Happy Halloween

Oh what a festive day we had!

First, I'd like to announce that exactly one year ago today we closed on our house so we've officially been here for an entire year. One day I hope to get to the boxes in the basement. But not today.

Today was all about Halloween and parades and candy.

Hannah and Liz both decided about a month ago, that they wanted to be ballerinas, using some of their cousin Shelby's costumes from when she was about their age. Here they are in their cuteness:

Here's Lizzie striking a pose. They've been taking dance since September and you'll notice that when I asked her to go up on her toes (I meant tippy toes) she went up on her actual toes, which I'm sure is very bad for a little dancer to do, but I was pretty darn impressed. Especially since I can't even get up on my tippy toes, these days.Here's Hannah in (I think -- we all know I'm clueless when it comes to ballet) third position. This is amazing in so many ways, not the least of which is that she didn't fall over. Hannah has blossomed in dance class and is way more coordinated that she used to be and downright graceful. They both made adorable ballerinas:Here's a close up of the Hannah Banana:And a close up of our silly Little Bit:

These next two pictures are of the Halloween Parade. All the kids go outside in the parking lot of the school and then march around grade by grade. Then we all went inside for a party. But I love these two pictures because they show the differences in Hannah and Lizzie. Below is Hannah who is so excited that I'm there and that (once again!) I have my camera and I'm yelling, "Hi Hannah!" so she waves and gives me a big smile so I can take her picture. As opposed to her sister ......who pretty much likes to pretend that I'm not around when we're in public together. I remember the summer before her fourth birthday we went to a concert at the local library and I was be-bopping to the music and Lizzie looked and me and said as quietly as she could, "Mom ... please ... no dancing." Here I got just a little bit of a hand wave:Finally, I discovered this picture while I was photo editing something else. It's Lizzie and her friend Ava (whom I met today at the party -- did I mention I was one of the Mom helpers and it was a lot of fun) and if you look closely you'll see they are holding hands. How sweet is that?

Old Friends

There's nothing like an old friend -- even if you're only a few weeks shy of your sixth birthday.

Hannah and Lizzie met Georgia at the Tot Spot Preschool when they were two years old and they've been friends ever since.

And I've been friends with her mom.

I would have loved Kara eventually because she's really cool, but on that first day when we dropped the kids off she and her husband were walking back towards the cars with me and she turned to me and said words of encouragement I'll never forget: "Too bad the bars aren't open, right?"

How could you not love a mom like that?

Well, as you can imagine, having a mom like that, Georgia's a whole lot of fun and Hannah and Lizzie are all about fun.

So at last week's playdate they treated us to their combined fashion sense. First their sweet faces:

And then the full effect:

I can't wait to show them these pictures when they're trying to choose a prom gown in about 10 years!

Lights, Camera, Action

I got a new video camera a few days ago. I wanted to have it to show you the occasional video starring my well behaved, graceful children. Instead, I present you this:

This is what happens when we feed them.

I have no idea why they are yelling.

I apologize for the sudden ending, but I had to get to my card-making class.

Next time I will try to find some well-behaved, graceful children to videotape.

Haunted House

My friend Tina (THANKS TINA!!) gave me a haunted gingerbread house kit for my birthday and today the girls and I decided to tackle it. We made a house at Christmas, too, but it wasn't nearly as well decorated since Hannah ate most of the candy. This time she tried, but Lizzie was the candy police and kept telling her to stop eating the decorations. The house came out pretty well, and they actually did most of the decorating, with me sort of guiding them. Here are some pictures from the creating.

Lizzie worked on painting the roof with orange icing. She was very methodical about it:

Hannah puts some candy on the front of the gingerbread house:

Here's the front of the house. The ghost was a piece of candy, but we designed the rest of the house.

The right side of the house was supposed to have a pumpkin garden made with the orange jelly beans but Hannah ate them all, so now it's a rotting pumpkin garden:
Here's the back of the house. Don't be scared Aunt Tina ... it's not a real spider. I don't know what kind of flowers are growing at the back of the house, but Hannah and Liz thought they were scary:
Here's the other side of the house. This is a spider web that caught some candy as it was blowing through the air:

Here the girls are with the finished product. Should they eat it?...

