Yes, family & friends, it was only a matter of time before a Settlers blog post appeared.  In case you don’t know about Settlers of Catan, it’s a German board game that my family is obsessed about – or, that I am obsessed about winning.  Personally I think it’s like a cross between Monopoly & Risk.  Currently I am on a 3-month losing streak.  And, people, we don’t just play once in a while – we play at least once a week, sometimes more, and even more than one game in a sitting.  I am the official Settlers loser in my family, and I make sure to let them all know about it.  I stink!  I just don’t know why (they could all probably tell you), but I can’t seem to win.  Oh well, such is life.  And it’s just a game, right?

Today after Bert & Laura brought Emma back after her sleepover, we all had lunch at our house & played two games of Settlers.  Congratulations to Mom (Bonnie) & Bert on winning.  (You won’t be invited back, since you didn’t let me win).

In the photo above I’m the blue pieces.  As you can see at this point things didn’t look too terrible for me until Mom came full force with a massive road, cutting the entire land of Catan in half!  And Bert with his stinkin’ castles!  OMG!  How’s a person supposed to win with this kind of competition?  I even have Settlers of Catan on my iPhone so I can practice against highly-skilled computers but I just can’t seem to bring the winning into real life.  I’ll be sure to let you know when my streak ends.

Oh, and if you want to play with us, come on over.  We’re usually up for playing any day of the week, even into the wee hours of the night.  Sroka’s are always up for some competition!

Photos I’ve been looking at:  Melissa C.  She’s a person I randomly found though…you guessed it….Facebook!  I think I saw her comment on another 365 blog & clicked through to her blog & saw her photo of a crossword puzzle.  Immediately I thought of my dear grandmother who loves crosswords.  Melissa gave me such an encouraging comment the other day when I felt like giving up on this 365 thing.  Thanks for the push forward Melissa & I love looking at your work.  Keep it up!

*oh, and we’re such Settlers nerds that we bought Kids of Catan for our children.  Yup, we took it that far.

This is one of my many sisters-in-law, Robin, displaying her winnings as the skee ball champ against Mom at Chuckie Cheese’s this afternoon.  Mom, or Gigi as the girls call her, invited us to come to a lunch date while she watched two of my lovely nieces, Mackinzie & Delaney.  They come down every Monday for some Gigi time & we like to get the cousins together for some cousin time too.  We all got a ton of tokens, thanks to Gigi, & it was personally my goal to acquire as many tickets as possible…cuz that’s how I roll.  Brooke kinda slowed me down, but I’d say we cleaned up pretty decently in the end.

Mom is a pretty darn good skee ball player and challenged Robin to beat her.  (My personal best score was 20,000)  Mom got 23,000 and was ecstatic….until…Robin came back with 25,000!  Ouch!  So, I made Robin climb up on the skee ball lanes & show me her victory face.  But wait!  That’s not all!  As we were turning in our tickets I found a stray coin in my pocket & gave it to mom, telling her she should redeem herself in skee ball.  She quickly ran over & smacked down Robin’s score with a new high of 28,000 – VICTORY!  I told her to get up on the lanes too, but she politely declined…I wonder why?

Thanks for the great lunch date girls.  We had a blast!

Photos I’m looking at:  Perfectly Posh Photography by Nicole Benitez.  Nicole was another participant in Justin & Mary’s Spread the Love Tour in DC whose business card I snagged (super cute, BTW).  I’ve looked her up, followed her on Twitter & become her Facebook Fan so I could check out her work.  I totally love her fresh, colorful look.  Her style matches her personality – chic, urban, couture!  And, to boot, she’s a mom…of five!  Wow!  If she can do this photo biz thing with 5 kiddos, I think I can probably make mine work too!  Thanks for the inspiration, Nicole!  Hope we run in to one another sometime again.

My sister came along in my life when I was almost 7 years old.  She kicked me out of the “baby” role & stole my spotlight with her brown curly hair & beautiful blue eyes.  And I LOVE her!  Maggie hates hates hates when I share her business with anyone, so I’ll be vague, but I have to share with you how proud I am of her & how much I just love her.  Now don’t get me wrong…she is annoying, steals my clothes, doesn’t return my phone calls, talks incessantly, and STOLE my role as the baby in the family.  Yet, she is my sister and she has been through some tough stuff in her short 22 years.  But lately, I have seen a fortitude & determination in her life that makes me smile.  She wants to be a good mother to her dear, sweet Leah.  She wants to work.  She wants to make her way in this world.  She wants to be self sufficient.  Wanting is one thing…doing is another, and lately, I have seen Maggie doing.  So, to honor her (& because I’m the worst gift-giver ever & all I know how to give is photographs), I stole her daughter today for a mini photo session.  Yes, it did benefit me to parade my niece around in tutu’s and feather boas and make her cry, but it is also my gift to Maggie.  Leah is her world, her constant, & her reason for trying to be better.  These photos of her little love were what I felt would speak to her the most…that, and an iPod.  And I’m really bad at secrets, and I’m not technically supposed to be giving Maggie this gift until Leah’s 1st birthday in November, but, like I said, I’m really bad at secrets & can’t wait!!!!  And MAJOR MAJOR props go out to my partners in secrecy Ashley (my sister-in law) & my mom, Susan.  Ashley made so many faces, did so many noises, dances, and other crazy things to get Leah looking at me.  And Mom, you were great watching the 4 other grand kids & helping with numerous outfit changes…oh yeah, and lying to Maggie about what we were doing!  Thank you both!  Here is Leah Beth…..

I love little girls!  They are so sweet, and feminine, and petite, and just so….girly!  Don’t get me wrong, God has gifted boys with all their uniqueness, but I am partial to little girls because I have two of my own.

Well I met a sweet bundle of little girlness yesterday named Clara.  (Don’t you just love that name?)  Clara is three weeks old and the first granchild in her family.  So you can probably imagine how she is doted on from all sides.  When I arrived, her mommy showed me all the possible cute little dresses & shoes she had pulled out for our photo session.  One was even a dress that her mom wore when she was a baby.  There’s just something about little baby girls in little baby dresses that almost makes me want to have another….almost.

Clara was an absolute jewel during our session.  She tolerated my cold hands trying to curl her little body into the “perfect” newborn pose.  She even allowed three outfit changes!  She was a doll, and only cried when she was hungry…which is what I do too!  Here is Clara in all her girlie sweetness…

Our first born has officially turned four!  We celebrated by torturing ourselves and having TWO birthday parties!  One for little friends, and one for family members.  Maybe we should just buy a bigger house rather than host two parties???

For Emma’s little friends party, we had a puppet show.  I wasn’t the best puppeteer, but we managed.  Luckily preschoolers and toddlers aren’t too tough.  Brooke did interrupt the show by taking my puppet off my hand, but other than that little fiasco, things went great.  Then the kiddos made paper bag puppets and played with the puppet theater.  By the way, this puppet theater belonged to my sister-in-law, Emily, and her siblings when they were little, so it’s pretty well loved!

After, we ate cake!  Here are some of Emma’s party pictures.  And, if you want to know some good gifts for a four-year-old girl, email me!  Our family and friends found the greatest presents!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I did not make this super cute cake or cupcakes.  I took this year off from baking and went with my mom’s advice and got this cake at Shopper’s in Annapolis.  It was a great deal, and even better cake!