Our Adventures with Ryan and Riley Cate

friday ramblings/confessions

Thought everyone might love a little random rambling on a Friday:

• Riley's birthday invitations came in the mail this week, and I LOVE them!  So excited about mailing them in a few weeks!  I will post one on the blog after mailing and closer to her party, but don't want to spoil the surprise before then!  We are planning her party at a local waterpark, and she is so excited about it.  It is going to be all things fun in the sun with lots of aqua colored items and red and white polka dots.  Hosting an outdoor party always leaves room for a little weather related nervousness, but I am thinking good thoughts about the weather on Saturday, May 19th!
• Related to Riley's birthday, I took some pictures of her in her birthday party swimsuit to use on the invite.  Yes, I have already ordered her a birthday party swimsuit and staged an outdoor photoshoot of her in it.  No, I have not caught up on my laundry yet.  Here are a few pictures I LOVE, but are not being used on the invite itself.  I couldn't wait to show these!

• update:  since I mentioned the germs at the fair, ryan has had tonsilitis and now I have a stomach virus.  coincidence?  I think not.  maybe next year I will see if the kids will agree to wear gloves to the fair?!  or maybe I will see if I can just give them the "fair money" in cash.  I am kind of kidding.
• Ryan had another stellar report card today!  We are so proud of him!  Grades of 98, 99 and 100 with S's and E's.  Love that boy!  He is excited about adding another mario game to his collection.  That is his reward of choice!
• I ordered some presonalized labels from erincondren.com (with my finely honed internet-flash-sale-couponing-skills of course!), and I am loving them!  I am planning to use some for Riley's birthday party (on plastic cups or favors maybe?), some on meals I deliver to people in the disposable foil containers with lids (who have babies, illnesses, or just because!), and some on birthday gifts in lieu of a separate card.  I love them all!

• we have ordered the recently introduced pizza hut "big box" at least once a week in march.  it is $10 (or $11 if you get cheesesticks instead of breadsticks) of deliciousness that feeds my WHOLE family!  cheaper than grocery shopping!  it has 1 medium one topping square pizza (although it seems larger than a medium with 8 square pieces), an order of breadsticks/cheesesticks and cinnamon sticks.  deliciousness in a box!  I feel one headed to our house sometimes this weekend...

• Lowes has a 1 year plant guarantee on plants you buy from their nursery.  I have a feeling they are about to start losing money with their guarantee where I am concerned.  
  One dead plant is already headed back their way this weekend.  Hopefully no more "returns" to come...

south texas state fair {2012}

we had a great time at the fair yesterday!  it was 80 degrees and felt like at least 95 on the concrete, but a fun time was had by all!  the adults enjoyed the food (crab burgers, shrimp on a stick, pork kabobs, ribbon fries, oh my!), while the kids enjoyed the rides (super slide, bumper cars, ferris wheel, and lots of others!). 

riley cate loved riding a pony (ryan declined the offer because "ponies stink"). 
it was $5 per ride, so I wasn't going to try and talk him into it!  haha! 

mimi and pawpaw came with us and rode all the rides that davon and I do not like to ride! 
(anything up high or that spins around in circles!).  pawpaw went through tons of "fun", "mirror" and "obstacle course" houses (ryan's favorite), even one with a tiny tunneled slide at the end (clautrophobia much?).  we spent about 4.5 hours there, and it really was a fun time!

now, keeping it real:  the pony mulch and extreme heat gave davon a migraine, I was also feeling sick after we walk/ran at least a mile to the car with the kids almost immediately after eating all the fair food (to get davons migraine medicine that was in the glove box), we made it home, davon went to bed and I took the kids to sonic to get a cold drink.  I agreed on a chocolate milkshake for ryan since I had said no to ice cream at the fair.  he took 2 slurps out of it, and then tripped in the garage and landed on TOP of his milkshake.  the milkshake didn't make it, and ryan was sobbing uncontrollably ("MY ICE CREAM...").  ryan got in the shower to wash off the fair dirt and now the chocolate milkshake (still sniffling), riley and I went back to sonic to get ANOTHER milkshake (sonic employees are thinking I am REALLY hungry at this point).  all was then well (with the kids, davon still in bed), and, in normal mommy of the year fashion, I allowed the kids to watch tv from 5:00pm until bedtime, with a short break for a cheese, crackers and fruit dinner and another bath.  whew. 
the upside:  everyone slept all night long.  we were all exhausted. 

the germaphobe in me is a tab bit concerned that one (or more) of us will come down with strep throat or pink eye (or heaven forbid something worse!) this week, because of all the germs and touching of objects and rides at the fair, but I am trying to let my kids "live outside the bubble".  most of the time. 

all in all, I would say a really good time.  after sleeping all night, no one even remembers any of the "unfortunates" from yesterday, they can only talk about how much fun we had.  and that was the whole point!  thanks to mimi and pawpaw for coming with us, and embracing the "crazy" that is sometimes our lives!  I wish I had some more of that fair food today...

it's willy, willy good!

beaumont has a "newish" local place for burgers and milkshakes called willy burger,
and as the slogan says, "it's willy, willy good!"  4 out of 4 bledsoes approve!

they weren't very busy the night we were there, so we laughed loud, ate too many sweet potato fries, and snapped silly photos with my iphone camera. 

we played board games when we got home, hi, ho cherry-o and mario memory.  it was a fun night and even though a certain person in my family does not like to lose, it was fun! 
(I can't imagine where he the person who shall remain nameless got that competitive nature!)

