Thanksgiving Festivites

Last Monday, we were invited to a Thanksgiving feast at Isabella's preschool, where they sang songs and told stories about Thanksgiving. Nick was one of the class helpers and made butter and popcorn and muffins with all the other Moms. This is the second year in a row that he has helped at this party and loves to do it. 

Isabella had to pick a vegetable that she wanted to be for the feast and we had to decorate a vest made out of a grocery bag with that vegetable. Last year, when the instructions were given to the other moms, I happened to be the class helper that day, and did not hear anything about these bag-vests. The day of the party, Nick called me and told me that I was supposed to have this vest done for that day. He was completely freaking out and felt like the loser parent with the only child who didn't have her homework done. As quick as I could, I made a vest at home and made a couple "Indian-Looking) prints on the front and wrote "Happy Thanksgiving" on the back. It was a sad looking vest, so this year, I was determined to redeem myself. Nick and I spent a couple hours on this thing and about $20. It was worth it.

Doesn't Nicholas look happy to be a participant of the feast this year?

Because I am such a wonderful baker, I chose to bake the pies instead of buy them at Patterson's. Never again. Not that I don't enjoy baking, but a pie is a pie. Especially when you buy it from one of the biggest apple and pumpkin farms in the area and they bake them fresh daily from scratch. And sell them for about $12. Sooo not worth the time and mess to do it yourself. 

Nicholas was a huge help, and made sure there was as much flour on the counter and floor as possible.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at my sister's house. The tables were decorated spectacularly and the food was fabulous. But, the dinner conversation was stellar. I quote, "Sarah Palin is a bull---- son of a -----" Thankfully, my brother in law did not have a stroke right there at the table.

Oliver is the newest member of the Z family. He's only been living there for a few weeks. Doesn't he look uncomfortable with all the loud people in the house?

He didn't even mind the heckling boy.



Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone enjoyed the day!

Dog Treats for Dinner

Here's a funny little story that made us all laugh at the dinner table.

I buy "Canine Carryouts" dog treats for Gio and he gets one every time he goes potty outside. (Which is a lot. And now he's a big fatty.) But, that's beside the point. This is what the dog treats look like.

Last night I made cottage ham for dinner. For those of you who have never had cottage ham, this is what it looks like.

Nicholas took a couple bites, and said, "Mmm, this is yummy. Is it dog food?"

Yes. Yes it is. I just didn't feel like cooking dinner tonight, so I reached my hand into that big ol' bag of dog treats and plopped some on your plates.

I'm not sure which is more disturbing. The fact that he thought it was yummy, even though it may have been dog food, or the fact that it would be completely acceptable for me to serve dog treats to my family for dinner.

So Funny, These Teenagers

Taylor has had several days in a row with constant activities, and little sleep. Last night I was sitting in the school cafeteria during a meeting, on someone else's phone, listening to my husband tell me that my 9 year old niece was being taken to the hospital for pneumonia, with Taylor chirping in my other ear asking if she could have her new boyfriend over for a couple hours. In that moment of weakness, I agreed.

In walks the boyfriend with roses and candy. For me????? I say. No I didn't say that. I was on the phone, so I couldn't gush too much over it, which Taylor was probably very thankful of. I didn't have a chance to ask what the occasion was until 10:00 when he was leaving. When I did ask, this adorable, ridiculously tall young man held up his finger and confidently said "1 month". Me being the quick witted one looked blankly at them both and said "huh?" Then I finally got it. Ohhh, 1 month since they have been dating!!! Is that hysterical, or what? Woo-hoo we made it a whole 30 days!! That must feel like a lifetime to a 16 and 17 year old. I didn't share my humor in the situation with the kids. I didn't think they would appreciate it. All joking aside, I am enjoying watching this relationship develop. They seem to really care about one another and enjoy doing and saying nice things to each other. It is neat to see that a genuine friendship is forming.  

Halloween 2010

This was the first year that we only had 2 kids trick or treating. Poor Taylor had to work, and Shea decided that at her ripe old age of 14, she was beyond that stage of her life. She did walk with us and help the little kids get candy. And they both helped eat the candy.

