The {regrettably} true story of a princess and her hair

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful little princess with longish golden hair.  The Queen, her mother, loved to put it in piggy-tails and other such hairdos befitting a little Princess.  After styling copper-colored hair for so long, the Queen loved having a golden-haired little girl too.

One day while the Queen was busy with affairs related to the upkeep of the castle, the evil Prince (really an ogre in disguise), caught a hold of a tool of mass destruction.

With a quick glance behind him, and an evil laugh, I am sure, the evil Prince sheared off the Princess's golden locks.

The Queen, upon re-entering the room where the crime had been committed, found handfuls of the golden tresses upon all the royal sitting places.  With a cry of rage, the Queen banished the Evil Prince to solitary

confinement until sufficient remorse could be shown. 

Alas, the golden tresses are no more to be put into piggy-tails.  There is no happily ever after in this story, as the little princess will be sporting a mullet for the foresee-able future. 

It's Christmas again!

This is what Christmas looks like at our house:

(I found something to do with all the extra cut-off branches from the Christmas tree)

And, of course, a wall peppered with advent calendars. 

Outfitted

After the last snowstorm, the twins prepared themselves to venture outside.  Keaton looked like a lobster with Scott's big gloves on.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Savannah was finally admitted to the Harry Potter club.  In the past it's just been my sister-in-law Sallie and I that went to opening night, but we both promised our girls that if they finished the series by the release of the last movie, they could come, too.  Savannah finished it about 4 months ago.  We invited our other sister-in-law Lara, and son Baker to come along too.  It was a really fun night!  We were so excited to finally see the book come to life! 

I made some Honeydukes treat bags for the occasion.  Unfortunately, our printer was running out of ink, so the lables were really crappy, but you get the idea.  The labels are courtesy of Hostess with the Mostess.

We had licorice wands, chocolate wands, acid pops, jelly slugs, chocolate frogs, peppermint toads, fizzing whizbees, treacle fudge, and cockroach clusters.

Each chocolate frog had a picture of a wizard, of course.  This is mine and I got Ron Weasley.  The Muggle version, of course.  Bad print job, though.

Another year older and wiser too.

Before Thanksgiving I turned another year older. Scott so lovingly reminded me that day that I was "officially middle-aged".  He looked it up.  I am no longer mid-thirties, but have graduated to late-thirties.  How depressing.  However, I was very excited to receive some fun birthday gifts from my sister and friends!  Obviously, my love of cupcakes is no secret to anybody.  They all were thinking the same thing.  My sister Moana got me some cupcake-scented germ gel.  It does smell really good!

And this adorable jewellery box.  I loved it so much, it now has a place on my cupcake stand on the china hutch in the kitchen. 

See, and here she is all decked out in red for the holidays.  I think she looks fabulous, don't you?

and these cute little mints, which my kids love! 

and these cute earrings, to go in my jewellery box. 

and Moana wouldn't be Moana if there wasn't a conversation gift too:)  I have yet to try these bacon and cheddar crickets, but if anyone is interested, come on by!  Savannah insisted they were candy, so we checked the ingredient list.  First one on there is crickets.  I think I'll leave those to the seagulls. 

Then my friend Jen came by and gave me these darling cupcake ornaments, which I have hanging on my tree. 

Aren't they adorable?  I love them!  Thanks, Jen! 

My sister-in-law Sallie presented me with my own cupcake dyes, since I keep borrowing hers.  I'm giddy!  Makes me want to make rainbow cupcakes all over again, just to use them. 

Thanks everybody!  You made my day great!  Maybe I'll survive the advent of "middle-age" after all.

Turkey Day 2010

This year Thanksgiving was spent at my mom's house with my sister Julie and family, and brother Kevin and family.  I love Thanksgiving; it used to be because it meant my birthday was near.  Now it's for more grown-up reasons.  (plus the addition of pumpkin pie doesn't hurt either!)  Here's a few pictures of our Thanksgiving day this year.

Scott carving up the turkey with Waverly sampling.  "like turkey" was the decision.

My mom always sets a nice table. 

This child hates long sleeves; she always pushes them up.  It used to be because she sucked her arm when she was upset or tired.  She still does that occasionally, but the habit stuck. 

My mom the head Chef 

This was one of my contributions this year.  Normally I shy away from cheesecakes, even though I love making desserts.  But my sister-in-law Sallie gave me the confidence that I could do one, so I made pumpkin spice cheese cake.  I made chocolate leaves to go on top of the spiced whipped cream dollops.  It was pretty, I have to admit.  That's until the twins got to it.  This is the before picture. 

I just love Keaton's expressions.  They vary so greatly. 

Nice bum shot of my mom.  Sorry, Mom!  As we sat down to dinner, everyone read a fill-in-the-blank grateful statement.  Such as, "I am grateful for my friend ___."  Sallie, you'll be very glad to know you were my blank.  Everyone needs a great sister-in-law to commiserate the ups and downs of being married to brothers:)  Anyway, it was funny to hear what people filled in their blanks with.  My sister Julie was grateful for the movie The Sound of Music, because it inspired her to become a nanny and resulted in a great experience in Hawaii for her when she was a teenager.  See, I didn't know that before. 

I love the expression on my neice Aislynn's face (in the pink).  She's an adorable, precocious, 5-yr-old that had Brighton playing house with her all weekend.  I'm not sure that's been done before.  She had him whooped.  It was good for him.

After dinner, we have a tradition of doing crafts.  It started when I was a teenager, and we've been doing it ever since.  The kids made Christmas countdown calendars and trains with Grandma, 

while the moms made washer and tile necklaces with Julie.  

See what I mean about expressions?  I wonder if that tongue was directed at me. 

I mistakenly gave Scott the camera and he turned it on me.  DOn't look to close or you'll see the patch of gray that's grown up.  These little suckers took a lot of time and concentration to match up.  But the end result was beautiful!  Of which, I'm realizing I did not get a picture. 

Food and trains.  Brighton's in his element. 

While doing crafts, someone forgot to check the twins.  Inevitably, something perished.  It was my cheesecake.  Ok, maybe it didn't perish, but it sure got maimed. 

See me on the far left?  Speaks volumes, doesn't it? 

Keaton's face shows a mixture of "oh crap, I've been caught" and "who said cheesecake isn't good for my hair and complexion?"

I'm thinking they probably helped rub it in each other's hair.  We also found it on the wall, cupboards, and inside the cupboards on the flashlights.   

Luckily, with a little extra whipped cream I was able to hide some of the damage. 

Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls

I finally found a recipe for pumpkin cinnamon rolls that I love.  It even has whole wheat flour in it, so I can fool myself into thinking it's kinda healthy.  (Too bad it doesn't also fool my butt!)  I made them for my birthday breakfast.  My mom stayed overnight, since she hates driving in the dark, so I made them for her, too.  It was fun to have her sleep over.  For the recipe, go here.  I hear the Pioneer Woman also has a killer recipe for cinnamon rolls (literally, since it calls for a whopping amount of butter!).  That's next on my list to try.

Waiting for Grandma

Last week my mom came down to watch my kids while Scott and I went out for the day for my birthday.  My kids love their grandmas, and get so excited to see them.  To pass the time til she got there, we found them like this.  It doesn't happen very often, okay never, so of course we had to take a picture.  If only they were this docile...  Notice Waverly in her Snow White dress up.  She has discovered the magic of dress ups and rarely wears her own clothes anymore.  I love this little girly-girl!