We have long since outgrown Trick or Treating and Halloween has become somewhat of an awkward holiday.  It was never really a favorite of mine (although the loads of candy was cool) and now that my kids are all teens it's almost an annoying "holiday". 

This year was a bit different, however, because the girls got to go to a dance!  Rather than doing the costume thing and having a plethora of "thou shalt not's", the organizers decided to employ black lights and have a "who is the brightest" contest.  It was soooo much fun!

The kids have recently become card game aficionados and the idea of dressing with a deck of cards theme was enthusiastically embraced.  They spent a couple of hours creating their assigned/chosen card and this was the result. 

Josh was supposed to be the jack of clubs, but he decided to hang out with some buddies instead. 

Today is my baby's SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY!

I ran across a blog entry about a "candy cake" someone did for their daughter's sixteenth birthday (if this is you, please let me know so I can give credit due!) and when I showed Elizabeth that, well, she was stoked--had to have it!  Rebecca found a really cool Erlenmyer-flask-looking cake in a Family Fun magazine that she offered to bake for her sister and Elizabeth was stuck.  She couldn't decide which cake she wanted, so we did both!

I must say, the candy cake moved much faster when we tossed the Elmer's-glue-with-a-Q-tip method and went with a hot glue gun!

The final results:

Rebecca deemed the piping needed for the Erlenmyer flask thingy (as shown in the magazine) a bit beyond her ability/patience level and so opted to go with a volumetric flask instead.  This was fitting because we've used one in the last couple of chemistry labs we've done!  It also saved a whole container of frosting from being piled on that we would have just scraped off and thrown away anyway!

Today began with the slooow gathering of the family around the living room.  It's funny, when the kids were younger the presents were less expensive and Christmas seemed to begin at the crack of dawn.  Now that our house is inhabited by teens alone, all of the presents on their wish lists (NOT my shopping list, I must say) seem to have price tags with three (or more!) digits and our day is lucky to start by noon. 

But anyway, I digress.  Our day started out slowly in the ritual take-turns-at-opening-gifts-so-we-are-suitably-thankful-to-the-giver way.  We all parked in places that are becoming eerily established:

Josh and Dad on the couch:

Elizabeth and Rebecca spread out on the floor:

Papa in his chair:

And Aunt Shell and I on the love seat.  As anyone who has read this blog more than twice will know, I'm  not the world's best blogger and so I don't actually have a picture of Aunt Shell and I on the love seat, so here is Aunt Shell and I'm sitting next to her wielding the camera.  (You know, just be glad I remembered to TAKE pictures!)

After all gifts are unwrapped and the living room looks like a paper tornado hit it, everyone files out to the front yard for the annual..........................................

SILLY STRING FIGHT!

This uhm.....tradition.....started many years ago when I bought my dear husband a can of silly string to put in his stocking with rather vague notions of it somehow being part of some science lesson of some sort.  Of course he saw it as a WEAPON and one to be used immediately against his nearest and dearest......his children! 

This led to great hilarity and the children clamoring for their own Silly String.  Of course the next year everyone got a can and a tradition was born.  Eventually we did have to move it outside and we have increased the number of cans to two per participant.  It is definitely a highlight of Christmas morning.....er......afternoon and this year's hilarity was loud enough to bring the neighbors out to see what the uproar was about!

After the fun is done and the mess cleaned up, the cooking begins.  This year I had it a bit easier, however, because we got a Honey Baked Ham--Yum!  The girls and I cooked the usual holiday dishes and Josh, who chose NOT to help with the cookin', did the cleanin'!  Yay!

P.S.   Yes, it was actually warm enough for my dear daughter to be outside in her PAJAMAS!

Today we had a peaceful, stress-free day hanging out in the kitchen, watching Christmas movies and playing board games in groups and as a family.  This year's new game was a Harry Potter version of Clue--great fun!  Well, unless you take a crack at guessing the culprit WAYYY too early and have to sit at the table toodling on your iTouch until the game is complete.  I wonder who did that???

Oh, and Rebecca, the little FINK, is hiding behind her brother (you can see her feet) and I didn't notice until I placed this picture into the blog.  I should make everyone get back into the exact same position for a DO-OVER!

This afternoon I picked Joshua and Elizabeth up from an all night scripture reading marathon.  They joined about a dozen other teens from church and spent from 7:00 PM Friday night until 1:30 Saturday afternoon reading the New Testament.  They took breaks every hour and there were "guest readers" popping in and out all night long, but they all, for the most part, stayed awake and completed the whole of the New Testament which is what they are studying this year. 

My children made some interesting observations on the way home.  Elizabeth thought it was too much to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John back to back.  The stories were "too much alike."  Joshua decided that John was not his favorite scripture author.  They both had a really good time and I was grateful that the phone beside my bed didn't ring all night!

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot....Aunt Shell is here!!!!!

(This picture is actually from LAST Christmas)

What a treat!  This year, as far as Thanksgiving preparation goes, all I really had to prepare was the turkey!  Elizabeth and Rebecca took care of the rest.  Elizabeth made Sweet Potato Souffle and helped Rebecca with the Dressing.  Here is a picture of the girls cubing bread:

Elizabeth has a piece of white bread in her mouth because the only time I buy the stuff is when I make stuffing or dressing, so they only get that glue-like substance a few times a year!  Rebecca started a puzzle a few days ago on the dining room table.  We didn't quite get it done, however, before we had to put it back in the box.

Rebecca made most of the rest of the sides for us including: Broccoli Casserole, Basil Carrots, Biscuits, and  Zesty Peas.

Dan made the Mashed Potatoes becuase he's the best potato smasher in the house!

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of the biggest blogging blunders of my blogging break is not blogging about my dear daughter's 15th birthday.  She is such a wonderful daughter and I am so proud of her.  She is kind and helpful and works very hard at whatever she does.  

Today is Papa's birthday--Happy Birthday Pop...

It seems like my kids don't have time to celebrate their birthdays on their actual birthday anymore.  The day gets spread out over several days now or even a couple of weeks!  We finally got to eat Josh's birthday cake though.  Mmm, it was good! 

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This is the Ninja cake cutter preparing to do damage:

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Papa thought Josh should hurry up and cut the blessed cake and quit fooling around with the knife!

Daddy just wants ice cream:

Finally, Josh relents and cuts his cake:

Elizabeth thinks it's delish:

Rebecca is too embarrassed to face the camera after her last pose for my blog:

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Okay, this is a montage of photos dedicated to my SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD son, Josh.  Happy birthday, Bud!

Josh and his best friend, Harry.  When we picked this photo, we asked the photographer to edit out Josh's size 15 shoes.  They took up too much of the frame!

This was taken before we shipped out to Guam. 

More Christmas-time pictures.

This first picture is of Josh at age 16 months--this was Josh's reaction when you said  "Smile, honey!"  The second picture was taken after his first "real" haircut.  He stopped being a baby and became a little boy.  It happened quite unexpectedly, too.  Dan and I were shopping at the Navy Exchange and this little old lady tottered up to us and said, "What a beautiful little girl you have!"  Dan, with a horrified look on his face, snatched my baby out of the cart and made a beeline for the barber shop. 

I finished shopping and while I was loading groceries and all the assorted junk we used to buy on weekends, Dan came marching up with this little boy I almost couldn't recognize.  All of his darling curls were gone!  I was at least grateful that he had a regular NAVY haircut and not some jarhead high and tight!

MY FAMILY!

The requisite toothless grin!

Isn't he handsome?

Josh adored this sweatshirt--he wore it until it no longer fit and then cried because he didn't want to let it go.

Goodbye!