12 Days - Day 4: Carley's 11th Birthday

All of the posts so far have been catch-up posts. Four posts so far. That's a great start!

Carley turned 11 in November! She loves getting older and celebrating any occasion, especially her birthday. This year we kept it simple. We celebrated with her requested dinner, chicken pot pie, and cupcakes on her actual birthday. 

For her birthday party, she invited three friends to our house. We all went to a local bowling alley where the girls played games in the arcade and played a couple rounds of laser tag, all purchased with a Groupon to help reduce costs. We then went home so the girls could hang out and eat Carley's requested cake, cheesecake. 

I personally did not have to do much for this party. While the girls played at the bowling alley, Walt and I sat and chatted or played on our phones. While the girls hung out at our house, I laid on the couch or hid in the bedroom. To me, it felt like a completely boring party. When I asked Carley how she felt about the party, I believe the response was "the best party ever!" And that's all that counts. 

12 Days - Day 2: Halloween

Two days in a row is a great start! 

This year, I have not really been big about holidays. I think partially it's because some years are just off but I'm pretty sure it's because I started working in February and I'm still getting my bearing. 

There were no creepy, fun, finger foods waiting for the kids after school. Pumpkins were purchased at the grocery store instead of the pumpkin patch. I even bought Halloween candy on Halloween day! 

Carley was fantastic about making Halloween happen for herself. She picked an old costume out of the Halloween box. She even did her makeup by herself. 

 Josh is a teenager if you haven't noticed. He decided to be "the color brown" for Halloween. I'm sure someday he'll think that was ridiculous but for now he thinks it's the funniest costume. 

Carley went to a trunk-or-treat with a friend and Josh trick-or-treated the neighborhood with his friends. Walt and I stayed home handing out candy while watching a movie. 

It was a very laid back, mellow, quiet Halloween. 

12 Days - Day 1: Flash Back to Homecoming

Alright. I'm a huge slacker. 

I think I'll make it up to you by posting for twelve days straight. I'll just call it 12 Days of Christmas. It is, of sorts. There won't be any gold rings or a partridge in a tree but you can stop by this blog for twelve days in a row and find a new post. 

Maybe? You think I can pull this off? I'm going to give it a try! 

Josh is a freshman in high school this year, which means school dances! Josh and his girlfriend, Maddy, went to homecoming with a group of friends. 

All six went to dinner, rode a Ferris wheel and hung out at the dance together. His friend's mom even took them to play laser tag afterwards. All of this happened after Josh played three games in a water polo tournament earlier that day. See his sunburned face?  

Funny face photos are a must. Even if I try to take a nice photo of Josh, I have to get him through several weird faces before he'll smile nice. 

Okay, that's it, short and simple. Come back tomorrow for another one. Unless, of course, you are out of the habit of checking. Then you may see them all at once. 

First Day of School Pictures

The first day of school was August 14th so we are finally getting used to the new school year routine. In a blink of an eye it will be the holidays. 

  Carley started middle school this year. Not too many of her elementary school friends are attending the middle school she is attending. I bet she has a new group of friends in no time at all. She loves being in 6th grade. Her favorite class right now is art, which isn't much of a surprise. Her art teacher is also the wrestling coach and she wants to be on the wrestling team this fall. Stay tuned for that!

 Josh is a freshman in high school! That fact still blows my mind. If you ask him how his school day was he'll say "it was school." He doesn't enjoy it but he doesn't hate it either. He's such a smarty pants in math that he's taking Algebra 2 his first block. (A block is half the school year but counts for a full year of credits.)  He is also on the JV water polo team and practices five days a week. Their first game is next week. Stay tuned for more on that! 

My focus was off in this picture but I had to post this anyway. We took Josh's friend to school the first day too. These two became friends in their kindergarten class and here they are starting high school together. Crazy.  

What Happened in May? Crazy Ice Cream Day!

