The Vallecillo’s

OK, maybe not so much rock-stars. You see, staying up past midnight these days isn’t easy. And by “these days” I mean being 40 with 2 kids, 2 dogs and a new house. And by “new house” I mean steep mortgage payment and higher utility bills. My point is, we were both in bed by 11:30. If that isn’t sad enough, we tried very hard to stay up to at least see the new fancy-smanzy LED laden Times Square ball drop with little success.Go ahead, say it… “pathetic”! 2008 may just be the year we start going to dinner at 4:30 pm…at Luby’s.

There is really not a whole lot going on New Year’s day, so we decided it would be great to go see the ICE exhibit at the Gaylor Texan Hotel in Grapevine. This is basically a huge ice sculpture/building/playground under a gigantic 18,000 sq. ft. refrigerator (at 9 degrees Fahrenheit) complete with 4 hand-sculptured ice slides. We met some friends there and made an afternoon of it.

We worked up quite an appetite after bearing the artificial weather elements, so we ended up going to lunch at one of our favorite new places: Ritzy’s. This place is awesome! Not only do they have great burgers, onion rings and fries, but it also has a killer salad bar and serve homemade ice cream. The kid’s meal comes with a token good for a scoop of ice cream, so the kids were a happy bunch.

Great, I’ve made myself hungry now.

We were so on top of things this year…OK, not really. We just now took our 2007 Christmas picture, so we are basically sending “Happy New Year” cards at this point.

This year we invited our new neighbors to take their Christmas pictures with us, which worked out great since they helped us take our family picture. It is much better to have people at the other end of the camera that can get the kids attention, instead of using the remote shutter release that we normally use every year. After setting up all the photo equipment in the upstairs game-room I figured we make good use of it and also take some pictures of the kids. We even ended up taking some picture of our neighbor’s kids with their grandparents. It all basically turned into a portrait photo shoot, which I really enjoy doing anyway.

This was my first time setting up the lights and background in this house, so it took me twice as long. I also had to deal with the light shining through our balcony double doors (no blinds there yet), so I had to improvise with some black background paper, scissors and tape.

All in all got some great pictures that day, and I’m really happy with the results even though I wasn’t too happy with the way I chose to setup the equipment. Next time I’ll use the long side of the room for the sitting area instead of the short side like I did this time.

We are a predictable bunch, aren’t we? Last year’s party went so well we decided to do the exact same thing this year and outsource Larsen’s birthday party. I’m pretty sure we’ll outsource it again next year, so post any suggestions you may have using the “comments” link below.

The kids had a blast hurling 6 lbs. balls any which way they could. The prize for the best hurdler goes to Luke though, through the air and with at least 3 bounces before reaching the pins. Absolutely amazing!

This year’s attendance: Celeste, Kyndall, Jack, Landon, Emma, Luke, Andrew, Gracie, Olivia and Hudson.

Happy 6th birthday Larsen!

Once again, the Lambethians were cooking something special for Halloween. We were invited (we feel special, that’s twice now!) over to their street for pizza and refreshments, to be followed by a hay ride around the neighborhood. With pick-up trucks for tractors the kids were driven around the neighborhood on trailers packed with hay, stopping every block or two to beg for candy trick-or-treat. This presented a huge problem as the size of our candy bag was grossly inadequate for the amount of candy that many houses generated. Next year we are bringing a duffle bag.

It always cracks me up when I find full-size candy bars inside Larsen’s halloween bag. I mean, do people seriously buy full-size candy for halloween, or is it simply a last resort after the 20 lbs. bag of candy from Costco runs out? This year we ended up with 3 full-size candy bars AND zero loose jelly beans, M&Ms or candy corn. Oh yeah, we are movin’ on up!

Of course, as parents we were forced to inspect the candy after putting the kids to bed and devour confiscate any suspicious looking treats.

One of our favorite things about the area we live at is the large number of families nearby with kids close to Larsen’s age. Yes the new house is nice and all, but being in proximity to kids that can play with Larsen is pretty awesome as well.

There is one street over from ours that is a community in it of itself. Lambeth Lane is a cul-de-sac with a very close-knit group of neighbors, the kind that on a whim roll a barbecue out to the street, grill some burgers and call it a party. Today they were throwing a pumpkin carving party for the kids, and the Lambethians were kind enough to invite a few outsiders to attend…us included. One thing the Lambethians are known for is there immense generosity, so their “pumpkin gathering” meant at least 2 pumpkins per kid, rows of conference tables for carving, bagfuls of pumpkin carving kits, paper towels, Chick-fil-A, drinks, cookies and music. The kids were having fun, and so were the parents as they started to take over the carving duties of their children. Oh yes, the Lambethians are also very competitive.

We had a great time and the opportunity to met some new neighbors as well. There were no less than 18 kids there, so Larsen met some new friends as well.

Having had Larsen’s 4th birthday party at our house last year, we decided this year it would be nice to leave the pre and post cleaning to someone else. Although Main Event is very close to our house, Mandi had heard about a new place in Frisco called Strikz that she wanted to try. The concept is exactly the same as Main Event, but everything is newer since they have only been open for a short time.

Everything went just as planned, but by far the best part was only having to worry about the invitations to the party. These places have the whole thing down to a science, and we had a fun afternoon of bowling, birthday cake and arcade games. Of course, we ended up going home with way more presents that any child should get on one sitting.

There is definitely something to be said for outsourcing birthday parties. We were all very happy to skip the cleanup and make it back to a house that was just as we left it.

This weekend we packed our bags and drove out for an overnight birthday party in Mr. Pleasant (yes, in Texas). We drove about 140 miles east to Lisa’s (Aidan’s mom) sister house, out in the country…the real country. The idea was for the kids to camp out in the back yard (we are talking the “woods” here) and then spend the next day playing games (cow chip toss and all!), fishing (small pond = small fish), four-wheeling (with crazy aunt-Lisa at the wheel) and culminating with the birthday party.

Even though there were 2 huge tents available, the Vallecillo’s ended up staying in one of the bedrooms inside the house. It was cold outside, and thankfully Larsen wasn’t really into spending the night outdoors when there was a perfectly good available warm bed inside. I love that kid!

After all the kids finally collapsed for the night the adults crowded around the fire pit until the conversation turned to guns and hunting. Coincidentally that was when most (yours truly included) checked out. Some were more ready than others and I suspect the moonshine that was being passed around the fire may have had something to do with it.

The next day was all about having fun, so Larsen decided it would be “fun” to drop someone else’s Maglite flashlight into the pond (I do love him, but sometimes I’m ready to sell him to the highest bidder). After everyone’s failed efforts to retrieve it from the pond using every pole and broom at hand, I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and use the best tool for the job: ironically is was my hands. Even though I was able to rescue the flashlight, getting in knee-deep freezing water with jeans hardly seemed worth it was all said and done. Oh, and if you have ever wondered…yes, Maglite flashlights are truly waterproof!