They Say It's Your Birthday...

My 5 year old wanted a Beatles party. But not just any Beatles party, he wanted to have it in a yellow submarine, on a cross walk (Abbey Road), with everyone dress like we just stepped out of the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.

... A Record cake, Beatles shirts, Birthday banner and yellow submarine mobile was all this mama could pull off, although the Sgt. Peppers uniforms would have been pretty sweet.

He drew several yellow submarines to hang up around the house, this is one of his masterpieces.

The record cake turned out to be disgusting to the taste, but it's the look that matters, right?

Doi, of course it is.

Beatle entourage

I like to call this one the money shot. Ha.

The newly 5 year old had a wonderful Birthday with gifts galore, and by the end of the night was all tuckered out.

A big thanks to aunt Elaine for providing most of these blog post pictures!

Happy 5th Birthday to my sweet Ghostbuster/Beatle/baby boy!

With you, life never has a dull moment.

in the words of Andrew Paul the Beatle

This conversation came about whilst talking about left handed guitars and why the stores have none.

Andrew: Why couldn't we just get that guitar I liked at the blue store (best buy)?

Me: Because it was for a right handed person. You need a left handed one. You're a lefty in a right handed world, mister.

Andrew: Agre!! Why do you always say that?? It doesn't make any sense...

Me: Some people use their right hand to write, like me. You use your left, like your grandpa, Sally, and Tycen. There's a lot more people who use their right hand instead of their left. That's why there's a lot more right handed guitars.

Andrew: Right writers are confusing.

I'm in love with Owl City. Dunno what it is about that band, but they sure know how to pull at my heartstrings. This song reminds me of Fiel. This song reminds me of gazing at the bagillion fireflies out my living room window on the florida summer nights. This song reminds me of my dream of living near Seattle. And no, this song doesn't remind me of Twilight, although the husband would beg to differ.

north florida fair

Today like everyday, I am very thankful for the veterans of this wonderful country, especially my loved ones who have and continue to serve our nation. With saying that, I can ask this with confidence: Why on earth do my children have the day off? Having a day off in the middle of the week does not only screw up the weekly routine, but it also makes me crazy.

ps: I love my children very much.

Ahh the memories...

It seems like only yesterday, we were celebrating a year of our baby Andrew. Sigh. With Andrew's 5th Birthday quickly approaching in two weeks, it was time to have the party decor talk. I've been dreading this talk with him for some time now, for I knew he would choose something decades behind in popularity hence not being able to buy party decor at our local party store. Sure enough, he chose the Beatles. To be honest, I thought it was going to be Ghostbusters. It is my goal to make him the bestest Beatles party known to a five year old starting... now.

Who knew I can brainstorm creatively? It's uncanny how I'm becoming more and more domestic and homemadey by the day. Am I finally growing up?

a post dedicated to the flannel shirt. No, seriously.

Flannel shirts remind me of my high school freshman year. Back in 199... ahem5 the Gap was full of them. Does anyone remember when Gap was the cool place to shop?

It seems like ages ago... I loved wearing my cool flannel shirts.

So comfy and cozy.

Then. Poof. They went out of style.

Imagine how delighted I was when they made their big debut back into my life 13 years later. Every girl needs a cute flannel shirt to wear and be cute in during the winter months, or in my case a very long fall.

Hello... Floridan.

Flannel shirts. How I love thee.

I've been working on a huge project all day long. Preserving memories. Sure I have a fancy shmancy apple hard drive, but I've been slacking on burning actual disks of photos to put in the family safe. Today was the day to make things right again. To be safe, I started from the very beginning. 10,000 photos later, I'm done and the cherished memories are now completely protected. I had to make room for my new disks, so I decided to throw out the old ones, but not until checking them first to make sure there weren't any long lost photos. I doubted it, but feared it at the same time.
Whilst my double checking I came across a disk that hadn't been named. I popped it into the computer, low and behold there they were. 104 photos from the year 2005 that somehow never got into the computers photo archive since replacing much loathed pc for a mac in 2006. And to think I almost threw away Andrew's first halloween and Birthday ( I have been wondering where those went).

