The McCombs Family

Austin's Pirate Party

2011-10-03T13:49:00.007-04:00

I cannot believe that Austin is 5 years old! Time really has flown by!

He decided to have a Pirate Party this year...
I'm not sure whether I had more fun or he did, hopefully he did!!
I couldn't believe all of the fabulous ideas out there!
I spent WAY to much time planning and executing this fun party,
but I think that it was all worth it!

This is the vinyl that I put on our front storm door...
The boys loved it and didn't want me to take it off, but I thought that peoplethat didn't know we had a pirate party might be little weirded out!

This is the Jolly Roger Flag that I hung from our banister.

Decorations from the Stampin' Up! Pirate Party Kit that I added vinyl to.

I found these cute cupcake wrappers and sails here
and this AWESOME frosting recipe here
and I put the sails on sucker sticks.

We turned a box of Cap'n Crunch into Cap'n Austin Crunch and served it as a snack.

For some reason, I have never been able to throw away wipes containers thinking that I might need them someday, well, today was the day! I spray painted 12 wipes containers black and added gold vinyl pirates names to each of them. These were the boys' treasure boxes. I filled them with eye patches, bandanas, telescopes, a treasure map, and their loot bag. To start the party off, they decorated their treasure boxes and telescopes and colored their treasure maps that I found here.

Last year at Austin's birthday party, I let the boys play in the bedrooms and get all of the toys out. I decided that I was not going to go through 3 hours of clean up again this year, so I put these signs on each of the bedroom doors.
I also kept them busy with lots of activities and games!

Here is the Birthday Captain, ready for his friends to arrive. The party started at 10am. He woke up at about 7:00 and was REALLY anxious all morning for everyone to get there!

We played LOTS of games! After they decorated their boxes, we played pin the treasure chest on the treasure map (I got it at the Dollar Store). Then we played Cannon Ball POP. I filled about 45 black balloons with candy and blew them up. I gave each of the kids a toothpick and told them to get the candy out. That game was a hit! After that, we Walked the Plank and had sword fights with bread sticks on the plank! They really liked this as well, I only wish that I had bought more than one box of bread sticks!

After the sword fights, we played Pass the Cannonball (or Hot Potato).

After the fun and games, we had ice cream cake from DQ and cupcakes!

After cake, we had the log awaited TREASURE HUNT! Everyone was really excited about this!
Jared made an awesome treasure box that I filled with mini treasure chests for each of the boys that had Pop Rocks and chocolate gold coins in them. Jared also made a treasure map with clues for each place to go...the bathroom had kaleidoscopes, Austin's room had pirate whistles, Alex's room had candy necklaces, Ring Pops, and pirate suckers, and the treasure box was downstairs. They had a great time trying to figure out where to go next!

Here is Jared's handy work!

Here are all of the boys with their pirate gear on! They were all such troopers! It was a lot of work, but everyone sure had a good time! Austin is already planning his party for next year!

Alex and His Stuffed Animals!

2010-02-19T15:32:00.002-05:00

Alex LOVES all of his stuffed animals! The other morning when I went in his room, I found him cuddled up with them! He is so funny! He knows all of their names and cannot go to bed unless he has them all in there with him! We took the boys to Build-a-Bear and made Alex a monkey for Valentine's day. He carries him all around the house all day long! We thought it fit because he is definitely our little monkey!

Valentine's Day!

2010-02-17T15:31:00.003-05:00

Austin helped me make our Valentine's cookies on Sunday!

He really enjoys helping out lately!
The boys thoroughly enjoyed eating the cookies when they were all done! We had to deliver them to people that night so they would stop asking for MORE COOKIES!!!

SNOW, SNOW, AND MORE SNOW!!!

