The Halloween Party

Last year was the first time that I had dressed up for Halloween as an adult, but Brock and I both had a great time. So this year we decided to have our own Halloween party with some of our friends. The invites (creepy, corpse fingers with a black reminder ribbon) were sent out and everyone was encouraged to get into the Halloween spirit with both their costume and their themed party food. Well, everyone rose to the occasion. Below is a photo story of the party and the food...

First the costumes...

Caesar and Athena

The Group Shot

(L to R): Superman and Lois Lane (James & Shannon), Michael & the Witch (Richard & Gemma), the Gladiator and his Goddess (Eddie & Tammy) and Athena & Caesar (Amy & Brock)

And the cleverly named food...














The party had a few "Kodak-worthy" moments too...

Eddie's Wardrobe Malfunction

and of course some Karaoke shots...

It was a great night and lots of fun was had by all!!!

Two Black-Eyed Peas and a Party

When it comes to school costumes, you might say that I am a creature of habit. But I absolutely love the "Black-Eyed Pea" costume, especially for little kids. So of course when it came time for Audrey and Claire to get dressed in costume for school, they were "Black-Eyed Peas".

~ Audrey ~

~ Claire ~

Audrey did not have a school party - public schools do not seem to have any parties now, which is completely different than when I was in public school. But that is a topic for another blog. So Audrey didn't have a party, but Claire did at her preschool. The children paraded through the school on a costume parade.

Claire the Black-Eyed Pea

The Costume Parade

"Hi Mom!"

Claire and some friends

After the costume parade, the children headed to the pumpkin patch for story time with Mrs. Elizabeth.

Ready for the story

Then it was back inside (to the nice air conditioning!) for games, pumpkin decorating, cookies and a Halloween movie - "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" - one of my favorites.

Picking out a prize

Showing her teacher, Mrs. Sabrina, her decorated pumpkin

One Happy Black-Eyed Pea

Claire really enjoyed her first school party! Sweet Memories! :)

Where Do You Live? Halloween Edition

This week we have guests so the house tour is on hold, but I didn't want to leave all of you hanging. So I am doing a Halloween edition of "Where Do You Live?"

I really enjoy decorating our front door/walkway for Halloween. I also look forward to adding new pieces to the display each year. We started with a few pumpkins and our treasured Pumpkin Man and over the past five years, we have added hay bales, spiders, scarecrows and gourds to our annual Halloween display. This year we added some really fun creations - our mummy pumpkin and mummy gourd. Below is a photo tour of the display...

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!!!

~The Whole Shebang ~

~ Close up ~


~ Our Mummy Pumpkin ~


~ Top part of display ~


~ Our Mummy Gourd ~


~Bottom part of display ~


and finally...

~ Our BIG Spider ~


Don't be afraid... Come visit soon and enjoy some tasty Halloween treats! :)

Mommy to Mom to... Ma... Seriously?!?!?

Okay, I know that as children get older they tend to stop calling you "Mommy" and go with the shorten and very accepted "Mom". But not Claire. No, Claire has decided to forgo all of that. She has now taken to calling me "Ma". Seriously? At first I thought it was just something funny she was trying out, but now a few weeks later, I am still "Ma". And what is she calling Brock you might ask... "Daddy" of course! Believe me when I say that there is no resentment in the fact that Brock gets to be "Daddy" while I get to be "Ma". It's just not exactly what I pictured my children calling me. It seems very old-fashioned, but I guess that could be fun too. I do like the way Claire says "Ma". It's really cute and she always has the same "Claire" look. She also says it with as much love as she did "Mom" or "Mommy" so I really have nothing to complain about. Not that I am complaining. It's just been a shock and I have not been able to find where she picked it up. Although, I am thinking it may be from the "Little House" book series that Audrey is reading. She will read to Claire a lot and I believe that the mother in the stories is called "Ma".

So until next time,
Ma :)

Where Do You Live? Kitchen Edition

So the focus of "Where Do You Live?" this week is kitchens. So below you will find a photo tour of mine.

I really do like my kitchen. Of course there are things that I would change - take away and add, but for the most part it is a great kitchen.

