Ezra's B-day Party!

Ezra is 7!!

On Ezra's actual birthday we had a family party with cake and opened up presents that Nannie had sent in the mail. He was so excited to get pokemon and sonic toys!



The next weekend we had a birthday party with friends. By the time we invited friends on our street and friends from church (and some siblings came), there was 17 kids! I had a hard time telling Ezra he couldn't invite people, but next year I'm sure it will be easier. It was crazy chaos, but all of the kids had a good time. Joe and I were wiped out after it was over. The kids played relay games, tried to break the pinata and decorated cupcakes.

The kids doing the dress up relay.

The kids doing the crab walk relay.
Ezra taking a swing at the pinata.

Decorating cupcakes and getting messy.

All in all it was a great party and it seemed like everyone had a blast. Later that night I asked Ezra how his party was. He very excitedly told me "it was a rip-off!" He was about to be in big trouble until I asked him what rip-off means. He told me it meant a really super fun exciting time. I corrected him and let him know that he shouldn't tell people his birthday was a rip-off.

Family Snowball Fight With Nannie

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"I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas!"

We put up our fake Christmas tree. Every year I think, next year we will get a real tree, but so far no luck. It has been a while since we have had a real one and really, next year we are going to get a real one.
We had good time putting the tree up and decorating it. We listened to Frank Sinatra Christmas CD, the one where he sings J-I-N-G-L-E Bells. Ezra and River love that one. Joe put the tree together and the boys were very eager to "help" him. River said, "I like Christmas." Then Ezra said, "I don't like Christmas, I love Christmas." He was saying it all night, it was cute. I just loved how they decorated the tree. There are a lot of little groups of ornaments together. The branches near the top, don't have much on them. Ezra kept asking if he could put the topper on the top, so Joe lifted him to the top. I think he must have seen this on one of the Christmas movies.

Fun with the camera

So Ezra and River were playing with the camera they started taking pictures of the toys Ezra got for his birthday. (We are having a party with his friends on Saturday, so I will post about that later.)They took about a dozen pictures, or should I say Ezra took a dozen pictures. I will just show you a few.....you'll get the idea.
Picture 1 -toys


Picture 2- toys


Picture 3- toys


Picture 4 -"when is it going to be my turn with the camera?"


Picture 5- "You better let me have a turn!"


Picture 6-River running "I'm telling Mom you wont let me have a turn with the camera."


Here is a picture of two cabbage heads. Aren't they cute?


I feel bad that I haven't posted in a while. We had a good Thanksgiving. Our friends Rich and Monica Welch came over, plus Rich's mom came from Minisota. We had some delicious food, watched some football, took naps, and divided up leftovers. I have a lot to be Thankful for.

Peanut Festival?

This past weekend we went to the Peanut Festival, it wasn't really a festival as much as it was the state fair. It was overpriced and we didn't have Nannie (Joe's mom) with us to buy a ridiculous amount of tickets and all of the fried food that we wanted. So we settled for a ride on the carousel and an elephant ear. The boys scouts from our stake had a booth and they were selling, elephant ears. I had never heard of them before, but they are like a flat churro or a bigger thinner version of indian fry bread covered in cinnamon and sugar. We bought two and then one of the guys that was working there was one of Joe's flight instructors and gave us a free one, so we ended up with three elephant ears. We couldn't eat all of them, but immediately Ezra was in heaven, River took some convincing, but after we made him take a bite he thought they were delicious too.
It was pretty much a rip off of over-priced games, rides and food.



They did have a free booth you could go in and learn about the Alabama Farm, which leads me to Joe's favorite story.
The boys and I are in the booth learning all about the farm, Joe is waiting with the stroller outside the booth. A man and his kids, who clearly know about farming in Alabama, walk by and his kids start to go into the booth. Then the dad in a thick southern accent says, "Kids don't go in there that is for people who aint never seen a fa....."
Then he sees Joe and says, "For people who want to be a farmer for a day."
I don't know if is funny as a story on my blog, but it was funny when it happened.