2010-02-16T23:52:00.003-05:00

We have gotten almost 2 feet of snow just in the month of February!! The boys are loving it, but have a hard time playing in it because it is so deep, they just kind of sink!! Luckily for me our cute little neighbor boys are always willing to play with them outside, so I don't have to go out there!! Needless to say...I am ready for Spring and some warmer weather! Hopefully we don't get anymore snow!!!Pretty soon our mailbox is going to be buried!!
Our truck pretty much is buried!

Austin and Alex love to go out on the deck to do their snow dance!!

Bruiser isn't a big fan of the snow...he can barely even move in it. He is almost totally covered when he goes out on the grass, he has to jump to get anywhere! It is pretty entertaining!

Austin's new shelves

2010-01-06T22:06:00.003-05:00

We were trying to decide what to do with all of the new toys that the boys received for Christmas and came to the conclusion that we needed to organize the closets in the boys' rooms. So, after pricing out some shelves at Lowe's, we decided to start with Austin's closet and do Alex's sometime down the road. Anyway, here is a picture of the shelves in the Austin's closet. It is amazing how much more organized we are now!

Bowling

2009-12-29T21:18:00.003-05:00

We had some coupons for the local bowling alley, so we took the boys bowling for their first time. They seemed to have fun! They loved to push the ball down the ramp and then clap and cheer, I am not sure if they knew why they were cheering, but they were having fun!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T20:19:00.005-05:00

This was definitely a fun Christmas for Austin! He was so excited for Santa to come to our house! We were getting ready for bed on Christmas Eve and he looked out the window and saw Rudolph's nose blinking brightly in the sky off in the distance, so he wanted to hurry and get into bed so that Santa didn't miss our house.

Both of the boys were in bed at 7:30!
The first thing that he did when he woke up was look to see if Santa ate the treats that he left for him and HE DID and left he left him a note. As you can see, he is little excited!
Then, he went to see what Santa left for him! He got everything that he asked Santa for, guess he was a good boy this year!

Alex was also thrilled with what Santa left for him!

Austin had so much fun opening the presents, that he opened them ALL, it didn't matter who they were for, he helped everyone!

I think that we set up and destroyed this track at least 5 times throughout the day!!

Check out our Christmas MESS! We had a wonderful Christmas! The boys are very excited about all of their new toys!! Thanks so much everybody!!

BUILD-A-BEAR

2009-12-26T20:12:00.003-05:00

We went to Build-a-Bear last Saturday for an early Christmas present for the boys. Austin made Frosty the Snowman and Alex made Hal the Holiday Moose. The were just thrilled! Alex wants to take Hal everywhere with him, including to bed! As you can see below, Alex just loves to love on Hal and Austin loves his Frosty!

SNOW!!

2009-12-24T21:15:00.002-05:00

It snowed last weekend and actually enough to play in! The boys had a ball playing in the backyard! It is Alex's first winter to actually enjoy the snow. He looks out the window and says SNOWWW! Austin was trying to figure out how to make a snowball and throw it at us!

"Train"gerbread (WRECK)

2009-12-24T21:03:00.003-05:00

We bought a Gingerbread Train kit, that Austin referred to a Traingerbread! He was so excited to put it together, I didn't think that Jared would ever get home from work. Austin was asking ALL day long! It was fun to put it together, but it didn't go so well, it wasn't staying together very well! The boys had a blast, mainly because they liked eating the candy!

Santa Repelling in Downtown Cincy!

2009-12-24T20:51:00.004-05:00

We went Downtown Cincinnati to check out all of the Holiday sights. This is the Holiday train display, it was quite the hit with the boys!Here is a video of Santa, Rudolph and an Elf repelling down the Macy's building.

Indianapolis Children's Museum

2009-12-24T20:28:00.001-05:00

We went to the Indianaplois Children's Museum on Thursday, December 3. We had a lot of fun! It is a huge place. We were there from 10am-4pm and still didn't see everything. The boys were asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car afterward! They were definitely worn out!

The boys saw Santa and one of his elves!! They were very excited! This is the Yule Slide! It reminded me of the slide on "A Christmas Story"! It was a lot of fun and kind of fast! I think we went down it 5 times!
The boys were very excited to drive a real race car!

