Whew!

Today was a VERY busy day.  Double A, The Bean, The VH, Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for Holidays!  Holidays is the tradition we started when DJ was 4 (she's 19 now), and try to do at least once a year, where we celebrate a bunch of holidays in one day because I'm usually not home for most of them.  So today we did:

Easter.  Each kid gets to dye 6 eggs, then we send them off on an errand and I hide the eggs (obviously it's too cold for the bunny to come do it).

 

Thanksgiving.  We eat Thanksgiving dinner, but very pared down.

We celebrate birthdays.  Each person gets a cupcake.  We've started doing only 1 candle for each, because between 7 kids and 4 adults, it would have been something like 304 candles.  11 are easier to light and blow out...

 

4th of July.  We got outside and do sparklers and smoke bombs.  There isn't always snow like this year, so this time we got to toss the smoke bombs in the snow and watch the results. 

Halloween.  We do face paint and the kids trick-or-treat around the house.

St. Patrick's Day.  We do a treasure hunt with clues to follow to find the Leprechaun's lost gold (gold wrapped chocolate).

Are you exhausted reading about it?  Because it's exhausting doing it!

 

We then all wore our matching owl pjs to the movie.  Because I am a dorky aunt who makes her nieces do stuff like that.

 

The movie was Moana, and it was a lot of fun.

Finally, today is Shoetopia's 4th blogiversary!  I think this shoe is hilarious and adorable.

Everyone is supposed to be spending the night, but sadly Pippi had a horrible headache all day and decided she wanted to go home after the movie, and Tink decided to go with her.  The VH has family stuff tomorrow so she couldn't say over.  I still have 4 kiddos sleeping over, though.

Speaking of kiddos, all of my nieces are amazing, but can I take a minute to brag on Double A and The Bean?  They still love to do Holidays, but they are also great with helping with the younger kids.  They're great with kids in general, and love hanging out with their cousins.  They are patient and kind and loving, and it makes my heart happy to watch them.  But now my happy heart and I are going to bed.

Deer

There is a group of deer that wanders in and around the parents' yard:

This is from the front porch.  Yes, the neighbors have a caboose.

This is the back porch.

And this is the backyard.  Aren't they sweet?  I don't have to live here, so I love seeing them and watching them.  Mom and Dad do have to live here, so they are less enamored with the deer pooping in the yard and eating everything.

Obviously tonight's shoes shall be deer themed:

 

Why does this shoe have a hood ornament?

These are actually pretty sweet, but I would have to have a very specific occasion for which to wear them.

 

Awwww.  I love these.  Still can't think of where I would wear them, though.

But wherever it is, the PB could also go.

Yay, deer AND Christmas!  Or not, but they kind of look Christmas-y to me.

What is even happening here?  These make the hood ornament shoe look sane.  I...like the color...?

Much better.  I couldn't leave you with the insanity above.

Today was awesome.  The auntie, seester, Double A, Bean, Flower, and Laughter came over for a crafternoon.  The seester and I crocheted, Double A painted rocks, and everyone else kind of rotated around through various crafts.  It was a lot of fun.  The auntie and seester went home before it got dark, but Double A and the Bean just left and Laughter and Flower are having a sleepover.  Not a bad way to spend the 5th Day of Christmas, if I do say so myself.

Christmas Programs

Christmas Programs are the theme of this week.  Flower's was last night and she looked beautiful and did an awesome job.  She played her clarinet and sang in the choir, and even had a speaking part!  (Pippi's and Tink's was also last night but sadly I haven't learned to be in 2 places at once)  The Bean's was tonight and she also looked beautiful and did an awesome job.  At least I'm almost positive she did, but I couldn't actually see her, which sucked.  She was smack behind the director, and even when the director moved all I could see of her was about 2 inches of her forehead.  That's what happens when you're short and play tenor sax so you're in the third row.  Oh well, it was still fun to listen.  (Flower and The Bean both had cute shoes for their programs, but did I take pictures?  No, I did not.  I'm a terrible auntie)  Laughter's is tomorrow at 1:00 and hopefully the weather holds so we can go.  Then Pippi and Tink's church program is tomorrow at 5:30, so hopefully the weather holds so the trip home isn't too terrible.  It's a busy week full of my favorite little people!  In honor of all of these programs tonight's shoes are a random assortment of Christmas shoes:

These wouldn't actually have to be Christmas shoes, but red plaid is rather festive.

 

I love these.  So cute!

Awww...the PB needs these for the imaginary baby closet.

And these!  Also, can I have some?

This appears to be two different kids, otherwise it's someone with very strange feet, but I would totally wear one green and one red shoe as a pair.

Well, I'm off to bed so I can get up and go to more programs tomorrow.

Snow!

Ahhh...It finally snowed here.  Not a lot, maybe 5 inches, but it's sticking and it was snowing this morning in big, beautiful, lazy flakes:

So tonight's shoes are inspired by the snow, and picked out by Flower:

We both thought this was hilarious.  It's a wedding shoe.  A winter wedding I get.  These shoes?  Not so much.

Now these I would wear for a winter wedding.

We also thought this was hilarious.  A red tennie with snowflakes is one thing, but one with a yeti on the back is awesome!

