Christmas Crafts, Cupcakes, Stockings and More...

Each Christmas we pick a fun craft to do with the kids. This year we made little felt mice with candy cane tails and handed them out to family, friends and classmates.

On Christmas Eve, Blaine sang with the church choir and Felicia played violin.

Christmas Day was the usual fun of opening stockings, having breakfast, opening gifts, playing games, eating a scrumptious Christmas dinner, etc. Click the link for our Christmas 2009 slideshow. If the slideshow doesn't start automatically, click the 'Slideshow' button in the upper left.

Can You Solve Our Christmas Puzzle for 2009?

All the kids had a lot of fun creating our annual Christmas Puzzle for 2009. It's a standard word search puzzle, so it shouldn't be too difficult, but there is a hidden message to find when you are done.

If you are absolutely stuck, you can find the answer here.

When you solve it, please don't give away the answer but feel free to add a comment to let us know that you successfully figured it out. And we are always looking for new ideas for next year's Christmas puzzle, so submit those too.

Thanksgiving 2009 - Making Yummy Hors d'Oeuvres

For Thanksgiving, we had a fun time making hors d'oeuvres for Thanksgiving dinner. My favorites were the "Bacon Hugs" which were figs stuffed with water chestnuts and wrapped in bacon.

If you'd like to see the photos, click the link to our Thanksgiving 2009 Photo Album. If it doesn't automatically start as a slideshow, click the "Slideshow" button.

Jason's 8th Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese

On Jason's actual birthday, we had a small celebration just with the family. For this cake, Jason requested a vanilla cake with peanut butter and Reese's Pieces. Felicia made a SpongeBob SquarePants cake decorated with shells, seaweed, sand, peanut butter and chocolate frosting, etc. The inside was vanilla cake with embedded Reese's Pieces and chocolate mousse filling baked so that it formed a heart in each slice.

To see the photos, click on Jason's 8th Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. It should start as a slideshow, but if it doesn't, click the "Slideshow" button in the upper left.

Jason's 8th Birthday Party at the Jungle

Jason recently celebrated his 8th birthday by inviting classmates to join him at the Jungle. Apart from all the fun of crawling through tunnels, heading up and down ramps, sliding down slides, etc. the group had fun in the "Monkey" party room.

There the group had pizza, played several rounds of "Cat Bingo", opened presents and ate cake. For the cake, Jason requested sky blue and red frosting, a cat, chocolate inside and Oreo cookies. Felicia was able to incorporate every element and you'll see that in the pictures.

To see the photos, click on Jason's 8th Birthday Party at the Jungle. It should start as a slideshow, but if it doesn't, click the "Slideshow" button in the upper left.

Mini-Vacation Luau Party at Work

When you can't afford to send everybody off to a tropical vacation to celebrate their hard work, what's the next best thing? How about a fun "virtual" vacation luau party?

A group at the office organized a fun celebration with Hawaiian music, a slideshow of vacation photos, a raffle, best Hawaiian outfit contest, real luau food, etc. It was a great way to take a break from work.

Here's a few photos I took of the Mini-Vacation Luau Party!.

Easter in Full Bloom!

It was a fun-filled Easter.

There were easter baskets, egg hunts, colorful dresses and ties, good food, playing games, and spending time with our family.

Check out a slideshow of the Easter 2009 Fun!.