Ryan 6th Birthday Party

Ryan kept insisting that it wasn't his 6th birthday party because he hadn't officially turned 6 yet (that's tomorrow), so I guess we'll just call it a party.  He had 6 friends join him and Carter (unfortunately Evan and Kyle were home sick.)  Mom, Dad, and I entertained the kiddos at Chuck E. Cheese's.  One thing about a place like that, they have parties down pat and there is very little you need to do.  Perfect - works for me!   There were 6 parties at the same time as Ryan's - the hostess informed me it was a 'light' day - typically there are 10 at a time.  I can't imagine because it seemed like a mad house by the time it was over!  The kids really seemed to have a good time!

Checking out his Batman cake for the first time:

Cupcakes made into a cake - ingenius idea and so much easier for kids' birthday parties!

Arriving at our table at Chuck E. Cheese's:

Alexis and Cate playing games:

Ryan getting his birthday crown and medallian:

Singing Happy Birthday!

Time to blow out the candles:

And...apparently lick them off!

Singing with Chuck:

Grandma had to stand next to him before Ryan would!

Birthday boy!

Group picture with his friends:

In the ticket blaster booth:

Grabbing as many tickets as he can in 30 seconds:

Excited to have 2 colored tickets, worth 150 regular tickets!

Opening gifts:

"Just what I always wanted!"

Ryan and Cate:

Ryan and Alexis:

Lukas and Ryan:

Josh and Ryan:

Tough to tell whether he likes his new guitar or not...  :)

Building a Snowman

My kids and I made at least a dozen snowman on this site tonight.  They loved it - try it with your kids!!!! :) 

Mackey Christmas

We hosted the Mackey Christmas at our house this year.  We were surprised and excited to have 26 people in attendance with the bad roads and bitter wind chill.  Evan's sister literally stepped off a plane from Aruba and joined us for dinner.  Talk about a rude awakening - Aruba to MN!  We had a great time despite the weather.  Thanks to my Mom, we had a great feast of food.  I would shudder to think what we would have been eating without my Mom's hand in the kitchen!!!!  Thank you for all that you do, Mom - I love you!!!!!

Getting ready to start the gift opening process - Kyle handed out the gifts:

Dennis and granddaughter, Adria:

Johnny opening G.I. Joe:

Tamara:

Sophia opening the doll Ryan bought for her:

Carter and his Magnetix:

Ryan and his Magformers:

Tamara, Johnny, and their niece, Adria:

The newest Great, Adria, born in September - isn't she gorgeous?

The Mackey cousins (the ones who could make it due to poor weather):

The Mackey siblings (3 couldn't make it):

Christmas Program

We went back and forth about whether we would brave the bad roads and -22* windchill to go to church this morning.  We decided we should go since it was the boys' Christmas program.  I was 50/50 on whether Carter would go on stage at all.  He did - and both boys did a great job.  Ryan sang much more than Carter, but I had to give him credit for getting up on stage in front of all of those people - I know I'd be nervous!  They sang two songs for the congregation and church was surprisingly full for the weather conditions!

Preschool and kindergarten classes:

Ryan ready to sing!

One of the smaller trees decorated for Christmas.  My favorite decoration at Family of Christ is not up yet - the tree made up of 100 pointsettas - beautiful!

Jewelry

The snowstorm gave me the opportunity to finish my Christmas orders!  Yeah!  I felt like Santa's helper pounding out my orders one right after the other on Saturday! :)

Blizzard

The untimely snowstorm that descended upon Minnesota on Friday and Saturday dumped nearly 18" of snow and cancelled our travel plans to Rochester.  My parents were staying at my house this weekend, and not ones to let a little snow get us down, we changed our plans and turned lemons into lemonade.  I made all of the rest of my jewelry orders for Christmas and my Mom so graciously cooked our Mackey family dinner that we were hosting on Sunday.  Never a dull moment...

The view out my patio door - we have at least 3-4' drift across the patio:

Most of the boys play area is completely engulfed in snow - even the teeter totter and swing!

3-4' drift across our patio and backyard:

The snowplow driver left Evan with a waist high dumping of snow to remove with our tiny snowblower.  Needless to say, Evan's back is a little sore today.  Sorry for the poor quality of pictures in this post - the windchills hovered around -30 this weekend with 40 mph winds and the snow was falling and blowing so hard that most of Saturday was a complete white-out.  I didn't linger outside to take many pictures - these I took from my garage:

Surveying the 'damage' and trying to decide how to move it: