Happy Birthday Steve

Well, barring an ugly cake, the birthday party went well. The food, which Steve got to pick whatever menu he wanted, was delish. We had lasagna, homemade french garlic bread and salad. The cake was moist and the frosting was good. The army men (who froze in the line of duty holding up the icing) were also a bigger hit at a 15 year old's birthday then I thought they would be. It was fun. The grandparents (on my side and Eric's) sent birthday money to buy lots of toys and treats for everyone. All in all Eric and I were exhausted. The boys ended the night with an epic Nerf gun war that spanned the whole house and outside. This morning I discovered army men casualties spanning the whole of the living room and Nerf ammo in EVERY room of our house. How fun!

Eating birthday dinner

The birthday (ugh) cake reveal

Blowing out the Candles

A HUGE birthday present from Dad and I

The really tiny present at the bottom of the bag (a year on XBOX live)

Playing with bubbles (1$ party favors that Eric told me no one would play with.... LOL silly man, bubbles are fun)

A Thank You to everyone who gave them presents.

Excuses

Firstly, this blog is to excuse myself from the pictures later to come in the next blog about Steve's birthday soiree today. Um, I decorated cakes for YEARS... wedding, birthday, baby shower... you name it. So, thinking that I would just jump right back on in there, I made Steve's birthday cake from scratch. He wanted yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I made the cake, the frosting... weeeeelllll, lets just say I might have messed that up a wee bit. I made a easy 7 min frosting out of the Joy of Cooking that my mother raved about. It was great! But, it was vanilla. So I added chocolate... which promptly turned my frosting into chocolate soup. So I added powdered sugar and butter (thinking: hey, meringue butter cream, right?) and I got a denser chocolate soup. Having totally committed to this cake and frosting, Eric and I were going to make it work.

Thus... a paragraph of excuses to explain my picture. When in doubt, add army men to hold up the icing soup. :)

MMmmmmm Brains

Today in anatomy it was like Christmas! I love dissection.

I know, I'm strange. This is a sheep's brain and a cow's eye.

How fun! (The smell was pretty bad though)

Ranger Rendezvous

We went to watch the Ranger Rendezvous on Ft. Benning on Monday.

Appx 1000 rangers jumped out of planes overhead.

It was an awesome sight to see all the parachutes in the air.

There were a couple who almost got tangled, but everyone landed safely.

The boys sat enthralled the entire time... watching the guys jump and the tactical moves of the rangers.

This explosion was part of the tactical maneuvers.

Museum and Outside Fun

All of my boys: Chris, Stephen, Eric, Bryan, and Ray. They are being forced by the evil picture taker to pretend they love eachother and smile!

Looking at guns... lots of guns.

First we went to the Infantry Museum on Ft. Benning. That was a whole lot of "Oh, I use that gun in Modern Warfare 3" and "Ooh, I've used that one in Call of Duty many times." But, at least some of the history hopefully seeped into their brains.

Then, we bought outside toys, because, I'm a firm believer in "go outside and come back in an hour or so..."

The pool was a big hit :) (It topped 101 here today, ugh)

Stephen "helping" dad cool off

Ray "helping" dad cool off even more. :)

Best Nine Dollars Ever

Well, I spent nine dollars on a slip-n-slide. It lasted for about 1 hour. :) The boys had a water fight with water guns and used the slide until it broke. It was fun to watch.

Worked for a while at least

Ray shooting Steve

Bryan sliding

The boys having fun

Eric's evil way of playing "red-light, green-light"

The hose won :)

The boys are back in town

Well, after a 2 hour delay of their flight, the boys are here for the rest of the summer. Stephen, Christopher and Bryan got here safely at 1 am. Our house is full and noisy... and I love it. :)

Hair today, gone today

Always in search of new and exciting ways to save money, I took it upon myself to declare I was going to cut Eric's hair from now on. Eric, less than thrilled since I had never cut a man's hair before, is a wonderful man who knows that I needed a trusting guinea pig. :) He went out and got clippers... for the same price as a haircut, and I cut his hair today. I will say that I did not do as good as the women in the barber shop on post, but for a first time, it's not bad. And, we won't have to pay 15$ every 3 weeks now for a haircut. Yay!

The first cut was the easiest... then I might have goofed a little on the sides. Don't tell Eric though, he can't see it without a mirror LOL

Just thrilled to be a guinea pig

Not a bad haircut, though. I like the finished product.

Happy 4th Of July!

This year we set off fireworks at home. I haven't done that since I was 17, so it's been 2 or three years. :) Good food, family and fireworks. Oh, and fun. Wish all family could have been there, but we made due with our little clan.

thrilled to be in family pics, you think he would figure out that I take pictures of everything lol

s'mores with the fourth

I love the way that firework looked like a cross in the picture

Happy 4th of July everyone!