Or pose with it:

Fun with Sun Flare

Here's one more picture from the wedding. It's really more of an art shot, although Lizzie is in it. I love sun flare pictures and this one in particular because everything looks so autumnal in it. Which is nice considering that it's going to be 82 degrees here today, and therefore not fall-like at all.

Wedding!

We're home from the wedding in the Poconos, and gosh did we have a lot of fun!! Skytop Lodge is nothing short of gorgeous and the company was wonderful. And it didn't hurt that it was fall in the Poconos and the trees were cooperating with their autumn-ness.

I took a million photos (seriously -- not much of an exaggeration) and will try to post them in some sort of way to give you an idea of how much fun we had.

First, the courtyard where the wedding took place overlooked a portion of the golf course so it was lush and green in the distance, but the courtyard itself was filled with mums. This is a picture of Hannah and Liz running around the courtyard after the ceremony (during the cocktail hour.)

Here's a picture from the outdoor ceremony:As you can see, Andrea made a beautiful bride, but the sun angle was all wrong for me to take pictures, so here's a couple pictures of her and Mike (Rob's cousin) after they were married. I thought her dress was stunning ... the perfect color for her skin tone and understated while being quite elegant. This was their first dance together as husband and wife:

Here's another shot of that same dance, where Mike and Andrea are framed by Mike's parents, Rob's Aunt Louise and Uncle Mike:

Dancing was the highlight for Lizzie and Hannah who danced pretty solidly from the time dinner was over (around 7 p.m.) until it was time to leave at 10 p.m. Lizzie ran out of gas at about 9:30, but Hannah (as you'll see in these pictures) was ready to party into the wee hours.

Here, Hannah (and you can see the skirt of Lizzie's dress, too) is dancing with cousins Zach (who was born seven days after Rob and I got married, by the way, and his mother was at our wedding!) and Jen.

And here she is with Zach alone. She pretty much followed him around for most of the night, grinning and flirting and he graciously put up with her. In fact all of their cousins were very accommodating to the twin 5 year olds for which Rob and I were VERY grateful!Towards the end of the evening Hannah just sort of went crazy oon the dance floor and everyone -- including Uncle Mike, father of the groom -- joined in. Hannah thought it was the silliest thing she'd ever seen in her life (Lizzie was off in another room of the resort playing mini-golf with Rob.):Grandma got in on the dancing, too. Here she's dancing with her brother Mike. Doesn't Connie look spectacular?? I cannot believe this woman is my husband's mom -- she looks more like his sister!The bride and groom dance to Sweet Caroline:

Here's John (Rob's cousin Donna's husband) dancing with his daughters:

The wedding was very much about family, as things always are when the Homulak/Rasmussen crowd gets together. Here are some other random shots illustrating that:

Here are (left to right) Rob's cousin Gail, Aunt Louise, cousin Donna and mom:

Do these guys look related or what??? That's Rob with his Uncle Eddie (Connie's brother.)And here's the next generation ... Rob with his cousin Jimmy who will graduate college in May:Donna and Zach and John (and Rob in the background 'gaurding' the dessert table!)I love this picture of Rob's sister Linda. I snapped it while she was salsa dancing:There were rumors flying that Emily (Jimmy's girlfriend, chatting here with Linda) will be the next person to join the clan!Grandma Connie and Hannah (LOVE this picture!!):Lizzie giving her Daddy a hug (love this picture, too!!):Posing with her daddy:Chowing down on the caramel/chocolate covered apples that were the favors for the wedding:And taking a picture of her mom, who was taking a picture of her (yes, I was there!):Here are Hannah and Liz at the beginning of the wedding in their gorgeous dresses! I'll probably find a few more pictures to post later (for instance I know I must have at least one picture of Lizzie dancing!) But suffice it to say that a great time was had by all and we wish Andrea and Mike the absolute best of everything as they begin their life together!!

My friends are liars

My friends are liars ... and I LOVE IT!

Yesterday was a surprise 50th birthday party for me and it was lots and lots of fun (like 50 times of lots!) It was also the day that I found out that nearly all of my friends and family had been lying to me for most of this year.

It was during the spring that I came up with the brilliant plan to throw myself a huge 50th birthday bash because, well, I didn't think Rob's planning skills were up to snuff. But when I floated my extravaganza plan by him he was less than enthused about it so I got mad and decided to do nothing.

Of course the REASON he was less than enthused about it, was because he was in the midst of planning his own surprise birthday party for me.

