Thanksgiving Week at Nag's Head

Uncle Bobby and Daddy lead the pack up one of Jockey Ridge's Dunes. Madeline and Ryan follow behind. These dunes are awesome. This is our second time this year climbing them. It is great fun, even in the cold.

It's a race between Uncle Bobby, Madeline and Ry.

Madeline and Ryan get a hug from Raul. They loved how Raul grabbed them up to get some sugar.
Madeline's best memory from the beach is her time with Ali. Madeline was Ali's shadow, following her wherever she went and doing whatever she did. It was so cute. Ali even rode in our car with us when we went out. Ali was so sweet with Madeline. I loved watching them together.

Ali, Raul and Madeline.

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl! On the morning of Madeline's birthday, we woke up and all sang her "Happy Birthday" in bed. She grinned from ear to ear. We then went upstairs where she had a special breakfast of Barbie cereal. She got to pick out her very own cereal for her birthday. We then got our aprons on and started making cupcakes.

Mommy's little bakers.

Ryan and Madeline decorating the cupcakes. There was a lot of finger licking going!!!

We asked Madeline what she wanted to do for her birthday. She told us that she wanted pizza for lunch and dinner. So. . .we went out for pizza at lunch and dinner.

After dinner we came home for cupcakes, ice cream and presents. In addition to the Tinkerbell movie, we bought Madeline a pink, 2 wheel, Razor scooter, as she has been asking for one. Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lanie gave her a cute princess towel and arts and crafts supplies which were from the dollar store. The only reason I add that they were from the Dollar Store is because when you ask Madeline what she got for her birthday, she will tell you that she got a box. This box and the supplies she used to decorate it were from Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lanie from the Dollar Store. The four of us laughed about it all weekend. Her favorite present was a $1 wooden box from the Dollar Store. So cute and funny.

Madeline's Birthday Party

At the very last minute, we decided to throw together a birthday party for Madeline with some friends from the neighborhood.

Here our sweet girl sits at the table, waiting for her friends to arrive. This year we let her pick out a special dress for her birthday. She of course picked out a beautiful, princess dress with an empire waist and full skirt. She now wants to wear it every day.

This year Madeline requested an Ariel cake.

Here are the sweet girls. . .Madeline, Jessica, Jenna, and Alyana. They are lined up ready to play, "Pin the Ponytail on the Birthday Girl". The girls loved being blindfolded and spun around. And they giggled each time a ponytail was placed in a silly spot.

Here's Madeline blindfolded.

The girls sit at the table waiting for their pizza. Of course we invited Chase and Lance to the birthday party, as Chase and Lance are some of Maddie's best friends in the neighborhood. It was so funny when Chase walked in. He did not want to have anything to do with the girls, nor did Lance, who was following his brother's lead. When he walked in the girls were lined up to play Pin the Ponytail on the Birthday girl. I asked him if he wanted to play and he said no. I asked him if he wanted to go down to the basement and play with Ry, and he said yes. When I called the boys up for pizza, Chase still did not want to have anything to do with the girls. As you can see in the below picture, the boys ate their dinner separately at the kitchen table. And I can understand why Chase was making the break. These sweet girls spur each other on in giggling and squealing. . .and it is LOUD and continuous.
Here are the boys sitting at the "boy" table. And I must give kudos to Matt. I was going to order Dominos for the kids. Matt insisted that I just buy some frozen pizzas. Boy am I glad that I did. My kids were the only ones that ate all of their pizza. Most everyone else just took a few bites. And the funny thing is that I gave them tiny slivers of pizza not knowing how much they would want and figuring that I could always give them more. Needless to say, the Wells' family ate frozen pizza leftovers for the rest of the weekend!!!

After eating pizza, we decided to play the Tinkerbell movie that we had given Madeline for her birthday. This is 10 minutes into the movie. For obvious reasons, we soon turned the movie off. Look how sweet Ryan and Lance are. They are sitting shoulder to shoulder, leaning their heads together. These boys love each other. . .in a masculine way. :)

The girls were somewhat more entertained by the movie. However, after they started blowing their party blowers, the movie was history. This is the point when Chase and Lance and Ryan began playing with the girls. Before we knew it everyone was blowing the blowers at each other. All the kids ran upstairs together and they all came down in costumes. Chase was Johnny Flame, Ryan was Spiderman, and Lance was Batman. All the girls were dressed in princess dresses, shoes and accessories. Of course, all the girls except Jenna, who was dressed as Optimus Prime, the Transformer. Madeline told Jenna that she could be Optimus Girl, but Jenna informed her that she was Optimus PRIME. So funny. By now the boys and girls were playing together as they all ran from and fought the bad guys.