This is one of those long lost photos.

I can't believe how much they've grown. Sigh.

Do you have a backup? A wise man told me this today: if it's not in 3 places (original, on-site backup, off-site backup), it doesn't exist.

How true that is...

These two smiles are contagious.

me dancing to Madge.

I've been on a old school Madonna kick for the past day or two. She is amazing!! Her old stuff, not her new. I say this in complete confidence!! I believe it's impossible not to dance to it whether I'm at home, or in my car. I also believe that the two high school girls laughing at me singing/dancing to "Like A Prayer" in the car next to me today are jealous of my hawt moves. As they should be.

ps: A big thanks to Lara for teaching me how to enlarge my blog photos. Holla!

learning the ropes of womanhood.

At the young age of eight, Emme is already working her girl charm to get what she wants from the opposite sex.

For example: Today after school I hear this conversation between Emme and Andrew...

Emme: Andrew? If you make me a sandwich with a glass of water while I do my homework, I'll play a game with you when I'm done...

Andrew: Oh yeah? What kind of game?

Emme: You'll just have to wait and see.

Andrew: Okay.

Emme: Great. I want 4 pieces of ham on two slices of bread, got that?

Andrew: Yeah... I got it!


Andrew made her sandwich and poured her glass of water, just like she asked. The game has yet to be played. That is unless you consider watching Emme's television programs to be a fun game. Then in that case, it was a win win situation.

Another Halloween success for the Sirmans family.

A kind green haired witch invited us over for dinner, tricks, and treats around her neighborhood. This particular witch lives in a very popular trick or treating hot spot, so we were happy to be obliged.

Hannah Montana herself took time out of her busy schedule to go door to door with the company of her body guard, Fiel.

The spooky skeleton had no idea why we were going door to door, but he sure liked the results.

Egon Spengler made an agreement with Slimmer that he wouldn't blast him tonight if Slimmer stayed hidden until Egon was done trick or treating. Luckily... Slimmer kept his end of the bargain.

He's off to bust some ghosts

get some candy!!

Egon was the hit of the night, ps.

Some people give out the weirdest candy, no?

Happy Halloween!!!

Is Clee getting an early start on halloween?

No.

I believe its Clee getting caught with the kool aid packet... blue handed. Pah!

Uh quick question. Does kool aid come out of clothes and bed sheets? Does anyone know from experience?

a week of halloween festivities

Halloween eve creeped its way here.

We made the most out of the week before halloween with some howling good activities.

The kids had been wanting to make homemade play dough for quite some time, so when I came across a recipe for koolaid play dough I knew our play dough making time was now.

We made halloween colors in spirit of halloween.

Clee mushed it, ate it, and threw it up in the air.

Andrew made a scary pumpkin.

Emme, being the creative and artsy one of the family made a ghoulish replica of her stuffed dog, Rocky.

I'll be frank with you. Craving pumpkins is not what I would call a good time, but the kids do, so I put my happy face on and braved through the guts and craving for the sake of kiddie happiness and memories.

Emme, Clee, and Andrew dislike the whole gutting of the pumpkin process, but what's not to like about creating the spooky faces that go on it?

Andrew's frankenstein lasted a day and a half. Emme's is still going strong.

What's halloween without these classic movies?

I've become domestic in my old age, and it's shocking. I found a pumpkin cupcake recipe in the current issue of Real Simple and thought they looked super yummy, so I gave it a whirl and guess what? They were yummy, and a hit with Emme. We've made three batches of pumpkin cupcake goodness already. mmm... Pumpkin cupcakes....

These next cupcakes are a hoot! My mom emailed a picture of an owl cupcake a coworkers wife had made for her office, and I thought they were too cute not to copy!

Someone's classroom was lucky enough to get some of these today... Clee's classmates weren't so fortunate. Clee stuck his fingers in all of his owl cupcakes to get the candycorn beaks before I could stop him. Knowing where Clee's hands had been prior to touching all of the cupcakes, I felt it was best not to send them in to school. Yuck.

Hoot are you looking at?

ha.

Happy Halloween!!