Q: what is the stickiest substance on earth?

A:  cotton candy!

davon and I hosted the cotton candy booth today at ryan's school for their annual happy hearts festival (largest fundraiser of the school year)!  we, along with some other parent volunteers, served what I believe to be 400-500 sticks of cotton candy for 4.5 hours!  at one point I looked like a furry cotton candy sugar monster with cotton candy "fuzz" all down both arms!  we had a great time, and the kids loved it!  our kids loved playing at the festival for most of the day as well.  one of their favorites was the spray in hair color (although ryan initially chose "red" for his hair color, and I advised him that something else might show up better, since he does already have red hair and all!).

the basket in the photo was a silent auction basket I prepared for ryan's class (each class puts on together for auction), and ours was a "birthday in a basket" theme, with a bouncy house rental, pizza giftcard, and all sorts of fun polka dot party items!  if I had not put together the basket, I definitely would have bid on it!

I believe after the kids go to bed tonight, you might find me on the couch with my tired feet up eating a leftover stick of cotton candy...

be mine {valentines day 2012}

these were our valentine cards this year, and they were super popular!  ryan reported that he was the only kid in his class with his picture on all of his valentines and all the kids thought that he was "super cool".  (I wonder if he told them it was his "super cool" mom's idea?!). 

love him and his sweet sister!

I received lots of valentine artwork this year... 
I also made helped ryan make a valentine shoebox to collect his valentines.  I ended up glitter glueing the lid and covering it with valentine sprinkles.  it turned out super cute, and then ryan added the stickers.  (I couldn't very well give him the bottles of glitter glue and sprinkles, could I?)!

I love how on ryan's valentine card to me, his mother, he included his last name. 
like I might not know which ryan it came from!

I made the heart shaped oreo cakesters for riley's valentine party, and they were a huge hit!
 


happy heart day to you too!

happy birthday pawpaw!

pawpaw celebrated a "milestone" birthday this year, and several of our family and friends gathered to surprise him, eat some seafood and chocolate cake, and wish him a happy birthday!

my favorite photo of the night?

we had a great time celebrating our fabulous pawpaw!

happy birthday pawpaw!

countdown to christmas: riley's preschool party

continuing on with the christmas countdown...  riley's preschool party!  more snowmen!

riley and sweet sarah...

with cousin alicia, who was there with katy, to see brandon, it was almost like an "allen girls" reunion!  riley thinks she and alicia look alike, because they both have blonde hair!

icing and decorating waffle cone trees (thanks pinterest!), and more icing was going in her mouth than on her "tree". 

the finished product!

and, how do you eat a waffle cone tree?  well, like this of course!  :)

countdown to christmas: gingerbread houses

at allen family christmas, the kids made gingerbread houses again, and they turned out precious (again!)..  so much fun.  we are leaving ours out on display for santa to see!

(riley is really into katy right now!  she wants to sit by her, eat by her, decorate gingerbread houses with her, and she is currently asking to have a sleepover with her.  she calls her "my katy",  so sweet!)

trimming our tree

it has been a great weekend!  ryan was sick late last week so we cleared all plans for the weekend, but he was feeling 100% better, so we spent the weekend decorating our (baby) tree, putting out lights outside and yard decorations, and decorating the house with all of our indoor decorations.

I love pulling out all my decorations each december.  I forget about some of them until I see them again, and ornaments of past years (and my childhood) always bring a smile to my face.  this was the first year that the kids helped without me having to hold my breath, so that was an added bonus!

I made peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses, and we had hot chocolate with whipped cream, and we pulled the kids around the neighborhood in the wagon after dark and looked at lights.  it really was the best weekend!

a lakehouse thankgiving...

we spent thanksgiving (most of the week) 2011 at the lakehouse, and it was a lovely change of pace!  we ate so much delicious food, spent time with cousins, celebrated ryan's 6th birthday, and perfected fishing skills!

every picture tells a story, so onto the pictures!

ryan was gifted with a new razor (ages 6+, how exciting is that?!) scooter for his birthday (and a helmet and protective knee and elbow pads)!  it was a little scary at first, but now he is lightning fast!

love, love, love those sweet (and hard to capture) smiles!

riley and brandon coloring our thanksgiving tablecloth, thanks katy!

our cousin anna and sweet jack!

cousin brandon, ryan and riley:  the "big" kids! 
(cousin ages are 6, 4, 3.5, almost 2,18 months, 18 months)

riley and madi; riley loves "babies" and she loves that madi loves to play with her!  and the matching shirts was not planned, but how cute were they?  we are an old navy loving family!

cousin cameron!

davon and ryan found a place to sit and rest on the golf cart..

riley found someone who would let her trace their hand..  over and over and over..  ha!

someone is always making a crazy face!

mimi and pawpaw gifted ryan a super-cool shipwreck marble for his birthday (from a real shipwreck).  notice the dirty hands.  that is what the hands of a busy-loves-to-be-outside-six-year-old-boy look like!

full of smiles!

he likes to reel the fish in once the hook is set!  the good stuff!

and a few more I could not leave out...

we had a great (windy!) thanksgiving, filled with family, food, friends and fun.  and from time to time, a few fussy kids, but that's life.  and we are thankful for all of it.