The Great Birthday Challenge!

So, my sister, Erin, is awesome. So are mom and Loren for helping her get The Great Birthday Challenge together. On Thanksgiving Day, Emily and I knew something was up, but we didn't know what until my mom came out with six presents for each of us (We each have our birthdays in October and November): Than, me, Emily, her husband Marc, Chris--Erin's boyfriend, and Ken--Erin's former boyfriend that has become a part of the family (I know--Pace women are strange!) So, we unwrap the presents to find that we all have matching shirts in our 'team' color that read, "The Great Birthday Challenge 2007". With the fires being during that time, they felt that they couldn't really celebrate our birthdays correctly and so they were making it up by setting this all up for us. Than and I were the blue team.
Emily and Marc were the red team.
And Chris and Ken were the green team. We were all competing for the grand prize of $125, the second place prize of $75, and third place for $50. Yes, when my family decides to do something, they go all out.
There were ten different competitions, points for first, second and third...the team with the most points at the end would be with WINNER! Of course Than and I were talking a bunch of smack because obviously we would win.....

We had to pop each other's baloons without getting ours popped. I must say that mine popped on its own accord and had nothing to do with another person's feet!
We had to do a bunch of tricks with an apple stuck between our foreheads. We lost this one...the key is getting even....note Emily and Marc....the winners of this game.

We had to wrap a present with one of each of our hands ties behind our backs, we did the tray of objects game, a water baloon toss (we won each of these!), hoola hooping which we got out butts kicked on, a three legged race, and one where we had to find each other blindfolded--so fun.
It all ended in a relay with the scores so close--It all came down to this! Seriously, the team that won this won the whole thing! We had to go across on the stilts, come back, pop the balloon, then the other person on the stilts, come back, pop the balloon, then go as fast as you could with an egg on a spoon, come back, pop a balloon, the other person would do the egg race, and when that person got back we had to dig for a piece of gum in whipped cream and the first team to have two bubbles blown was the winner. You'd think that was a piece of cake....

Whipped cream up the nose...
Apparently, you have to chew all of the sugar out of the gum before a bubble can be blown, and unfortunately, I had the most sugar filled piece of gum on the planet, and I couldn't get it to make a bubble, so we got 3rd place. Can you believe that! Us.....losing....impossible to believe...I know. Chris and Ken got first, Emily and Marc second, and us, sadly last.
Chris had to heat things up by chucking an egg at Ken, and it all got a little crazy in the end. And no birthday celbration would be complete with out cake and medals. So, THANK YOU to Erin, Mom, and Loren for making this Thanksgiving so fun!
And here is a picture of us right before Thanksgiving dinner. We sure had a lot to be thankful for this year.

This is the way we feed the horses....

Every morning my mom goes out to feed the horses and so when we're there, it means every morning my kids get to help her. Luckily she has loads of patience!

We wanted to take a picture from Pacen and Cam's point of view to see how big these horses must seem to them, and Jeep decided to pose!
First, you feed them carrots and hope that Jeep doesn't bite off your finger!
Then Pacen gets to open the shed to get out the alfalfa. He's so lucky.
Then it's time for Senior Feed and Oats. We fill our buckets--Camry learned how to use the word 'heavy' and now everything is heavy.
Pacen is crazy about his red bucket. Whenever he talks about the horses, the red bucket makes it into the conversation. Since he has claim on the red bucket and wasn't about to share in his responsibility to give the horses oats and senior feed, we had to find Camry a little basket of her own.
Now they both love their buckets and love to help grandma feed the horses. I really don't think that she could do it without them!

Hanging out with Mom

This Thanksgiving was so much fun because my mom had the entire week off and so we got to spend so much time together. We went to her riding lessons, shopping, to the beach, more shopping, out to lunch. It was so great! My kids absoulutely love her. They wake up in the morning and ask, "Where's Grandma?" And so I tell them, "She's asleep...go wake her up!" They seriously follow her around wherever she goes--and she plays games and runs around with them. She really is a magnificent grandma.

This was at her riding lesson. I found Pacen hiding in a bush and Camry thought that it looked like too much fun.

Camry LOVES the horses. My took her on a little ride that started out like this....

And ended like this. It only took a few minutes to put Camry out. Her poor little head kept jerking down when Bill would take a big step, but she never woke up.
Doesn't she just look like a little Linda in this picture?
Our trip to the beach....Pacen was amazed with the seals and the birds.
We love La Jolla!
Camry thought it was hilarious to put sand on her and Pacen's heads. Isn't it hilarious?
Grandma and Camry

My kids love playing on the rocks. They found this little "slide" and were perfectly happy. Pacen was afraid of the ocean and kept telling it to stop. But obviously Camry, little Miss Independent, went and put her feet in the water.

