Birthday Boy!

Aunt Dani got the honor of hosting Ozark's first birthday party here in PA. Although I know he had a party in TX and there is another planned for CA, it was still lots of fun!

In one house, we had people from CA, PA, OH, TX and a few other states if we count birth locations.  With a crew of approximately 20 family members, Ozark smashed cake and had a good time!

Ozark's personal cake.

The cake for the family.

He was so civilized to start - using a spoon.

The first taste of icing!

Civilization is over-rated.  He needs a drink to wash
down all the icing!

To Aunt Dani's delight: he had icing in his hair!

Opening presents with Mom and Dad.

Happy Birthday, Ozark!

To Ozark: Happy Birthday! I wish you lived closer, so I'll just have to steal the moments I can.

To Rhys and Michelle: Thanks for sharing him with me.  :)  I love birthday parties!  Congrats on surviving the first year of parenthood.  Just a few more years to go.

Newest Zoo Arrivals

All Zoos have a constant influx of animals.  Some arrive with planning on everyone's part.  Others arrive when the Zookeeper says, "Awwww! I want them!"

Thus, the arrival of Sorchia and Tucker, a set of litter mates.  Tucker (cream-colored) is male.  Sorchia (black & white) is female.  Both just over a pound when they arrived at the Zoo, they are ALMOST four pounds together at this point.  Although, from they way they eat, they should weigh a lot more.

They have spent the past few weeks playing in the end of the garlands in the hallway.  This was the latest "battle" that I witnessed.

Tucker says, "These are my garlands."
Sorchia says, "You think?"

Tucker says, "STOP looking at the garlands, they are mine!"
Sorchia says, "Eeeeek!"

Tucker says, "You can have them."
Sorchia says, "I knew they were mine anyway."

Replay this battle a minimum of 20 times a day.  You can put in your own conversation.  Alternate the winner about 50% of the time.

Welcome to life at the Zoo!

Icing & Sprinkles EVERYWHERE

Saturday, December 17th was a BUSY day at the Zoo!  I roused the Heathens out of bed "early" on a Saturday morning.  We had people to pick up and places to be!

First stop, picking up Noah Logan, Ili Grace, and Wyatt.  Turned out, Gertrude had spent the night at her house - I managed to pick up four kids instead of just three!  Second stop was to pick up Skinny Minnie.  By 8:45, I had a car full of 8 children (ages 13 to 3) and we were headed for breakfast with Santa.

Breakfast with Santa was great!  There was only one problem.  Santa's helper that day was Pappy.  As soon as the grandchildren heard his voice, their heads all snapped around and they narrowed their eyes at Santa.  Breakfast was finished with lots of sticky syrup for the pancakes and lots of suspicious looks at Santa.

While the younger 2 Heathens had final rehearsal for the Christmas pageant, I took the other 6 children to the grocery store to purchase more "decorations."  Although I had already been to the store, I knew I didn't have enough sprinkles, icing or "stuff" for them to put on their cookies.

Taking six children to the grocery store is interesting.  We went to the store where I normally shop with my three Heathens.  This time, I had twice as many kids and only 1 of them was mine.  After 20 minutes of shopping, we had Christmas M&Ms, marshmallows, sprinkles, and icing in multiple tubes and containers ready for checkout.  It was basically a big purchase of sugar in various forms.

We picked up the younger two Heathens and headed to the Zoo.  The kiddos all watched Rudolph while I made macaroni and cheese for lunch.  I thought water took forever to boil when there were three hungry Heathens.  It takes MUCH longer when there are 8 of the staring at the water in the pot!

Once fed, I separated the kiddos into two rooms for decorating.  The youngest three stayed in the kitchen, while the oldest five headed for the dining room.  Here are the kiddos with their favorite cookie they decorated:

Heathen #2

Skinny Minnie

Gertrude

Meatball

Ili Grace

Heathen #3

Heathen #1

Noah Logan

There were sprinkles and icing everywhere!  All things considered, the kiddos where unbelievably NEAT.  A quick wipe of the table and a swipe of the vacuum and everything was picked up!

The only casualty was a spilled glass of milk that found it's way into Skinny Minnie's lap.  She finished decorating in a pair of Heathen shorts while her jeans were in the washer.

Then (the best part), I packed up all the over-sugared kiddos, their cookie creations, and TOOK THEM HOME!