Birthday/Slumber Party

We celebrated Sydney's 9th birthday with a sleepover. When she first asked my first response was "Have you lost your mind? Do you not realize how small our house is?" Well I guess I had 2 responses. Basically, I was in shock because she had never mentioned it before. Lucky for me I did not have to tell her no. My Uncle Lou & Aunt Sally were to be in Florida at the time and graciously let us use their home.

So 4 giggly friends later, 1 little brother & 1 terrific Grandma (who hadn't been feeling well) the party was under way. Oh, did I mention 1 father who was ready to get the heck out of there?

Here is her cake. I decided that I would make my own icing and try to decorate it. Huge thanks to Elizabeth for sharing a recipe with me. She has made some awesome cakes. Well I had no plans on getting  that fancy. at least I know I can do it. For my first attempt I got the icing a little soft. But with as tired as I was and as late as it was I was happy with it. 

Everything was going great til some of them decided to get up at 6:30 am. I mean come on Anderson normally doesn't get up that early. I figured with them not going to sleep til 11:30 pm I would be good til at least 8:00 am. WRONG!!

The gang is all here!

The treat bags I decorated for everyone. They only cost a dollar at Micheal's. We decorated wooden frames and ceraminc animal statues. These are some crafty girls.

Grandma & Anderson playing.

Lucky for me all of the girls were great with Anderson and didn't mind him being around. They were constantly giving him toys & making sure he was happy.

Yeah for good friends!!

Well I wasn't sure I would ever see this again. A Fowler wearing the number 32. Sydney is playing basketball this year. Sydney decided she would wear the same number her Dad did when he played. Sorry it is a little blurry it is hard to catch them standing still.

Actually we are almost at the end of the season. She is really enjoying it. I think she would play entire game if she could. The girls are even running & shooting hoops at halftime. You think they would be tired they run ALOT! Her team is made up of third & fourth grade girls. The coach does a really good job of making sure they all play. Sydney has decided she like defense the best because her ball handling skills are not that great. Hopefully, Steve and her will work on that this summer. Right now she doesn't have alot of arm strength. She actually was practicing foul shots before a game and managed to hit 2 of her teammates right on top of the head. Those were consecutive shots by the way.
She has played against some girls that are quite a bit taller than her. She is not afraid to go after them though. They even played in the fifth grade tournament last weekend. It didn't go so well for them. The other girls were huge, but her team kept the score pretty close.

On the move again.

This was at the end of the game where she got her first basket. YEAH!!! Unfortunatlely Steve had to work & missed it.

Our tournament is in a couple of weeks so that should be interesting. Go Spartans!

Snow Event #1

At the beginning of the month we got about 18inches of snow at our house within 24 hours. This started a week off school for the kids when another snow came between Tuesday & Wednesday (more photos to follow).  So I figured I would take Anderson out for his first major snow fall & get some photos. Of course Steve being at work this proved to be harder than I thought. With so much I couldn't just set him in the snow as I would lose him. Lucky for me his big sister loves to help with him. Until she gets snow down in her boots that is.

This is a shot I got while trying to dress Anderson for outside. One might think this would be easy as he is only 8 months old. People who have children realize this is no easy feat. Especially, when the child does NOT like to put on his coat.

Sydney hopping into the snow to show how deep it was. What she really did was fill her boots with snow UGH! Which of course was followed with whining. After we emptied her out the photo fest continued.

Holding up her brother so he didn't fall in the snow. He did play with it a little but his gloves are so big he wasn't able to do much.

A couple of outside shots. One which you can tell was the walkway to  the house. The other I was trying to get a shot of how high it was from the ground. Didn't get it all the way to the ground. But the blue sky is awesome.

Lucky for us we didn't lose power. And did not get as much as our family & friends down in MD. Who ended up with over 30 inches of snow within the first 24 hours of the first storm.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Sydney's 9th Birthday

Monday we celebrated Syd's 9th Birthday!

It is hard to believe she is already nine years old. Lucky for her the school district also celebrated her birthday with our first snow day of the year. She was very excited about having off for her big day. This friday we will have her official party. So she choose to have brownies since she was having cake on friday. Any other normal person just would of had cake twice but since she is not a cake girl brownies it was. Friday we will be having a sleepover party. Yes, I said sleepover moment of insanity on my part. Just kidding I am sure it will be fine. All the snow just needs to quit so Mom is able to come down & help me out. I am sure I will have some interesting pictures to share with everyone.

Anderson helping her with her gifts.

Over the River & Through The Woods...

We didn't get to Mom's until 11:30pm Christmas Eve. As we decided to leave after Steve got done from work because bad weather was moving in. Amazing how happy a little boy be that late at night. Although, it was pretty strange to hear him babbling in the backseat in the complete dark. With his sister yelling for us to make him be quiet. What a good sport he was.

Even though we got in late Syd was very excited to see what Santa had brought her. We managed to make it to 7:30. This is Anderson doing his morning exercises.

Sydney with her new MP3 player from Grandma Terry & Roger. I don't even have my own yet. Aunt Jackie & Uncle Aaron got her speakers so she could play it in her room.

Sydney finally got a Wii. Well actually the whole family did. Thank you Grandma Betsy! The whole family had a blast playing the games.

Anderson in his new ride Santa brought him.

Sydney & Anderson after we were done opening gifts. She really does love her little brother!

From our house to yours

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!