The Magnificent Seven and Sleepover Madness

I absolutely love Slumber Parties! They are so much fun, but with girls these kind of parties can sometimes end with lots of feelings hurt. To ensure that Annie's sleepover didn't turn into mayhem I scheduled lots of activities and fun things to do.

Most of the girls rode home from school with Annie. We resembled a minuscule clown car at the Ringling Brothers' Circus, fitting seven girls and a lady into a two seater truck! And that's how the fun began. Destination completed, the girls unloaded one by one and secured a spot in Annie's room for their sleepover belongings.

Easy entertaining sleep over fun begins with cooking. The girls created dough and then fashioned the dough into a round flat looking shape. They then spread some type of red sauce all over the flat surface of the dough, topping it with shredded cheese, pepperonis and Canadian bacon.

Mommies and daddies, you need to hear this..."Let your children help you cook!" They love it!!! Everyone of these giggly gals clamored to measure the liquids, pour them in and mix them to perfection. While we waited for the pizzas to bake, I made my way to Youtube.com and began blasting the music for an instant impromptu dance party. One of my favorite can't go wrong singers...Weird Al. His lyrics are entertaining and the kids love it.

After consuming massive amounts of pizza and Capri Sun, we then made S'mores. M'm...these things are so good and such an easy do it yourself kinda treat. Mommies and Daddies, even if you're on a special diet, eat one, okay? And make sure you get the ooey gooey marshmallow all over your face, the girls loved telling me I had made a mess!

I've learned from experience that canned sodas aren't a good idea for any kid party. They never finish the entire soda and you're left with almost full cans of soda, with kids wanting something else to drink, but they have no idea if that almost full can of Coke is theirs or not...bad, really bad, idea. Capri Suns are the best for parties and if you have to divvy out soda, souvenir party cups with the kids' names in marker on the cup for identification purposes.

We played several traditional sleep over games, such as light as a feather and stiff as a board, Bloody Mary and Truth or Dare. I'll do a separate blog for light as a feather and for Bloody Mary. I got really tickled when one of the girls suggested we play spin the bottle. I replied that spin the bottle is usually played with girls and boys. My girls insisted they wanted to play, so I agreed and made up some rules for this new variation.

How to play Spin the Bottle with all girls. First variation, has the girls going around the circle taking turns spinning instead of having the person the bottle landing on spinning. Once the bottle is pointing towards someone, the spinner then confesses what boy she'd most like to kiss. Of course, all the girls giggle insanely and then the spinner kisses the spinnee on the cheek. You play until you get bored.

Second variation, has the girls taking turns like in the first variation. This time though, instead of naming a boy the girls are actually collecting kisses. You find the gaudiest ugliest lipstick you have, each of you coat your lips really good and then start playing. The girl with the most set of lip prints on her face, wins. You play for about 10 - 15 minutes.

I never planned for this game, it was impromptu, but with adjustments it turned into a really fun moment. The girls shared their secret crushes and we all laughed and giggled our hearts out! But to ensure that these secret sacred crushes aren't revealed on Monday at school, you must perform a Pinkie Promise to never reveal and then provide the girls with a most terrible curse for revealing said promise. You'll never guess in a million years what I promised them would happen if they spilled the beans!

Doing The Hills With Durango, The Youngs and Many Others

I received an invitation from Mr. Don Young to attend the Wild Women and Manly Men hike at the Tandy Hills. Anyone could have attended, in fact I believe that Mr. Durango blogged about it and made it a well publicized event. The kids and I had two weeks off for the Christmas Holidays and by the beginning of week two Annie had this to say, "I just want to go somewhere and do something fun." I responded, "How far are you willing to drive and what kind of fun."

The invitation from Mr. Young made sense. A little driving and sight seeing, a little hiking and running around was what Annie and I needed and boy did we ever get it!

Not only did we get to meet Mr. Young and his lovely wife Debra, but we met a whole host of other people. I only have one picture from the event it's of Olive the Prairie Dog, Kimberly Clark and Ariel posing with Annie. I forgot to charge the camera, thus no other pictures could be taken.

Annie and I got a special treat, we got to hang out with Mr. Durango. Did I tell ya I find physical fit white haired men irresistible? Mr. Durango is such a wonderful tour guide. We got to see all sorts of sites and also saw things that weren't so wonderful such as some of the damage done by the oil and gas drillers. I don't understand the treatment the Trinity River gets. Why if we had such a nice river in Wink, I don't think we'd treat it so badly. Well, I'd hope we wouldn't.

Annie and I liked our visit to Ft Worth so much so, that we plan on visiting again.

Below is a YouTube video put together by Mr. Marshall, a wonderful Tandy Hills supporter, of the Manly Men & Wild Women hike.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas...At The Trujillo Family Home

The kids and I love to decorate for Christmas.
Red ribbons, lustrous lights, green garland

About three years ago I found the Hallmark
Store at Christmas time. I never miss venturing
in. I always buy the three cards and get the
special Christmas animated snow people.

It's a lot of FUN doing things with Annie!
She's a hilarious hoot, here she's pretending
to wake up on Christmas morning trying to
find the presents. I just love her!

Annie was born in 2000, she'll always be
as old as the year she's in. This is her
last single digit year, my baby is growing up.

I never know exactly what's running through
Annie's mind at times, I just go with it.
She's never seen Happy Days, but it sure
looks like she's pretending to be the Fonz.

Each year I get a special ornament for the kids.
Justin's have revolved around the military, and
Annie's? Well, whatever catches her fancy
for the year!

