Today is My Sister's Birthday

We celebrated Penny's birthday on Sunday at their house with the family. They had a clam bake for those who like clams and grilled steaks for those who don't like clams. (Like me) Today, my parents, my sister and I went out to lunch to celebrate the actual day.

Penny is a really cool person. She has like a bazillion friends, so they must all see what we have known for ever. She is an awesome Mom, and the best sister. I am really lucky to have her. And, she has the most killer wardrobe you have ever seen. I rarely see her in the same outfit twice. Her shoe collection rivals that of Imelda Marcos. The people at Nordstrom know her by name. When she walks in they kiss her feet and they hire a Chinese man to cart her around in a rickshaw while she piles the clothing on top of him. The other shoppers think she's famous. Then you visit her house......What can I say that would do it justice. It's like walking into a page of Better Homes and Gardens while they are featuring the top 10 decorated houses in the country. It's sick, and I hate her. Just kidding. I love her.

Happy Birthday Penzoil!

DUH!!!!

Today I drove half way down our street with the back door of the car swingly wildly open with Nicholas strapped in the car seat gasping for breath from the blast of cold air.

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween Cookie Decorating

Tonight the kids decorated Halloween cookies. It is a huge mess, but they look forward to it every year. Isabella enjoyed mashing her dough on the counter and kept calling it pizza. Nicholas picked up a big piece of dough and tried to jam it into his mouth as fast as he could before I noticed and took it away from him. I'm not sure how much he swallowed. Hopefully raw egg is not a problem for 8 month olds....

Taylor's Masterpieces

Shea's Masterpieces

Isabella's Masterpiece (Raw cookie dough shoved into a sprinkle jar)

Go Browns!

Nick finally has a kid that will support his football team. For years he has been trying to get Taylor and Shea to root for the Browns, but they won't go against their Dad's New England Patriots. (I think it also has to do with rooting for a winning team versus a losing team) Isabella will root for whoever we tell her to so long as she gets to wear a cute cheerleader outfit!

Happy Birthday Heidi!!

We celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday on Saturday night. She was P.O.'d that I was putting her on the blog, but tough tooties Heidi. Nick's brother, Joe made steak sandwiches and a very delicious chocolate cake. I got to take a large portion of cake home and eat it all weekend. I will never say no to chocolate, so when they offered to send half the cake home with me, who am I to say no.

Happy Birthday Heidi! You have a full year before you are the center of attention again.

Yesterday we played outside almost all day. I let everything go in the house for the day and just had fun with the kids. Nicholas took a 3 hour nap, so I brought the monitor outside and Isabella and I played all morning. We had a picnic, and I let Isabella choose all the food that we were going to pack. She had about one bite of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a couple bites of turkey breast, 3 grapes, 2 bites of an apple, a handful of goldfish, and most of her My Little Pony fruit snacks. She had so much fun sitting on the blanket eating. This morning when she woke up, the first thing that she wanted to do was go on another picnic.

After dinner, the 4 kids and I went on a walk down the street. Isabella decided that she wanted to ride in the stroller, so Nicholas got to ride in the pink bug car. He didn't care. He thought he was big stuff hanging onto the steering wheel. Shea whizzed back and forth on her scooter, and Taylor and I had a nice conversation about anything and everything.

Pretty soon, we will be holed up in our cold house and it will be dark by 4:30, so I want to enjoy these last few days outside as much as possible!

We are Ready for Halloween

The kids and I enjoyed decorating our house this weekend for Halloween. Isabella does not think anything is unusual about the spider webs and and big hairy spiders all over our house.

Hopefully when Halloween is over, I will be able to remove the webs from our rhododendrons or I will have to hear the squawking from the husband.

My Second Favorite Season

I am definitely a summer person. I love the heat and I love the sun. I would be very happy if we lived in the South so long as my family followed us there. I know that is not going to happen, so I guess I am stuck in the cold 6 months out of the year.

However, I can't be too disenchanted about fall beginning when this is my view every day. All the leaves are changing and our yard looks really beautiful. And for now, I get the best of both worlds; it has been in the high 70's for 4 days.

Pumpkin Picking

Shea's Cross Country Meet

Shea just finished the season with her last meet yesterday. She did such a great job this year. Her time for the 2 mile improved by 3 minutes from the beginning of the season. This is the first time she has ever run before. When she came home from school last spring and said that she wanted to join the cross country team this year, I was a little surprised. She has never run before. I would never had said anything to her, but I really questioned whether or not she could do it. 2 miles is a lot! She started practice in August and has run 2 miles every day since then. I am really proud of her for trying something different and doing her best! (And her legs are like steel now!!)

2 Year Old with a French Manicure

One of the many benefits of having a 14 year old sister.

Purple Chicken

I tried a new recipe for a chicken dish called Coq au Vin. The recipe caption said "This rich burgandy sauce will impress your guests and family" I did not have any burgandy wine, so I used Merlot. I didn't think it would be a big deal to use a different wine, but clearly it was. My chicken turned purple. Shea initially thought it looked good until she discovered that it was chicken and not beef. They were less than thrilled to try my new dish, but I promised them that the chicken was not contaminated. They ate it, but did not go back for seconds. I don't really think I impressed anyone with this one.

The Great Escape

Nicholas tried his hardest to get to the stairway before I could catch him. Not this time buster!