My Fifth Birthday Party With My Family!

As in the past, the winter has passed me by, and I ended up getting behind on the blog. I am now going to spend the next few days recapping the holidays in March (although, it seems fitting, as there is about 7 inches of snow outside as I type this)

Also as in the past, we had my birthday party at Gramma Mindy's. There was some snowy weather, but it wasn't so bad that people couldn't come (which was nice)

The goodie bags included some very cool items, one of which was a giant balloon with an elastic band on it that you could use as a punching bag. Me and the other kids thought it was awesome...well, the kids and Gramma Debbie. :-) :-)

I got to play with my cousins a lot which is always a blast. Timothy and I had some great fun hiding from people, and hanging out in our own little clubhouse which doubled as the cake table.

When that table got co-opted, we moved to the main dining table, which was just as nice, and also had a great base that doubled as a lovely decorative column for our clubhouse.

Lots of people came, and there was great food, snacks, and fun! Grandpa and Auntie Steph are hanging out with my newest cousin Anthony, while more folks mill around the living area.

Mom and I had a lot of fun moments together during the party. It was great to be so sweet with her.

When the time came for the cake, I shared the moment with Braelynn, Nick, and Timothy.

The cake had a few really cool balloons on it, a number 5 candle, and the Buzz Lightyear candles that make the rounds for all my birthdays (What can I say?! I love those candles!)

I got to lick the frosting off of the big candle after I blew out the candles and made my wish (Don't think you'll get me to tell you my wish...then it won't come true!!) Look at Nick's face! He is fascinated by that candle frosting...I was coerced into sharing the candles with the other kids. I guess I can share, even on my birthday.

We had a really great spread of food, but behind Mom you will see the greatest game ever made in the entire world....PIN THE TAIL ON THE BULLSEYE!

It's just like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, except that it's WAY cooler...it has BULLSEYE from Toy Story!

Mom got everything set up, and read us the directions...I was very excited to play. Basically, it was grab a sticky tail, put on a blindfold, get spun around until you lose your bearings a bit, and try to move forward to put the tail on the Bullseye where it belongs.

On my first try, I did great, but we had some issues with understanding everyone taking a turn, and ALSO getting to put the sticker on...after a brief meltdown, we resume the game.

We all did pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Yet another wonderful birthday party with my family!

Christmas 2013 in Connecticut!!

Hello people, and Happy belated 2014 to you all!

It's been a busy January thus far in the P-G household, and I am only now just getting into the updates for life as we are living it! So...After taking January (OK...and part of February) off, it's time to get back into blogging, people!

It was a great holiday season...As usual, we spent some time with lots of different members of our family. Lots of traveling, lots of running around, but it was all wonderful. I really enjoy seeing my cousins, and other members of my family at the holidays.

The biggest news, of course, is that Santa came through. Even though it wasn't the exact cookie robot I wanted, Santa brought the next best thing!

It was something called "RoboKid". The box made him look REEEEALLY awesome, and when I unwrapped him, I was SO excited!

I couldn't stop looking at him through the front of the box. He had so many cool features! It said he danced, and played music, and shot foam discs out of his mouth! I mean, what more can you ask for?!

I couldn't help but hug the box, I was so excited! Thank you so much, Santa Claus!!

Even though that was coolest gift ever, I moved on to other stuff that I got. As always, my family was very generous, and I got lots of cool stuff!

I got some new stuff for my Thomas Trains...

Aunt Mallory and Uncle Mat* got me a Bullseye stuffed animal, so now Woody the Cowboy has someone to ride and have adventures with alongside Buzz Lightyear! How great is that? He looks JUST like the Bullseye in the movies. They knows what I like!

*Originally I had remembered this incorrectly and thought it was Gramma Mindy that got this for me...don't feel sad for her, though...she got me plenty of other awesome stuff. :-)

Once I finished opening most of my gifts, I simply HAD to pull RoboKid out of his box so I could see what he did.

Sure enough, I got a remote control with him, and he did everything I thought he would! He played his own songs, and danced to them....he fired pretend lazers from his hands, and yes....he did fire foam discs right from his mouth! This just be the most incredible toy I have ever had!!

More fun stuff awaited me at Gramma Debbie's. There were so many presents that there are still a few I haven't opened! Can you BELIEVE IT!?

I got a golf game that I haven't tried yet, but once the weather improves, I'm bringing it outside and giving it a shot!

One of the other big gifts I got was....yes....you recognize that pink box.

After scrutinizing the box thoroughly, I discovered that it was, in fact, Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl. Just like my Buzz and Woody, she was JUST like the ones in the Toy Story movies. She had yarn hair, and a cowgirl hat, and she talked to you just like Buzz and Woody. She fit right in

So yeah.....family, and great new gifts to add to the collection....what more could one ask for?

