Sara's BIrthday Bowling Party

This is Sara. She's going to be 18 years old in just 2 more days! She's been living with us for a little while now, and fits right in. It's just a temporary thing, though she is welcome any time.

We won't get into the whys - she needed us, and we are happy to have her here. :)

We were invited to a bowling party to celebrate her birthday by Sarah (the one in green below, not to be confused with Sara), who she will be living with soon. This was the first time I met Sarah - and I liked her instantly. She is wonderful and loves Sara very much.

Sarah got her a beautiful open heart necklace and ring. And some boots, too.

We interrupt this present opening to ask, "Can I have a dollar?"

Conor was getting into winning tickets to get some prizes. Back to the present opening...

She got a furry white bath robe, too.

And some perfume. She also got some cloths, gas card, a body wash set, and some fragrant trees for her car (air fresheners).

Think she's having a hard time smelling it and needs to put it up her nose?

I really, really need a dollar!

A virgin Strawberry Daiquiri for the occasion, compliments of her Uncle Rob. Three more years until the real thing can be had!

Alli, Sara, and Sierra:

Sara and Alli:

Sara and Kelly:

Sara and Sarah:

Sara and Hailey:

Sara and Tanner:

Sara and Sarah were having some sort of show down on the bowling lanes... careful with those balls, girls!

Look at that form!

I think Sara was trying to distract him so he wouldn't beat her score.

And just look at THAT form - granny shot!

Seemed to work for her sometimes!

Alli tried the granny shot as well.

Her cake:

Sarah told me that her grandma had made a wonderful home made angel food cake for Sara for her birthday, but that her son accidentally knocked into it and ruined it. So Kelly saved the day by making this one!

She's not quite to the age where she will need a fire extinguisher... but it's getting close!

She cut and served the cake,

then it was time for the birthday spanking! She tried to resist, but resistance is futile!

She got her 18 smacks, and one to grow on!

Every person at the party loves her very much, it's hard not to. She is a great kid, who is almost officially an adult! I have no doubt she is going to be successful as an adult as well.

Happy Birthday, Sara! We love you!

OK, FINE!

Barb wants to see pictures of my new hair color... but honestly it doesn't even look red in the pictures. In the first one, with the flash used, it looks really dark! This was when my hair was up.

I took the flash off and took it down... messed it up a bit, and this is what it looked like:

Yes, I do have a lot of hair. Very thick, unruly hair! Smoothed it out a bit with my fingers...

And yes, they are all blurry. My hand shakes, dang it!

I blame all the cakes I've made. Here you can see the back in the mirror.

It really looks redder in person!

Who knows how long until I delete this post. It's like listening to my own voice on my answering machine. It makes me cringe and hit the delete button as quickly as I can!

More Halloween Pics

We took the camera along with us to walk the streets with Conor.

Jeff wanted to get a picture of his mask with the sun reflecting off of it, looks pretty scary to me! He didn't keep it on long, though. He would wear it for about... 2 min then take it off for 15.

Alli and Chrissy were the candy passer-outers. They looked somewhat normal when we left. Well. Normal for them anyway.

There was a Bengal's dog at one of the houses we went to. Looked pretty legit to me.

Out of all the candy that Conor got, he got his favorite thing at this house:

A small rubber rat. Like... not much bigger than my thumb small. He loves it. Took it to school for show and tell.

I know this is a blurry picture, but ... I was trying to be quick. This family all got dressed up for Trick or Treating.

And this guy - the Chef.

Here is the sky as the sun was setting:

And the moon on the other side:

The sky was split by the clouds:

By the time we got back to the house, some kid had played a trick on the girls and put a bunch of pinkish purple gel in their hair.

We had plenty of candy left, I don't know why they didn't just give them a treat!

We searched through the candy, making sure there wasn't anything wrong with any of them - and trying to stop the girls from snagging what they wanted out of it.

We trick or treated for only 1 hour of the two, then passed out candy. Then we made our routine run to my mom's and grandma's to see them and get more candy. They don't get many trick or treaters, so they always have lots to give out at the end of the night!

The treats are already almost gone now, down to 1 Tupperware container (from 4). It was a fun night and it was good to have Jeff home for it for once. I think this was his first that he didn't have to work.

If you don't have kids and didn't get to get a bag of candy? Well then you are out of luck because I don't think Jeff Conor wants to share with anyone else! :)

Jeff: Conor turn the TV on.