And, apparantly his party planning skills ARE up to snuff. In fact they are perfect.

So for most of the summer and into the fall I've been lamenting to my friends and family and Rob's friends and family that he was a cheapo meanie because we didn't have the budget for a nice party to celebrate my actually making it to a half century.

And my friends and family and his friends and family all nodded and offered their condolences at my having such a cheapo husband ALL THE WHILE KNOWING THAT I WAS GOING TO BE HAVING A SPECTACULAR 50th PARTY!!!!

So, not only did Rob get points for having the party, he also got sympathy for having such a whiney wife.

Payback, of course, was that every face I saw at yesterday's party made me feel just a little more guilty for thinking that my husband was anything less than the perfect guy I have known him to be for the past 14 years.

So, thank you Rob, for my party and for not smothering my (previously) ungrateful self in my sleep. Oh, and I'm sure that I'm getting my puppy for Christmas, right?

:)

So the party was fun. I was surprised most by my parents showing up. You'd think I'd know by now that they happily fly all over the country for lunch or drinks, but, you know since I didn't think I was having a party, I wasn't thinking about where they might be on Saturday, Oct. 4. And, you know, the Devil Rays are in the playoffs so really, I'm surprised they are even answering their phone much less leaving Florida. I love surprises and this was a very special one.

The way I was surprised was unique as well. There's an oft-told story about how I refused to go to my surprise bridal shower. It's been exaggerated over the years (by me) but in fact I really didn't feel like going on a tour of a bed and breakfast on that particular morning, so I said I didn't want to go. But I did go -- I was just dressed like a bag lady while all my friends were in their shower finery.

This time they just decided to bring the party to me. I was expecting to have lunch with my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law yesterday, anyway, so it wasn't any surprise to see them arrive and the house (and me!) were ready to accept visitors. Then when my friend Kristen arrived (the first guest), Connie and Linda sprang into action and started whipping food out, hanging decorations and shooing me out of the kitchen. SURPRISE!!

For the next four hours people came and went, ate food, laughed, sang Happy Birthday and generally had a great time. People from all different areas of my life stopped by: the Moms Club, the Twins Club, long-time friends, family, etc. It was wonderful. Simply wonderful.

I didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos, but here are some that I did manage to snap. First, these are just a few of the flowers that my siblings sent me. These are sitting on the table that I set anticipating just my in laws for lunch. There were 50 roses in all, and they really added to the festivities. Aren't they beautiful?? They are peppermint stripe colored!

Here's a picture of my cake that I bought for myself before I knew I was having a surprise party. It's from Churchill's in Pottstown and it was delicious! Those flowers on the top of the cake are all hand made from sugar!And here's my official birthday cake ... it's pretty and was also very tasty!!My MIL and SIL getting things ready for the party. I am happy that they at least allowed me to take pictures, since they wouldn't let me do anything else!

This is my side of the family minus Ann and Brenna (who was sick) and Tally and Mark (who couldn't get a flight). They were all sorely missed and, yes, we did talk about you since you weren't there -- you know the rules! Oh and I really love that the 50 balloon looks like it's sitting on my head, just in case you didn't know who the birthday girl was!

There are the Rasmussens and party planners extraordinare! My mother in law wasn't feeling well and she was still the most gracious, perky party maker ever. Oh, and Linda, I'm sorry about that birthday Nazi comment when you were kicking me out of the kitchen. I didn't mean it (much.) :) Oh, and see thata guy with Hannah sitting on his lap? That's the man of the hour -- surprise party guru AKA Rob/Bob!

Hannah and some of the roughly 2 million balloons that were all over my house!

Here are a couple of my friends, Gayle (mother of twins) and Kara (soon to be mother of twins):These are my friends Tash, Kristen and Julie. Looking at this picture now I hate them. Do you see how young and gorgeous they are? I swear I don't know why they hang out with me, but I'm glad they do! Happy birthday to Tash who turned 25 (or something like that) on Oct. 1: These are the favors that everyone got to take home, made by my sister Tina. This little container is creative enough...But check out what was on the inside! M&Ms with my picture on them. I was beyond excited about these, although I have to admit, it is a little weird eating your own head!

And I have to agree ... so far 50 IS nifty!! Thanks to everyone who made this birthday absolutely wonderful!!