A House Blessing

( I don't know why this is posting so oddly.  I have tried to fix it but it just isn't working.) 

We had our house blessed a few weeks back.  It was nice to have a date as a goal to get everything settled.  That's not to say we're all done, by any means.  We still have a few boxes lined up along the edges of the garage and there are some blank walls asking politely for decoration.  All in due time.

Father D. came over from church to bless the house - outside and in.  We had family, friends and neighbors join us from all areas of our lives.

Mom helped - okay, did most of the work - to get snacks and drinks set up for everyone.  I made up the menu and printed out the recipes and she pretty much did the rest!  1We had Buffalo Chicken Dip w/ celery, Cheese and Crackers, Little Smokies, Girl Scout Cookies and a Pumpkin Pie/Fluff dip w/ ginger snaps.  Plus a warm spiced apple/cranberry drink.

It was a busy afternoon but a lot of fun.

 

 

 

The kids thought it would be fun to jump on the bed for some entertainment.  For the  most part the kids played outside.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  There were a LOT of kids and they all played quite well together.  One little boy did get a cut on his finger and needed a bandage but other than that all was well.  

Bachu and Sanju, Biju, Aren.  Biju and Bachu went to college together and are now working for the same company. 

 This little scene just melted my heart.  Tonya's little girl, Jazmine, giving smooches to Aren.  Let's all say it... awwww!  

And then Aren turned his head and kissed her back.  At that time I think one baby might have licked the other baby's mouth.  Yeah, I'm pretty sure of it.  

 

A game of checkers, anyone?

Alex has discovered the game of checkers.  He's totally diggin' it so if you're ever over for a visit, challenge him to a game and you'll become his best friend.

Mom and Dad came down a few weeks back and Alex roped Nana into a game.

Dad helped fix a couple of things around the house before our House Blessing. 

While Biju did some paint touch ups....

We had a minor mishap with one of the tub faucets so Dad came back a week or so later to repair it.  The second visit happened to fall on his birthday!

  He was only at our place for a little over 24 hours but Alex managed to squeeze two games of checkers out of him in between trips to Lowe's and fixing the tub faucet.

Oops, out of space

Well, it has been ages since I've updated this blog and I apologize. 

Biju likes to give me a hard time asking if people in Malaysia are tapping their fingers on their computer desks waiting for an update from me.  Perhaps not, but I do think some of you out there care.  Right?  So I came back today to give an update from the past month and - bam! - I'm out of space for photos. 

I can still post words but words only go so far.  Many times I take pictures with YOU in mind.  I sometimes go off in la-la land thinking of witty things to write about on this blog and which pictures to add in.  Granted, a lot of times I don't get those witty posts in here - typically what I end up writing is stuff like "this is what happened, wanna see a picture of it?" and that's that.  I'm much funnier in my own head.

I think if I upload pictures to my Photobucket account first and then copy and paste here, that might work.....

 (Kalinda, Janel, Natalie, Lisa, Erin, Tonya, Morgan.  Unable to attend this Girls Day: Elissa.)

Yes....that will work.

So here is another... And I'll get busy working between the two websites to bring you more updates.  Don't worry, Malaysia, the updates on coming soon!!

(Pictured: Joy with Micah, Angie, Michelle with Owen, Kalinda, Renetta.)

Boo to you!

We got Boo'd the other night.  Biju and I put the boys to bed then headed out to the garage to do some more sorting and what not.  We were trying to make room to actually, you know, park a vehicle in our garage. 

While we were in there we heard our doorbell.  We gave each other a look that said "Who in their right mind is ringing our doorbell at this time of night??" (And by "this time of night" I mean roughly around 8:30pm.)

I went to the door and flipped on the porch light then looked through the peep-hole.  I saw no one but that didn't mean much.  Many times I look through there and it is either a short person coming to ask if one of my short people can come out to play, or a tall person standing off to the side out of sight. 

I opened the door and saw, not a person, but a little trick-or-treat pumpkin filled with goodies. 

There was a paper inside that had a poem and a "We've been BOO-ed!" ghost.  The instructions said we were to cut off the half of the paper that had the ghost on it and tape the little phantom to our door so other phantom ghosts would know we'd been hit.  Then we were to go to this website and print off another poem/phantom and make up a treat basket for two of our neighbors. 

When the boys woke up in the morning they saw the goodie bag with treats.  Ajay started reading the poem, but not all of it, and came running to me and yelled "Mom!  The Goodie Ghost came!!" as if Santa or the Easter Bunny had been by.  I explained what had happened and that we were going to make up a treat basket to share with other neighbors. 

I went shopping that morning and made up these two baskets:

I chose two families in the area with children - one with 3, one with 6 - and gave Halloween pencils, glow bracelets, tootsie pops, stickers, a vanilla candle, the orange checked tea towel and the basket.

We decided the boys would be the fastest when it came to ringing the doorbell and running and they were more than willing to go.  What fun for them!  So as soon as it got dark but before they had to get ready for bed I sent the boys out with the baskets. 

Ajay came back panting and declared "Feel my heart!  I was so scared they would see me!"  Alex had hid around the corner after knocking on his neighbor's door.  Good thing, too, cuz that neighbor was quick to answer.  But then Alex didn't know when it was all clear to come back so I had to do a whisper yell "Alex!  Alex, come back!" and had to keep yelling louder and louder.  I'm quite certain Ajay's neighbor saw Alex running back across the street.  And I'm also certain that everyone on the street heard me yelling for Alex to come back. 

So it may not be a complete secret as to who left the goodie baskets but it was certainly fun.  And we're hoping to do it again next year!

Trick or Treat!

My boys got to go trick or treating with their cousins last night.  I didn't manage to get pics of the girls, unfortunately, but here are my crew:

Vampire Alex

Ajay, the Reading Robot

Aren, the lion who says "rrrrrr"