Gingerbread House

So, you have all seen the boxes of gingerbread houses in the stores, perhaps, you have tried them yourselves. They look so easy; the gingerbread is already made and cut and you just have to put it together and then decorate the house. Not as easy as it sounds. Hopefully, you have not gathered all the kids around the box and gotten them all excited about decorating a gingerbread house and realized the first step is attach the walls together and then wait several hours for the icing to dry - what FUN! Then attach the roof and wait several more hours. Why doesn't it say this on the outside of the box?
Well, Ben and I had no such expectations this year, we knew it would take a while. I made the icing and we put the walls together. I waited 50 minutes instead of 60 and when we put the roof on the walls fell in. Back to the beginning - assemble the walls with lots of icing and wait. Put on the roof and wait. We started this on Christmas Eve and there just wasn't enough time so we let it sit overnight and then decorated the house on Christmas night. I put a hole in the special bag they gave us for decorating so we had to use ziploc bags. We got holes in these, too. We ran out of icing so I had to make more. But we prevailed and here is the result. It actually looks better than we thought it would.
Maybe we'll try again next year; I think they have a gingerbread train...

Laurie

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

This is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning with presents all around. Joey and Ben checking out their stockings. And finally TJ hinding behind between a chair and the piano. He was a bit overwhelmed by everyone in the morning. After a breakfast that included waffles, eggs and bacon when went to Mass to celebrate the birth of our Lord.

For lunch we are having cheese fondue and crab dip - yum. Dinner will be steamed shrimp and crab legs. Ben and Joey are enjoying their gifts. Joey likes his Ball of Whacks which is a magnetic ball that you can make into different shapes. Ben is still deciding what his favorite gift is but I think it will be something Legos. TJ likes his treats from Santa. Dave and Joey are having fun with the new Wii game.
Merry Christmas!

Rudolph Van to the rescue

Foggy morning here in the Triangle. Good thing I have my Rudolph nose on my van to guide me through the fog. Added bonus - embarrassment factor for teenager at high school carpool - a momma has to have some fun!

Hope I made you smile, Laurie

Baby Dog with Santa Hat

So, here is our baby dog, TJ, with his Santa hat on in front of our Christmas tree with Ben. I think he was too scared to move. This will be TJ's first Christmas with us and I am sure he will love the commotion on Christmas morning. He will be in the middle of all the wrapping paper and gifts chewing on his own gift.

Ben plays in the Pep Band

Ben plays the trumpet in the St. MM Pep Band. The Pep Band plays for the basketball games at the school. They played for the first time at a game today. They sounded great! In the second photo, Ben is at the top, you can see the top of his Santa hat.
Go St. MM Monarchs!

Santa's Village BIG Bake Sale

So, I have written alot about what the boys are up to but not so much about what I do. One of my volunteer projects that I have done for several years now is the BIG Bake Sale at Santa's Village which is a Christmas Bazaar at St. Mary Magdalene School. We ask for donations from the school and the parish and we get tons of goodies to sell as you can see from the photos. This Bake Sale is very succeessful and fun to be a part of. I ask a few friends to come and help me make chocolate lollipops which we do 2 weeks before the sale. This ends up being a fun day though I do make them work, but who doesn't want to play with chocolate all day. The day of Santa's Village is a busy one but alot of fun. This year the weather was nasty - cold and rainy - but the Bake Sale was still successful.
Laurie

Thanksgiving 2009

We hope you all were able to enjoy a relaxing Thanskgiving holiday. We travelled to see our families for a quick visit. This wonderful photo shows my grandmother, Ida, at 102 years young. My mom, me and my brother, Danny and Joey, Ben, Patrick and DJ.

Halloween

Halloween with the Wendts
Ben was a red eyed ghoul and Joey is a mummy and he is with a friend of his who is a doctor.
Not much of a Halloween at our house. Laurie had to work so no dinner party this year. Ben went trick or treating with a friend of his who lives in another neighborhood. Joey went out with some neighbor friends and a friend from school. So, that left Dave at home to answer the door with TJ, the baby dog, who is scared of his own shadow. So, TJ spent the evening barking at the doorbell and cowering at the kids who I bet kept saying "Aww, what a cute dog."
Hope your Halloween was fun!

Chunky Book Pages

This is a post to show what I have been up to. I don't actually spend all my time hauling kids around - it just feels like it. I belong to a Rubber Stamp Club which meets once a month. Most months we participate in a swap. In a swap we make 10 of something and then we give one to each person at the meeting. So, in September we were each to make a chunky book page. So, we were able to bind the pages together with our covers and Voila -a chunky book! The first photo is my cover. It is covered with inchies and a twinchie from a previous swap. The second photo is my page. The quote on her purse says " Put your big girl panties on and deal with!" The last photo is Michelle's page, so you can see how chunky a page can be.
Laurie

Joey Runs!