Also wedding shoes.  They said they were blue, but we both thought they looked green.  Maybe it's the light?  What color do they look to you?

I love these.  I would like a pair, please.  And I really hope this is a pair and not a single shoe from 2 different pairs.

I also love these.  Didn't Flower did a good job of choosing shoes?

Speaking of Flower, I'm at the seester's for a few days, so I get to hang out with this set of nieces.  We've had a lovely day. We went shopping for their Christmas dresses (which are adorable) and caught up on the Advent Calendar, and did a lot of giggling.  Not a bad way to spend a snowy Saturday.

Friendship

Tonight I am grateful for time with nieces who aren't actually nieces (but please don't tell them that).  Pippi and Tink spent the night last night and had a sleepover with Flower and Laughter.  And me and The Bean, too, for that matter.  Pippi and Tink were a little annoyed at having to wait so long to hang out but between being sick, Thanksgiving, etc. yesterday was the first time that worked.  Plus, why not throw in a sleepover with 4 giggling, wild girls after a day of 50th anniversary celebrations?  Actually, I'll tell you why:  I'm old and now I'm tired. 😜 Anyway, one of the things the girls did while they were here was to make friendship bracelets, so that is what inspired tonight's shoes:

I like idea of both these pairs in theory, but they're just a little too busy for me in practice.  Still fun, though.

I like this one a lot.  I'd like it better with a different back, I think, but I still like it.

How cool is this?  Except I would never have the patience to make one, let alone 2.  I got about 2 inches of one bracelet done in something like an hour and a half and gave up.  I have to figure out how I made them in college, because I was either infinitely more patient (not likely) or I didn't do them the "correct" way (much more likely).

 

All the girls love fleep flops, so clearly they need to make each other friendship footwear!

I love all of my babies who are no longer babies.  I'm also not going to complain about sleeping alone tonight!

Oh, one more thing, in case you didn't see my post on Facebook today.  Laughter and Tink made up their own recipe last night.  They took jelly beans, wrapped them in Laffy Taffy, and rolled the whole thing in sprinkles.  Then they froze them.  My teeth hurt just typing that sentence! They were super proud of themselves, though, the little goofs.

Happy Birthday, Flower!

I got sidetracked yesterday and didn't post.  It's because I'm in Montana and there were nieces to play with and a seester to hang out with, and I still had to get some work done, and in the midst of all of that I forgot to post.  Yesterday was Flower's 11th birthday, so she was going to be what I was grateful for.  Of course, I'm thankful for her everyday, and today we had her family party (last night she had a couple of friends over after school and Holy Giggling, Batman!), so I figured she can still be my grateful inspiration for tonight.  Since I was last home her favorite color has switched from purple to blue (be still my heart), so tonight's post is 11 pairs of blue flowered shoes in honor of Flower:

Flower has the best giggle.  Sometimes it will just burst out of her and it makes me smile every time.  I'm an awfully lucky auntie to get to have her for a niece.

Today was awesome because I got to see Mom, Dad, the brother, Double A, The Bean, and the auntie.  I've spent the last 2 nights at the seester's, so now Mom and Dad brought me to their house after the party.  It was also just a little bit of a rough day because when the whole family is together I realize more tangibly just how much I miss out on by not living closer.  So I get homesick even though I'm home.  And I miss the hubby.  I have issues.

Duckies

I got to Skype with the fam today, which was awesome.  Although I'm not sure I ever saw anyone's whole face at any given time, which was awesomely hilarious.  I saw a lot of Laughter's hair, a lot of Flower's glasses, the seester's and auntie's parts in their hair, Mom's elbow, The Bean's and Double A's chins.  Oh well, it was nice to see even that much of them!  We Skyped to talk about Mom and Dad's upcoming 50th wedding anniversary, but I also got to wish Flower a happy baptism anniversary.  She was baptized 8 years ago today!  Except...she wasn't.  I had it on my calendar as today, but it was really October 5th.  I'm the worst auntie/godmother ever.  At least I got to sing to her even if it was on the wrong day.  Yep, I sing for everything.  This was Happy Baptism Anniversary to the tune of Happy Birthday.  I just shoved those extra syllables right on in.  I'm fairly sure there was eye rolling on more than just the part of Flower. 

Anywho, since I've already done baptism shoes a couple of times, I thought I'd do something else.  So ducky shoes!  Hey, baptism...water...ducks...work with me here. And yes, I've also done ducks before, but only once, and those were mostly adult shoes.

Crocheted duckies! And yes, day 3 of baby shoes. I've decided to continue to torture myself.  Besides, duckie and puppy baby shoes are just cuter.

Duckie pull-toy shoes.  Or so I'm assuming.

Kissing duckies!  I don't think that's what they're actually supposed to be doing, but it's my blog and I'll make stuff up as it amuses me. 

These are super sweet.  I wish I could see the detail a little clearer.

Also sweet.  Also pull toys?  Actually old fashioned or just made to look that way?

I though I'd end on a whimsical/crazy note.  Don't dress your baby's feet in rubber ducky crocs, please!  Unless you have a really compelling reason, of course.  Like a theme party.  I'm all for theme shoes.

I'm shutting up now.  I think the sinus infection/bronchitis is making me loopy(er).