Life on South Street...

it's.a.wonderful.life

Several weeks ago as a surprise Christmas gift - I bought Lenny and myself tickets to see "It's a Wonderful Life" the Musical. Now because I'm such goof I couldn't keep the surprise a secret for long. It was about two days before I spilled the beans. I am such a kid in that way - once I've bought a gift for Lenny I just can't keep it to myself. LOL Well if you know Lenny, you know that this was the perfect gift for him as "It's a Wonderful Life" is his favorite movie ever. 

As the show began, they announced that PHOTOGRAPHY WAS PROHIBITED. Well that ruined the evening for me! Okay, it didn't but it was a good thing I took this picture as we were driving by the auditorium as it was the only one I ended up being able to take!

The play was great, I thought they did a really nice job transferring the movie to the stage. I loved the heaven scenes and the set designs were awesome. The narration between acts to progress things along was really neatly done too. The man who played Mr. Potter was so good that we left wanting to beat him up HAHA. 

Since I wasn't able to take any pictures - you can view their own photo gallery here: (if you are interested) Wonderful Life Gallery

Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? You see George, you've really had a wonderful life

our.first.gingerbread.house

Yes my children are 12, 10, and 4 years old and this is the first gingerbread house we've ever made. Am I a bad mom or what?! Each year as the Christmas season rolls around, I always think we should make a gingerbread house, always plan to but just never do it. Well we changed things in 2009. I must say I was expecting this to be a quick and easy job, not sure why I thought that as it was very messy and time consuming LOL. 

Taylor wasn't home as usual, so this is Caleb and Chloe's creation.

 

 

Our finished product: (not the greatest I'm sure but remember it's our first!)

chloe's turn

Most items on our Christmas tree are homemade. Things the kids have made at school: some with their school photo, some with pasta and glue, some with their handprints. Well Chloe has finally joined the ranks - she brought home her first project from school today to be added to our tree :)

 

a.little.christmas.fun

 

 

My focus is a little off on these but the little buggers won't let me try again - I don't know why not, sure looks like they're having fun right?!

Thanksgiving X 3

Some pictures from our turkey day;  We had a long, LOUD, happy day at three different places :)

P.S. can you spot the difference between the first picture of Caleb and the rest?

 

 

 

 

A self portrait by Taylor

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our little turkey (my other turkeys refuse me photographs)

 

Chloe wearing her Indian hat she made at preschool

The boy is back in town

After a 4-month hiatus - he's back.

He's back torturing the kids. He's back hanging on the computer. He's back staying until one in the morning playing video games with Lenny. He's back and we ♥ it :)

Let's get in the Christmas spirit

The Elves are back - good thing for me, as I couldn't do hip-hop without them LOL

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Animal Whisperer

Chloe is a huge animal lover, she's got "friends" all over the neighborhood, they come over ALL the time. All she has to do is go outside near this fence and call her animals and they come running.  I'm thinking one day she's gonna either be a veterinarian, a farmer or maybe just an old lady with 50 cats LOL.  

 

*Chloe petting the neighbor's dog, notice Harry perched on top of the fence post to her right :)

Meet Shannon

This young lady is the daughter of some old friends of Lenny's and mine. We had lost touch with Lyle and Lee several years ago, just busy with life and such. Well we reconnected a few months ago on facebook! You gotta love that facebook :)

We traveled to Goshen yesterday to meet them and their family (and to take Shannon's senior pictures) We had a wonderful time visiting and catching up :)

Lee, here is your sneak peek~

 

 

Mr. Bones

"Hmmm.... now where did I put my skin?"

 

Ok, so I couldn't come up with a funny tagline for this shot, what's yours?

Jack O'Lanterns 101 - How to carve a pumpkin

1. Remove the top of the pumpkin: (if you choose to make an ugly face while doing so please be aware your mom may take your photo for all the world to see)

 

2. Next, pull out all the gross insides of the pumpkin (try not to gag, LOL)

 

3. Carve pumpkin according to directions: (this is a lengthy and time consuming process, please don't give up half way through and make your mom finish your pumpkin while you desert her for the computer, this is a family project and that is just rude) haha

 

4. Lastly, light your pumpkin and enjoy! (make sure you have one of those long candle lighters for this process, using a small lighter will only get your fingers burned as you reach way into the deep pumpkin, please don't ask how I know)

 
 

 

bee-utiful

I wish real bees were this sweet!

 

Pink is my signature color

From "Steel Magnolias" showing at the Twin City Players. I thought the ladies did really well, especially the lady who played the M'Lynn character, she had me in tears.  If you need something to do, wanna put a little culture in your life, check them out they put on a good show!

 

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Chloe went on her first school field trip yesterday morning (which means, picture overload!)  They went to a new pumpkin farm (well new to us anyway) called Harvest Moon Acres in Gobles.

1. Here she is with her best bud Lindsey

2. Enjoying apple cider and a donut

3. Visiting the sheep

4. Visiting the bunnies

5. This was a part of the obstacle course

6. The hay maze

7. The super cool hay slide

8. Here is the slide in full view, told you it was super cool (there's a tunnel throughout underneath)

9. At the end of her tour, she got her own pumpkin

10. After warming up at home with some hot cocoa, we carved her new pumpkin

11. Gross!

12. The finished product. The mouth is cut out of the pumpkin but for some reason she keeps putting it back in!