As you can see by Madeline's face, she is SO excited to have "Happy Birthday" sung to her. Her joy and excitement is infectious.
By the time cake was served, the boys and girls were all sitting at the same table. They actually became really silly during "cake eating". The sugar must have immediately kicked in. Instead of using forks, they decided to eat their cake like doggies. . .placing their mouths over their plates and grabbing as much as they could with their teeth. Though it was messy and they were messy, we let them do this, as they were having so much fun and giggling like crazy. Thank goodness that I still have some baby wipes left!
Alayna with cake all over her mouth.
Jessica with cake all over her mouth.
Chase with cake all over his mouth. . .and shirt (Sorry Roxann).
Jenna with cake all over her face. This girl cracks me up, as she is usually the ring leader or the one who takes the activity to a whole other level. I love her liveliness!

Opening presents. The girls are so cute. They all crowd around and "oooo" and "ahhhh" as each gift is opened.

At the end of the party (7:30 p.m.), we were exhausted. Though we were leaving for the beach in the morning, we did not even have the energy to pack. We put the kids to bed and got into bed ourselves! :) It was a wonderful time.

November Crafts

November was craft month in the Wells' house. Since this is a close-up shot, you probably can't tell that Madeline is actually dressed up as a Queen ant. Once you see the below picture with the antennae, it will be glaringly obvious. I think she might be impersonating a killer ant here.

In a few of our school lessons, we learned all about ant hills and the jobs the ants perform in their colonies. As previously stated, Madeline is the queen ant and Ryan is the jester ant. :)

One morning, Mommy had a great idea after searching the web. . .make painted, hand turkeys. What a festive craft for the week before Thanksgiving. Well. . .see below.

My sweet, active Ry, quickly tired of painting on paper and decided it was much more fun to paint himself. I remember Madeline doing the same thing at 3. . .and I must admit that it did look kinda fun. I love your free spirit, my sweet boy.

Trick or Treating Day

Yes, I am more than a month behind in blogging, but I must post our Halloween pics. As usual, we had a wonderful Halloween party in the cul-de-sac. This year we ordered pizza and shared appetizers. Of course, Ms. Shanda made her special cupcakes and we crowded around the Andersen's driveway (previously, the Coulters). Right before the sun went down, we rushed to get the kids in costumes and then headed down Willingham Rd. for some trick-or-treating. Actually, Matt took the kids out, while I handed out candy, which I LOVE to do. This year, after the trick-or-treating was over, we went to Ms. Shanda's house where the kids watched a movie in the basement, the moms chatted over peanut-butter m&m's and hot cocoa, and the guys sat in the driveway handing out candy to the Halloween tricklers. It was a wonderful time.

Mommy gets a special hug from princess Belle, who is wearing a beautiful shade of lipstick.
Batman and Optimus Prime. . .best friends.

Oops, my bad, it's really Lancie and RyRy. These boys love each other. Even when it's not Halloween, they love dressing up as Superheroes and playing.

Princess Ali and Princess Madeline.

After trick-or-treating, we told Madeline that she could pick out one piece of candy to eat before bed. So what did the girl do? She put her entire head, arms and shoulders into her bag to make sure she made the absolute best choice. . .I wonder when she realized that this technique does not provide much light to illuminate her choices.

After choosing a piece of candy, Madeline decided that she wanted to sort her candy. She immediately went upstairs, dumped out her four small bins and separated her candy amongst them. As of today, December 1st, she has barely touched her candy. To be honest, Mommy and Daddy have been enjoying it.

RyRy LOVES candy. When we told him that he could eat one piece, he just stuck his hand in his bag and pulled out a piece. It did not matter what it was. . .he was going to love it, and he did.

We learned something sweet about Ryan after trick-or-treating. He loves to share treats with us. In this picture, he is offering Daddy some of his candy.

So what did the Wells' do on November 1st? Went out shopping for 50% off costumes. This is a picture of Ryan as Johnny Flame (the human torch of the Fantastic Four) and Madeline as Silver Mist (a fairy in the Tinkerbell movie).