Thomas's Upcoming BeyBlade Party!~

With a our son's birthday coming up fast, we have already begun the preparation.

Check out some of our progress....

*****INVITATIONS ******

Dude...I am proud of these. Cutout paper Beyblades that actually spin on a track ON THE INVITE! Each one cost about $0.80 to make, but I am pretty proud of them. 

I will save a pptx file of it eventually so people can snag the template if they wish. 

Essentially I made the design, cut a track, and made a movable Beyblade that was attached to pennies. Gravity helps with the rest. Check out the video here: http://youtu.be/ppTGaAnL2NM

****GAMES****

The main theme will be the tournament...of course. But that many kids taking turns, someone may get board. We are going to make our own "launch challenges" to help our junior Beybladers get some practice and skills. 

Ryuga Race - Two Lanes and a goal line...Launch straight, Launch fast, Win the Challenge!

Gingka Game - Ever tried to skip a stone on a pond? How about a bey on multi-level boards. How many times can you skip it? Our kiddo came up with this game one morning. All I heard was several beys hitting my wall. I came up to to find that he had set up a table, chair, and upside down tub and was launching them into a bucket. So awesome. 

Kamikaze Kyoya - BeyBlade Shuffle Board! Spin your way to the highest score, and hope your opponent doesn't knock you off. 

Kenta Krash - Did you know you can bowl with beys? True story. Kiddo had setup some koolaid bottles and started trying to knock them down. In his undies...as per usual. Decided this was a BRILLIANT idea for a game :)

Madoka Mechanics - Not a game, but definitely a great pit stop. My son's favorite part of Beyblading is taking them apart and rebuilding them...better, faster, stronger, etc. So...Viva la Craigslist... we found 50 beys for about $50 dollars...decided it was a great take home/goody bag item. So all the kids will build and customize a Beyblade for the tournament, and then take it home at the end of the party. 

Still a few weeks away from the big day! Wish us luck!

Treece Day in December 2013

My awesome husband comes from an amazing family. A BIG amazing family. Hard to shop for 'the perfect' gift for each person. However, sometimes the best gifts - are memories. Thus we started a tradition... every Holiday we treat the Treece Crew to a random gathering for their XMAS Present. Great laughs, awesome photo ops, and memories that last a lifetime. 

This years adventure: Roller Skating
This year we Groupon'd at WestLake Skate in Garland. Got the little boys some "skate buddies" so they wouldn't fall on their first skating attempts. Rachel was awesome and brought Reid, so if we needed to rest, we just said "Oh, let me hold the baby" and pretend we weren't exhausted, just wanting a turn with the kiddo. Sneaky sneaky.

Family Portrait - After we were all exhausted. 

Thomas had a great time

Couple Skate

Sibling Skate

So yeah. Happy Holidays!

Another use for Skylanders...Christmas Edition

Post Thanksgiving tradition of setting up the tree is never boring at the Treece House. My son and husband scaled the top ledge in our living room to hang garland, the dogs tried to run off with a few ornaments, and somehow we lost the star. However, the awesome addition to this year's tree...was Skylanders. Yeah, those $10-$15 dollar game pieces for Activision's Skylanders Games now earn the use of that "collectible" status that costs so much. Tied a bit of ribbon around them and added them to our tree. Thomas loves it!

Date Dinner Adventures

We don't always have a chance to do any kind of date night. But when Thomas went to a Ninja-Night Out at his karate school, Jeff and I had a stay at home movie and dinner. Which with us, can only be entertaining....

Date Dinner Adventures:
#1 The Onion-Tears
Jeff asks me if I know how to cut an onion without crying. I said, "I think its like hiccups where there are alot of ways people say but none really work."
Jeff: "No seriously, there is a way."
Me: "What, the whole eat a piece a bread while cutting.
Jeff: "No, the way you can cut and onion without crying is by not being such a wimp".
#Pwnd

#2 The Wine-Aid
We bought a new wine to try tonight with our dinner. I said it would be better if it was sweeter. Long story short... We added some of Thomas's Kool-Aid, and it tasted fantastic.

The Pirate Fairy?

My dad, Tom, was introducing Jeff to a friend and was warning his friend about Jeff's playful mannerisms. 

The friend wrapped it up in a nutshell he said "So basically treat him like I would a fairy. " Meaning: Don't eat anything he gives you, don't trust anything he says as the whole truth, if he is smiling then something is amiss. 

Sounds about right... Wouldn't you agree? Only time you can successfully tell a man that he reminds you of a fairy and it be a complimentary and accurate expression of his personality. Kudos random friend. Made me laugh.

Jeff followed this up by opening a pizza box and offering it to the guy with a big sheepish grin. The friend looked leery and politely declined.

Jeff- 1 ; Friend - 0

Sweet Smelling

Oh that handsome husband of mine...
Jeff smelled really good after he sprayed some cologne. I asked him if he ever would like me to wear perfume. 

Without missing a beat he smiles and says "Yes, I would love it if you wore nothing but perfume..."

Took me a minute.

Honesty at its most awkward times...

Whilst packing and moving my brother, we started to play with his sword collection...
My brother was making commentary on who would win based on sword length.

I tried to be funny and quote "it's not the size that counts, it's how you use it..."

Without missing a beat, Jeff adds, "Luckily I have never had to use that excuse.

How To Be A Treece 101

Yesterday Jeff and Thomas were playing with tinker toys at the Treece house. When Thomas pulled out the instructions, Jeff just laughed.

Naively, I asked what was the harm in reading the instructions. Mr. Treece (Greg) said, "oh, instructions? That's what we use as wrapping paper or stuffing"

Strangely, I have zero doubt of the truth to that...

QR Code in the Teacher Note

For Thomas's Class Teacher appreciation project, they sent home a sheet asking Thomas why his teacher is the best. Figured we'd go all Treece on it, and instead of writing it out we took a video and included a QR/2D barcode on the sheet linking to the video. 

Check out the vid here: http://youtu.be/sxisNsuY1HM

Sneaky Sci-Fi Loving Pirate

Probably my proudest moment at work...
So I was filling something in, and it asked what is my greatest achievement at work. Here it goes:

One time, I managed to convince leadership to name a product's color "Calima". I told them that the word was from the name of a hot, dusty area in the Canary Islands, but also the spanish word for Haze. Since it was a grayish color product it was all good.

But the true story on why I picked Calima... is because its the name of the name of a Holy City from the movie Planet of the Apes. I had to Google other meanings AFTERWARDS.

My next attempt was to get another color named Semos. That was the name of the temple in the city.