This horse was only 1 penny. Austin loved it, but Alex wasn't so thrilled by it! It was kind of jerky, it was the very first ride on horse in the US.

Holiday Junction (Cincinnati Museum Center)

2009-12-03T21:46:00.004-05:00

Austin was so excited to see Santa and tell him what he wants for Christmas, and he was even more excited that Mrs. Claus was there as well! The Museum Center had a whole Christmas set up centered around trains! As you can imagine both of the boys were just thrilled! They rode a little train, played with trains on a train table and watched all of the model trains! We had a fun time!

Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo

2009-12-03T21:28:00.003-05:00

The Boys love to ride the carousel at the zoo!

We were saying hi to this goat in the petting zoo and he reached out and stole Alex's glove and then CHEWED it up and ATE it!!! As you can see below, Alex was not amused!

We met all kinds of Christmas characters, like the Gingerbread man below!

We had such a great time seeing all of the Christmas lights and watching Santa light the BIG Christmas tree! Both of my boys take after me and LOVE Christmas and everything about it!

Trick or Treating

2009-11-09T21:59:00.003-05:00

Austin and Alex had so much fun at Halloween this year! They definitely got their fill of candy for the year! Austin thinks that he needs to go trick or treating everyday!

Getting some treats from a neighbor with their friend, Carter.

Trick or Treating at the mall!

Grandma Prescott sent the boys a Halloween package in a 2 liter bottle! They were so excited! Austin was trying to figure out how to get his new trains out!!! That Grandma, she will do anything for her grandkids!!!

Austin thinks it is fun to organize and sort out his candy. He calls it the candy game!

Pumpkin Carving

2009-11-09T21:17:00.000-05:00

I was excited to carve pumpkins with the boys this year, thinking that they might be excited about it, but that was not the case...they wanted nothing to do with the "Pumpkins Brains" as Austin called it!
"EEW, Mom, I need a WIPE, NOW!!!

Halloween Costumes

2009-10-28T15:34:00.004-04:00

We asked Austin what he wanted to be for Halloween and he said Thomas, so I looked for a Thomas costume and wasn't too thrilled with any of them, plus they were EXPENSIVE! Anyway, we decided to get creative and make one out of a box that we covered with vinyl. Boy, has it been a hit! He has won 2 costume contests!! He loves to wear it and we cannot get Alex out of his dragon costume. He walks around the house roaring! Funny, funny boys!!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-28T15:28:00.002-04:00

We went to the pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins! Now we just need to carve them! It was a little cold, but we had fun! Austin had a hard time deciding which pumpkin to take home! Alex LOVED the hay ride because a big tractor was pulling us! That was very exciting!

Austin's 3rd Birthday!

2009-10-19T18:29:00.003-04:00

We celebrated Austin's birthday twice this year! We unexpectedly went to Washington over his birthday, so he was able to have a big party with Grandpas and Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles, and cousins! He had so much fun! Then, when we got back home, we celebrated with Dad and all of his friends! He was so excited about his Thomas birthday!

HALLZOOWEEN!

2009-10-12T16:55:00.004-04:00

On Saturday we went to the Cincinnati Zoo for Hallzooween! They have all kinds of Halloween stuff to do for the kids as well as Austin's favorite...Trick or Treating! We could not get him to let go of his Spider candy bucket! We had lots of fun!

Random Pictures

2009-09-21T16:39:00.006-04:00

I haven't posted anything for awhile because I am terrible about taking pictures when we are out and about. So, here are just a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Alex and Austin were trying to figure out how to box themselves up to be sent to Grandma's house!

Alex had a bit of a crash at the park and had the war wound to show for it!

A Day Out With THOMAS!

2009-09-04T21:07:00.006-04:00

It's THOMAS!

Riding on Thomas!

Thomas Storytelling

Running through the maze! Can you tell he is excited to be there?

