Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th! (2 weeks ago!)  I went to a fancy Friday the 13th dinner party a couple of years ago & since we were going to be with Vic's sister this year I couldn't wait to recreate it!  Of course it wasn't so fancy & didn't have a band, but it was still fun :)

We laughed in superstitious' face by breaking all the rules.  Black is the color of death here and white is the Chinese color of death so I did everything in black & white w/ touches of red for gore!  That little white lantern had a light in it so it glowed without the flash on it.  We entered the room on the "13th" floor. (We were supposed to walk under a ladder too, but my sister-in-law was panicking a little with the open umbrellas so I didn't add that touch!)  Then a broken mirror and "spilled salt" around the centerpiece. 

I had that umbrella hanging from the light & another by the entrance.

Friday the 13th (by Christian belief/tales) is unlucky is because Judas was the 13th guest at the Last Supper  & he betrayed Christ (making #13 unlucky). Friday is unlucky as this was the day Christ was crucified.  Add them together for one unlucky day!!

                                     

That little piece of rolled up paper on every person's plate had a superstition on it.  Here are the tidbits:

*Step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back

 (a crack is the entrance to the grave)

*Break a mirror and you’ll have 7 years bad luck!

Why 7 years?.. You just broke the soul of whoever’s reflection was in the mirror and it takes 7 years for the body to fully rejuvenate.  Don’t want to wait 7 years?  Make sure the mirror can’t see any reflection by grinding it up & burying it in the moonlight!

*Walk under a ladder & you’ll have bad luck

(a triangle represents life & when you walk through a triangle you are awakening the spirits that live in it… even the evil ones that won’t be happy with being disturbed)

*Spill some salt, you’ll have bad luck

toss it over your left shoulder into evil’s eye lurking by

(Salt has always been considered a valuable substance capable of purifying and warding off evil spirits and evil spirits wait over the left shoulder)

*Release a sneeze & you’ll release your soul 

call out “bless you” to keep it safe! 

*Feel a shiver? 

Someone is walking over your future grave!

*An open umbrella in a house brings bad luck

The sun god will be very upset with you for offending it as you only need an umbrella to protect you from true sunlight

*If a black cat crosses your path you’ll have bad luck!

Black cats were believed to be witches that had been burned or helpers to witches, either way being a very evil animal

There are still TWO more Friday the 13ths this year so have some fun with them! :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!  

How could we not bring in the new year on a good note with these 2 cheesers?!?

We planned on these two being in bed by midnight, but they must have known there was a midnight party coming because here they are at midnight happy as can be!

We went to Olive Garden on New Year's Eve. Tommy was so cute drumming those 2 bread sticks and as soon as I pulled the camera out he dropped them & shoved his hand by his mouth... when has he ever been camera shy?!

Whitney got a lot of compliments on her party dress. It has lots of fun sequence all over it that you can't see in this picture.

We didn't know anyone yet so we went to Faith Community Church and they had free swimming, sports, movies, a game room, and board games so we jumped in on game of Ticket to Ride with a couple people & another family that moved here only a few days after we did!

Vic was too busy with KMart during Christmas so we did our gingerbread houses really late!  I was so impressed with Tommy as I put the house together w/ the snow and he put the rest of the stickers on.  It looked really good a few minutes before this and he started adding and taking away in a destructive way so I hurried and snapped a picture!

We really got our money's worth out of this gingerbread house.  Here it is a few days later with the stickers rearranged a bit... and yes that is a train stuck in the side of the house! 

I snuck up on him a bit later and found him rearranging again.

The close up of his art work.  He is such a BOY!

Here is the final day of his house.  I thought it was cute he made it into a train house (I guess he was pretty determined to make that train get in there somehow!)  After this it was a tunnel, but it wasn't very sturdy so that didn't last long & Whitney kept trying to eat the leftover pieces so it finally made it to the trash!

We tried making a real gingerbread house and as you can see that didn't go over too well.  Now I see why people just hot glue the house together.  The frosting didn't do much & it drooped all over.... and Tommy wasn't as helpful with this house because all he wanted to do was eat it!

We had a train show come through Indianapolis and Tommy is obsessed with trains so we just had to drive down there.  Here he is with wooden trains.  I love wooden trains.  It is wonderful to see all that talent & detail that is put into them. 

They had a million Thomas the Train tracks & trains for the kids to play with.  Tommy was in heaven.

When we got home we got his out that we thought he was too young for and he LOVED it for day.  Then Whitney showed too much interest so he hid it and 2 weeks later we still can't find it! 

Tommy's favorite part was this underground train that made noises and had buttons for him to push and pick which train was going to come out of the tunnel.  He didn't take his paw off the pad for at least 20 minutes.  I had no idea he was so obsessed with tunnels until we came here. 

Another one of Tommy's favorite exhibits.  I made tunnels out of his mega blocks after this and he loves that! 

I couldn't have a post without Whitney!!  Here is her last picture before she got her hair cut!  She was having a ball in her jumper this day and we got some pretty cute video of her.   

Time to hide the pens

Um... guess it's time to have to start hiding the pens!  He's also been very interested in my markers this week so I should have known this was coming.