She's a Perfect 10 :)

Yep, time for another birthday in the OH YOUNGER household!

Miss Boo hit double digits on March 10th!! (yeah...took me awhile to post about it!)

She chose Outside the Lines for her party - a pottery painting place.

 She had her friends Addison, Samantha, Ashlee, Abby, Jaden and Reyann all attended.

 AND Silas :)  We had an extra spot and he chose to come - though I think there were some times that he regretted that decision!

 Then, all the girls came over to our house and spoiled Ella with many gifts.

 

And a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

 

 And then she had all the girls sleep over.  It was a looooonnggg night!  I think it was 1:30am before they even started to settle down.

Very hard to believe she is TEN now!

I wish I could go back in time and have this little girl back...just for a bit...because I remember how insanely crazy she drove me at this age!!

I hope that 10 is a wonderful, fun-filled year for you Miss Ella Boo!! Love you so, so much!

Lordy Lordy...That Whole 40 Thing

We are gathered here today...to celebrate...another birthday.  Seems that birthdays and holidays are all we get now on this here blog.  Boo.  Life sucks when you have to work and take care of kids all day and cook, do laundry and clean, then more work and don't have time to blog...(kidding...ish)

We had the pleasure of ringing in a new decade for my wonderful husband this past week! 

The BIG 4.0. !!

He picked one of his favorite things...hanging out in Hocking Hills.  And it was a perfectly wonderful weekend.  A HUGE thanks for mom, dad and Margie for taking care of my kids, especially since Silas had the flu and was sick.  Probably made him easier to handle though.

And a HUGE thanks to a few friends that made time in their crazy schedules, got sitters for their own kids and battled their own sicknesses to make it for the weekend!

 This cabin was a first for us and we were greeted by a lovely, long driveway that would be hell to get up an ice/snow storm.

And a gorgeous front porch with all these rocking chairs on it.  It was WAY too cold to sit  in them but they looked lovely!

 Had I been sitting in the rocking chairs, I would have enjoyed all of this very nice sunset.  Since it was 20 degrees, I took a step out the front door, snapped this picture and ran back inside.

A hike on Saturday for some (I may have been napping)...Rock Stull, our favorite hiking spot, with some frozen falls.

Followed by a healthy fire, with snow falling all around.  Cold but fun! (and Lee learning to whistle with an acorn :)

and some hot tubbing with Bloody Mary's.

And then MORE fun when we decorated the cabin while Justin was out by the fire after dinner.

And sang the Happy Birthday song...and ate some DELISH carrot cake (thanks to Beth!!)

 Carrot cake is Justin's absolute favorite cake on the planet.  He was a very happy camper!

 

And then, suddenly, it was Sunday and time to pack up and come  home.

The time with friends and celebrating goes WAY too fast. 

So happy that we had the time to share it with my husband and our friends.

(And thanks again to YOU who watched the kids and held down the forts while we were gone!)

Legos and Bowling and Boys...

This whole birthday at Christmas thing is a real pain in the arse! This year we has Si's party on January 26th...a full month after his birthday. But it worked out pretty well because it didn't feel like it was still the holidays, all his friends were able to make it and he was already over the excitement of his Christmas gifts.

He asked for a Lego cake...and I, being "frugal" decided to make it instead of paying a cake making professional.


And we made quite the mess making it!!
But the end result wasn't too bad, at least to the 7 year old.


I know now that I could have done a few things differently to make the icing smoother but 1. I'm not a baker and 2. I'm not much into perfection.


Boys will be boys- and stick their faces in the cake. I wasn't so happy.



But they were and all had a good time. And I'm glad I get another year before doing that again!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ella's Y Birthday Party!!

My baby girl is 9! 

 

On Sunday we celebrated Ella's birthday with a party at the YMCA. I am generally a VERY bad birthday party planner so this year I tried hard to plan it early and do something fun besides a sleepover or party at home.  She chose the Y and it was a good choice!

On Saturday (her actual birthday) we went shopping and got her a couple new swim suits. I love the one she decided to wear to her party.  She looked super cute in it (and I also love that she "doesn't like bikini's" - she's still my little girl :)

Some of her friends in the pool during the first hour of the party, and Silas
who got to enjoy the party too!

 The 2nd hour of the party was wall climbing. All the kids did great.
There were a couple of them that decided it wasn't exactly their thing, so they just watched.
Ella did a great job. She is definitely part monkey. 