So there was this lady and she had a monkey on a chain. You could A) Give the monkey a quarter for a good luck handshake. B) Give the monkey a dollar and get a picture OF the monkey. C) Give the monkey 5 dollars and get your picture taken with the monkey.
Holy Smokes that monkey was raking it in!!! Joe said if I wanted to live comfortably like a carnie he would buy me a monkey. I'm still debating.

Mississippi

Ezra & River on the back of a giant C-17.

My three boys in the Huey.

Ezra on top of an F-15



This weekend we went back to Columbus MS, too see our friends get their assignments (what plane and where to). Our good friends the Woodlands and the Carusos both got their first choice and they are both going to go to Travis AFB in California (Lucky!). It was so fun to see all of our friends from Mississippi. We went to dinner with the Caruso family and some other friends after assignment night. On Saturday we went to "Career Day" (planes set up for you to look at and talk to the pilots).

We got to watch a University of Alabama football game with Joe and Katie C. and their friends, Ana and Kyle (I recommend this to everyone). If you don't know what "Roll Tide" means look it up. Katie's dad was calling her during the game so they could discuss what was happening. I'm pretty sure she answered the phone "roll tide" when he called. My Joe was impressed by Ana's football knowledge, first she was discussing how college football should go to a play off system and then during the game she claimed there was "p.i." (pass interference). It was so fun to see what being a true football fan is all about.

Here are our friends with their new aircraft.

Kelsey and Oliver on the left with C-17.

Joe and Katie on right with KC-10.













On a side note when I said "look it up" I didn't actually look it up myself because I know what it means. The Mascot for University of Alabama is an Elephant or The Crismon Tide. I don't get it either, but I'm from AZ. I found this quote on the internet(so it must be true.)

“Roll Tide is Alabama’s battle cry, but among fans, it’s the ultimate all-purpose phrase, like prego in Italian or namaste in Nepali, an acceptable substitute for hello, goodbye, nice to meet you, and Amen” — Warren St. John, Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Trick-or-treating on post is out of control. It is set up to be from 6-8pm. Once it starts it is non-stop. I wonder if it was like that in Queen Creek, AZ? They have similar set up, lots of houses in a row, that are full of kids waiting to get candy. Joe got home from work at 6:10 and he said it was crazy trying to drive home. We had 6 giant bags of candy and we still ran out before the 2 hour block was over. When we (I took the boys trick or treating) were on our way home at 7:05, most houses were out of candy too. The boys came home with a good haul. River is still too young to guard his candy and let Joe and I pick out our favorites.

Fall Festival

This past weekend was the "Fall Festival" put on by the housing office on post (post, because we are on an Army "post" otherwise it's a base). I had to go to a bridal shower in "town" so Joe took the boys. There was jumpy things, snow cones, face painting (always a hit) and you could vote for your favorite carved pumpkin. A good time was had by all.

Navarre Beach, Labor Day Weekend.

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We had so much fun at the beach. Our first day we were in Pensacola and there were lots of little jellyfish floating around. The second day we went to a place a called Navarre beach. It was very clean. The water was the perfect temperature. It was shallow for a long way out so the boys had lots of room to play. I was raised to love San Diego and the beaches there, but I'm sorry to say this beach was so much better and totally awesome. If you ever get the chance to go the the beach in Florida (technically we were in the Gulf of Mexico) you should totally go.


At Navarre beach there was plenty of old people some had their metal detectors and some were searching for seashells. Of course the seniors loved Ezra and River. There was this lady who was collecting shells, not just any shells, shells that looked really good and you could buy them in a shop. River didn't really get the part that the shells had to look good and when he found any shell broken or not he would take it over to the lady.
There was an old man who was looking for shells, he saw the boys looking for shells and gave them pointers on where the best places to look were. Every now and then he would find a shell he thought the boys would like and bring it over to them.