I married Santa...

I married Santa and ya know what? He's pretty dang cute!

Thanksgiving- Always be grateful

We don't have very many Thanksgiving traditions beyond avoiding family drama, but making the dogs pose for ridiculous pictures is a tried and true tradition at its best. We're thankful for eachother, our pups, our wonderful careers, our house, and our amazing friends!

October means Murder Mystery Dinner!

One annual event we look forward to each year is Petrie's Murder Mystery Dinner. Sarah has hosted many of these types of parties in the past, so its nice to be in some where she isn't planning (and cheating by reading the revealed murderer early). Here's our costumes this year for Death of a Highwayman:

Sarah is a barwench who is friendly with all the men, and Vince is a highway man who lets his wife (played by Shannon- LOL!) do all the fighting and tough stuff for him.

Last year's costumes:

Sarah as Little Red Riding Hood, Vince as Sherlock Holmes, and Benny as Long John Silver.

We sadly didn't remember our camera for the first one. Sarah was an alchoholic 20s flapper and Vince was a loveable traincart hobo.

Second Honeymoon at DISNEYLAND!

While we don't vacation often, when we do the hubs goes ALL OUT! We flew first class to and from California and went all out in between. I don't think there is any desire/want during the trip that he didn't fulfill. We ate at fancy resteraunts, bought fun souveniers, and had the time of our lives in Disneyland! Hubs surprised me with a character breakfast but we also ate at Blue Bayou inside the Pirates of the Carribean ride- seated right next to the water! To see the new World of Color show at California Adventures Vince planned a dinner package where we got the fanciest meal of our lives and after VIP reserved seating. The only thing between us and the actual water of the show was..nothing! We were RIGHT THERE at the edge not even in the first row- special VIP platform ahead of it... and we got wet- but luckily had ponchos! AH.MAZ.ING.

We got our photos taken with some of our favorite characters like the Queen of Hearts, Tigger, Eeyore, Baloo, etc..and of course MICKEY! Mickey was the first thing we ran into on our first day. What a way to start a vacation!

11 days and counting...

We will be at the Happiest Place on Earth in just eleven days- I can't wait. I feel the blogs been a bit neglected since we've been so busy this summer getting every ounce of fun in we can before "the semester of doom" starts- when Sarah is teaching 3rd grade, finishing her teacher work sampling portfolio, and taking grad classes at night!

There aren't any pics of our recent adventures.. So just imagine a big happy smile on our faces and that will be the mental image we can leave you with.

Heres some pics of us from our last Disney adventure (DisneyWorld)

Required Post

It's father's day. I hate it as much as mother's day. But I guess its a requirementin in the blog-universe to discuss it. So here goes:

My dad blah blah blah dadness blah blah required photo:

Yeah, you can tell I'm his kiddo. I have SO MANY of the typical "Burney genes" my sass, height, and redhair come from the Burney genepool- well the redhair I have when I haven't dyed it a million times. (my dad used to be more auburn..his beard was always a bushy mountain-man red)

His name is H.R.D. it means His Royal Dadness. Salut!

CWG at Petries!

I have a gazillion words about how great CityWideGaming was this year. But since we all need to catch up on sleep from 2 days of non-stop fun here's just some pics of your two favorite game hosts.

We ran Munchkin, Catan, UberCatan, Betrayl at House on the Hill, Killer Bunnies, Civilization (well we planned to but UberCatan ran long), and Sarah and Shannon did the last event- The Pajama Party PartyGames! PartyGames included Telestrations, Thanks-A-Lot, and Balderdash to name a few! SO FUN.

Family Portriat

Last weekend Vince's family decided it was time once again for the much dreaded (by the kids) family photo. I'll post some more, but for now heres a nice one of just our family- dogs included. I love how Penny is so proper up on that little stool, its just too cute!

Belle of the Ball

This past Saturday we went to a charity steampunk ball that raised money for an artist who had fallen very ill. Steampunk is "the history that never was" mixing victorian styles with technology- lots of clocks, gears, etc. Here is a quick pic of part of my costume- the bustle!

I will need to track down someone who snapped a pic of my full outfit at the ball. With so many amazing costumes cameras were going off all night. I did get awesome shots of others but forgot to lend my camera to someone for my own pict

ure. Here's one of my favorites I captured of Vince:

And as I was getting ready I even let Frank in on the fun. I called him "Professor Von Pugsnort"!

*pic coming soon*

A Very Berryman Easter pt.1

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Growing up I remember asking our elderly neighbors what the Easter Bunny brought them and the old couple told me that the Easter Bunny (and Santa..) don't visit houses without young children. I thought this was horrible, and I still remember it so clearly- I guess it scarred me for life. Well, I'm proving those old crazy geezer wrong because ALL the holiday spirits/characters/etc come to our house throughout the year. Why should kids have all the fun?

