Well, okay, we’re a bit late… the snow day was actually February 17. Here are the photos.
The Princess Party
This past Saturday we had the privilege of helping Abigail to celebrate her 5th birthday with a first: a “Friends” party!! Twelve little princesses joined her for food, festivities and frolicking about in royal style. It was a grand time and I could not have done it without the help of some very capable family members who gave generously of their time to assist!
We encouraged Abigail to participate both in the planning and execution of her party: she chose the theme, food, cake flavor and design and insisted upon having a pinata: a pink unicorn, of course! She even labored alongside me on the most time-consuming part of the party prep: painting the many little wooden boxes a most princessy shade of pink! At the party the girls decorated their “treasure boxes” with many “jewels”. This was a very popular activity.
My mother came into town two days before the big event to help in any way she could. She watched children, blew up balloons, helped me set up and clean up everything, did most of the cake herself and generally was just a wonderful help and encouragement to me through the process. Aunt Sandra, being the tall one in the family, hung balloons and streamers with great care and even decorated our drawbridge, which I have not one picture of, I am sorry to say! The drawbridge came courtesy of Mark Peck and was quite a hit with the little princesses! Thank you Mark!!
On the day of the party, King Jay did a beautiful job as master of ceremonies, and thankfully took it upon himself to direct the pinata breaking part. Those little girls were quite ferocious with the unicorn! While Jay had fun swinging the pinata around, my Mom and sister frantically pnut buttered and jellied over 25 heart shaped little sandwiches, filled umpteen princess glasses with lemonade over and over (princesses get very thirsty it seems) and generally helped out in any way they could. Thanks, ladies…you did a super job!
Thanks to the Pecks who babysat Jonathan for us and to the Hornes who kept Nicolas over at their place and out of trouble! Thanks also to Jennifer who drove all the way from Minco to deliver Princess Evangeline to the party. We were so glad to have her here to help celebrate.
Most wonderful of all was the look of delight on Abigail’s face as she enjoyed her very special day. She behaved beautifully throughout the festivities and several times hugged me joyfully as she exclaimed, “I am SO EXCITED for my Princess party!” We enjoyed this event immensely ourselves, though I think it will be a couple years before I undertake anything so grand again! If you still have time left after reading my longwinded entry, please enjoy some of our pictures from the party.
Panty Boy
Last night as Jonathan was undressing and putting away his dirty clothing, he forgot to add his underwear to the hamper.
“Jonathan”, I asked him, “Is there anything else you could put into the laundry?”
Looking around and seeing the underwear, he answered quickly, “My panties!”
Mortified, Jay interjected, “No..you don’t wear panties…what are those called?”
After pondering for a moment what the proper answer should be, Jonathan exclaimed proudly, “THOMAS panties!”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY!!
I just wanted to take a moment to say a very Happy Birthday to my dear hubby. Due to an unexpected turn of events, his trip to Israel which should have taken place this week was cancelled, so we are thankful to actually have him here to wish Happy Birthday to. I am overwhelmingly grateful for Jay and for what he means to me and the children. We are immensely blessed to be the recipients of his love and devotion and care. WE LOVE YOU JAY!!
“YAAAAAAARRHH” ??
Many of you have probably noticed that I do not generally offer political commentary on our site… so consider this a News of the Weird snippet. Howard Dean made the oddest sound during his Iowa concession speech. You simply have to hear it to believe it. First, though, for background, here’s a quote from an article providing a setup (Dean Loses It).
That was a perfectly reasonable gloss for a candidate to put on unfavorable election results. But Dean quickly took on a red-faced, shouting, teeth-baring, air-punching demeanor unlike any of his performances during the campaign.
“Not only are we going to New Hampshire,” he said, his voice rising. “We’re going to South Carolina and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we’re going to California and Texas and New York. And we’re going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House.”