Joey participated in the Wolfpack Invitational this afternoon with his High School Cross Country team. The first photo shows the teams lined up to start and the 2nd photo shows Joey in black (the 2nd person in the photo). He finished 75th out 159 runners. They run 3.2 km. Dave and I had no idea that the cross country course was so nice (or even existed).

Ben Catches Fish

Ben went fishing in our neighborhood pond. He caught several fish. The biggest one is in the last photo. We had not been fishing in several years and Ben said these are the first fish he has caught. Yeah for Ben!

This is the weekend that Dave rides his big bike ride - the MS 150. He was in New Bern all weekend riding 175 miles over 2 days. Good for him! It was a beautiful weekend.]Joey was at Caswell Beach on a Youth Group Retreat to prepare for his confirmation next month.

Ladder ball, heard of it?

So last spring when I would look through the ads on Sunday, I kept seeing these ladder ball sets. I had never heard of Ladder ball. It is a lawn game and I guess it was in the ads appealing to those on staycations. I was just surprised I had never heard of such a thing. It looked like fun but they were a bit pricey. Dave kept saying he could make one. One day, we came upon the directions and Dave did indeed build one with his helper, Joey. Ben and I painted it and I did buy the official "ladder balls." The balls are like soft golf balls- 2 balls held together by a rope. When you toss the balls the rope will wind around the rungs of the ladder. So, now we, too, can play Ladder Ball.

Laurie

Sports with the Wendts

Here are few photos of Ben playing right field yesterday. He did not get a hit but managed to get on base after getting hit in the thigh with a pitched ball(OUCH!). This must not have bothered him too much as he then stole 2nd and 3rd base and then made it home. His team managed a win - first of the season.
Joey is working hard on the Cross Country team for the High School.
Dave rode his bike 106 miles this weekend is preparation for his big bike ride on Sept.12 and 13 in New Bern.
And you may ask, what is Laurie doing? I manage everyone's schedules and make sure thay have what they need and are where they are supposed to be - no easy task.

Have a good day!
Laurie

Bonsai tree

I am the proud owner of a bonsai tree. I hope I can take care of it. It seems like so much responsibility. I think he needs a name. Any suggestions?

Laurie

The Baby Dog Turns One!

TJ celebrates his first birthday today. He had a birthday walk around the neighborhood with Ben and he was brushed so he'd be pretty for his big day. He received a new scarf for his collar. It is yellow with fire hydrants, bones and pawprints - very stylish. Happy Birthday, TJ.

TJ - Baby Dog

Some of you maybe wondering about TJ. He survived his 10 days being boarded at the vet. We got no report so I assume everything was okay. He has lost alot of fur in the last few weeks which is normal plus he got a bath at the kennel so he is so sleek and thin right now. He remembered all of us and is not barking at Dave as much. He was excited this morning when he thought I was taking him for a walk. He is also back to stealing socks out of the laundry basket.

Back at Home

Well, we left Cocoa Beach about 8am on Sunday morning and reached home about 630 pm. Not too bad - glad we made it back in one day and glad to be in my own house, bed, bathroom etc.
The drive was not too bad; Dave and I switched off driving and traffic was heavy in some places but we never got stopped.
Back to life at home. It seems like the boys' just finished with swim team and now right into the next sports. Ben has baseball practice this evening and Joey is going to try Cross Country with the high school. Whew! I guess the break is over. Two more weeks 'til school.
Laurie
Thanks for reading our blog!

The Space shuttle lands safely at Kennedy Space Center and the Wendts are there to ...

hear the sonic boom. Yes, we were there on Friday, July 31st waiting to buy our tickets to enter Kennedy Space center when the shuttle landed. We couldn't see anything but the whole place was a buzz with excitement because the shuttle was there. We saw an IMAX movie about the moon which was very moving. We took a tour all around the space center which was very informative and interesting. There was alot of info about the moon landings which must seem like ancient history to our kids but still seems like not so long ago to the rest of us. The day was hot and the Center was crowded and the bus lines were long but we got through.
Then we found our hotel in Cocoa Beach and had dinner at Red Lobster. It was a very long day as we started off in Orlando. The first photo is off the replica of the Saturn V rocket. The second is of me squishing the shuttle launch pad between my fingers.
Laurie

Cocoa Beach

Today we spent the day at the beach, the Atlantic Ocean this time. Joey spent most of his time trying to master his skim board. He is getting better and the beach was perfect for skimming. The beach sloped gently to the water and the tide was out so you could walk for a long time and the water was only up to your knees. Plus there were some great waves for riding. The water temperature was colder than the Gulf but very nice. Ben tried his hand at riding waves and then playing in the sand. We were at a small park that had beach access with a bathroom and outside shower plus a big grassy area with covered picnic tables. This is where we had lunch. A very nice beach day.
Laurie

And the winner is... David Wendt

Dave is the proud winner of a Diamondhead resort beach towel. Each day the resort has a drawing for a beach towel. Dave talked about how he needed a beach towel and lo and behold he won!