Friday, July 31, 2009

Red Zone Adventures

Because this was in the forecast for today, we decided to go to Red Zone for some vicious games of laser tag. If you've never played before I would highly suggest trying it out. It is so much fun to shoot your own kids. (I'm thinking that it might be fun to have a date night at Red Zone.)
This is not my photo, but one that I "borrowed" from the website. This is what the 6,000 square foot room looks like. There are ramps and bases and obstacles and little hiding places. I couldn't take any pictures inside because I was way too busy shooting my children and complete strangers.
Hannah preparing to break bad on some of her cousins.
God love her, this child should not be allowed to carry a gun. She enjoys it WAY too much! Must get that from her mother!
Isn't he a tough guy? He did beat everyone in the entire game though.
The scores after the first game. I came in 5th...not too bad for an old lady. Just call me Arthas from now on. (Who in the world comes up with these names?)
Taking a drink break before the second game. They were drinking Rock Star--they might be up all night now!
Marjorie called Tristan from France--here he is trying to explain what laser tag is en francais.
After laser tag, we played a round of urban golf.
Then I kicked my son's butt in basketball!
It's been a great day!

Beignets for Breakfast

The boys got back from New Orleans on Tuesday and they brought gifts for the entire family. Allie's gift was a box of Beignet Mix from Cafe Du Monde. (They're no dummies--they knew if they bought her beignet mix, she would make them and they could have some!)
Today, Hannah and Allie (with my help) made Beignets for breakfast.
Nothing like a little fried dough first thing in the morning.
Golden delicious fried dough...
with loads of powdered sugar on top.
They were awful.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Cousins Are Here!

My nieces, Hannah and Gabrielle arrived today on US Air. My SIL had to pay $100 each way for the girls to be accompanied by an US Air employee through security in Charlotte to the gate in Baltimore. When I got to the airport with three of my five children, I was told that only one of us could go through security to meet them at the gate. Hmmm...who should it be? Being that I am the only one that is old enough to sign for my nieces, guess what...I had to go. I also had to leave my three other children unattended in the airport...I was hot. After all, if those same three children were flying unaccompanied, I would have had to pay $50 per child to have someone "watch" them. Doesn't make much sense. I tried to speak with a supervisor, but she was taking a "bathroom break". Well Gail the supervisor, guess what? You should have come out to speak with me. Now, I'm going to write the head of your company and let him know how helpful you were. That is after, I find the information I need since the incompetent employees of US Air couldn't find the information for customer complaints. I WILL NEVER, NEVER, NEVER FLY US AIRWAYS AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Hannah and Gabrielle, we are so thrilled that you are here.
We did a bunch of fun things today. We took the recycling to the dump...Side note to my brother and his wife...what do you mean that you have never taken your children to the dump? Don't they have dumps in North Carolina? Your daughter seemed to enjoy it!
Then we were off to drop off things at Good Will.
We danced in the car.
and then we went to Target where we found Kellen and Ammy lounging on the couch in the furniture section ( I love Target furniture...a separate post about Target furniture to come soon)
Just an FYI Scott and Michelle, life is so exciting here that they might want to come home early!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Welcome To My Entryway and Foyer

I am such a slacker. I don't know why I commit to doing things that span over any length of time-- I always start out with a bang and then slowly fade away. I am weeks behind on my Show Us Where You Live Assignments. My entry way is finally clean so here you go...

Or Thursday or Wednesday...WHATEVER!

Welcome to my house. Now obviously, this picture was taken earlier this year. I don't have any other pictures of my house and it's dark right now so this will have to do. My house is a little strange in that I don't have a front door. I have two doors on the front of my house. If you walk up to my house, there is a door to the left and a door to the right. It's always entertaining to sit in the kitchen and see which door people choose to come to! They always looked totally confused.
This is the door on the left. It is also the door that we always use when we come in the front of the house. If you come to visit, come to this door.
This is what you see when you first walk in the door. There is a small landing. If you walk towards the picture on the wall and turn right, you can take stairs that lead to the second floor.
This is the picture on the wall--it is a picture of my cousin's daughter when she was a baby. I love the old frame that I found at South Moon Under.
This is the view if you go up the stairs. At the top are framed black and white photographs that my favorite photographer, Carol Anstett, did for us.
This is the view if you turn to the right as you come into the entry way. You walk down two steps and you are offically in the "mud room"
There are 3 photos in bead board frames that I took in California. Here is a close-up of one of them--a cactus.
Next up, you will pass the cubbies. They NEVER look like this...I cleaned them up for the picture, but usually, they are covered with everyone's junk. The boxes are supposed to hold their hats and gloves so they always know where they are. HA, you never know what you might find in one of them!
This is my absolute favorite thing that I did when we renovated. This is a chalkboard calendar that my friend, Kelli Nemer, painted for me. Baltimore is famous for its row houses so she painted them across the top. This is the first thing that you see when you walk in from the garage.
A close up - rather than use chalk, I found chalk board markers and they are much better. No chalk dust to clean up...although it is a pain to erase after it's been on there awhile. Nothing that a few Magic Erasers can't take care of though. As you will notice, my calendar is not too crazy right now...wait until September when there are several things on every day!
This is the door on the right. It leads to our formal entry way. By the way, we NEVER use this door. Do not come to this door. This door is extremely hard to open!

When you walk in you see the stairs that lead up to the second floor. Yes, I have two sets of stairs that lead upstairs with a long hallway that connects them. It makes for some fun chases through the house.
This is the view of the entry way from the dining room.
Another painting above my closet that was done by my friend, Kelli.
This photo is on the landing of the stairs. It is a picture of Kellen jumping off a dock in Lake Anna last summer. It is my favorite picture of him because it totally catches his personality.
This is the view as you go up the stairs. The Master Bedroom is to the right as you go up.
We have a landing at the top of the stairs. We have more Carol Anstett pictures here. Did I mention that Carol Anstett is my favorite photographer?
This is the start of the long hallway. I have framed pictures along the hall--the big frames are pictures from specific trips that we have taken. One contains pictures from Bermuda, one from Lake Anna and one from the Grand Canyon. Is it obvious that I am obsessed with pictures?
This is one of my favorite pictures of the twins. Carol Anstett took it when they were 3 as they walked down our driveway. No one asked them to hold hands--this is just the way that they have always been together.
Thanks for taking my entry way/foyers tour. Go here to see others.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Mother Nature Was Pissed

We spent a weekend where mother nature ruined our plans. On Saturday, we went with my BFF, Alden, to see Jason Mraz at Merriweather Post Pavilion. It was her birthday gift to me and we were not leaving no matter what...
We had a great picnic dinner on the lawn with a ton of other people.
We were just hanging out and having a good time when the sky opened up. We tried to hide under our blanket.
It didn't work and we got soaked.Then yesterday, we had people over for crabs. Out of no where a storm came upon us....branches were all over the yard
and a tree behind our house split in two while we watched.
A very big tree!
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