Austin with Sir Topham Hatt, the controller of the Railway

The passenger cars!

Today we took the boys to the LM&M Railroad to ride the real Thomas the Tank Engine! Austin is absolutely OBSESSED with Thomas right now, so we did it as an early birthday present for him! We had a great time! There was all kinds of Thomas activities going on as well as a 25 minute train ride pulled by the one and only Thomas! The boys were pretty wiped out by the time we left! They both sacked out in the car on the way home!

Alex Signing

2009-09-03T00:09:00.002-04:00

I have been signing a little bit with Alex for awhile now and he has been signing "all done" for about a month, but today he signed "more" for the first time! He is growing so fast! He is really showing his personality more and more everyday!

Alex playing peek-a-boo

2009-09-02T23:44:00.000-04:00

Alex's new shoes!

2009-09-02T23:34:00.000-04:00

I have been on the hunt for shoes for Alex since he is trying to walk now and have come to face the fact that he has wide feet! So, over the weekend I found myself going to Stride Rite and spending way too much money on shoes for my 14 month old who will probably only wear them for 6 months! But, hey at least he looks cute with them on! :)

New Microwave

2009-09-02T23:23:00.000-04:00

Last week I tried to make a baked potato in our microwave. Boy, was that a mistake! Halfway through cooking it, our microwave died! Now, I wasn't too terribly upset because I got this countertop microwave when I was in college, so it definitely served us well, but I was upset that my potato was only partly cooked. Anyway, we went on a hunt for a new microwave and ended up buying one to mount above the stove and it looks so great! It is so nice to have some extra counter space and I am so blessed to have a handy husband that didn't think twice about putting it up for me!

The Anderson Ferry

2009-08-28T13:54:00.000-04:00

Today we went on the Anderson Ferry that carries cars and people across the Ohio River. It was exciting because we got to ride the boat, then we walked across some train tracks (and saw a train!) then we got ice cream and sang Happy Birthday to Ethan (Austin's friend in blue). The kids had so much fun!

Hebron Fire House

2009-08-27T13:49:00.000-04:00

Today we went to the Hebron Fire House with our Church play group! The kids were so excited to see the fire trucks and a little afraid of the fireman all dressed up in his fire suit. We had a good time!

Chuck E Cheese's

2009-08-25T14:19:00.000-04:00

We went to Chuck E. Cheese's last night for family night.

Austin just loves that place!

We had to strap Alex in his stroller for awhile,

but he was entertained by everything going on around him!

Austin helping Jared win lots of tickets!

Austin concentrating hard on hitting the letters!

Alex wasn't so sure about Chuck E.

Can you tell Austin likes Chuck E.?

Getting ready for Church!

2009-08-24T16:07:00.001-04:00

Don't they look so handsome all dressed up in their church clothes!

Outside Fun!

2009-08-24T15:59:00.001-04:00

Alex loves to watch the planes flying over our house! He loves anything that moves and makes a loud noise! Austin thinks that every plane is going to Grandma's house!

Alex thinks he is big enough to do whatever Austin can!

Austin loves to CRASH down, even if it is into his little brother!

See ya Mom! We are OUTTA HERE!

Alex is FINALLY starting to walk!

2009-08-24T14:37:00.000-04:00

Alex is starting to get brave enough to take some steps. He just knows he can get where he wants to go faster by crawling!

Entertrainment Junction!

2009-08-24T14:30:00.000-04:00

Austin's FAVORITE thing to do is play with trains!

Here we are at Austin and Alex's FAVORITE place...ENTERTRAINMENT JUNCTION!

Austin could stay there ALL day and play with the Thomas tables! Alex just loves to play with Everything there, especially ride the little train!

We finally have a Blog!

2009-08-24T14:26:00.000-04:00

I have decided to give in and start a family blog! This way our family and friends can look at our pictures and stuff easily and I won't feel bad for not emailing out pictures. Anyway, we have officially started a Jared and Emily McCombs family blog!