Shenaniganz

A few weeks ago the whole Thatcher Family (minus a few) were invited to go the the Grand Opening of Shenaniganz...which is a fun family game place (bowling, games, laser tag, etc).  We got to eat for free, play games for free and bowl for free.  We had a blast!  Thanks Ripps for the fun time.  (Btw...the Thatchers have known the family who opened it for a very long time...).  Here is Will, Logan and Grandpa.
The boys and Molly playing some fun games.
Caden played on this thing most of the time.  He was riding this motorcycle like a pro.
This was a first for the boys to go bowling...they loved it!  Grandpa helped all the kids get the perfect score:)
Noah would get really upset if he didn't knock down all the pins...I guess he may be a bit competitive.  It was a really fun night and if you are ever in the Rockwall area, visit this place!  It is unlike anything you have ever seen!

Caden's Kindergarten Holiday Party

Caden's Kindergarten Christmas (oops...Holiday) Party was on the 19th.  The kids got to make these adorable little ornaments...Rudolph made from their hands.  I love that we will always remember how little he was!  This is Caden and his little buddy Christian.
Caden eating all his goods.
Afterwards, they  had a glove exchange.  Too bad that gloves are nearly impossible to find here in Texas.  The only boy ones you could find were boring black ones.  Oh well...what can you do?  I think they all had a good time and thats what matters:)

Noah's Christmas Program

My little boy is growing up so fast!  He had his Christmas program on Dec. 18th.  He did such a good job on his little part!
Noah got to say, "The colors of Christmas" and then at the very end he said, "Thank you".  It was so cute hearing him do this and yelling it into the mic.  Such a little cutie:)
Noah and I...I love his little smile.  Way to go Noah!   You did so well!

Santa Party

On Dec. 8th we went to a Santa Party.  This has become a new tradition for our family...we go to a house with lots of friends and we have lots of snacks and desserts as we wait for Santa and Mrs. Clause to come!  

Here is Santa and the boys.  (Funny story...a few days before Santa left a note for the boys telling them that they need to clean their rooms.  We kept telling Noah that he needs to get his room clean because we are going to see Santa that night.  Well...he never cleaned it.  In fact he  pretty much destroyed his room.  As we were leaving to go to the Santa Party, he was having a melt down because he never cleaned his room and he doesn't know what Santa was going to do to him.  That night, Santa happened to ask them if they have been cleaning their rooms and if their room was clean.  Caden happily said his room was and Noah just sat there with wide eyes and a look of I don't know what to say and don't know if I should cry.  It was priceless.  Needless to say, he cleaned his room that night:)

After Santa comes, he always says hi to all the kids and then reads them a story.  After the story he pulls out his red bag and gives each kid a present.  The kids love it!!

Here is Santa coming into the room.  As we were driving home that night Caden asked why Santa is so BIG!!  I said because he eats lots of cookies and milk.  He was kinda silent for a minute and asked, but how does he eat them?  I was kinda confused and asked him what he means and he goes...he has so much hair on his face, how does he get the cookies in his mouth when its covered up???  

Ahh...the innocence of a child:)

Holiday In the Park

On Dec. 6 we all went to Six Flags with the Gee Family for some Holiday Festivities! (Yeah...I know, I'm like a month late in posting...oh well) We had a blast riding all the rides and drinking hot chocolate and trying to keep warm. Surprisingly the little ones rode most rides and had a blast!

Snowball Fight in Texas!!

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Please Tell Me I'm NOT the Only One??? Please?

Am I the only one who overbooks during the holidays? Am I the only one who gets so stressed out about trying to please people and not myself? I want to know how I always end up doing this every year??? (My sweet hubby tells me all the time that I do this...but I'm a woman and this is what I do best at:) Now, don't get me wrong...I love the holidays, but when I am getting so stressed out that it is making me sick, I need to change something. I found this article today and it made me put things in perspective a little bit...I just need to learn to say no. So...If I say no to you...don't get mad at me. I'm doing it for my sanity because right now...I don't have any and now I am sick, warn out and not really enjoying the spirit of Christmas.

Wow...I feel a little bit better getting that off my chest. Don't think I'm too crazy;)

Brent's Birthday

During Thanksgiving we were able to go to Brent's (my nephew, Eric's boy) birthday! All the cousins were there on both sides (well, most of them), so they put together a fun b-day! My favorite game was the one pictured: 2 villains (Eric and Ben) and the kids were Spiderman. Spiderman had some silly string and they had to get the villains.
Here is Eric covered in silly string.
Ben trying to protect himself. The kids thought it was the greatest game ever! They also played pin the spiderman on the building, Spiderman pinata, cake and ice cream. Great Birthday! Happy Birthday Brent!!!

