The Big Apple

Quick trip to the Big Apple this week after the Superstorm Sandy.  Missed the storm by barely more than a week.  Lots of destruction and still lots of power outages going on.  Lots of closures on the subway as well.  The people are still reeling from so much loss.  Of course Times Square was lit up like usual, a very unclear picture from my hotel room! 

Memorial Day Birthday Party

Elle was invited to one of the best birthday parties I have ever seen.  A "Hunger Games" Birthday party.  Check out the invitation that came.

 

Everyone was split up into separate districts and then the "Hunger Games" started.

Competition in the MUD PIT~!

 

 

 

Check out the Hostess of the Party!  "May the odds ever be in your favor!"

 

 Elle had so much fun and kudo's to the parents who put on such a great birthday party.

Sunday Night Dinner

We decided to have breakfast for dinner tonight so we made crepes!  Everyone joined in on the fun and made sure we had all the right fixings.  No one wanted pictures as we had just finished our afternoon Sunday naps.

Friday Night Fun

Friday night Fun-----Cards and yogurt--what can be more fun?  We haven't played cards as a family for  months so tonight we decided to pull out the UNO and go to town.  Couldn't get the older girls to join in.

 

Eve & Dance Lessons

 

 

Eve loves to dress up in her dance clothes, especially Ballerina costumes. So Miss G. thought she would love to take some dance lessons with one of her best friends Lucy.  She was so excited for dance she could hardly stand it! 

 

 

Until she actually got to the dance studio.  Take a look at the picture and see if you can't figure out how it went.

 

We will stick with dressing up for now.

Dance Time which means Expensive Dresses!

Homecoming Dance! Chloe had a great time with her date and friends!  Had to put some pictures up. 

 

 

Who Taught you That?

Elle and Ava have to empty the dishwashers every morning.  Sometimes to get ahead of the curve they will empty them at night.  As I was cleaning up dinner tonight (Miss G cooked some mean lettuce wraps tonight that were unbelievable!  So I am in charge of clean up duty, if you cook in the house you don't have to clean up.  Which I must say I like to do alone so I can think and listen to what I want to on the MAC.)

Back to Elle and Ava who emptied everything tonight.  Here is what I found the silverware holder looking like.  Really?  Did I not teach you better than that?  I know Miss G did and yet there must have been some huge rush to finish early, so it was much easier to just throw everything in.  Notice the knives sticking out?  No danger in that at all.  Did I fix it tonight?  Nope, just took a picture and went to bed.

 

Arizona Pizza Kitchen

Really good friends are hard to find--especially when you have just moved.  Tonight we got together with the Farnsworth family who we have known for years and had a really fun evening making pizza's and just hanging out.

 






We started out with some incredible pizza dough that we rolled out and then we added on any toppings that we wanted.  Eve couldn't get past the rolling of the dough, she rolled and rolled and actually ended up with the most perfect circle pizza of any of us. 

Check out how we cooked the pizza's.  The Farnsworths have their own pizza oven in their backyard.  What a way to cook pizzas!  Tom is a master pizza chef--he cooked all the pizza's to perfection.

The kids had a great time.

 

 

Thanks to the Farnsworth's for a great evening. 

The Sound of Music

It is hard to explain what it is like to hear the music that is always playing in our house.  About two to three times a week I come home to hear the words, "Do you want to hear the song I wrote?"  When I sit down and hear the latest song that was written, I am amazed at their talent and wonder how they have the incredible ability to write such music. I feel like I am the first to hear a great song before anyone else gets too and I'm lucky to hear my girls songs before the rest of the world does. 

It is rare that I am home that I don't hear the piano or the guitar playing and  it makes for an incredible feeling in the home to have music being created the way it constantly is in the house.  I feel lucky to have the girls music in the house and I am trying to enjoy it while I have them still living here.  The girls are finishing up their demo records so I will let everyone know when they hit itunes.  If you want to see how their music has progressed over the last 6 years go to youtube.com and put in their youtube page which is cand0103  you will be able to see some of the first songs that they wrote nearly 6 years ago.  They have been honing their craft for nearly six years. 

Is it November?

We woke up this mornig to incredible weather here in Arizona!  So we decided to make the most of the day and plan some really fun activities.  After we cleaned the house Miss. G and myself headed to the pool with the kids.  With the weather in the high 80's you would have thought it was summertime.   So we acted like it was!

 

 

 

After swimming we headed to the movie "Wreck it Ralph".  It looks like we were not the only ones who went to see the movie, our neighbor Braxton happened to be buying tickets at the same time.

Then we headed to dinner.  Who can cook dinner after a fun day like this--I wasn't expecting Miss. G to do any cooking so we headed to get some food and guess who happened to be at the restaurant? Some of my Sunday School kids, complete with hats!

Minor Surgery

Miss G had some volunteer work this morning with a local company that gives food to children after school who won't get any food at home so I got Eve to myself this morning.  After all the fun of Halloween, Eve soon realized that she had some mosquito bites.  Well the world came to a stop until we could find something to stop the itch.  I looked and looked and couldn't find anything until I came upon some "lady Lotion" which says "anti-itch" so I used that.  It seemed to work fine and I prided myself on my resourcefulness. 

I figured the more I covered up the mosquito bites the better it would be as she wouldn't be reminded so I found the largest bandage and covered half of her leg.  She loved it and once again I'm a hero!

Since I didn't have any calls during lunch, Eve and I ran over lunch to Olivia at school.  Nothing say's I love you like "Taco Bell". 

Next Goal: Be Dr. Huxtable (ie: GREAT DAD)

Remember Bill Crosby as Dr. Huxtable?  He was the best fake dad on TV ever.  He could handle any situation with humor, love and great advice.  I don't remember ever hearing him scream at his kids about their dirty rooms.  Yea, well I am pretty much not anywhere near that.  So I decided this week that I am going to start working on being a better dad.  I have such incredible girls that I need to be a dad who helps them reach their goals and be confident on their journey.  I figure the best way to do this is through small things that won't overwhelm me.  So here is my new thing; every school night that I am in town I write on their bedroom or bathroom mirror a little piece of advice or cool thought so when they wake up in the morning it gives them an extra "Dad cares about me boost."  Here was Day 1 of Elle.  I won't put on Chloe and Olivia's as it is a bit cheesy and personal:

As a big suprise to me later that day I started getting notes back on my mirror....Here is what Elle wrote back....a bit of advice for me. 

So I knew I had gone to far when I started getting requests for to do list items written on my mirror from my two teenagers.  They ruined such a great thing, I think I will go scream at them.  (But I am still going to keep up with the mirror writing!)