Pizza Pie Night

    I can remember making my very own personal size pizza when I was little, and I loved it!  So when our weekly menus are feeling a little old and boring we like to jazz it up with a all you can eat, make you own pizza night.  The kids love it and it saves me from spending forever in the kitchen.

Bella likes cheese, can you tell.

Adding the ham and pineapple.

Shane likes to play it safe with a little peperoni

McKinley and Noah fighting over the cheese.

Noah and his ham pizza.

McKinley looking a little scary with his pizza.

The finished products.  Just add a great movie, some popcorn, and you have family memories that last forever!!

The family that cooks together, stays together!!!

Halloween Play Date

    One of the things we love most about Jacksonville is our church.  And one of the things I love about the church is our awesome Sunday School class. We are more like a family than a class, we are always getting together, and doing different activities.  So I thought it would be a good idea if we had a monthly playgroup for the kids, plus it gives us adults some time for conversations with someone who is not asking for a sippy cup!
    Since Halloween is just around the corner we decided to let the kids wear their costumes, and had lots of fun fall activities for them.  The is the first of many play dates to come.  The kids had a blast, and I think the adults did too!  Enjoy the pics of all the cuties in their costumes!!

Bella and Annsley

Summer making a call.

Aunna and Bella, our party fairies.

JonJon, Tristan, and Noah at the play dough table.

Avery coloring

Beth and Benjamin

Ethan protecting the party.

Candy playing with the kids.

Annsley, our little USMC cheerleader.

David and a very prego Parie.

 

My VIP's!

    At both JPS, and Bitz, every week the highlight a student.  This week McKinley, and Noah were chosen. 

      McKinley  had a special ceremony and other activities throughout the week, and I got to come eat lunch with him on Friday. 

McKinley with his award.

Bella and McKinley enjoying a special VIP lunch.

Noah got to be line leader, and got to bring home a very special puppy on Friday to have some fun with the Mace family.  We also wrote about how much fun we had in the puppy journal (Noah is on the Puppy Team.)

He was very excited!

The pumpkin he carved with the puppy that got to spend the weekend with us!!

Fun With The Grandparents

     Jeremy's dad and step mom where able to come down for Bella's birthday and they stayed for the rest of the week.  Since they were staying  at a house on Emerald Isle we took a few days off work, and school and headed to the island for a little break. 

      The first day we just lounged around and played in the sand.  Jeremy did a lot of fishing, and I enjoyed reading and taking in the view from the porch.  The next day we got up early and headed to Beaufort for the first part of the day.  We went to the North Carolina Maritime Museum, did a lot of shopping, and got some ice cream from one of my favorite places in Beaufort, the General Store.

                                                    

    

     After a great afternoon we decided to head to Ft. Macon for the rest of the day.  I had never been there so I didn't really know what to expect, but me and the kids loved it!  I wish we had got there earlier, because they had stopped the guided tours for the day.  We still got to walk around and explore on our own.  We will be going back to Ft. Macon again as soon as it starts getting warm again!   We rounded out the night with a visit to a local restaurant that was awesome!!  If only I remembered the name!  When we got back to the beach house we let the kids play in the sand one last time since we would be going back to Jacksonville in the morning. 

     

     The trip was short, but very much needed.  It was the perfect way to recharge after Bella's party, and a little bit of fun before Jeremy had to have surgery again.  The kids were very sorry to see Eddie and Karen go!!

Bella's Perfectly Pinkalicious Party

           On October 1st Bella turned 3.  Picking a theme for her party was not difficult, because every single day we read Pinkalicous.  It is about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink.  So the obvious choice was a Pinkalicous party. 

           Since it isn't a very well know book decorations were hard to find.  Luckily I found Big Day Creations.  They were able to make custom invitations, seals, stickers for the cups, and stickers for the craft for a very reasonable price!!  For the other decorations we had every shade of pink you can imagine for the tables, napkins, cup, and balloons.  Also, with the help of my awesome friend Tiffany, we created 15 giant pompoms that were suspended from the ceiling.

            For her cake I made a giant cupcake that was carrot cake with homemade pink cream cheese icing.  We also had two cupcake towers with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and the best pink butter cream frosting I have ever made!! (Here is the recipe!)  We had too many other foods to list, and since the only food left was a few cupcakes, I think the food was pretty good!!

            I was so glad that all of Bella's friends were able to come.  All the girls, and some of us mommies, wore pink.  We decorated crowns to wear, just like Pinkalicous, and let the kids play outside.  The kids also had a giant cupcake pinata that we save for the end.

            We all dad such a great day!  Bella is already asking if we can have another Pinkalicous party.  Thank you to all the people who helped me make this day run smoothly.  Please enjoy the pictures that Melissa graciously took for me so I could enjoy the party instead of worrying about pictures.