Okay, so tour time... We begin the tour at the front entrance, which is currently in the process of being decorated for Halloween - I mean, skeletons dressed as pirates are not part of our regular entryway decor :) There is normally a beautiful arrangement of red tulips on the table.


Next is the view from the entryway into the kitchen...


This is the view of the kitchen looking into the breakfast nook/eat-in dining area...


The cooking area... where all of my yummy meals are created :)



And of course the area where I start EVERY morning and end a lot of nights... the coffee/wine area...


Communication Central is the area of the kitchen where everything ends up... The bulletin board was intended to be a cute square board used to hold recent snapshots of the girls and school newsletters. Now that both girls are in school, the board is covered pretty much all of the time.



The front corner of the kitchen belongs to the girls' art table. This is where many great masterpieces have been created. Audrey is working on one such piece in the photo.


And of course, I can't leave out Duke's feeding area... He is after all, like my third child :) Side note, I really want to get the elevated feeding station for Duke, or rather Santa wants to get it for him. I am hitting resistance from Brock about it, but my argument is that not only will it look better (it is really cute), it will keep Duke from moving his bowl all around the kitchen when he eats. I guess we will just have to wait and see if "Mrs. Claus" can convince "Santa" that it is a good deal.


Hope you enjoyed the photo tour of my kitchen... Come for a visit soon and we share some wine and a great meal... :)

Breaking News...

We have breaking news regarding reports of furniture moving from room to room at the Ballard residence on Sunday. It is believed that the Ballard sisters have moved back into their own rooms. Rumors around the neighborhood point to irreconcilable differences. Then again, it could be that the sisters just wanted their own spaces. The facts are these: One bunk bed was dismantled to create a full bed for the older child and a twin bed for the younger one. Toys were separated, stored and reassigned to appropriate rooms. Name letters were taken down and hung again in the designated rooms. An additional art wall is in the process of being created in the previously shared room to allow for art to be displayed in each room. Sounds of joy regarding the separation were reported to be heard coming from the sisters throughout the entire moving process. However, pleas to stay together were reported Sunday evening. It appears that the sisters were more fond of each other than they cared to admit. It has now been three days since the separation and both parties appear to be doing well. There is the occasional sneak into the other sister's room to "check on" them. But we all know that is just sisterly code for "I really do love my sister!"

Claire's First Day of Preschool

Today was another big day at the Ballard house... Today was Claire's first day of preschool!!! She wanted to go to "big girl" school for a long time. She even asked Santa for a backpack last year so she could go to school. Well, she need not wait any longer because today was her big day! Last night, we packed her backpack with an extra change of clothes (just in case) and made her lunch (a peanut butter sandwich - no jelly for this child - veggie cheddar chips, a bright, shiny apple and an apple juice box). She spent about twenty minutes at the store earlier in the week picking out the perfect lunch box. She decided on a really cute pink Hello Kitty bag with two compartments (one for snack and one for lunch) - She's such a smart cookie! :)

We dropped Audrey off at school first, then we drove to Claire's new "school". We arrived at the school and Claire was a very big girl - getting out "all by herself". This was very important!!! She and Brock were walking through the parking lot to the front doors while photo-crazy Mom was busy snapping lots of pictures. (One day they will appreciate all of these photos... One day...) After a quick game plan talk with Mom going over all of the little reminders of the things we had talked about over the last few days - you know, doing what your teacher says, saying Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am, Please and Thank You, being nice to your new friends and most of all having the best day ever! Claire walked through the front doors like a pro... no hesitation at all... She found her way down the hallway while Mom and Dad followed behind. We met her teacher, Ms. Sabrina and Claire turned to us, waved her hand and said, "Okay, Bye!" And that was it, our baby was a big girl... no tears, no arms wrapped around any legs, no kicking or screaming... just a wave good-bye and a confident walk into her new classroom... I was so very proud of her... I wouldn't have it any other way!!!

Here are some photos from Claire's Big Day!!!

Getting out all by herself


Such a Cutie!!!


Walking in with Dad


In Front of School
(with her backpack and lunch bag)


Mom & Claire


Quick Game Plan


Walking down the Hall


"Bye!"