friends at the barbecue

I am not sure where Cara is about to deposit said child, maybe lucky we don't have a pool yet.
Boys and their toys... Nerf gun assembly line!!!!
Mother and daughter decorating cookies
The greatest cookie makers of all time... today it was red and white cookies with Alex name on, as he requested, same as his cake actually, which he helpped ice.
Our neighbours do come to our parties... This lets us make more noise!!
Our egg hunt hosts of the morning.... Thank you
"Ahh a Nerf gun, we will help you Alex, let us look" dad's so predictable !!!!

Alex had no trouble blowing out the candles, I had to light them again so everybody (well children) could them blow them out as well!!
Chief Griller ( looking very posed) and his adoring wife ( looking very stern!!)
boy can they talk!!! What a great time we had, fantastic weather, children all playing in and out on Alex's new toys, wine flowing and food a plenty. a very nice way to spend the afternoon.
A huge thank you needs to go to Cara and Jack who tidied it all up after wards. I think Jack was particularly impressed with the confetti eggs Diana bought, real egg shells, dyed and filled with confetti that you smashed over peoples heads, so the shell and confetti went every where. He swept it all up...... took him a very long time. Jack the kids loved them and at the time... that was all that mattered. It was your brothers party!!!!

What a day, my red head turns 8

These are the Peeps that turn up at every occasion possible, marshmallow covered in a sugar coating, the kids love them!!!
Instead of decorating loads of cookies, what I did was put out the cookies and icing and let the kids decorate as and when they wanted to eat them. I think it is safe to say more icing was put on than if I had iced them!!! some hyper children in our neighbour hood tonight.
Birthday boy just before he launched inand opened his presents, the calm before the storm with out a doubt

The Easter egg hunt, Diana had hidden them and we took all the kids up to there house, it is only 5 doors away, although Cara and Jack managed to restrain themselves and did not hunt for the eggs, but did help when asked by eager youngsters.

I can't believe it, but I was awake before Alex's this morning, waiting for him to come running in. He has had a busy weekend as he had a birthday sleep over on Friday night into Saturday because his birthday fell on Easter Sunday. He was at a friends house sleeping over on Thursday as there was no school on Friday- not known as Good Friday here and there is school tomorrow!! No Easter Monday for us( well actually ARM does close for the British holiday weekend, so Allan is off!!!)
Then today we started early opening presents, Alex had requested breakfast In bed, so dually did that, followed by an Easter egg hunt at Diana and John's abode, then back home to get ready for a barbecue with friends popping in from 3pm until 6pm.

An update

I seem to be very busy at the moment, and have not been up dating as often as I should, so though I would quickly bring you up to date.

Alison got off OK at Houston , the journey there no problem, although Texas cried to see her go, then a mean police officer stopped me on the way home and gave me a violation for not having the number plate on the front of the car-Allan has duly sorted that for me. Would be fair to say I was stressed and maybe communicated that to my husband very clearly.

Cara got knocked off her bike while we were cycling to Jazzercise last week, not a great moment, i now know a lot more about the medical services etc in Texas. I can call an ambulance even if I have no wallet or insurance details on me- who would have known. The things you don't know seem to come at you in troubled times far too fast. Cara is fine, the car and following one did not stop, but after that so many people did stop it was gratify to see. Diana was the hero of the day and sorted out getting us to a doctor and x-ray etc, and her daughter Sammy, only 5 was the angle of the day. Not a murmur out of her, she came along, sat in the waiting room and just played with the toys, watched the TV( by the way they had a children's TV and an adult one- so simple an idea but it worked!) Cara with leg all strapped up came home and had to rest it it for 48hours, she has bruised her bone. her first words when i reached her was " I will have to wear a long dress for your party mum"- that my girl, who cares about the blood!!!
Anyway, all is well, in fact Cara is in UK now, to celebrate her birthday with friends in Southampton, another story there, as her passport only came back from Washington DC on Wednesday, so she booked that day and flew the next- lets hope her leg lets her play!!! Can any of you believe my daughter is 19, it makes me feel OLD.

Ben decided to not miss out on the limelight, and he head butted the chair and put a wonderful gash in his forehead, this was at 0635 on a school morning so, lots more blood and tears for our household- got to love children.

Ben had a cowboys breakfast yesterday, I will post a separate article on that, it was so great, am hoping to post a video of it for you all, will be sweet talking Jo into helping me next week hopefully.

Allan and I went around to Alan and Jo's for a wonderful home cooked curry on Tuesday night.. it was our first curry since we have been in Texas, so loved it. great company, great food and what a fun night-although i might have spent a lot of it complaining about my children!!! Why do i have four?

Cara and I dashed to Houston yesterday to catch her flight to Toronto and then Heathrow, Cara managed to find an Air Canada flight for $517 return, including all taxes in each country etc, so a good price for a poor student. I can see she is going to need to be babysitting a lot when she gets back to top up her account!!!!

I think you are up to date, my party is already on the blog, and on the Sunday we had a leftover party and invited some of our guests back to finish up food and drink.

Oh I had forgotten about getting our nails done on the Friday, my actual birthday. Diana, Cara and i went to get our nails, man and ped done for the party. had to go in Diana car due to Cara's leg, had to park out side, and Diana and I help the hobbling one in to her seat, then Diana went and bought Champagne and we drank whist we had our nails done. I have pictures on my Iphone, so will try and learn how to take them of and put them on my blog-Jo i might need you for that as well!!!?? pretty please. Mind you Cara gave me for my birthday, the Dummies guide to iphones', obviously thought I needed it- how right she is