Then he let out a strange, extended, yelp that seemed to come from deep within him: “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”
Dean resumed his roll of states. “We will not give up! We will not give up in New Hampshire! We will not give up in South Carolina! We will not give up in Arizona or New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan! We will not quit now or ever! We’ll earn our country back for ordinary Americans!”
Now listen to the mp3 (courtesy the Drudge Report).
Enough Said
Thanks to Uncle Andrew for the snap!
Retroactive Vacation Entry
In the midst of some of the busyness of our end of summer, I neglected to ever post a blurb on the time we spent in Port Aransas. Last August, we were blessed to be able to spend an entire week at the beach in an effort to “get away” and “relax”. We did indeed get away, and yes, we did some relaxing as well. Our dear friends the Pecks were brave enough to attempt a vacation with us and together we rented a home in a beach community in the quiet part of Port Aransas. In fact, we were only the second set of folks to stay in this particular home as it had just recently been completed and opened for rentals. It was a lovely place with lots of beds to accomodate our crew.
Just up the street from our beachhouse was the boardwalk over the dunes which led onto a very family friendly beach: gentle surf, shallow water which wasn’t too cold or too warm, and clean sand. This was the kids’ first encounter with the ocean and overall they had a blast. There was some tentativeness on Jonathan’s part but he came around to liking it after a few days. The baby boys liked the water so much we had trouble keeping them from just diving in headfirst!
We took in plenty of sun and sand, some local seafood, fresh air from our back deck (completely childproofed – how cool!) and ocean views from the “crow’s nest”. The children entertained one another very well and the older ones especially thrived on having close friends around 24/7. Each night after putting the kids to bed we got to spend time with Mark and Susan without the fee of a babysitter or the trouble of carting all three of our kids to the others’ house. It was a real treat.
Port Aransas is a good deal. It’s close enough to drive in less than a day even if you have little ones along for the ride. It offers well-priced accomodations more beautiful than we’d have expected on our budget, with direct access to a pretty nice beach for Texas. But most refreshing of all, you can enjoy cool temps (low to mid 80’s) there in the middle of August in Texas, even when it’s 98+ about 20 miles inland.
If you have a minute, enjoy some of the 148 pictures from our trip that we have available for viewing. Sorry that some of them are redundant…when we were uploading these we just went ahead and chose them all…feel free to skip around!!
Jonathan Turns 3!!
For those of you who may not already know, we celebrated both of Jonathan’s previous two birthdays with a Thomas the Tank Engine party. This year was no different; he again chose Thomas for his theme. But for the first time, on this his 3rd birthday, he enjoyed a party all to himself. Previously we threw a combination party for both he and Abigail who have their special days exactly one week apart, immediately following Christmas. This year’s bash was a great success and attended by all of our in town family members plus our family friends the Clemmons who helped to add to the kid ratio at the party.
I think everyone had a great time. We know Jonathan certainly appreciated everyone coming to help wish him a happy birthday. If you have a moment, take a peek at our photos from the celebration. Thanks to everyone who came for making Jonathan’s 3rd birthday so special!!
Jammied Children
We haven’t posted a picture of all three kids together for some time. So here are our three freshly bathed little Hornes ready for bed. Abigail and Jonathan think it is so cool that they all three have matching jammies!! I actually found the two older kids’ sleepers clearanced a couple years ago before Nicolas was born. They were very roomy on them back then! When my friend Jessica told me she owned the same pajama in an 18 month size which she would love to give us, I accepted happily. So now we have a matched trio! Thanks, Jess!!
2nd Set of Christmas Pics
Though we had hoped to see my brother Peter, his wife Katie, and their daughter Ellie on Christmas Day, our continuing bout with the flu rendered such a visit an impossibility. We greatly missed seeing them but were happy for the opportunity to share a meal and exchange presents on the Monday following Christmas. In addition to Pete, KT, and Ellie, we were joined by Aunt Sandra, Uncle Andrew, and Miss Jamison. Here are some pics from our time with all of them, featuring cousin Ellie with her adoring Horne cousins (especially Jonathan!).