Dad turns 80!

My Dad turned 80 on Dec 27. I asked him how he felt about that & he said he couldn't believe it & that he doesn't feel a day over 60! Fortunately the 27th was a Friday so we all (which in addition to his kids & their families was also Aunt Ba & Nanny, Lou's Mom) went out to a nice dinner at the Italian restaurant across the street from my sister's- Bella Monica. They had written in chalk "Happy Birthday Papa Bill" so we would be greeted with it upon entering the restaurant but someone got sick & vomited on the "ll" so needless to say I didn't get a picture of that! It was such a nice time!

Party City stops at 60 in store but they had 1980's theme party stuff so I improvised!

Cake with elderly touches!

 

Birthday wishes

 

Dad & his grandsons

Christmas 2013

Some photos from Christmas at my sister's this year:

                                                             This is a cake!

All the kids on their DS, cell phones, Ipads, etc!

 

My boys & my neices

Lane meets Santa

This is Lane's first Christmas & therefore his first time meeting Santa. Everyone thought he would cry, I said no, he will try to grab his beard & eat it.  So who was correct:

Yep, he grabbed the beard!

 

 

 

2013 Iron Bowl

We went to Jon's Mom's for Thanksgiving this year, the first time in years. The Iron bowl was scheduled in Auburn while we were there so we decided to go with Leigh & Josh (Jon's sister & hubby) since it's only about 35 minutes from Jon's Mom's & since they are all Auburn fans. We went tailgating & then went back to Jon's Mom's to watch the game on TV. We did the Tiger walk & watched the band- I wish they had a Tiger walk for our hockey team! So fun! What a fantastic ending- definately made me wish we were still tailgating for it! My Mother in law has MD & can't walk without crutches but I tell you when Auburn won, that woman got out of her chair & walked!

Marbles Kids Museum

Today we went with our church group to Marbles, the kids museum.  Why its called a museum I don't know because you play there, no exhibits. Anyhow- it was fun as always! They have so many fun "stations". Would have loved something like this when I was a kid!

The vet

Stage

Spenser driving the ambulance

Lane picking corn on the farm

Spenser checking out groceries

Pizza parlor

Spenser playing hockey!

Halloween 2013

This year was Lane's first Halloween. We went to Bradley's new neighborhood to try it out & it was great! Lane was a lion, Spenser was a pirate (Captain Jack Sparrow) & Bradley was a ninja turtle.

 

 

                                       I loved the back of Bradley's turtle costume

                                   One of the houses was decorated with these heads dangling from a tree

                                 ... and I caught Bradley's reaction to them!  Priceless!

I told Kristie & Spenser to put their light sticks in the air so I could get this shot.

Aunts visit & State fair

My Dad's 2 little sisters, Annie & Charlotte, came to visit us from Pittsburgh. Aunt Annie tries to come once a year but I haven't seem my Aunt Charlotte in probably 15 or so years so I was so excited to see her this time! Such a wonderful visit & we also went to the NC State Fair.

with Aunt Char

 

 with Aunt Annie

 

                                  Dad with his sisters

                                                 Duck Dynasty tomatoes

                 Spenser & Jon leaning over to see me from the ferris wheel!

                                                        I love the piglet races!

Fall Festival

Today, Spenser's Elementary school had it's very first Fall Festival. It was really fun but could get pretty expensive for the raffle tickets needed to do anything & eat. Since it was such a success, they think they will make it an annual tradition!

                                                       Dunking the principal

  Spenser pumpkin bowling which was his favorite thing to do there

This was some chocolate diving game, pretty gross but ingenious too!

 

Mule Day Parade

Today was our town's annual Mule Days Parade. We went with our neighbors Frank & Janice. Jon had to work though. Here are some of the ones I liked:

                                                     Very first fire truck

                                                Love what they turned this motorcycle into

                                                           He lassoed him

                                   Spenser wanted to see Clifford but he went to the      opposite side of the street

                                                   So he settled for Sylvester instead

                               A horse & cowboy stopped by to be petted by Spenser

Ewwww!

It was about 11 pm & I could have sworn I heard a knock on the door. Jon & I both went to answer it & our dog Max was there & seemed alarmed. I opened the storm door & saw this:

It's a possum. They are so ugly! It had crawled onto the front porch & wrapped its disgusting pink tail around the pillars. Jon went to get his golf clubs to chase it away since he didn't want to touch it. It hissed at him, which made it en even uglier animal to me! He's been back multiple times since! Gross.

Local high school reunion

I went to high school in a suburb of Pittsburgh called Upper St. Clair. I was the class of 1994 & there were about 100 of us in my graduating class. Of those, there are 8 of us, including me that live in the Raleigh area. Because of the wonderful world of Facebook, we realized that & decided to have a reunion. We met at a local park convenient for everyone. Only 3 of us were able to go but it was so wonderful to see Beth & Jason again! We'll try to plan another one later.

                                                         With Beth & Jason

                                                  The next generation- our kids

                                                         The kids by the lake