A Pirate Tries To Kidnap Santa Clause

Annie's Christmas play performance occurred last night at the Wink High School Auditorium. With a full house in attendance, the children sang and danced their hearts out. Most of the performers dressed in pirate garb which would have been accurate because the play was about a pirate and his crew searching for the most treasured treasure ever. When the pirate found the treasure chest he couldn't get the darn thing opened! He then tricked Santa into coming to the tropical island, kidnapped Santa and forced him to open the chest. Well, you'll just have to see the play to find out how it ends.

Well, I had that play in my mind when I read some of my favorite blogs today. Seems that most of my favorite blogs all blogged about the same subject today. Well, if they were all blogging about this subject, then it must have been really important, that's the conclusion I came to. After reading all of it, I just had the weirdest vision of Chesapeake kidnapping Santa Clause and ruining Christmas forever!

This has been one mighty cold wintry day. Went to bed with it snowing and woke up to it snowing. The temperature rose a bit above freezing, which melted and cleared the roads right nice like allowing me ample time to pick Annie up from school and get over to Kermit to take care of some banking and insurance.

I'm not sure what happened, but my auto insurance company sent me a cancellation notice, stating that I was several months behind on the payments. I know I mailed in the payments, have the bank statements proving two of the checks were cashed, but not applied to my insurance account, the third I suppose is missing. My agent said they were discontinuing business with Kemper and only doing new insurance with Farmers. After about an hour with my agent, we got my insurance woes taken care of.

I texted Annie, who decided to remain at home while I did these errands, to see if she needed anything. She responded that yes, she was hungry. I texted her back inquiring as to what type of food she wanted. She responded, "the kind you eat." What a smarty pants. After I picked her up the type of food that you can eat, I made my way home. Annie was hiding waiting to ambush me with several snowballs. She got my backside all wet.


Not to be outdone, I waited a bit and then went out and made myself a snowball, which I then pelted her with. You can see the cold white powder hiding within her brunette locks. We played this game for quite a while, until our hands were red and very cold.

Annie's Thanksgiving Tree House

About three years ago, the kids and I thought about selling the house and moving back to Colorado. The thought, a gentle shove, had us selling off things, painting, landscaping and fixing up the place right nice like. One of the items that sold rather quickly was a slide/swing set/fort type jungle gym. This back yard delight, purchased in 2002, was a favorite of Justin's and then soon became Annie's favorite place in the backyard as well.


Every summer, it hosted the water balloon fights, water slide, hide and go seek and bubble fairy game. Once that childhood memory was sold, I was absolutely sure that soon the house would follow and then us as well. Well, you know about the best laid plans and all that jazz and it so happens that the "PLAN" never came to fruition.



The next few summers presented a lackluster backyard, missing it's most loved and favorite item. Almost every day during the summer, Annie would comment rather gloomily how she wished she had her swing set with the slide and fort.


Normally, I don't ask for anything for Christmas, but this year I did. I asked my daddy and my ex hubby to build a tree house/fort/play thingy in the back yard for Annie over the Thanksgiving break. It's a difficult situation for a young child, especially a little girl, to only see her daddy four or five times a year, but I'm hoping and believing that the tree house symbolizes everything good for those shared visits.


It's not completed yet, but the foundation is strong. The wood is recycled and old, with knotholes here and there and the smell of pine still lingers within its walls. Each hammered nail broadened the smile on my little girl's face. Everyone needs a hiding place, a place of refuge, somewhere that floods your soul with pleasure. I'm believing that this is her place.

My Greatest Treasures

Durango posted the cutest blog about Annie BoFannie today, and as I read it, I smiled and chuckled, he has such a way with words. When Annie had read about the Tandy Hills she was immediately taken with the idea of creating her own little prairie. She pleaded with me not to cut the tall grass in our empty lot next to our home, and I complied with her wishes. I cut trails to the fire pit we use for weenie roasts and out to the water well and back to the pet cemetery. We watched the grasses grow tall and fell in love with the golden plume it produced. Little yellow and purple and orange flowers popped up, butterflies abounded; it was truly quite a sight to behold.

Nearing Winter, it was time to do the prairie proper, so Saturday and Sunday the kids and I spent the day cutting grass, picking up trash and weed eating. Annie watched me sullenly from the trampoline in our back yard as I cut the tall grasses. I could tell she was already missing her prairie, but she understood that soon we would till the ground in order to get it ready for the Spring.

It's a strange mix for me, watching one of my kids start driving and dating girls, while the other is still exploring her world and forging her identity. Justin no longer plays with army men in the backyard, but instead plays with big boys on the Grid Iron. He's preparing for his first solo road trip next summer up the West Coast, mapping his route and making some tough decisions about who he'll be taking along for the ride.

Annie is just starting to hang out with friends at the playground, pick out her own clothes and make her own lunches. Tonight as she was packing her lunch, she asked me if she could pack some extra food. Of course I said she could, but then asked why. Seems there's a new girl at school, who didn't have lunch money and the ladies in the cafeteria provided her with a peanut butter sandwich. Annie didn't think the girl liked peanut butter seeing she only ate half the sandwich.

I'll have to tell ya, that my eyes teared up a bit as I observed Annie carefully select foods she thought the little girl would like. Cheese sticks, yogurt, fruit juice, Sun chips, bread and turkey slices were placed in the lunch pail. And what I've always hoped would grow in my children has come to fruition, that when they see a need or something that should be done, that they would take the time to fulfill that need.