14 August 2012

Bastian's Wild Kratts Birthday

Bastian wanted a Wild Kratts birthday party, and as much as I despise character themed things (clothes, backpacks, parties) I decided to suck it up and give him what he wants!

We don't watch tv often anyhow and Wild Kratts is pretty much the only show they see regularly... and I may or may not be the president of the Kratt Brother's Fan Club myself!!!

We didn't do a massive party like I had originally planned.

We did have a Tasmanian Devil inspired Birthday Party though!

Chocolate Carcass Cupcakes- these were actually regular gluten free/dairy free cupcakes! No carcass- 
I promise!

I wish I could tell you how amazing this was... unfortunately it is chock full of gluten and dairy products! I heard that it was yummy though!

Carrion Cake Balls are a rough adaptation of this recipe they are free of every offending food and quite good too!  Gabriel and I love them!

We also had pizza!

We had the friends sign a book about T-Devils and then they signed a card for Hamfrey. He is the child that we sponsor through Compassion International. He is right around Bastian's age.

The dowels in the center of the table are for the walking sticks that we made. They doubled as a party activity and a party favor! 



Danielle is the only person that Azalea enjoys spending time with other than Tony and me! So she hung out with her for much of the party!

Another party activity was T-Devil mad libs! They were really funny because it was a group of mostly boys and they kept yelling out things like "explode" and "stinky"   

We also had a pop quiz about a few reptiles and on the back of it was a fact sheet about the animals that my mom brought for the reptile show! 
The kids all got to learn about a Bearded Dragon, a blue tongued skink, and a Columbian red-tailed Boa! (my camera battery died before this part of the party!) 

Bastian really had a blast at his party and it paid off to be a sell out for a while!




Cece Baby Shower

After our trip to Fort Lauderdale, Tony and the boys flew home and I flew to Ohio with Azalea to throw a baby shower for my sister  Jamey and her newly adopted baby girl Cecelia Nicole.  

Our theme was " You are my Sunshine" and despite the big box of supplies and shower essentials never making it to the shower- everything turned out great!



Lemonade and Paper straws! Hooray for Paper Straws!

Wishes for Baby- these will go in the adoption storybook/scrapbook for Cece. Always make sure to have little kids do these as well... You will get answers like " I hope that you always love cupcakes" and other super cute yet important kid thoughts!

Personalized water bottles with Cece's birth date. 

The box on the right had personalized sunflower seed packets.

This was the best shower food ever! It was better than my wedding food!





Jamey- looking quite sunny 



Joe and Roger  (our Pastor from Ohio-  we adore him)
 



Peace,
Nikki

12 August 2012

Farewell Richmond!

We gave nearly everything we had away to friends... packed up the rest in a truck. We had breakfast with our closest friends and headed out for our next adventure! 




Hopefully we will return to Richmond, it felt more like home to us than any other place we have lived.

I'm still planning on not making friends down here, so that when we move away it will be easier! And if we never have company- I don't have to clean as often!  We will see how that goes!

 Going away party with my "clique" (minus Mignon- she had left for the night)
 Rose, Liz and Madison
 During Tony's final Man Night Danielle came over and we constructed some of the best marble towers ever!

This was our last time in our Richmond house!


The good thing about all of this is that we  really do enjoy Florida! 

10 August 2012

Trip to Fort Lauderdale

 Whoo Hoo! Tony got a promotion! Unfortunately, not in Richmond... 

We moved to Fort Lauderdale, so that Tony could climb the corporate ladder. Before we could commit to the job/move the company wanted us to visit for a week and make sure that we liked the area. 

Pros- 
-10 minutes from the beach
- Lots of tiny lizards to chase
- Manatee
- Fresh Sea Food
- Renting- so no lawn maintenance
- 4 Pools!
- A huge purge of stuff before we moved- leaving us with way less clutter and "stuff"
- Moscovy Ducks - they are chunky and so friendly
- Lots of cool birds everywhere

Cons
- Gators, A guy in our community had his dog eaten by an alligator in March! We now have a song about not going near the water!
- Rain, it rains everyday!!
- Crazy drivers!
- No garden


Anyhow- Clearly we decided to move- because we are here now!
Here are some pics of our trip to Florida!

Gabriel found a shell!

Bastian was throwing gobs of seaweed into the wind and screaming and running away!






The men in the bus at the airport. 


Peace,
Nikki


Happy 7 Months Azalea!

AZALEA AT 7 MONTHS! (July 14, 2012)

Sometimes brothers can be a bit too much!





Peace,
Nikki

09 June 2012

Silly Boys

A new favorite activity is anything to do with bubbles!!Here are the boys having a bubble contest while I cook dinner!It tends to be a trying time of day, so anything that keeps them happy, keeps me happy!!




Peace,
Team Whitehead

03 June 2012

Andrews AFB Air Show!


One nice perk about being in the military is that you get to go to Air Shows on military only days! Which means, less crowds, less chaos and more time to ask questions and enjoy the experience! On May 18th we went the the Air Show on Andrews AFB. We knew the boys would have fun, but we never expected them to enjoy it as much as they did!

Gabriel had his eyes on the sky pretty much the entire time! He has been pretty obsessed with Air Force One for a few weeks now but getting to see it again really made his day! Since the Air Show he has grown fond of the Blue Angels as well! He found a toy plane that we had here a the house that is a Blue Angel and he has not stopped carrying it since last Friday!

Bastian had a blast climbing in and on every plane, helicopter and tank that he was able to. He was actually quite bummed out when he saw that there were planes that we missed on the way out of the Air Show! He also decided that he wants to be a Blue Angel when he grows up!



 We had to eat lunch in the car on the flightline- food was not allowed in the Air Show area, so we parked the boys on top of the car to see the planes while they ate!
This is an  CV-22 Osprey. It is a VTOL and STOL aircraft. Which means Vertical take off
and landing and Short take off and landing. It can lift up like a helicopter and then fly away like a plane! It is super cool!


 One of the many stunt planes!
 A funny novelty for homeschool kids... they thought that this bus was amazing!!











 The men inside an AF Cargo Plane.

Peaking out the window of the plane!

 They were blown away that they could actually sit in a helicopter!



Azalea was asleep in the moby the entire time! Lucky for us- this baby LOVES the moby wrap!


 They got to walk all the way through a tank! Notice the skyward eyes- these dudes were in love with the stunt planes!
 Then they got to slide down the front and jump off!



It was definitely a good day for the kiddos and well worth our trip to DC!

Peace,
Nikki