Conor turns it on, it's on Food Network and he steps back to watch.

Jeff: Turn it to Bob. (Sponge Bob)

Conor: It's teaching us how to cook! (It was on Food Network from my watching it last night, so he keeps watching.)

Jeff: Turn it to Bob!

Conor: We can learn how to cook!

Jeff: Turn it to BOB!

Conor turns it to the Sponge Bob channel. Sheesh, who's the kid here? :)

The Dangers of a wandering mind...

Towards the end of the work day, there were only 2 people left with keys to the office - Jean and me. Since Jean leaves RIGHT AT 5 and I usually leave a few minutes after, I decided I should actually find my key to make sure I had it. I looked through my purse and found it, and went back to work.

Five o'clock rolled around, I finished up and started shutting down and getting my things ready to leave. I called my aunt to talk to her about a couple of things and finished packing up. I then realized that I had packed my key up somewhere while talking to her. I didn't know where... so I had to search through my purse again, and then through my laptop case - where I finally found it.

I continued talking to her as I put in the security code and locked the door. I got into my car and sat there, searching through my purse and pockets thinking, "Did I leave it on my desk?!?!" I spent 5 minutes looking for it.

Then I realized... the it I was looking for? My cell phone. That I was talking on.

I closed my eyes and just thought... OMG I can't believe I did that! I shared with my aunt so she could laugh at me too. She just said, "You better really concentrate while driving home, you might forget where you are going!"

Ugh. It's just one of those nights. My mind is elsewhere. I did make it home though!

Happy Halloween!!!

We've had a few Halloween activities this month. Starting with going to my aunt and uncle's house to get some pumpkins. I'd show you the pictures, but... ummm I forgot to take my camera.

Once we had the pumpkins for a week or so, it was time to carve them.

The carving crew:

Conor, Ceara, and Adam (Ceara's boyfriend) were the chosen ones to carve. Allie had other pressing matters to attend to that day - Kings Island.

Conor cut the top off and proceeded to get all the guts out of it.

Almost there!

Boy, that was hard work, time to break for cookies while Mom puts the pumpkin design on the pumpkin.

"I already carved the pumpkin!" Apparently carving a pumpkin is limited to cutting off the top and getting the guts out. Because that is what Conor did. I put the pattern on the pumpkin that he chose, and Jeff and I carved it out.

Ceara and Adam working hard on theirs.

Conor supervising the carving of the designs.

Whew! That was hard work, but they are all done!

Let's light em up.

*Ahem* Conor's headless horseman pumpkin.

Ceara's ghost with the headless horseman.

Adam's witch / moon design with Ceara's ghost.

All three together. I took so many pictures to try to get them all to show up. I need a new camera!

With the flash it was just like it was still day time. But I assure you the above picture was taken when it was dark!

Fast forward to two nights ago. On a Thursday night when I made 96 cookies, decorating only 72 because I burned one batch.

Conor took some in to share with his class, and I made some for Alli to do the same. She tried, she took them with her, but she left them in Sara's car when she was dropped off. I took some to my work too, and they all went quick!

Mmmmm chocolate dipped spiders. It's a good thing there are so many spiders around my house, I may not have had enough!

Just kidding! Sheesh, like I would touch a spider! I can't even step on them to kill them.

Now on Halloween night, we are preparing to go scare some treats out of our neighbors. Well, Conor is anyway. Did I ever introduce you to Sara? She's the cowgirl up there. She lived with us for a while at the beginning of the school year. She's back home now, but still comes over to visit. She also ate all the cookies that Alli left in her car yesterday... she was supposed to bring them back for our movie party last night!

And that is the outfit that Conor put together to wear this year. I say put together because it is last year's gladiator chest with a new weapon, one of my capes I had from costume parties I went to in the past, and a new skeleton mask he found this year. Oh, yeah... he's the short skeleton up there.

Why yes, Allie's hair is black now. No, it's not just a Halloween thing. She dyed it again.

And on the other side of Alli is Chrissy - another one of Alli's friends.

Chrissy is the one who supplied the pajamas with feet that Alli is wearing. They are going to be passing out candy to all the kids who come to our house while we take Conor around the neighborhood to get some candy for Jeff... or wait. For Conor. :)

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!

Don't forget to check your candy before eating it!