Thanksgiving 2008

Sorry for the late post! I'm about what...2 weeks late?? Oh well...pretend that Thanksgiving was yesterday for me...k? Anyway, the guys started off the day with a little Turkey Bowl while the women folk were cooking up a storm and slicing fingers (that would be me...only so I could get out of peeling a million potatoes, sorry Whitney:) I am proud to say that my hubby's team won and he even made a touchdown...way to go babe:)
Thanks to Jennie, here are some collages of the great events of our Turkey Day...My parents hosted this year and there were alot of people! My family, Eric and Katie, Curt and Whitney, Jennie (my cousin) and Phil, Matt (my Dad's brother) and Dottie, Austin (cousin) and Meagan, Garrett and of course all the kids...it was fun:)


Here are the table arrangements. We stuck the kids by themselves in the foyer. I am already missing the turkey! So good!!Here is all the food...my favorite: the rolls, strawberry pretzel jell-o, and mashed potatoes. YUM-0! Later that night everyone went swimming and sat in the hot tub and let our tummies digest all the yumminess:)
The next day the girls and guys split up to do some shopping. The guys do the usual Best Buy, Frys etc...The girls did the Target and Kohls thing. Is it just me or were there not very good deals out this year? It seems like I can finish my C-mas shopping no problem on Black Friday...lets just say I am still no where near being done! AHHH!! Later that day we made a cute Advent Calendar and then went to Twilight...and yes I loved it! I went into it thinking I would hate it, which helped I think. I just hope that on the next one they don't put so much makeup on Carlile!

Later that night Caden and Taylor watched Wall-E and then made their own little masterpiece. How cute is their Wall-E?? They stayed up sooo late just coloring and creating...at around 10:30 we went to check on them and Caden looked like a walking zombie and had marker all over himself...pretty funny.
Poor Noah just gave up and fell asleep on Mimi and Popies bed. He was all tuckered out!

7.15.2009

Caden's Thanksgiving Feast

Last Tuesday Caden's Kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving Feast. It turned out so cute! The kids dressed up as either a Pilgrim or an Indian. Caden obviously chose an Indian.

Mommy and Caden. (I was lucky enough to be able to go...yeah!)

Caden and his best friend Christian.

The spread. Not too shabby for Kindergartners! The school would only ok a few things...NO SUGAR. So we had rolls, pumpkin muffins, apples, grapes, cheese cubes, beef jerky, popcorn, pretzels, cheetos (yes, they oked cheetos but not pumpkin pie), ham and turkey. The parents stood around chowing down on the beef jerky (a mom spent $35 on it! How crazy is that??).

Ok...This Is Fun!!

Ben has been in Montreal the last couple of days and when the boys are in bed, I have been taking advantage of my free time. I got Photoshop Elements for my Birthday (way back in May) and I haven't done a thing with it because it is so CONFUSING!!! So, I went on youtube and there are a million tutorials on how to use Photoshop. Thanks goodness!! So, I have been having fun figuring it out and trying not to get mad at it.

This is my first go at digital scrapbooking...what do you think? I think that I will never go back to paper again! How can you beat free downloads vs. paying lots for cute embellishments? Fake sewing stiches vs. taking out your sewing machine and sewing? I mean come on!!! Plus I don't have to keep taking out all my stuff, spend hours cutting and pasting and getting pictures developed! If you are on the verge...hopefully I can give you a little push into digital scrapbooking. Once you go, you will NEVER go back:)

Oh...and did I mention this page only took me 30 minutes to do???

Turkey Cookies

For those of you who have Thanksgiving Parties at school...these might be something fun to try! I got the idea from Puppy Cove...they are so easy! They would be fun for the kids on Thanksgiving Day...at least my kids were really excited about them! Whats nice is you can make them as easy or as difficult as you want.
You can:
make your own sugar cookie....................or get the refrigerated sugar cookie dough
make your own frosting (chocolate and vanilla).........or get the canned kind
use a pastry bag to pipe everything....................or use a ziplock baggie (I would use the pastry bag)
So, I was really excited to make these little guys for Noah's Preschool class (they were having a Thanksgiving Feast)...I made them on Wednesday so they would be ready today. Too bad that all Wednesday night he woke up every 30 minutes throwing up...everywhere!! I have had to do so much laundry today and disinfecting its not even funny. I wish 3 year olds could grasp the "if you have to throw up, throw up in the bowl next to you...not all over yourself, or all over my carpet, or all over your bed/blankets"...it would have saved alot of clean-up. I'm just grateful my sweet husband did the clean up while I dealt with the sick boy. It always makes me sad to see my kids sick. With all that being said...he did not get to go to his Thanksgiving Feast today. I took the cookies in anyway, I just wish he could have been there for it. It sounded like it was so cute!

Now that you have lost your appetite...here is the recipe:)

Turkey Cookies

1 (18 oz) roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 (8 oz) bag candy corn
1 (8 oz) bag miniature M&M chocolate candies
2 oz decorating gel (I used chocolate icing and made the eyes dots with toothpicks)
1 (6.5 oz) can decorating icing (chocolate and vanilla)


Cut and bake the sugar cookies as directed on the package. Cool. With the can of frosting, put some in pastry bag and pipe a line on the top of the cookie that covers about 1/4 of the cookie arc. Place 5-6 candy corn along the frosting row to make the turkey feathers. Next, put icing on the back of the M&M's and put into place. Then using a toothpick (or decorating gel), dab some frosting in the middle of the M&M's. With the vanilla frosting, (tinted orange) make a "V" for the beak - and then an upside-down "Y" for the feet.

