my fountain

anyone who has ever been into my house knows that love anything fleur-de-lis! so, imagine my glee when my husband, who is just fabulous, bought this for my flower bed!

i've been telling him for a while that i wanted a fountain...and thought that i may get one for Christmas...but this one he just got out of the blue! yay! i can't wait to add some more landscaping to that bed now that it has something pretty in it! if you see my sweet man, pat him on the back and tell him he did great! ;)

they actually camped OUT!

i must say, a miracle occurred at my house friday night! blake had 3 friends over for a camping birthday party....and they actually slept outside in the tent all night! i left the french doors and the door going into my bedroom unlocked, fully anticipating that they would all trek in about 2am but they didn't! the weather was perfect for camping outside. they boys roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire pit, ate cupcakes, opened presents, watched a movie, played on the trampoline and swing set, had a war with plastic guns, ran around in the dark playing hide-n-seek, and played xbox.....all before i tucked them into the tent at 10pm!! no wonder they slept out there all night! they were pooped!

kenneth slept in the tent with them (which was the second miracle of the night). he said he slept pretty well even though the tent was full to capacity! it was a 4-man tent with 4 seven year olds and a grown man. there would have been 5 kids but brady (my intelligent child! hehe!) said he would rather sleep in his own bed! smart kid!

we gave each kid their own flashlight to keep and off to the tent they went! the boys took turns telling ghost stories and then it was kenneth's turn. i was hiding outside the tent while he was telling stories about water monsters and the headless horseman.... so i was able to give the tent a shake or two at just the right moment!! the boys were screaming like crazy! i was trying so hard not to laugh!

i really enjoyed having jon-mical, ian, and connor over and they all seemed to have a great time. i think next year, we'll just go to Excaliber or something! i'm still worn out!

photographer brady's pic

okay, i'm only doing this because brady said he wanted me to show everybody how good he takes pictures! he took a picture of me sitting on the swing the other day and he's proud of it! you'll notice that my arm is out bracing the camera. i'm a little nervous any time a 3 year old holds my thousand dollar camera! i kept asking him, "can you see me through the little square?" he kept telling me he "kinda" could so i'm surprised this photo turned out as well as it did! okay, i promise it will be a loooooong time before i post another pic of myself....especially this close!

blake's birthday cake

just wanted to show off a picture of the birthday cake that i made for blake today! his birthday is on Friday and he's having some friends over for a campout (or camp-in if it's too cold!) but tonight is his "family Party" at Cici's Pizza. i made this cake for the family.....and hopefully they'll be gentle in the criticism! i'm kinda proud of it but next year i'm paying chrissy to make it! this was my first, and probably last, fondant iced cake!