How about a gift-wrapped Sam?

Mini Golf 2013 Part 2: National Building Museum!

For my second New Year's Eve Post (and my final in 2013) I wanted to take you all on a trip to the National Building Museum to see another Mini-Golf game! The FIRST GAME we played last year, and this year was even better...they had TWO courses you could choose from, which not only made it less packed with people, but there were more chances for someone to get really creative with the mini-golf courses!

These were VERY cool holes this year...kudos to the designers! The one above is actually a hologram...you had to hit your ball through a maze that was generated by holograms. There were actual walls that you had to navigate around, in addition to cityscapes that weren't really there. Awesome!

This one was cool because it not only featured a building under construction...but there were little toy trucks as well! The backhoe "Dug" me a hole to hit my ball into! Also, check out those mini orange cones. Nice touch!

I don't know if you can tell from this shot, but this next hole featured DC landmarks under glass...I believe this one is the Capitol!

The holes were fun, but pretty challenging.

I think I got my stance down pretty well, don't you?

I was pretty excited when the ball went in for this one, because you had to hit it around a corner, which was pretty tough!

Once I got the ball in, I took a moment to make some (sanctioned) graffiti on the wall that separated the two areas of the hole!

There was a schoolhouse themed hole that was REALLY tough to get through, but Mom did a great job! She's a natural!

This one had a working bell, which I, of course, had to ring!

This next one is based on the city and the Metro (with a tiny Metro station pylon)

It was kind of hard to get through because of the way the planks were set up. Certainly made it a challenge!

Undaunted, I played through and finally got the ball in!

The final hole glowed in several different colors, which was really pretty to watch, but I think they were hoping it would distract you a bit too....

That didn't matter though, because even though the final hole was tough, I managed to get a hole in one!

This was my second hole in one of the day, (I don't remember which one was my first) and the fact that it was on the last, and one of the most challenging holes, was amazing! Everyone was so excited for me, even people that didn't know me and were just playing the game at the museum at the same time that we were!

And no visit to The National Building Museum would be complete without playing with the various building blocks and toys that they leave out in the main hallway....Mom and I had a lot of fun building towers out of these little wooden planks...and I then happily destroyed them!

On that note...everyone have a safe and happy New Year that does not include any kind of destruction (Unless it's intentional, and fills you with great joy!) See you all in 2014!

Mini Golf 2013 Part 1: Father's Day!

Happy New Year's Eve, folks! I'm celebrating the New Year with Golf! Well...not really, but I'm celebrating it with two blog posts about Mini-Golf! They will be my final posts of 2013, and that should officially catch me up! (We'll see if I need to do any more catching up if I look through my photo archives, but if this is it, then that would be the first year that I am not playing catch-up deep into the new year! How cool is THAT!?)

First, I will show you some stuff from Father's Day. Dad got it into his head that he wanted to go miniature golfing for Father's Day, and we found a nice little mini-golf course out in Maryland.

I was doing pretty well (depending on the hole...some of those things are tough!)

Dad seemed to be having a great time.

I was having fun, too....except that there was a brother/sister team that kept insisting on jumping onto our hole and messing with my ball. A couple times, they even went ahead and took my ball out of the hole (or put it in, depending on their moods at the moment)

I did my best to be patient, and walk away from the situation, but it really was tough to keep my cool. Grrrr... :-( Where were the parents!?

Ugh.

We rallied after our little invasion by the other kids, and ended up having a pretty good time.

Dad did his best to show me the best way to hit the ball successfully, but I really just like hitting it how I like to hit it, ya know? We all have our own style!

Mom also showed me a little bit of her mini-golf skillz (That's right....skillz with a 'z', everyone.) and it definitely helped, too....

....but not enough for me to not face tragedy once again, as yet another one of my balls insisted on staying away from the hole I had tried to hit it into.

The roller coaster of emotion continued as I started picking up and doing well again, and Mom was just cleaning up. She did great! Try as they might to keep score, my erratic (yet endearing) style of play made it near-impossible to keep score for too long, and they gave up.

The final hole was a frog where you had to hit your ball through the base, and then up a slight incline, until it landed in a hole that gobbled your ball up for someone else to play with.

We timed it all just right, since a big picnic let out nearby, which meant that a bunch of people got in line to play, just as we were wrapping up. Score!

I tried a couple times to get the ball in, to no avail....then, I got serious....set my stance up just like Mom and Dad showed me, and I hit the ball through the base!

While it took me a few more swings to finish the hole off, I finally got my ball in, with Mom and Dad following soon after. Some snacks, and a ride on an old, squeaky, yet totally endearing train  finished off Father's Day 2013 in a lovely way...