This year Isabella decided to be Jasmine from the Disney movie "Aladdin". The costumes at the Disney Store are really awesome, and are made really well, but they are really expensive. If you wait till the week before Halloween, they usually mark their costumes off by 50%. Once we got to the Disney Store, Isabella took one look at the Ariel costume and immediately changed her mind. I reminded her that she was Ariel 2 years ago, but she didn't care. So we picked out the dress, the crown and a necklace and checked out. Wouldn't you know it that darn Ariel was not on sale?? I started to tell the lady that we needed to re-evaluate, but Isabella in her sweetest Isabella voice said "But Mommy, I just love Ariel so much. I will be the best Ariel ever!!" How do you say no to that? I'm a weakling - I couldn't say no. So 50 buckaroos is what I paid for that darn dress. Jasmine, by the way, was 50% off. (Wait, it gets better)

The day before her Halloween party at preschool, she kindly tells me that she thinks she likes Jasmine better, because Ariel is too itchy. I was slightly irritated, but was a little excited that I was going to spend less money. So we went back to the mall, exchanged Ariel for Jasmine, and I received a $30 credit on my charge. I was excited, she was excited, it was a good morning. ON THE WAY HOME......she started bawling her eyes out because she missed Ariel and wanted to be her for Halloween. I drove straight to the nearest mental facility and checked myself in. No I didn't. Instead I screamed my head off at her like some lunatic for a good 20 minutes and said that she was going to be Jasmine or I was pulling out her old Sleeping Beauty costume from last year and she'd have to suffer through being the same princess 2 years in a row. She saw the light and decided that Jasmine was pretty cool. I threw in some gold glitter and bright pink lipstick for good measure.

I thought it would be fun to let Nicholas decide what he wanted to be and gave him a catalog to look through that I had received in the mail. I had visions of him is some cute, cozy little lion suit or a giraffe or something cuddly and adorable. This is what he chose from the catalog.

It was the scariest, most grotesque costume that came in a little kid's size. I said Ummm, No!! We battled for a little while until I found a dinosaur costume in the catalog and convinced him that dinosaurs were scary because they could eat people. Easy peasy - he was going to be a dinosaur. Then we went to a costume store and he saw Spider Man. It was like the costume had a halo of light around it and a choir was singing. Spider Man was the winner. He wore it everyday. It had chocolate stains and a hole in the armpit by Halloween. 

We trick or treated in our old neighborhood again, which has become tradition. Nick's brother and his family still live there so we always get together at their house. My nephew Joseph (8) was the Scream guy, and my other nephew, Anthony (6) was Darth Vader.

Fall

As I've previously said, summer is my favorite season. I love it, love it, love it. I like the heat and the sun. I lived in Austin Texas for 2 years and survived 105 + temperatures just fine. I could live in the desert and be perfectly happy. Just give me a pair of sunglasses, a bathing suit and put my by the pool, and I would live out my days in sheer joy.

That being said, I also love fall. I like high school football games, changing leaves, warm days and cool nights, and the smell of it all.

We are lucky to have a pretty big yard that is very wooded. One of the kid's and my favorite things to do is go for walks in the woods and explore the nature. This is how we have been spending those nice days this fall. 

No one can resist the lure of a mucky, freezing cold creek.

Unless you fall in.

Tell us, Isabella. How did it make you feel when you fell on your rear end, got up, and instantly fell forward on your knees because your boots were stuck in the mud? Was it upsetting?

(I know what your thinking. I'm a sick person to take pictures of my own child's misfortune. Oh, chill out. I eventually helped her out of the creek after a few quick snaps of the camera.)

Jumping in a big leaf pile is the best.........

Unless you're Gio.

It's serious business hauling those leaves around.  

A Month in the Dark Ages

Holy canoli's!! We finally have internet again. How did I ever survive without it? Time Warner has been to our house 8 times in the last 4 weeks trying to determine what the prblem was. We started out with extremely slow connections to non-existent connections to the phone and security system not working. A couple of unlucky fellows tried to tell me that in was a speed issue and we needed to upgrade our speed. I unleashed a little fury on them and think I succeeded in letting them know that I was pretty certain that speed was not the problem. They never did really pinpoint the exact problem, but nevertheless, our Internet is finally working again.

So let me backtrack a little to the beginning of October when my darling little teenage girls went to Homecoming.

Taylor's date finally asked her the Monday afternoon before the dance. She had practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so that gave us Wednesday from 6 - 9 to buy dress. We found one at 8:45; 15 minutes before the mall closed and 45 minutes after Nicholas melted down. It was WAY over my budget, so we split it in half and both ran walked away happy. (With Nicholas arching his back and screaming in the stroller all the way through the mall to our car.)

After trying on every pair of black heels in Northeast Ohio, Shea found a pair of black flats that she was comfortable in and enabled her to not be taller than her date. A dilemma that I didn't think was a big deal, but she was adamant about.

Both girls had a great time, and Taylor started dating her date shortly after they went to the dance together. Shea decided that she wanted to remain strictly on a plutonic level with her date, who sadly did not feel the same way. The poor boy. I instantly liked him and was really pulling for him.