happy day carona

yep, that's right, it's your birthday today. hope you get to do all of the things you enjoy, especially drink lots of coffee. wish we could be there.
happy birthday!

marathon thanks-christmas.

What we did this weekend

Shoot, I don't really know how to upload pictures, so I will have to wait until Caron gets back. But here is what we did without her this weekend:

1. Did not watch a single DVD.

2. Played with cornstarch and water, which Annabelle called "Sowel". Made a gigantic mess on our nice new table, but man those two kids loved the liquid/solid white globs.

3. Went to Dunkin' Donuts with Uncle Jordan, where Jordan and I ate two nasty cake frosting filled donuts.

4. Rassled on the living room floor lots.

5. Cheered on Violet as she went #1 several times in the training john. Scolded her for dropping hair clippies in while she was perched atop her throne.

6. Annabelle got to sleep with Daddy Friday night, while Violet joined Daddy Saturday night.

7. Adored Henry and his little teeth.

8. Changed eleventy-hundred diapers. Cursed the diaper changing elves for not stopping by our house.

9. Visited with Jeff and his new bride, Sarah. Good to see you guys.

10. Annabelle beat dad at Twilight Struggle and Age of Steam, with Dad trouncing all comers soundly at Kids' Sequence.

11. Missed Mommy all weekend.

12. Drew lots with markers, crayons, and messed (which could not be a more apt description) with Playdoh.

13. Kept thinking about Thanksgiving!

Long time, no blog Part 2

We also had a few soccer games [very cold]

And here's the main and newest event: hall decorating contest! Each unit decorated their part of the hallway for a Christmas theme and winner got $50 or so for a pizza party or whatever. We did a gingerbread theme...

This is the entry way with snowflakes and gingerbread doorway: 100 Gingerbread Lane

Here's the gingerbread couple

Here's the amazing hallway. Seriously. It took us from 4:30pm Friday night until 3:30 am Saturday morning. And some of us had a volunteer activity at 9 Saturday morning plus it was family weekend. We hung brown paper all down the hallway, paper lollipops and gumdrops all down the hallway, paper chain all the way down the hall, stuffing all the way down the hall, alternating groups of life-savers and ornaments hanging from the ceiling, and the most time consuming:

Paper plates decorated to mints ALL THE WAY AROUND THE TOP. We did over 100 plates and then Colleen and I put them all up. It was crazy. We also did those fuzzy covered wire candy canes all over the place and at the end of the hallway, we had brown curtains. We even decorated the water fountain and put a towel over it and put a mug with a hot chocolate packet in it and mittens around it and hat on it and a jacket hanging from the pencil sharpener next to it.

All this to say that we did amazing and only one other floor was our competition and everyone thought we would win. And we did, but we tied and got the most creative hallway and the other unit [which did a White Christmas theme and wasn't as cool] got best atmosphere. We weren't too happy with our RD and the judges for not making a final decision. Not really sure how they're going to give prizes, but we'll see.

So there are your updates! Can't wait to see you guys in less than a week!!

Long time, no blog Part 1

Here's part one of what's been going on:

I got Shatford Woman of the Week [2 weeks] and I got a light up crown and wand and a sash; [best part] I also got my own parking spot right next to Shatford; and I also got to decorate my own board in the front stairwell:


We had the Barn Party, which was a BLAST!

The barn was really cool [yes, it was a real barn with a cool loft] and there were scary hay rack rides [which you didn't know were scary until you were already on the ride and I was on the last one which all the Uno Shat girls and they said we screamed the most =]. I also learned how to juggle hot coals! It's not really juggling, but you pick it up and shake it in your hands and toss it to other people. It was so much fun!

And we also had the Harvest Party - an alternative to kids going out in Marion on Halloween. I had no costume, so they just threw stuff together and put it on me. Looked like Jennifer Garner from Alias or something...



And here's Uno Shat. Any college group could make a booth for the Harvest Party, and there were tables all over the gym. It was pretty cool to see all the cute kids and give them candy. Uno Shat did two booths and I was with the one that did tic-tac-toe on the floor.

And this is Kristin doing a go-fish type of game. You can't really see it in this picture, but they had a blue blanket for water and the kids would throw their line over the blanket and the girl behind the blanket would attach candy to the clothes pin. Our booths were a hit [possibly because they were one of the first ones kids saw when they walked in, but we'll take it]

Racing Turtles

Finn's favorite one is the yellow one. that's a good thing - that way i can have either blue or red!

c'mon caitlyn!

We're really ready to see some more pictures of college life...including the Shatford Woman of the Week photos! Do we have to wait til you get your own laptop back?!!! (whine)