It makes me very proud of him.

Note: the emblem was piped out with candy, so it was edible and she airburshed the silver on. Amazing.

I didn’t have time this season to make the big soccer cake. A bit sad about that, but perhaps next season – if there is one, Cassie sounds like she wants to move on to something else – perhaps gymnastics.

She did, however, get her medal. She’s very proud of it. Tom had a really good season too. I think if she decides to stop playing, he will miss it way more than she will.

We had been planning a sleepover with one of the cousins for a while with Cassie. I invited Jamie’s BFF to stay with him so he’d have a friend over too. Then we picked up an extra because her mom was doing a 12 hour write-in thing (crazy NaNoWriMo people). We had 2 others that came over to play, but just 5 that spent the night. It went pretty well… Amazingly enough, I think they even slept a few hours!

Here’s the sleepover bunch partying it up on the top bunk of Jamie’s room. I feel like I could fast forward this 15 years and see them all grinning and toasting us with beers.

Tom’s cousin had a Halloween Party for the kiddos. We had a really great time. I wish we got to see them more often, but you know how life can be.. it happens.

They had a hay ride! How fun is that???

This is Tom’s aunt… she’s crazy, I adore her.

Tom’s cousin (she’s nuts too).

This is the kiddo who threw the party (Yeah, the whole family is crazy – maybe this is why I love this side of Tom’s family)

The crazy aunt above made the cupcakes… they were SO cute:

This was store bought but I thought it was really neat…

The Spring soccer season is over. Tom coached this year and Cassie loved it. We had a team party at CiCi’s Pizza and the kids had a great time.

Here’s Cassie getting her medal from Coach Tom

The kids at pizza

And we did the cute photo cake thing again (kids loved it!)

We had a bit of a memorial day party over here with several families and lots of kids… and LOTS of fun! We grilled out and set up the pools and water slide. The kids had a blast. I did too, but I was EXHAUSTED afterwards. I’m so lucky to have great friends though. I love having the mom friends over… they help clean up before they leave!

Just a few pics… most I took of other people’s kids and gave to them.

AND my dear dear friend, Crystal, brought me flowers!

We had a Mom’s Night Out at one of my friend’s houses on Saturday night. Her husband was out of town and her kid was at grandma’s house. SCORE! For those of you wondering what a mom’s night out really is, it’s basically an excuse for us moms to dump our children on our husbands and sit around either a restaurant or someone’s house and laugh (or cackle as Dy’s hubby says – he actually calls us “that cackle of women that came to my house”) and drink and laugh and bitch and moan and drink and laugh some more

As our little group has grown (we had like 10 people show up this time), we’ve started having them at someone’s house – not as noisy as a restaurant and we all just bring something to drink/eat/whatever and do whatever. This time we had Boogie to keep us entertained. You know you are with good friends when you can get halfway sloshed, sing off key, call them dying cats and they still love you anyway

Angela can actually sing – either that or I had more margaritas than I thought. Yes, Denise always looks this confused. *snicker*

This is Claire Delaine. She can sing pretty well too.

This is Jen. She’s preggie and the cutest thing ever. We made her sing a few times though :p

This is my friend, Denise. She was trying to dance along with the character on the screen. This was after only one margarita.

We had a great time. Thank you, Dy, for letting me crash at your place

Speaking of Dy… make sure you visit her blog before her hubby makes her take that post down… it’s freaking HILARIOUS!

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I guess it’s actually cousin, but that just sounds too weird, so I make my kids call Tom’s cousins aunts and uncles – okay, seriously, my kids are already constantly confused, what’s one more thing. Actually, they don’t call all of them aunt and uncle, just some. Okay, hmmm… talk about random I guess. Whatever.

So, Tom’s cousin, Mike, came home today from Iraq and Aunt Donny had everyone over for breakfast (at dinner). My kids were so thrilled. It’s BREAKFAST, but at DINNER – get it? It was ultra exciting, trust me.

So, here’s some pics to share and some commentary…

Mike is getting married in a couple of weeks, here he is with the latest victim in our family, Jen. Okay, seriously, was I this annoyingly sweet and lovey dovey all those years ago?

Whatever did this toy do to Tom? Here he is “fixing” the Rock Em Sock Em Robots – circa ice age

Jamie trying to pretend he doesn’t see me and is super annoyed with me and my camera.

Cousin Olivia being all cute and stuff

This is Tom’s Grandma P:

I have a 50mm fixed lens coming to me in the next few days… I hope it’s better for indoor photos. Not loving my camera for indoor shots. Hmm… maybe an external flash… *glances to see if Tom is looking before going to Amazon* Or maybe a macro lens (okay, I just WANT that)…

We had a school-friends party for Jamie this year. And, oh, the saga of the 7th birthday. It started out with him insisting on having the party at the jumping place in the mall. Okay, great. I put down a deposit. Then I tell him he probably can’t have costumes at the bouncey place because of various reasons, he says no problem, he’ll have a dinosaur party.

Well, then Tom opens his big mouth and we end up buying a bounce house. Okay, fine. We decide to have the party here, but Jamie now wants costumes. Okay, whatever.

So the day of the party, he decides not to do the bounce house, just he and his friends playing outside with the costumes.

Whatever, dude… he had a great party, but I’m confused. What else is new, eh? Without further ado… here’s the video and the pictures… Happy birthday, big boy!

First up, the costumes!

Jamie is a ninja warrior and Cassie is a pink power ranger:

I thought these were 2 interesting pictures from the party. The girls sitting nice and talking and the boys, I think they are taking that wagon into battle or something

And Tom made some halloween foods. Bat Poop, smiles, Mummy Fingers, Monster Mish-Mash were all on the menu
Who could forget the cake. First a word about the cake. I’m not bitter or anything, but we usually make the cake, but the past few years we’ve slacked off because life is just crazy. Tom and I had plans to make this elaborate 3D dinosaur cake. Jamie fell in love with the one at TARGET. Why? They had plastic roaring dinosaurs on them… not that I’m bitter…
And Jamie’s favorite part… the presents (actually, he told me the best part was being with all his friends… awww…)
Afterwards, Tom’s parents took us out to dinner at Dave & Busters. Jamie wanted his picture taken with his Halo guys and I took the picture of the two littler ones playing the trucker slot game A good time was had by all!