Eat Snow!!!

I had been whining the whole time we lived in the South that I was a Northerner. I never did adapt to Southern 'winters'. But I forgot that in actuality Cameron is a Southerner. Born in Alabama mostly raised in South Carolina. So the southern 'winters' was all he has known. Now he loves to look at snow but he hates the actual coldness of it all. Oh and heaven forbid it gets windy!! But we had snow on the ground and it actually felt good outside so Hannah was on a mission to have a snowball fight with Cameron. She was quite sweet about the fact that she wanted to be a part of Cameron's first snowball fight!

To back step and give you insight into Cameron if you ASK him to do something he will always say 'No'. Even if you know it will be the best experience of his life if you give him the option he will say no and when you proceed forward he gets frustrated. Hannah is still struggling with this concept but this morning she did great and just got Cameron bundled up through all his protests because she knew once he got outside he would be fine. He was a smidge fussy outside but she just ignored him and started playing. Sure enough in a matter of 5 minutes he was fine and you will be able to tell in the upcoming pictures he was having a grand ole time!!

Poor fella's gloves are to big so he had to just pick up chucks of snow instead of molding them into snowballs.

And it was definitely much easier for him if Hannah was kind enough to stay very still and let him walk up on her. I think stealthiness will come later in life ;)

Victorious!!

Stay still Hannah!!!

Hannah tried to get him to say 'Eat snow!!' but he wouldn't do it!! Somewhere along the lines he got the idea he has a mind of his own and he is not Mommy and Hannah's puppet. Silly boy!!

Archery

For two years Josie B had her 15th Birthday planned out. She was going to go fishing and learn how to clean and cook a fish with her Uncle Jeff. Well OK then!! But of course those were the plans for South Carolina. When we moved here to DC I wasn't sure how to make it a reality. So I told her she had to think of plan B. And she came up with Archery. She wanted to spend the day learning and doing archery.

For starters I will point out that yes I am aware I have an odd little duckling for a daughter!! Fishing and Archery. To know her on a day to day basis you wouldn't think those activities were swirling around in her little noggin. Just goes to show you can never tell what your kids are thinking.

So once again I am in an area I don't know trying to find a place to let this kid do some archery for her birthday. I just had no luck finding anything near us that offered just a day pass for us to come as a family.

So Plan C!! We were going to buy her her own equipment and find an area to let her shoot away. Surprisingly enough the metro DC area isn't stocked up on huntin' supplies.

She settled for plan D which was mall, movie and Dave and Busters. Poor kid. But as a joke her Dad and I did get her the Nerf bow and arrow set and all of us regretted it for the whole week following her birthday. She wasn't stealthy about it she had no problem announcing we were about to get shot right before she did it.

And then a couple of weeks ago a Dad in the home school group announced he was trying to set up an archery class for our kiddos!! I e-mailed him immediately and said YES! sign us up.

So there we were yesterday at the army post Ft Belvoir which is only 20 miles away. Needless to say they weren't in any of the basic searches I was doing a couple of months ago. But I never would of thought to look at an army post!

I so love this picture because you know these two teenagers only hear the Charlie Brown teacher during their safety lecture!

Figuring out which bow they are most comfortable using.


Hannah chose the Legalos bow. Who needs technical terms when you're a nerd!?! ;) Both girls showing off their stellar form!!


I just had to show off the picture of Josie's release to point out those long elegant fingers of hers!!

Learning how to remove your arrows without elbowing or jabbing someone in the eye. The instructor was kind enough to relay some pretty graphic stories on how this could go wrong.

They didn't have any of these fliers to take home so I took a picture of it in case we want to just come back as a family. Oh but yes I was frusterated when I first found it because Josie B could have had the Plan B birthday she had been dreaming about for hours!!

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The class goes on til May. We come every other Monday! I promise to only bore you with the highlights ;)

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!!

Expose': Holiday Celebrities Tell All

Hannah's latest play!! This one was actually in the drama room at her school. Which was much more intimate and easier to get pictures. I only took pictures of Hannah because the flash was right in their faces. Oops sorry ;)

Look for the writing in * cause that is Hannah putting her two cents in.

*stage that was used for all 11 scenes*

*YAY CAMERON*

Cameron loves watching Hannah on stage! The whole crowd can alwasy hear him asking 'Where's Hannah?' and of course gettign excited when he sees her 'It's Hannah!'

*alright truth be told i wasn't supposed to use the cap but i needed something to make my entrance DRAMATIC haha*

*what my scene was about was Cupid looking for love at a speed dating thing and my character was Pandora (the creepy goth chick)*

*tisk tisk tisk cupid don't you know not to tell the truth*

* RESPECT THE HOLIDAY CELEBRITIES*

*i was also "witch" for the last scene *

*take a bow *

After the play.

Another great performance by Hannah Davis!!!!