Birthday Weekend!

I can't believe our little pickle is three! He is such a sweet little sprite! We decided that he should have a fun party to celebrate his birthday this year, so we booked a party at Pump It Up. Wow! What a blast! Twenty-two kiddos and their parents jumping and sliding on oversized inflatables! Prent is so little, he would just fly down the huge slide, arms and legs flying all over. Even Addie couldn't get enough of the slide and the bouncing. My parents were in town to celebrate with Prentice, and Dad couldn't resist: he jumped on in too. Wish I had gotten a picture of that! Saturday was Pic's actual birthday; we had a birthday dinner with my parents, Max's parents, and Max's grandma. We set up a sundae bar for dessert, and when my mom asked him what the best part of his birthday weekend was, he said that it was his ice cream with M&Ms and chocolate on top. He's sweeter than any ice cream sundae for sure!

The Apples of My Eyes...

We went to Carter mountain near Charlottesville to pick apples after church today. It was a gorgeous day - bright blue sky, warm sun, crisp fall breeze! We spent the day with three other families (11 little ones between us!) The boys had a great time running around and climbing everything that looked like it could be climbed. It was a grand scavenger hunt at first, and then we found the jackpot: the Pink Lady trees. The tree limbs drooped under the weight of those juicy gems. We scored a huge bag and a half of those. We were all full of red dust by the time we made it back to the cars. The best part (and well worth the 25 minute wait in line)...the cider doughnuts!!!! These are the kind that they stick in a white bag, stained with grease before your money even hits the cash register! YUM!

Yesterday morning was pretty slow around here. Caedmon's soccer game wasn't until after lunch, so we spent the morning accomplishing very little. The little ones spent quite a bit of time reading through books. Caedmon said, "Mom, it's our book club!" Addie also made her way to Max's lap with her "laptop" in hand.

Friday night we went out for dinner at a hibatchi place in downtown Short Pump. It was a fun dinner, always very entertaining. The boys were enthralled, but Addie was pretty unsure about the ball of fire leaping from the table in front of us! She was shaking so hard, her binky popped out! Then we walked arund the corner to Barnes and Noble. Caedmon had been wearing his police helmet all day and asked to wear it out. On our way to the bookstore, we passed the theater, in front of which a police car is usually parked on the sidewalk in front. Caedmon and Prent get pretty excited to see a real "Jake Justice." The police officer turned on his lights and sirens for the boys. Whoa! What a night! Fire and sirens in one evening! Could life get any better? I submit that it can not! (and then we arrived at the bookstore just in time to hear a story about Clifford and enjoy a visit from the big red dog himself!)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

News for SJ

As some of you know, I love to scrapbook. And you may even know that a few months ago, I discovered digital scrapbooking. I'm really excited about the fact that I have been invited to be on a creative team! Toni Berman Designs has asked me to use her kits to show off how cool they are. I post my Layouts in galleries around the digital-scrapbooking community, and hopefully I will help her sell a few kits! Here's one of my first for her. (this one is available here if you're interested: http://digiscrappin.biz/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=43&products_id=698&zenid=53df3c06c6eac387044e1dbf9e61a59c)

So now I have decided to go beta. Sorry about the switch. Hopefully you will all still find us just fine! I had Lasik surgery last Tuesday and have taken a break from long periods at the computer (which really only happen at night, when my eyes are tired anyway). The procedure was surprisingly easy, and the best part is that now I can see Prent's little face peek in the door in the morning and I can tell if Addie is in the corner sticking toilet paper in her mouth while I'm in the shower, and soon I will be able to wrestle and cuddle each of them without worrying about my glasses breaking or bonking someone's nose! Right now, the boys and Addie are "inside camping" with Max. They just passed me by on their hike up to the campground. I should go make sure there are no bears lurking in the shadows (or in the hallway).

I took Addie to the mall to take some pictures of her, and she was most uncooperative! She decided that she was ready to shop!