Landon's School Egg Hunt

Last Friday, Landon's school held their Easter Egg Hunt. It was cold, windy, and RAINING. And none of the kids even noticed. Here are some of the pictures of him and his buddies. The little girl with the curly hair is Emory, and the little girl with the straight hair is his best buddy Addy.

Birthday Party #3 (for Heathen #2)

And the first birthday season of our year has ended! Hurray! If I see any more birthday cake before July, I think I'll be sick.

Gavin had his party for his friends at the local bowling alley. The kids were all big enough to bowl without the ramps that they had to use last year. They had a good time. Here are some of the photos I took.

Birthday Party #2 (for Heathen #1)

I've survived the second birthday party. This one was on Sunday for the oldest Heathen. He decided that this year we were heading over to the local cinema for his party. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!! They did everything - all I did was show up ten minutes before the party.

Starting at 11, I had Heathen #1 and 9 of his friends (all 10 & 11 year old boys). The Cinema gave me two teenagers for the entire party. They played games with the kids, took them on a tour of the theatre (which was REALLY cool), fed them pizza, cake, ice cream, popcorn, candy & soda (all provided), and then they got to watch a current;y playing movie! We got to see "Race to Witch Mountain" and it was pretty cool!

When the movie was over, the teenagers had already packed up all of the presents and carried them out to the front. And then they even loaded my car. It was really different to get to enjoy one of my children's parties!

Birthday Party #1 - Heathens #1 & #2 (and a niece)

Party #1 for the current birthday season was yesterday at the llocal firehall. We decided 3 years ago that it was too much of a pain in the rear to try and schedule 2 separate birthday parties for family between 2 of my Heathens and my oldest niece. It has been SO much easier the past three years to just have one big party. And no one has to clean their house.

This year, Heathen #1 turned 11. He is currently enthralled with these things called "Bakugan."

We spent three days looking for the birthday accessories for these particular toys. Apparently they are fairly popular since they were so difficult to find. I think his favorite present this year HAS to be the drum set that his father and I got him. He is currently up in his bedroom happily pounding away. I plan on investing in ear plugs soon.

Heathen #2 turned 7. He's all about Mickey Mouse this year.

Heathen #2's favorite present was a toss-up between the box of magic tricks and the radio. We've listened to Alvin & the Chipmunks constantly since he brought the radio into the house. But we've also seen alot of rabbits coming out of the black hat as well!

And my niece chose "something cute" as she put it. She's so much more sophisticated than my Heathens!

The Heathens actually KEEP a SECRET!

It happened for the first time in Heathen history! They kept a secret about a present for the Asst. Zookeeper!

The Heathens understand what secrets are. They understand that secrets about presents for people are secrets meant to be kept so that they don't ruin the surprise.

The trouble is that the Heathens get so excited that they HAVE TO TELL. It literally kills them to not tell because they get so excited. Every year at Christmas and again in March, I go through the same conversation with the Heathens. "Don't tell your father what his present is, it is a surprise!" And every time, they swear that they won't tell. And every time, they do.

They kept the secret clear up until he opened his present!!!!! The Asst. Zookeeper was just as surprised as I was!

He has always said he wanted to try skydiving. For anyone that knows him, it really isn't a surprise. It goes along with the rappelling, rock climbing, motorcycles, whitewater boating, hiking, coal mining that describe his daily life. Obviously, I married an adrenalin junky - but I knew that going in.

We got him a day of skydiving in Grove City with Skydive PA. And it is NOT a tandem jump - it is an instructor-assisted jump. He's always said when he got to go, he didn't want to be attached to another jumper.

With the Heathens, there has to be a present to open for a gift like this. Opening of the gift signals them that they no longer have to keep the secret. So, for something to open, we bought the Asst. Zookeeper a bunch of parachute toys. I'm sure everyone has seen the little army guys with parachutes that you throw into the air and they float back down. Believe it or not, I couldn't find any of them! But I did find a bunch of colored Easter rabbits and chicks with parachutes in the Easter section of WalMart - and they worked just as well.

Now, he just has to find the time to go!

Lightning McQueen sneakers!

I survived the weekend adventure to Gilbertsville with the Heathens and my Grammy!!! The Heathens and I left Friday around noon to head to my Uncle's for a photo gallery opening. He had work displayed at The Eagle Gallery with the Chester County Camera Club. We stopped on the way out of town to pick up my Grammy to take her with us. If you've never seen his photography, you should definitely take a look: photography portfolio at www.pbase.com/rddevan and his photo blog at http://newhanover.aminus3.com/.

Minus the usual ear-splitting screeches from the rear of the van, it was a very uneventful drive both ways. We had lovely weather for the trip - clear and sunny. Even the turnpike was not overly crowded.

We stopped once for a bathroom break and once for gas on the way down in a town called Shillington (according to the signs). When we pulled into my Uncle's driveway, I made a discovery. Heathen #3 had lost a shoe during the road trip!

We searched the van completely... no shoe. I KNEW that I had put two shoes on him when I left the house with him that morning. And he had both shoes on when we stopped for our bathroom break. And then I realized what had happened.

When I stopped for gas in Shillington, Heathens #1 and #2 went into the station to go to the bathroom. They got out the door in front of Heathen #3 - and had to have knocked his shoe out of the van as they were climbing through. He had taken his shoes off during the ride.

And of course, he was the only child of mine that only had the shoes on his feet with us. The other two both had an extra pair in the suitcase! Go figure.

Aunt Carol obligingly stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way to the gallery. Heathen #3 and I ran inside and chose the first pair of shoes that were the right size. He was thrilled - they are Lightning McQueen sneakers that glow in the dark!

ABANDONED!!!

I discovered the other day that my Middlers staff has COMPLETELY ABANDONED ME for summer 2009. Oh, they all have excuses (one has a new baby, one is getting married, one has a vacation scheduled, etc). But currently, I'm feeling very unloved! Besides, where am I going to find a new group of suckers, I mean counselors, to help with Middlers? :)

I made a second camp discovery that has made me feel old for the first time since my 30th birthday. While brainstorming for new suckers, (I mean COUNSELORS) for this summer, I realized that some of my old campers are now old enough to BE the counselors! AAARRGH! I've located about 5 of them, but I haven't gotten a response about joining me for camp. If they only knew what I was trying to rope them into...