Poker Party

Mike had some of his friends over last night for a poker party. He didn't bother to tell any of them that it was his birthday so I made sure to buy him a beautiful birthday cake so that we could make sure and celebrate.
He wasn't to excited when I got home with this beautiful birthday cake. He didn't seem to mind all of the food that we were making all day but he didn't love the cake.

Here is one table full of guys.

Here is another table full.

We even got everyone to sing Happy Birthday which Mike really wasn't excited about but in the end I think he was ok. They had a great time playing cards all night and managed to eat a good amount of the food that I had made. I think that the last guys left a bit after 2:00 a.m. so I would say everyone had fun.

I believe we are officially done with birthday parties for the month of January. We have had some really good times this month and I think that both Mike and Alex have enjoyed their parties.

Country Reports

Alex has been working on a country report for school for what seems like forever. They got them all done last week and Thursday night was the big night for everyone to display their reports for family and friends to come and see.
Alex had Canada

This is how much fun Megan was having walking around looking at everyone's reports. Doesn't she look really excited?????

I think that Alex really enjoyed working on his report and learning some things about Canada. He didn't really enjoy standing by his board all night and explaining it but he managed to survive.

Mike is officially 40!!!!!

Wednesday was Mike's birthday so we went out to dinner and then headed home to celebrate with presents and dessert.
We went to Red Robin for dinner. Jim and Marilyn came and brought this beautiful bouquet of balloon's. He was so excited about them.

After dinner we went back home to open some gifts that we had. He got a lot of great things and really liked them all.

Megan and Alex went with the Snap On theme. Apparantely there is no better tool brand out there!!!!!!!!

I made a beautiful birthday cake. It even had sprinkles.

I wasn't sure what he would want so I made a cheesecake also. I think he eventually ate both.

We have one more party to go and then I believe we are done with birthday parties for the month of January. We have had a fun filled month so far.

Hoop Shoot

Alex plays basketball at school and they had a free throw contest one day a couple of weeks ago. He must have done pretty good because he brought home a note that he was invited to participate in the hoop shoot over the weekend.
He was really excited to go so we were sure to be there right on time. I am not sure how this thing is normally run but I don't think this one was very well organized at all. They said be there at 1:00 and you got 5 practice shots then you shoot 25 shots and you are done. No one bother's to point out that once you arrive and get your paperwork filled out that you will now sit for over 2 hours before your age group finally gets called. It seems like they could maybe stager the times for the ages but what do I know. I am not in charge. :)

Once his age group finally got called they lined up and waited on the floor.

Finally, It's 3:30 and he get to take a shot!!!!!!!!!

You shoot 10 and then get a break while the rest of the kids go then do 15 shots on the second time through.

He didn't do as good as he had hoped but he still did really good. He was mad that he had done a lot better at his school but he had a good time and I think he did a lot better than he does.

Even though we spent three hours at the school to get in 25 shots it was still fun to watch him do something new. Good Job Alex!!!!!

Mike's Early Birthday Weekend

Mike's 40th birthday is this Wednesday so I surprised him with a night in Seattle to celebrate. I think I even pulled of the surprise part. What a shock!!!!!!!
He has really been into football this year since he got into playing fantasy football so I thought it would be fun to go to the Seahawks playoff game. It was the first game that I have been to in the stadium but Mike has been there a few times.

We didn't have the best seats in the stadium but we did have seats in the stadium so they worked just fine if you ask me. :)

I think that Mike was excited to get to go once he figured out that was what we were doing. I told him we were going to measure a job for my work that was toward Seattle so he didn't even get suspicious.

After the shocking upset the field was covered with people. We stayed and watched as the crowd went crazy. I don't think anyone left their seat until all of the players, coaches, reporters, and chearleaders were off the field. It was so fun to watch and to listen to how loud is actually gets in there. My ears were ringing.

This would be the parking garage that we parked at downtown. We got to the field and the parking was full everywhere and it costs $40 to park a car for the game. How ridiculous. Mike didn't know it but we were also spending the night in Seattle so I went downtown to where our hotel was at and parked in the garage there. It cost us a whole $6 to park and the bus is free during the day. I love being cheap!!! I believe this is the picture where he found out that we were staying the night.

