Hannah's Sweeney 16 Birthday Party

To know Hannah is to know that her absolute favorite movie right now is 'Sweeney Todd'. Last year for her birthday I took her to the actual play. This year she asked for her 16Th Birthday party to be a Sweeney Todd themed party. And for her gift she asked for a Mrs Lovett costume. And I had planned a Ghost Tour activity for her and her friends. So as the planning went on we decided to combine her costume with her party and have everyone go to the ghost tour in a Sweeney Todd costume!!

Well to make a long very heart breaking (for Hannah) story short when her Mrs Lovett costume arrived it fell apart within minutes. And it was not cheap. So it had to go back and we settled on Vampires! Her second favorite thing. But that isn't going to stop us from calling it a Sweeney 16 party.

Jason's fabulous birthday banner!

One of the only shots of Cameron. Needless to say he wasn't coming with us on a ghost tour in downtown Charleston. Our friend Mike Buytas was kind enough to watch him and let him play with his Lego's which now we have an addict but that is for a whole other blog!!

The girls getting into their costumes!

My friend Ali doing the vampire make-up!

Pretty yet , of course, scary!

The dining room! Hannah was allowed to pick out what the girls would have for dinner. Potato salad, mashed potatoes and hash brown casserole!! lol I threw hot dogs in for good measure!!

The girls decked out and ready to go!! Except for Josie who is proving a point. The point? Oh heck I don't know! She is 13!! I am sure I was making the same point when I was her age!

Downtown waiting for our tour to start. I just thought the light post was a good photo prop!!

Oh she was having an absolute blast!

Our tour guide! He was quite humored by the gaggle of 'Vampires'!

ooooh I wonder what is down this dark a dreary alley!!!

Waiting to go inside the dungeon.

The girls listening intently!!

http://www.oldexchange.com/html/history.html

We are actually in a dungeon in a building that is pretty old. I shall leave a link for you to click on if you are interested.

The birthday revelers so very tired!!

I also had some of my girls there with me enjoying the night!!

And out 'family' picture that doesn't feel right at all without our little man!

Back at the house for CAKE!!!

After the cake the girls got into PJ's and went into the living room for a midnight showing of Hannah's Sweeney Todd movie. Which form what I hear most of them didn't even make it through the first 15 minutes!

Surely this will be a 16Th Birthday party Hannah will always remember :D

Sweet 16

It is true. She is sweet and she is 16. We got lucky with this one. She is FUNNY she is level headed when it comes to all the peer pressures that come with being a teenager. She loves her brother (and her sister no matter what they think sometimes). She is polite with people and strangers. She is good to her friends. Her teachers love her.

She is all about vampires. She reads constantly. She loves music. Especially women that rock. She also loves musicals and soundtracks. She is in the choir and drama club. She doesn't really watch TV. But she can do some serious texting.

Her favorite food is the potato. My potato salad and hashbrown casserole is her favorite. She will walk to the store herself to buy brownie mix. And I have to constantly buy her apple juice. Her favorite drink.

And my favorite thing about this girl is she is not a sheep. She does what makes her happy. Wears what makes her happy. And above all KNOWS what makes her happy with no outside influences. She finds friends that thinks the same way instead of changing herself to fit into any group. I love her so much for that!


Mommy's favorite smile which I have to admit was a bit cuter when she was 3.

Cameron 'froze' like this so I could take his picture.

One good shot of Josie B. It is all I ask for!

Hannah with her cake. Which was a half dozen ice cream cupcakes at Cold Stone Creamery.

Jason wasn't home for her birthday. He was back int eh states that very day though. So we kind of saw that as a pretty cool present.

This was just a small gathering to celebrate her actual birthday. Her real party will be this weekend!!

Happy Birthday to Miss Hannah Noelle!!

He is home.

Life just does not seem normal at all when he is not here. I try my best to maintain normalcy for the kids. He was gone for 8 months. No matter what I do to try and make up for it there is no getting around the fact that things are so very very different when he is gone.

But the reality of it is when he comes home there is no perfect home coming. It takes work to acclimate. Right now we are still working on it.

One thing I really want to work on is getting back into the groove of this blog and back into the groove of Snapfish!! Pictures and stories are so important! And if we really do move to England I am going to want to make sure everything we do there is documented and shared properly. So back into the groove I go!!

Awesome April

A whole month in one blog. WOW!! Jeff called my blog stale and even though his harsh words were the truth it doesn't mean they didn't hurt ;) I do love doing this blog for you guys I am not sure why I have slacked. I have a new addiction now with Facebook. And Jason is able to get on Facebook and chat with me every once in awhile. So I do tend to find myself sitting on that website waiting for him to pop up and say HI!!

So one way or another I was a bad photographer/documenter for Easter. I got a couple snaps of different activities. Here is Cameron with Melissa and her daughter Madison dying eggs.

I love the look on his face because he wanted to put the egg in but how to do it without risking the possibility of getting anything on him.

Here is actual Easter Day. Or as we referred to it. Waffle Fest 2009. I had some friends over and made a great Waffle Dinner. That's right.....dinner! We had Brinner for Easter. And it was great my friends. Legendary almost. We had Banana Chocolate Chip, Apple Strudel and Blueberry Wholegrain!! Lots of other goodies to go with it. The weather was great so we all ate outside! A simple Easter but good.

Autism Walk of Charleston 2009. I set it up with my close friends that we would meet at the park and set up our own picnic next to the festivities. It worked out perfectly. The weather was beyond gorgeous and of course we enjoy everything they have set up.

Oh this punching bag is about to feel the wrath!!! The fury!! The anger!!

Um......is he cuddling?

Our picnic area!

These series of pictures are about to show you why this blog seems more dedicated to Cameron then anyone else in the family!!

I swear I don't beat that Josie kid enough.

My friend Melanie with baby Nathan.

Zyllah and Cameron.

These next couple of pictures were taken by Naomi.

Here is the silly boy! Our inspiration for attending this walk!

Here we are a couple of days alter with our new neighbors! Melissa invited them over to participate in Cameron's therapy! It worked out perfectly! We shall definitely have them over more and more!

Playing 'Red Light Green Light'!

And now we are frogs.

Head shoulders knees and toes!

And of course only on a military base does a play date get interrupted by the Anthem. lol

Cameron's favorite water toy.

I am in the house looking out the window now. The kid is evil!

A quick synopsis of April. The kids and I are all doing fine without Jason. OF course we miss him terribly but we are getting through it the best way we know. By living life and having fun while doing it!