 

I was impressed that Silas tried and got almost to the top too. 

The wall looks SO tall to me in this picture below. This was
Ella's 2nd time climbing up.

We were SO thrilled with her birthday cake.
I have a neighbor that has a cake business and (knowing how much
Ella love fancy cakes) I asked her to do one.
This was the result!!
Ella was ecstatic when she saw it :)

 Even the top ribbon was edible, which the kids all tried..

And of course, Ella got some very fun and cool presents.
One of the girls got her a dippin dots maker. That should be
fun and messy to try!

I think that this will go down as a party that she'll remember for a long time.
I know I will...

 LOVE her hat that matches the cake!  :)


Happy 9 Miss Boo!  We love you!!

The Happy Birthday Boys!

It was a belated party for Silas James but worth the wait for him - he LOVED it!  Kelly and I decided to have a combo party for Silas and Ryan. Their birthdays are less than a month a part and they both wanted one at Pump It Up.  It worked out great!

 They chose an Angry Birds theme.  I made Angry Birds goodie bags.

Kelly made Angry Birds cupcakes :)

Silas grinned from ear to ear the entire time we were there. He was in heaven to have a "real" birthday party with so many friends there!

All the Friends that came to the party!

The Birthday Boys!

6 years old!!

Making a wish!  Probably for more Legos!!

On their throne opening all those presents!!

So happy that he had such a great birthday celebration...even if it was a little late!!

Fun In Rhode Island!

This past weekend we took a long road trip up to Rhode Island to visit the RI Youngers and to celebrate Grandpa J's 60th, Hudson's 3rd and Roxanne's birthdays.  It was a LONG drive (13.5 hours there & 12 hours home) but we had SOOO much fun and are very happy that we made the trip out there!

The kids love traveling in the new minivan.  There are 2 DVD screens and each can play a separate movie.  This greatly lessens the fighting over movies!  Silas traveled in his PJ's all day. 

We drove through NY City on the way there - it wasn't bad going through NYC but once we got closer to Connecticut, it was very backed up and really slowed us down!

This was our view of NYC as we zoomed past! 

Our first full day in RI, we went to the beach.  The weather didn't exactly cooperate, but we still had  fun.  The kids all went for a long walk on the beach with Justin and Shawn, while Abby and I sat on the beach talking  (bundled in long sleeves and towels).  This was Silas after getting back from the walk and deciding he was done with the great outdoors.

Ella found some seaweed on the walk and decided she wanted to see how it tasted...yum!

A mix of some OH and RI Youngers - minus Abby, the picture taker

The OH Youngers

The RI Youngers

Justin and I with the lovely moon and ocean behind us!

The kids did SO well together!  Silas and Myles played a lot and Hudson mixed in with them some.  Ella and Molly had a total ball together and it was amazing how quickly they picked right up with each other and played like they see each other every day.

Hudson is a complete and total cutie and it's funny how much he reminds me of a mix between Silas and cousin Trent. Yikes! :)

On Saturday, we got to celebrate the birthdays and it was great!  Grandpa J and Roxanne wore their birthday hats and Hudson blew out all the candles. Happy Happy Birthday!!

During the birthday party we started to get lots of thunderstorms.  It cooled the temp off but the electricity also went out for several hours. We hung out on the deck for quite awhile and then decided to go to the beach again after the storms had passed.
We didn't get there until after 7pm or so, and the lightening was great.  Ella and Molly stopped for a picture. As you can tell, Ella watches too much TV...

Shawn, Uncle Bill, Ann and Grandpa Jim - watching the kids play in the ocean.

Ella, Hailey and Molly were digging holes and making castles.  They were surprised by a big wave!

Ella ended up with a face full of ocean water!

The adults hung pretty close because the waves were quite big!!
Mason, Huddy, Abby, Ella, Molly, Hailey, Roxanne, and Myles on the beach

As the sun set, the skies were beautiful.

Just a quick video of the kids running around on the beach.

 Ella and Molly...snoozing hard.

{I sometimes wake in the early morning 
& listen to the soft breathing of my children

& I think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret 

& I carry that quiet with me all day long.}

~StoryPeople...

There are many times in our over-scheduled, overwhelmed lives that we think we cannot fit another thing in.

 Too far, too busy, too this and too that.

But this was too much fun and too important to miss and we're looking forward to many more visits!