Kingsley's Wild Rumpus

Kingsley turned 2 at the beginning of February and his super crafty parents and pals of mine put together a Where the Wild Things Are party.  I love his birthday banner and the vines they made.  The cupcakes looked and tasted great (see Josie's mouth) and we had a cookout, while waiting for the Highland Parade to get to us.  Kingsley got tons of great gifts and was even a good sport about wearing his crown.  The only thing I didn't get a picture of was Kingsley in his Max style hoodie--complete with ears on the hood and tail sewn on the back.  Fun times!

Wordless Wednesday (Valentine's Day prizes)

Our Mardi Gras parade trio

We have before us today a menagerie of parade pictures.  I tried to whittle them down, but we made it to three parades this Mardi Gras season, so there are a lot.  Parade number one was the Krewe of Centaur, and it has become our tradition to go to a friend's house that lives at the very end of the parade route.  Since the parade doesn't get to the end until after 8, the hosts supply tons of food and drinks and a bouncy house for the kids and a fire pit to keep everyone warm.  It's fun for everyone and something we all look forward too. The only family picture we have from all of the parades was taken at Johnny's that night.  We caught 2,000 pounds of beads, cups, doubloons, and the best catch of the night was a ceramic bobblehead centaur statue--it is still proudly displayed on my mantel.  The only downside was when Josie got some beads with her face...a real downer since she was already tired and was waiting in the wagon with me for the parade to end. She did come away with some cool scratches that I got to explain for a few days.  The next parade was Barkus and Meoux--the animal parade!  Lots of funny dogs in costume--I have only included Sarah 'Pawlin' for your viewing pleasure today, along with Cinnamon the pony who Josie really wanted to ride.   Our last parade was the Highland Parade--always a good time because lots of the floats from the big parades are there and anyone who wants to make a float can also join in.  This is the parade where one could expect to be thrown all the usual beads and cups, but along with that there are dolls, Happy Meal toys, balls, candy, hotdogs, small ceramic home items (last year I got a turtle shaped toothbrush holder), tshirts, and any number of surprises.  We did this parade in conjunction with Kingsley's birthday party (I'll do a separate post, the party was super cute), so there were tons of friends and kids there, which made the parade even more fun.  That wraps up our parades for the year--I'm always about tapped out after those three.

Wordless Wednesday (snow covered trees and such)

And I promise, this is the last of my snow posts!

Things that don't happen in the Port City!!

Winter here is usually light, we may see some days that get down to freezing temps, but those are mixed in with days in the 70s, too.  So, when the ol' weather radar showed a snow storm coming, none of us really held our breath.  Typically, nothing comes of these 'snow storms'.  This time what came was about 5" of snow!  It was so fun to wake up and throw on clothes and play in the snow with my family.  It's something we've never gotten to do before now.  The girls loved it and stayed outside as long as we let them.  We did everything that you're supposed to do in the snow--snowman, snow angels, and snowball fight.  Josie liked to tell everyone that was about to be on the receiving end of one of her snowballs that they "better watch out, 'cause I'm gonna blast you".  Who knew that she knew anything about blasting?  Liv was excited about the snowman, and her and Poppy did that together.  When we had played with every flake in our backyard, we took a walk around the neighborhood.  The snow left as fast as it came, so I'm glad we took lots of pics!!  I really loved the trees covered in snow, so next up a montage of those!

Valentine's Conversation Heart Fudge

I found a super easy recipe for fudge that the girls and I could make to attach to their Valentine's for their friends at school.  Pretty sure that I just strung together  four prepositional phrases--wow!  I'm a real genius at 9 am.  And I would go back and try to construct a better sentence, but Momma has things to do today and I need to get this baby hammered out so I can start my day.  Back to the recipe....all we had to do was microwave semisweet chocolate chips or white chocolate chips (depending on which layer you're making) and sweetened condensed milk with a dash of salt.  Then we spread each layer in the pan, added the hearts and let it harden in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Voila--fudge!  I chopped it into squares, put them in a Valentine mini muffin cup and packaged it together with the girl's Valentines (Tinkerbell for Josie, and 3-D for Liv), and a coupon for a free doughnut.  They were super cute and the girls were excited to take them to school.  At first, I thought I had gone overboard. I mean, when I was little I was proud to take just the little paper Valentines, and that's what everyone else brought to school.  Now, as cute as my kids Valentines were, we were one of many families that attached candy or coloring books or bubbles.  So, I'm glad we went the extra mile and I had a ton of fun with my ladies!

Snowman Brigade

 Wow, it snowed here.  I can't even remember the last time this has happened.  And I'm not talking like a light dusting or ice--we're talking powder, baby--4-5" of it!!  I live in the South where we have temps in the 100s during the summer, so snow is like an alien substance I have no familiarity with.  It started snowing here yesterday morning and continued for about 24 hours.  When the girls woke up this morning, we bundled up and went outside to play.  I hate cold weather, but it was so fun making angels and snowmen and snowballs and watching the girls be so excited, that it didn't even seem cold (for the first hour, anyway).  We went on a walk around the block to see more of the snow and I took pics of the snowmen we met along the way.  Ours is the top picture, with the cutest hat and scarf--really, I think we have a snow lady. I'll post more pics of the kids playing soon--I'll be riding out the snow thing for a few more blog posts :)