This was my masterpiece I created for Vince for Easter. That big brown blob in the lower left is our beanbag... I know in this photo it looks like exploding carpet since it matches. This project took the largest spool of thick string I could find, over 250 easter eggs (including ones with suction cups on mirrors, glow-in-the dark, hanging from the ceilings, etc), small candies, and a lot of getting tied up and tripping as I created it! It went all over the house and was an amazing mess of Easter Web. (Maybe the Easter Spider came instead of a Bunny..?)

Here's Vince at the start of the "trail". Since there is no way I could do this with him at home I did it while he was at work on Saturday and so his Easter started a night early. He was given the instructions to use the Mickey basket (cute, isn't it?) and follow the string in order, no cheating. Frank and Penny were very willing to help- especially since any Easter Eggs falling off the line meant "floor-candy". Don't worry- they didn't get any and there was no chocolate! We are VERY careful about puppy safety!
I love this picture because, as pointed out to me by a friend, it looks like the eggs are planets against the dark wall and the light is a bright sun! Also, you can see a hint of amusement and frustration on Vince's face as he realizes "what- there's MORE in the basement"!
Next time I want to use a brighter string and more eggs. Of course, for how long this took I don't think there will be a next time. Maybe down the road if we have kids, or neices/nephews, or for any of the kids who have "adopted" us... but not for a few years!

So heres the end shot of Vince and his loot. The candy from the eggs, small toys that were hiding in some of the eggs, goodies wrapped up in the web, and the giant nerf gun that was at the end. Not pictured: A build-your-own-mini-wooden-TARDIS kid and one of those toy snakes that grows in water. I think I did pretty good with a $20 budget. And a whole holiday with no boardgames (Sorry, Petries).





If you're wondering why I am not in a single pic its because 1) Who do you think took the photos and 2) Vince is currently putting together my Easter. He needed extra time since he works and I'm a sneak who would have searched the house for clues. More to come. Stay tuned.

House Full o' Sick People!

Teaching in a new school I am exposed to all kinds of germs, and luckily have the immune system of a superhero to avoid getting a bunch of what has been going around (H1N1, colds, flus, pink eye, strep, etc...) however, a megabug going around I just couldn't fight. Its been everywhere. I'm pretty sure I got it from the student- every class has one- that can't leave his fingers out of his green-boogery nose, coughs without covering his mouth, sneezes in a way that spreads to other states, and the one you just wanna dunk in a hot, soapy shower. Poor kid, he's also my glue eater.

So this is what our week and weekend has looked like:

Laying on the couch (usually in PJs, but he got dressed today) with the dogs snuggled up. The pups enjoy everyone being snuggle-ready, but they are are really antsy because no one has walked them or had the energy to play with them much. We're also going on day #5 of the Dokupon Kingdom marathon. (its a wii game)

Please send some chicken soup!

Happy St Pats!

We had some fun plans for the holiday- but getting sick wasn't one of them. We were going to Disney on Ice with some of our fav. people and Sarah had some fun planned for her class. But since we're doped up on cold medicine the best we can do is leave you with this photo of Sarah being a leprechaun at age 5-7(?)

Jeff Dunham LIVE!

For Christmas one thing I got for Vincent was a set of tickets to see Jeff Dunham live. Sure, I got the tickets in December and we had to wait until March to see the show- but I get priority odering on tickets so I got us in RowC, center!!!

We were very excited to have our tickets:

I gave Vince an Achmed talking bobblehead along with the tickets, and at the show we got the matching Walter talking bobble head. "I keel you!"

Bobbley Heads:

The show was great, all new material (well at least new to us- none of the old jokes off the DVDs or Comedy Central specials) and even "Guitar Guy" was there. 

We Got Spirit Yes We Do!

It was Spirit Week at the school I'm at and so heres two selections of how I've been getting into the spirit this week:

Crazy Hair Day!

This took about 90 minutes of crimping, lots of teasing, pink glitter spray, and included four ponytails

Decade Day!

There was a lot of flexibility in this one but I went for the Hippie "Peace, Love, and Happiness" thing.

I'm enjoying the new class, school, district, etc WAY better than her last experience! ... if you couldn't tell it seems to be a better fit for my crazy personality!

Happy 28th Bithday, Vince!

Its hard to believe this handsome man is such an old dude now! Vince celebrated his 28th Birthday with a Mickey Mouse and Catan themed celebration. Sarah surprised him with the 25th anniversary wooden edition of the Catan board game and matching Catan-inspired cake, and he even got his biggest birthday wish of all: SNOW!

Happy Birthday, Vince!!!