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.

Christmas Programs, Round 2

Yesterday at 1:00 was Laughter's Christmas program, her first ever since she's just in Kindergarten, and she was SOOOOO excited.  She was hilarious before the program, jumping up and down and waving like crazy.  Her program was the Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades, and all of them wore their pajamas, so they were pretty adorable.  After the program, Mom, Dad and I got back in the car and came back home so I could head to Pippi's and Tink's program at 5:30.  Their school program was Monday and I wasn't able to go, but at least I got to go to their church program.  Pippi was the narrator and Tink was Joseph and they both did awesome jobs.  All my nieces are awesome; I'm such a proud auntie.  I got an even better treat in that Tink and Pippi came over for a play date today so I got to spend some more time with them, which I always love.  They were (as always) cracking me up with their goofy antics.  Pippi asked if I would play hide and seek with them, and I had to laugh at myself because as soon as I got into my hiding place I totally had to pee.  It never fails, the same thing happened when I was a kid.  It makes hiding difficult when all I can think of is my bladder.

Anyhoodle, tonight's shoes are nativity themed in honor of all of this week's Christmas programs:

This is so pretty.  Why do the shoe people want me stepping on the baby Jesus, the Holy Family, and the Wise Men?  So rude. 

I think this one is really sweet, but what is hovering behind the Holy Family?  Are those supposed to be angels?  Because they look like bull's heads or possibly devil heads.  Shoe fail.

 

Also pretty.  Also, see comments above on the first pair.

I had to rotate the picture so you could see the image on the shoe better, but then the overall shoe looks funky.  I like the cartoon, though, and it makes for a cute, quirky shoe.

I think this effort at nativity shoes went much better than the last time I went looking, but I'm still not convinced that nativity shoes are necessary, or even appropriate.

Theatre Shoes

Pippi and Tink came over after school today.  They, Double A, and The Bean went over to the theater to help me, Dad, and the brother decorate the Christmas tree, which was a lot of fun, even if the girls were all total goofballs.  Actually, the goofballyness of them was why it was fun, because they all crack me up, which I totally needed after today.

Didn't they do a nice job?  For tonight's post I looked up "Llano shoes," because that is the name of the parents' theater.  Llano is the Spanish word for Plains.  Except for the 2nd pair, I couldn't tell you what the connection is, but I just picked some that I liked from the results.

 

I think I would like these better without the gold accents (which are the Gucci symbol, so they're not going away), but otherwise I think these are adorable. 

The nieces need these for work!

Adorable.  Love the colors.

I actually like these, although I don't think I could pull them off.

I'm not sure what's going on with the pattern on the bow, but otherwise this is cute.

Also adorable.  Also love the colors.

So there you have.  Llano Theatre shoes.  Who knew?

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.

May 21

This is the post that I meant to do yesterday but the stupid headache wouldn't let me.  The headache is still lingering today, but it's not as bad thank goodness.  So yesterday was a good day although a bit emotional.  First, it was Pippi's 9th birthday!  She is sweet and smart and sassy and has always had the ability to crack me up.  Even as a baby her personality was awesome.  Here are some shoes named after her:

I'd say this was sweet and sassy.

I'd like to see this in a color but couldn't find it.  I like the detailing on the heel, it reminds me of fairies somehow.

Yesterday was also emotional as I went to a memorial service to say good-bye to a beautiful woman from St. Someone's.  She was a bright light during my time there and always made me feel loved, supported and appreciated.  It was clear from the remembrances and people's conversations that she made everyone she met feel that same way.   I  love this picture the family had displayed in the sanctuary:

Wasn't she beautiful?  She had the same first name as my mama, just spelled differently.  Here are shoes named after her (with that spelling):

 

She was always well-dressed and had great accessories.  I'm not sure if these orange ones would have been to her taste, but I'm sure she would have figured out the right outfit to pull them off with.

After the service I met SKD and took her for a 1 day less than a month late birthday pedicure.  She gave me a belated birthday present, too, and hers was awesome:

She MADE me Beatles cups!  Isn't she just the coolest?

Her cup is way better than these shoes, that's for sure.  I hope she likes her cute orange toenails as much as I like my new Beatles cups.

This post is still not what it was in my head, but at least it's out.  Stupid lingering headache.  I'm not even going to tell you how much caffeine and meds I ingested yesterday just to get the dumb thing down to a dull roar.  It's still making my brain mushy, but then everything seems to be doing that these days.  Poor mushy

Memory Lane: 2013.

Holidays!

Last night I had a sleepover with Double A, The Bean, Flower, Laughter, Pippi and Tink.  Mom's house was a bit crowded, but it just made it more cozy.  Today they were all on hand so we could do Holidays!  For those of you unfamiliar, this is the day when we do a whole bunch of holidays in one day while I'm home because I miss most of them with the kiddos during the year.  For Easter we dyed eggs and then had an Easter egg hunt in the yard.  Then we did Fourth of July with leftover smoke bombs and snaps that the brother brought over.  Lunch was a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and stuffing followed  by a birthday celebration for everyone with cupcakes and candles.  After lunch we did Halloween with face paint and Trick-or-Treating at various doors (usually we do this outside, but today it was pouring down rain so we did it inside).  Last we did a St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt to find the gold that the Leprechaun hid.  Hopefully a good time was had by all.  Mom and I were fairly tired afterwards, but I had fun.  Here are the shoes everyone wore today:

The Bean and Double A's matching fleep flops.

Tink's whole outfit was that crazy color combination, plus these fun, colorful shoes that light up.

Laughter.  I think these are adorable.

Flower.  She's siting next to me and says these shoes are oooooold.  But look at her cute polka dot socks!

I love Pippi's colorful laces.

Today was another awesome day with the fam.  Laughter, Flower, The Bean and Double A are staying the night again, so that will be fun.  And slightly less crowded.

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014. 2015.

From the Brain of the Bean

Tonight's post is brought to you by inspiration from the Bean because I couldn't come up with anything and I didn't take pictures of the kiddos' cute shoes today.  So she suggested I type in all of the nieces' names + shoes, and then she helped me pick a pair for each niece:

DJ.  She likes black, she's not terribly girly when it comes to shoes, and apparently she wants a Harley.

 

Double A.  These aren't real, they're for a doll, but she loves green.  She wouldn't actually wear these, though, because they have heels and she's strictly a flats girl.

The Bean chose cute sandals for herself, which is kind of funny as she loooooves heels.

Flower.  We like the colors.  Not sure if they look like Flower or not.

Laughter didn't have a lot of choices.  These were the best of the bunch.  At least they're blue!

Speaking of blue, Pippi gets awesome blue wedding shoes.

This is actually a little sedate.  Tink loves color and crazy patterns, but The Bean and I thought this was really cute.

And that's it from Montana.  I'm tired and the 6 girls who are having a sleepover tonight are probably going to wake up much earlier than I am prepared for.

Memory Lane: 2013.

Post Christmas Crochet Post

Now that Christmas is done and the presents are opened I can show you what I crocheted this year, although it's kinda lame.

Headbands. This one is Double A's.

The Bean's.

Tink's.

Flower's.

The Seester's.

 Laughter's.

The bottom one is Pippi's. For some reason I couldn't find the picture I took of just hers. Also, this post is all kinds of messed up because I'm doing it on my phone and it's not going terribly well. In fact, I'm skipping shoes because just this much has taken me 8 million hours to write. Apparently lame presents lead to lame posts. Yikes.