Need Another Hand

Happy birthday to my Jude Lincoln!
He's now 6 and that means that we need to add another hand when showing how old he is (you know 5 fingers plus 1 additional?).

We had a party for him on Thursday.

But first, my little man ran a lollipop race in Altoona and although there were no winners, I'll let you come to your own conclusions from the photo below!

A few more shots of Jude getting 'pumped up' for his race.

We had a picnic style lunch for him around 1pm. Family and friends arrived. We ate, walked around outside, and had some cake. Oh, yes, the cake!! The highlight of every Hudkins birthday party. Let me reveal:

Grammy Linda did not disappoint! Jude wanted a mustache cake. the coolest thing about this cake was the inside was like a tie-dye cake. I didn't get a photo of it, but trust me, it was awesome.

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate and thanks for bringing Jude goodies!

Up next: Wrapping up birthday week with a day in Pittsburgh!

Birthday Week!

Hi Everyone!
I'm Amy. 

This is my blog I promised I'd maintain.

I really want to blog more often, life just gets in the way.

So here we are in July and guess who turns 6 in two days? My little buddy Jude Lincoln :0

Love that kiddo.

The good of having a birthday on the 4th of July is you'll always get fireworks. The bad is that it's a busy time of year for everyone and trying to put a party together is stinky. So we're turning his birthDAY into a birthWEEk celebration.

We kicked it off last evening with a trip to 5 Below, Barnes and Noble, The Meadows for ice cream, and a sleepover for the boys at Ga-Ga and Pop's.

Today might include a carnival visit.

Thursday Jude will run the Lollipop race in Altoona and then we'll have family picnic/party.

Friday we're heading to the Carnegie Science Center - hopefully I'll actually blog about that :)

Expanding Family

Our family has grown by 1!
Meet Magnolia Mae.

 

This little cutie is 6 weeks old (born 2/1/13).

She's a lab/golden retriever mix.

We love her! 

The story of how Maggie Mae came to be:
Since the passing of our Gertie last year, we knew we'd get another pup sooner or later. Our neighbors dog had 10 lab/golden retriever pups. Jeremy went and scoped them out, then I did.
Once we decided we'd get a pup, we also decided that we wouldn't tell the boys, rather keep it a surprise. Jude's still at the age where we can't understand 'we'll get her in a few weeks.' That would seem like a century to him. And Jackson, well, we feared it would totally distract him from school.
Last weekend was 'pick your pup' weekend. I snuck to the neighbors, telling the boys I was 'going for a run.' One of the toughest decisions I had to make was which 9 not to take. I wanted them all. I did mention that we should probably take 2, but then I came to me senses.
I picked out this little gem and then the longest week of waiting came.

Jeremy went puppy supply shopping, keeping the goods in his trunk all week. We snuck to his car so I could see the toys and collar - I felt bad we weren't sharing any of the prep work with the boys.
Yesterday after work, I went straight to the neighbor's to pick up girly. I brought her home; I had asked the boys to be on the lookout for me b/c I'd have groceries in the car and need help carrying them in (that wasn't a lie;). So I pulled up to the house, they were at the door waiting. I ran around to the passenger's side, pulled out the box and carried it to the door. Jeremy opened it and the boys saw the box, the 'it's a girl' balloon, then her! In what seemed like 5 minutes, but was really a split second, the boys looked at me, then the pup, then Jeremy, then the pup, then me. That's when I told them she was ours! Jackson fell over and Jude started jumping up and down.
And so here we are.

 

Many more adventures to come!

 

 

Italian French Toast

On Christmas Eve, we received a package from Parma, Italy from our friends Paolo and Stefania. It was full of delicious treats. This morning I made French toast with the panettone bread they sent us. The bread was sweet and full of raisins and oranges. It made the most delicious breakfast!

Guess we'll start our diets tomorrow :)

 

It's so pretty, I almost didn't want to open it (but so glad I did).

It's like a huge cupcake.

All ready for its custard bath!

If only the computer screen was a scratch and sniff.....

Yum!