when photos lie

although these photos say otherwise, we had a fabulous time playing games over the Christmas season. :) jonathan & laure made it into town the Monday before Christmas. these photos were taken the night of their arrival.

having jonathan & laure in town invariably means we'll play a lot of games. my family playing games invariably means there will be a lot of laughing. and that is never a bad thing.

37 years

happy anniversary mom & dad!

past

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they have plenty to say.

mom's birthday

mom's birthday was this past friday. we went to the railcats game that night. ronald mcdonald threw out one of the first pitches.



they even had fireworks in celebration of her birthday.



sunday we had her birthday dinner: lemon zested chicken, roasted green beans & garlic mashed potatoes. followed by flourless chocolate cake & apple pie.



i don't have a photo of the chicken, but aren't the zested lemons cute? :)

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'becca likes baking.

hangin' with the fam

jonathan & laure were town this past week for a wedding. we packed as much fun into their short visit as circumstances would allow: a cookout with laure's family (complete with croquet. i want to play croquet more.), a cookout with jonathan's family, some bloody gaming, some non-bloody gaming, some lemonless lemon rice soup ... and, obviously, some silly-face making.

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'becca thinks the dog outside sounds miserable.

surprise party!

my mother is amazing. let's just get that out in the open to begin with: my mom is amazing. and my sister is wonderful. and my friends are fantastic. and if i knew enough adjectives to describe them all, this post would go on forever.

i met my mom for lunch saturday. she asked me to be at her house by 12:30, and we started driving west. she was going on about how she wanted to take me to this place in homewood, but it didn't open until 3, and there was this little place in beecher, and she hoped my dad didn't get her lost taking the back roads. and we turn at this one corner and she says, "did i even say happy birthday, yet? happy birthday!" and i as i'm turning to her to say thank you, i realize we're turning into a parking lot that's filled with my friends' cars and there's a happy birthday banner on the door. and i almost started to cry.

my bunco girls were there; my girls night girls were there; my game night girls were there; marlana came up from indianapolis; malissa drove up from louisville even though i was just at her house two days before ... overwhelming. seriously. it was fabulous.

i don't have the group pictures on my camera, but i'll post 'em when i get 'em from joanie. i do have photos of the game playing, however, as after we had a delicious lunch (i think the goal was to fit as many of my favorite foods as possible onto two tables) we jumped into a game of partini. never played? it's a very good time.




yes, becca and chrissy were drawing on their heads. seriously, it's a fun game. and thanks to my generous friends, i know have the original game & both expansion packs. :)

i was taken completely by surprise. you are all so fantastic.

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'becca had an amazing birthday weekend.

alicia's Christmas present

have you patronized the store Monarch in schererville? it's a great little shop filled with all kinds of unique items. my pop-cap bracelet is from monarch. they actually sell a variety of pop-cap items. and when i saw one that looked like a great noise maker, i decided to make one for alicia for Christmas.



doesn't it look fun? it makes a great rattling noise as you shake the caps back and forth on the wire. i suppose after awhile it could get a little annoying, but what good toy doesn't get annoying? it was easy to make, and it goes well with her other musical instruments. hard telling if she really appreciated it when she opened it - but c'mon. it was Christmas morning and she's 3 (and a half!). she had lots of gift-opening to do, i certainly didn't expect her to stop and really play with it. after all, there was an actual walking pony under the tree. ;)



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'becca is heading to bed.