An update

Jen informed me last night that her feelings are now red.

Just thought you would want to know.

Will I be 4 forever????

That's what Jen asked me on her actual birthday. In reality I WISH I could keep her 4 for just a few years....if you ask me it is one of the best ages to be!!!

Jen's party was at the house this year with lots of friends and family. She had a few girls over from her class at Kindercare, as well as her friends Jack and Macy. We played some games (pin the tail on the donkey, simon says, and "hide and going seek" - - which is how Jen says hide and seek), ate some cupcakes (which she helped make), bounced on the bouncer in the basement, and of course opened presents.

Afterwards we ordered pizza for dinner and opened a few of her new toys. Then crashed hard from sheer exhaustion. I'm pooped.

Happy 4th birthday Jen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feelings

This was the conversation that I had with Jennifer tonight just 10 minutes before bedtime:

Jennifer: Hey Mommy.....guess what?
Me: What Jenny?
Jennifer: Today my feelings got broken.
Me: Really????
Jennifer: Yep. But it's OK, I got new ones.
Me: Oh?
Jennifer: And my new ones are pink.

I love talking to her, she has such a SUPER BIG imagination.

Tomorrow is her 4 year old birthday party which we are keeping low key and having at the house. We made party bags tonight and she will help me with the cupcakes in the morning. I'll post pictures soon.

New Year's 2009....

Better late than never, right?

:)

This year we were lucky enough to be invited to The Chamberlain's house to ring in the new year and celebrate with their family. We always have a GREAT time with our good friends Chris, Rachael, Macy, and Jack, and this was no exception!! We ate great food, played some fun games, had a few drinks, and even got a musical show from all of the kids!

We got to Rachael's house around 8 PM and I figured that the girls would be winding down and tired by 10 PM. Boy was I wrong! Not only did they stay up to watch the ball drop, but they were raring to go long afterwards. The adults all looked as if a train hit them.....hard. I wanted to stay awake, but my head was telling me NO.

We got home a bit after 1 PM and tucked the girls into bed. Luckily for us they slept in until almost 9 AM the next morning. HOORAY!!!!

Here are a few pics from that evening....





Then, just a few days later we had a lovely ice storm. Everything was covered and beautiful, but dang was it ~COLD~!!!! All you readers in the Southern California area (and I am talking to all 3 of you...hee-hee)....you sure you don't want to switch places with me??? Just for the rest of January and February??? Pretty please?

Quick post........

There are 2 very important things that are going on in the world today that you should be made aware of:

#1 - Unless you live under a rock then you already know what a hugely important day in history this is for our wonderful country - the inauguration of the first African American President, Barack Obama. Personally, I feel he is bringing a sense of hope for people during this rough economic time, and I prey that he is able to help make things better for all of the people who are currently struggling to make ends meet. This feels like a good day.

And more importantly.....

#2 - My baby Jennifer turns 4 today! I can't believe how big she is and how fast the time went. She was just a toddler the other day.....what happened??? I hope the next 4 years slow down so that I can enjoy every second with my little angel who makes me smile and laugh even when all I want to do is be grumpy. Happy Birthday Button, mommy loves you to the moon and back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bo Bunny "Home" class

The next class that I will be teaching at Memory Lane is this beautiful Bo Bunny arrow book all about our first home. I really love the bright colors of the patterned paper and embellishments, and the fact that I will always and forever have a little keepsake with memories and photos from our first home is something special.

The class will be held at the store on Saturday, January 31st from 1-3, and the cost is $28.00. If you are local and interested, please call the store to sign up at 215-529-9194.

A few recent layouts

Just wanted to post a few recent layouts of mine that were in the October and November issues of Scrapbook News and Review.

Happy New Year!

Yep. I nearly forgot I even had a blog for a minute there. It has been over TWO WEEKS since my last post and to tell you the truth, it was kinda nice. I promise to get back into the swing of things soon. I'll make it one of my resolutions for 2009..... then I will promptly break it like I have every other resolution I've made for the past 32 years.

Actually, while on my 2 week vacation I have been fully enjoying my break from work and school. I've been spending lots of family time with Ron and the girls, tons of time with friends (love you guys!!!), and way more "stay-in-my-jammies-all-day" time than I care to admit. Both girls have been off of school and home with me the entire break, so I have really gotten to enjoy them from morning till night. Tomorrow it is back to reality and routines......but lets not ruin the moment by talking about that right now. *smile*

So....this post will be about some of the Pre-Christmas activities we did here in PA. I'll have to do a few more posts about Christmas and New Years because there is no way I could cover all of that in one post. And I'm not sure Blogger would appreciate all those photos. And I don't have the patience to wait for all those uploads. Needless to say, this post is sure to be a long one. Hang in there. Pack a snack. Run to the potty for a break if you must.

Let's start with a few pictures of Ron's Christmas party for work. The girls both got caricatures drawn...Jen loved her's; Steph didn't. The party was great for kids... they had a magic show, face painting, food, and each kid got an age appropriate gift. Not some cheesy $2.00 gift. Nope. The girls both got very nice electronic type toys (Steph got a Hannah Montana pinball machine and Jen got a Leap Pad alphabet thingy). The Union rocks.






Next is the yearly tradition of building our gingerbread house. This was Jen's first year helping out and she did a fabulous job. I squirted the icing where they told me to, and they placed the candy how they wanted. Jen was more into lining up all the colors and Steph wanted a more random look, so we have both kinds of creativity all over this thing. LOL









We also took a ride one night out to Hershey, PA (as in Hershey chocolates) to see the Hershey Sweet Lights (which is across from Hershey Park, a Hershey themed amusement park). Did I say Hershey enough for you? The ride is about an hour and 15 minutes from home and Jen made it extra special by getting car sick and vomiting when we were approximately 3 minutes from where we were going. We pulled over and cleaned her up as good as possible, then decided to stick with the plan and go to dinner when she said she was hungry just after vomiting. Kids are so resilient. After dinner we drove through Sweet Lights which was a first for all of us. We didn't know what to expect and were surprised with how nice it was. It took about 35 - 40 minutes to drive through, and they had so many great Christmas themed displays. The kids (and the adults) really had a blast!





Here are just a few shots from the annual "Chrupcala cutting of the perfect Christmas tree - 2008". We hiked out into huge fields of trees and after awhile they all started looking very similar. Steph wanted a tall skinny tree, Daddy wanted a short fat tree, I wanted to get out of the cold and get my hands on some hot cocoa, and Jen was just wandering around being cute and silly as always. After searching for what seemed like forever, we all agreed on a very nice tree, cut it down together, and took it home to decorate.





Of course there are more pictures of the girls decorating the tree....baking cookies.......being cute. But I am in the middle of my last stay-in-my-jammies-all-day-long day and I need to get back to it. I'll post again soon. Maybe.

Happy New Year to you and yours from the Chrupcala family!!!

:)