We went up to Pacific Place after we got checked into our room at the hotel to eat dinner and go to a movie. We ate at Gorden Biersch, it was really good.

They had so many good looking things on the menu that we went with pizza. It was a strange choice but it sounded really good. Maybe that is because we bought pizza on Friday night but Alex and his friends ate it all before we got a chance to have any.

I was just excited to get to eat dinner in a bar. No one under 21 allowed. :)

We ate to fast and had to much time until the movie was going to start so we decided just to go outside and see what our other options were. We ended up across the street at Von's for a drink. It was packed with Seahawks fans. I think a lot of people decide to stay over when they go to the game.

We had one drink at Von's and then headed back to check out the bars at the Hotel. We were staying at the Sheraton and they had a really cool lounge. It had a fancy name but I can't remember what it was. There were some Saint's fans staying there also so we had fun listening to them and some of the other Seahawks fans that were there.

This is the view from our room at night. Guess what's next to come??????

Yep, it's the view in the morning. :)

You got a free newspaper at your door in the morning so I guess Mike decided he should read it while I was getting ready to go.

The last stop on my fun filled birthday weekend was to go down to brunch at Ivar's Seafood House. It was so good and we ate so much.

We had breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack and dessert all at one time. I think you could have rolled me out of there.

It was a really fun weekend with Alex's birthday party and Mike's surprise night in Seattle. I sure hope they both had as much fun as I did!!!!!!

What was I thinking?????

Alex asked last week if he could have some of his friends over on Friday night to celebrate his birthday. I said sure, how hard could it be to watch a bunch of 12 yr. olds when all they do is play video games? Well, It was crazy. They all talk a lot, they say "Dude" every other word, they are sooooooooooo loud, and oh my gosh, they eat like crazy!!!!!!!!
I think there were about 10 boys and Megan and her two friends so I bought pizza. I don't know what I was thinking but I figured 3 large pizza's would be good and then Mike and I could eat dinner also. I was wrong. They had those pizza's gone before I even set them on the counter.

In the morning they quickly polished off 15 eggs, 2 lbs of bacon, 2 packages of sausage links, and 30 pancakes.

Alex got so many gifts and a bunch of cash and gift cards. He got enough to get X-Box live for a year and 2 new kinect games. He was so excited.

We had cupcakes for dessert with a few bags of chips and about 5, 2 litre bottles of soda.

Megan had Olivia and Gillian over to keep her entertained. They ended up going to the movie with Mike to get away from all of the boys.

Alex had a great time and was so happy that all of his friends got to come over so in the end it was worth it. It is a good thing that he won't have another birthday for a year.

Alex is 12

Yesterday was Alex's 12th birthday already. He is growing up so fast. Before you know it he will be ready to move out. That will be so sad. :)
He got to pick whatever he wanted to do for dinner and he picked to stay home and have bacon burgers and corn on the cob. It's not easy to find corn on the cob at this time of year and when you do it costs a fortune!!!!!!!

He got a lot of great presents. Books from Kim.

A great picture frame from Cameron, Rena and Maleah. It is a picture of all of them with Megan and Alex from SeaWorld this summer. They all signed it and wrote him a note on it. He hung it up in the front room for everyone to see.

Bonnie came over for dinner and cake. They got him a great nerf bullet holder that he has been wanting.

Jim and Marilyn came over also. They got him a new game for the kinect that he got from us. It was alot of fun to watch them all bounce around the room while they were playing it.

Megan and Mike came also. They were really excited for him to open the kinect so that they could play with it.

He had a great day and was so excited for his kid party tonight. I am not sure what I was thinking when I said ok to that but it will be fun for him.

Living Room Makeover

I decided a few weeks ago that I was tired of our living room so since I was off work this week it seemed like a good time to do some changing out there.
Here are some before pictures:

After a couple of days of work and four different colors of paint this is what we have:

On to my next project. I must decide what is next on my list!!!!!!