Busy New Year and Birthday Celebrations!!

Happy New Year everyone!

The New Year has been officially "rung in" with a New Year's Eve party that was much fun, and a three day long birthday celebration for Anna's 13th b'day!

We started the new year with friends from our church at a New Year's Eve party there. The kids had lots of fun playing Wii, which was set up on a big screen, and the adults had a lot of fun playing Rock Band on the X-box, also set up on a big screen. I think the adults were having more fun than the kids! (Me included!) Some of the kids played Rock Band too, but most of them don't know the songs - since they all seem to be from my "decade" which was quite some time ago. I refused to play any instruments, or sing on the karaoke microphone, but for those who were there... well, they know how much fun I had throwing in the occasional "Woo Hoo" during the numerous rounds of Michael Jackson's Beat It that were sung. What a night!

The next day we began celebrating Anna's 13th b'day with a bowling party, then pizza and fireworks back at our house. That one lasted into the wee hours of the morning as we had the chance to "catch up" with some close friends we'd not visited with in a while.

Saturday Anna had a friend over for the day and they were both exhausted from New Year's eve celebrations - so they were surprisingly very quiet.

Lastnight, we finished up with a family party here at our home which involved the grandparents and my brother's family, chili, cake, gifts, and some Mario Cart.

All in all, Anna had a wonderful 13th celebration, and now we are officially parenting a teenager. Ugh! Ya'll pray for me.

Because I am lousy at taking pictures, and my cell phone is a lousy picture taker, I only ended up with one photo decent enough to post. My sincere apologies to everyone else who joined us, but didn't make it into a decent photo that was postable. I'm afraid all of our events are destined to end with only one or two photos thanks to my sorry picture taking skills.

New Year note to self: Perhaps I should take a photography class. Hmm, that would probably lead to buying a much nicer camera than we have, and probably don't need, since I can't remember to keep batteries charged, or the camera with me.

Hope that you and your families enjoy a wonderful new year,
Lori

Anna with friends (and 2 of our Pastor's 5 children) Timothy and Tiffany.

Again, so sorry to all of the others who joined us to celebrate and didn't make it into a decent photo. I've not checked my regular camera yet, this pic is from my cell phone, but if I get some others I'll post them later. Also joining us over the weekend were the Hooks, the Hoosiers, the Jones, grandparents, my brother's family, and Anna's bff - Roxanna.