Title

After I read Summer's blog, she said that all blogs have to have a catchy little title--so I made this one real quick. I'll have to think about it more and get a real cute one. :)

The Obsession

It all started Monday night. It was late, we were rushing to get the kids into bed and Than put "The Bee's Shirt" on Camry for bed. The next morning she was determined to keep that shirt on her all day. I tried to change her clothes, but she just threw a fit and screamed, "No! Bee's shirt!" So, finally when Jana and I were about to leave to go shopping, Jana finally pulled the shirt off of her--Camry loves Jana, but there were still tears involved. So, when it was time to go to put PJ's on that night, Cam asked for the bee's shirt and was dancing around the house with excitement as soon as I put it on. Last night, Camry asked for the stinking shirt again! And when I put it on her she was so happy I had to take some pictures. I have no idea what it is, but she's obsessed.
Yes, those are egg stains from the two previous mornings when she was wearing it--sick!
If only everything in life could give us as much joy as the bee's shirt does.
This is what we like to call, "Monster hair."

Crafty!

Okay, so my friend is crafty, not me. We made these cute flower hair things and I just think that Camry looks so cute with them in her hair.
Cute, huh?
And here they are in their cougar wear....again. Anytime one of them has a cougar shirt on, the other one has to wear it, too.
This was a cute one of Pacen although he was in desperate need of a haircut....which has happened and he cried and threw a fit the entire time I was cutting his hair. Argh.

My little helper...

Pacen was dying to help me make a "butter samwich"....so, here are the steps.

#1--Get the Jelly on the knife.

#2--Put the jelly on the bread.

#3--Lick the jelly off the knife.

"What?!!?"

Saturday in November = LEAVES

I took these two pictures on Friday--the day before Round One of Leaf Clean Up 2007.
We have four trees in our front yard that just dump the leaves on us. They are very pretty, but that just leaves a lot of work for us to do in the fall! My kids love doing anything with Than. It was really cute how Pacen and Camry would try to help us put the leaves in the bag---Cam would do it like one leaf at a time. Such good little helpers!

Than kept throwing leaves on Camry--she wasn't very happy about it.

Good morning! It doesn't look like Cam is quite ready for the day...she must be like her mother! :)

Have I told you how much I love my kids today?

Don't you just love it when you leave your kids eating lunch for a minute and you come back to find this?!?!?
And they just think it is so funny that they made a huge mess and are laughing and having just a grand time?!?!
But then Camry climbs into the shopping cart later and is stinking cute...so then it's like you never had to spend 20 minutes cleaning ramen noodles off the floor and changing everyone's clothes because there is soup all over them!

Kids Are Funny

The other day while I was making lunch I heard Pacen and Cam hard at work--you know the sound--lots of laughing and banging of toys. So I went out of the kitchen and saw this.
And then it wasn't enough for Pacen to watch Camry covered in toys, he had to join the fun.

Some Things Never Change

There may not be as much room on the couch, but he still loves to take naps on Sunday with Daddy. I love these boys.

TRICK OR TREAT!

Here's the Peanuts Gang! From left to right...Linus, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, and Snoopy! Pacen is obsesses with the Charlie Brown movies, and a few months ago said that he wanted to be Linus for Halloween, and it stuck. We turned Cam into Snoopy and viola!
Pacen wore his "costume" all day. He told Jana, "Look, here's my Linus socks. Look at my Linus hair!" He was very excited.
Camry made a very cute snoopy. Unfortunately, she had a runny nose so the black nose didn't last very long. And a big Thank You to the Gap for making an all white onesie...they aren't very easy to find.
Let the candy-fest begin! At first, they were a little stand-offish, but once they got the hang of it there was no turning back. Pacen kept saying, "Come on, Mom!" Than tried to transfer some candy out of Camry's little basket, but she started screaming, "No Daddy! My candy!" She definately understood what was going on. But, she was very polite and would say, "Thank you," to all that gave her candy. What a sweet girl!

I was a little skeptical about Pacen holding onto his blanket during trick or treating, but he dragged it behind him almost the entire time. You should see how nasty that thing was by the end of the night! At the end he said that he basket was too heavy and he need to use two hands, but he did a great job. He made a great Linus!

Buddies--Pacen & Benji