P.S...Due to lack of time, I cheated and used the refrigerated cookie dough and the canned frosting. I am so ashamed:( It is against everything I believe in...PHEW, I feel better getting that off my chest.

I Can Finally Sleep:)

Many of you know that I worked at Calico Corners for 4 years and 50 weeks. See the amount of time is very important. Why you may ask? Well, when you have been there for 5 years you get a free chair. I missed it by 2 weeks. Why didn't I wait a measly 2 more weeks? Well, I would have had to have stayed until the chair was in my house...another 11 weeks. I really don't remember why I quit. I just remember that for my family, it had to be done. I was just so close to getting a $1600 chair for FREE!!! So, it has kinda been haunting me.

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from one of my old co-workers saying that our store was closing down and the last day it would be open is November 15. WHAT??? They always threatened us they would close, but we thought it was just talk. Anyway, on one of the last days it was opened, I went there and saw this chair. And the price was so low that it was like I got my free chair! I finally feel like I got what I deserved:) It is such a big, comfy chair! Love it!!! Merry Christmas Summer!!

Captain Gobbler

Caden had his first big project for school...Yes, Kindergartners do have projects:) They had to disguise a turkey. Caden kept changing his mind on what he wanted him to be: a Cowboy, Santa, Batman, etc...We finally settled on Captain Gobbler, the Pirate. I think he turned out pretty cute. Yes, Caden did help:) He put all the sticker accessories on and colored everything. I just did the cutting.

He had to write a little story and this is what it said:
"My name is Captain Gobbler and I am a Pirate! I look for treasure all day with my hook and eye patch. I have a big ship to help me run away from hungry pilgrims!"
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Spice Bread

Hello Everyone! I just made this bread, and everytime I do I can't stop eating it! There is this yummy glaze you pour over the top of it, and let me just tell you that you can literally eat it out of the pan. It's good! So, there is a secret ingredient in this. If I hadn't eaten this first, I probably would never had made it. My mom made this for me when I was a kid and I never knew there was this ingredient in it. When she gave me the recipe...I had to look at it twice! The other night my YW were over at my house and they had some...they couldn't figure out what it was, I told them and they just laughed...So, what is the wierd ingredient??? Check it out yourself! But don't let it hinder you from making it. You should want to make it even more now because you are so curious! I promise you, it is my FAVORITE bread!

Spice Bread

2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon (I usually do close to 2 tsp.)
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (I do close to 1 tsp.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
2 (6 oz.) jars plum baby food***
1 c. chopped walnuts (opt.)

Sift dry ingredients. Make a well or hole in center of bowl, add everything else. Mix well. Pour into 2 bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or more.
***I have had a hard time finding plum baby food...so this time I used Apple Blueberry...tasted the exact same. It just gives the bread a nice rich color.

Topping:
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. margarine
1/8 tsp. soda

Mix in saucepan and bring to boil. Stir constantly. Cook for 3 minutes. When bread is doen, still in the pan, punch holes in it with a large serving fork. Pour sauce over bread and let cool. Freezes well.

So...now that you know the wierd ingredient...whose gonna try it???

Pepe le Pew and Camping too!

This past weekend we went camping with my cousin, Jennie, and her family (we were the only girls, totally outnumbered with 6 boys). We went to Lake Ray Roberts. It was a beautiful weekend to go, just a bit on the cold side when it was time to sleep:) Oh well, we managed and still had a great time! For dinner of course we roasted some hot dogs and had some smores...and that is when pepe le pew decided to join our camp site. That's right, a little skunk. The little boys were having a bit of a freak out...(I secretly was as well, I did not want to smell like skunk). We just took the boys on a little walk while the big boys tried to get rid of it. You know it is tame when the husbands are throwing rocks and sticks at it and it doesn't spray you:) So we just let it do its thing while we did ours. It was the highlight of our trip!!

This is our campsite. Early morning. Making breakfast.
Is this not the cutest picture ever??? Thanks Jennie!!
Here are the little ones, getting warm by the fire.
This picture collage is curtesy of Jennie:) (I need to figure out how to do this...) The boys had fun playing on the playground, especially the tire swing, who doesn't like that???
So the boys could not be more excited for this trip because of the fishing. Ben went out and bought the boys this fancy little fishing pole where all you have to do is push a button and it does all the casting for you. Don't play into "this is the easiest fishing you'll ever do!" business. It does NOT work. For some reason it kept cutting the line. So we would blast the little rod out and BAM! No line. Which explains the next picture.
See that little yellow bobber thing? Well, that is what is blasted out of the fishing pole and inside it is the hook...like I said, the line was cut, so Ben had to wade out in the freezing water to go and get it.
We were so proud:) The funniest part was while we were trying to fix the fishing pole, Landen says, "Well...you are the scientest...." See, Landen thinks Ben is a scientest and Ben went along with it...Clever little boy:)Here is Noah fishing...the line broke again. Lets just say we took the fishing pole back. All in all it was a fun trip and we can't wait till next time!!