Bailey Manor 2012

We took Mom to see the trees at the Bailey Manor in Clinton this year.  There were 92 trees this year and some pretty cool ones!  Our favorite tree was the Grinch tree... (see Madden below with the white tree).  The "Grinch" stole an ornament from all the other trees in the Bailey Manor to decorate his tree.  In its place he left a little red slip of paper to say that they had been "grinched."  It was very creative.  

 nutcrackers :>

 Grinch Tree

items stolen from scenes :>

Lights at Zoo with Neighbors

We went to see the Lights at Riverbanks Zoo with our neighbors.  Of course, we had a great time!  See!

 Madden and Landon

 We tried to hard to get them all still and posing at the same time but... this was the best we got!

 roasting marshmallows! (or just eating them plain!)

 Melinda

 Leta

 Will

 hot cocoa!!!  

Edventure with Neighbors

We took advantage of everyone being out for Winter Break and took a trip to Edventure.  The kids had a blast...literally!  The moms also took advantage of this time to catch up, play with the kids and talk! :>  What a great morning!

(Yes, they others wanted to go at 10:30am... Emily was worried that I wouldn't be up and ready!)

 Madden, Landon, Emily and Katelyn

Christmas with Neighbors

 the kids

 the girls

 the boys

 opening gifts

scary face!!!

Madden 7th Birthday

This is his great 7th birthday picture.  What a big boy...young man.  

 one of his new guns

us at birthday dinner at Fuddruckers

Twas the Night before turning 7...

I can remember as a child the night before my birthday my mom would say "this is the last time I will tell you goodnight and give you a kiss while you are (insert age)"  and this would devastate me because I thought my mom was sad about this.   

This memory stuck with me forever.

Now that I am a mom, I have these same feelings for Madden the eve of his birthdays every year and I found myself saying the same thing to him.  (I found out its part sadness because your child is getting older but proudness as well) Although he hasn't shown the same feelings that I did as a child, this year he found this very interesting.  He wasn't sad but curious about this.  We were discussing his year's accomplishments and what we thought next year would bring.  

He said, "Can we take one more picture of me before I turn 7?"  And this is what we got.  :> 

Madden 7th Bday Party

Let me start by saying: "I can not believe we are celebrating Madden's 7th(!!!!!) birthday!"

Now... Madden wanted to have a Nerf Gun Party at our house.  I was a little nervous about having lots of kids at the house, entertaining the kids and making sure that Madden was fully satisfied with his bday party.  We researched ideas, props, games and activities online and was very pleased with the amount of people who had already had a nerf gun party and had worked out the kinks for me.  

The invitation asked that all the kids bring their own gun and we got extra eye protection just in case, and they shot at different targets (balloons and paper targets) then we moved to the backyard for a rendition of capture the flag, nerf gun style.  

The kids had a blast, Madden had more than too much fun...it was a success!

(I did not include pictures of the adults playing and jumping behind barricades! :> )

Space Derby

This morning Madden's scout troop had their Space Derby to race their rockets that they built.  He took "The Destroyer" to race and they took home 3rd place! :>  Yea!

 Luke (2nd place) and Madden (3rd place)

 "See my new badge!"

 Tiger Cubs present