You may remember we have an annual Thiel holiday, created by Carley: Crazy Ice Cream Day. Usually we celebrate during the last weekend in April but this year it was postponed a weekend. 

We held our 3rd annual Crazy Ice Cream Day the first Sunday of May. 

This year the kids invited a couple more friends to join us. I put together a couple games to make the event more fun than just eating ice cream. 

I think the mini-party was quite a hit and the ice cream was delicious, of course. Just looking at these photos makes me smile, especially the ones where you can tell the kids are really having a good time. 

Pin the cherry on the ice cream.

Our sundae bar.

First person to get the cherry out of the whip cream and stand up wins!

Way Back in January ...

Most of you know that I had a birthday in January. The big four oh! 

Talk of how to celebrate started months before my birthday. After several ideas, plans settled into a limo wine tasting trip with close friends and a big bash at home later that night. 

Two of my sisters made arrangements to fly in for the weekend. The limo had been booked, alcohol and food bought, etc. Then I got sick with the flu just a week before the party. 

I hadn't had the flu in years! And this time it was bad. I was getting worse every day for nearly a week, even after being prescribed Tamaflu. A day or two before the party I was starting to feel a tiny bit better but there was no guarantee I would feel good enough to celebrate or wouldn't spread my flu germs. With much disappointment, I postponed the party plans until two weeks later. 

Shelly cancelled her flight but Ashley, who was in the Bay Area for work, came that weekend anyway. What I hadn't known and Walt shared with me after postponing the party was that an online friend, Tiffany, who I'd known for years but had never met in person, was already in town to surprise me at my birthday party! 

Since I was on the upswing, I made it out to dinner and drinks on Saturday night to meet  up with Tiffany! Tiffany's friend, Paris, Ashley and Walt joined us. We spent hours in the restaurant catching up like we'd done it for years.  

On the morning of my birthday, the family and Ashley went out to a Mexican brunch buffet. Delicious. Other than that, we had a pretty mellow weekend. 

Tiffany, Paris, me

El Torito brunch

Ashley and me

Because of the flu and postponing, it was as if I got to celebrate my birthday twice! 

Two weeks later, on the first of February, I did get to take the limo wine tasting trip and have a small party at home. Shelly was able to fly down and spend the day with us too. Everything worked out fine, after all. 

Gearing up for our limo ride!

Heidi, Shelly, April, me, Walt, Christy, Wendy, Susan

This was my first time in a limo. Fan-freakin-tastic!

I loved having Walt on the wine trip with us.

Shelly and me

 

Carley loved the photobooth that we set up in the living room.

Thanks ladies, and a few gentlemen, for celebrating with me.

And I mostly like 40. 

Christmas Things

Just like that, Christmas has come and gone. 

This year's Christmas was fairly simple and quiet. It even shows in our Christmas card. Instead of trying to get a perfect family photo, we went to the mall and took photos in a photo booth. It's not perfect but it's fun and playful.




Carley and I made "gingies" this year. The gingerbread cookie recipe comes from my grandma and it is a fun way to remember her during the holidays. 








Carley's friend came over and I let the girls decorate the cookies themselves. There was a lot of frosting and sprinkles but still tasted delicious. The girls had a good time. 



Christmas day we stayed home all day. No extra people, no visits to anyone, just chilling at home. We did take our traditional family photo in front of the tree first thing in the morning. 


We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too. 

2nd Annual Crazy Ice Cream Day!

Did you forget the last Sunday in April is Crazy Ice Cream Day? At least it is in the Thiel household.

Crazy ice cream, that's how we roll.




It all started last year when Carley had the bright idea to have a "crazy" sugar filled celebration and it morphed into Crazy Ice Cream day.

This year the kids invited friends over to join in the yummy goodness.

We had three ice cream flavors, waffle bowls and lots of toppings for many crazy ice cream possibilities! And let me tell you, the ice cream got pretty crazy.





Ice cream instead for lunch once a year isn't bad, right?