Baby A's 15 month update

What can I say about the little ball of energy that is my youngest child?  Well, lets see: he is walking now, everywhere and getting into EVERYTHING!

His personality is shining and he is such a little clown.  He's also very stubborn and defiant.  And have you ever seen a 1 year old throw a tantrum?  Yeah, I have my work cut out for me.  But he is amazing and cute and funny, and friendly and cuddly and just the best little baby you have ever met.  WE ALL LOVE HIM SO VERY MUCH.

Thanksgiving 2014

In our family, we look forward to Thanksgiving every year; the Thanksgiving day parade on TV, football for some, and of course all that food!  It has become one of my favorite times of year.  And as per the norm, we celebrated Thanksgiving again this year and it was truly an amazing day.  Now, something traumatic did happen that day but it just reminded us of how blessed we are and how much we have to truly be thankful for.  

We had just over 20 guests for dinner and the food, as always, was spectacular.  We actually made 2 turkeys this year (I, of course, brined my turkey and it was super moist, super juicy, and super flavoRful as always).  I also made the majority of the sides: mac and cheese, green bean casserole, bbq carrots, cole slaw, tuna pasta salad, mashed potatoes, and potatoes gratin.  My mother in law made the rice, the refreshments and roasted the other turkey.  I also made a few desserts: my famous 7 layer magic bars, corn bread, banana bread, cheesecake squares, and apple pies.  And as usual, my guests also brought a few goodies to share: pumpkin pie, pecan pie (my favorite kind of pie), some sort of bread, ice cream and spaghetti.  It was a magical day all around... and by the end of the night, we were all stuffed, like turkeys!

My menu

 My turkey

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I

November 2014 Recap

Looks like I 'll be doing picture posts recapping all the months I missed opportunities to blog... I guess I should try to blog more don't ya think?  Something to think about for the new year I guess.  Anyway here is another picture post of all the important stuff that went on in the month of November.... well, here are pics of one huge event that took place in November.

 JC's birthday party!!!!!!!!

We held JC's party at the movie theaters on the 2nd of November, even though his actual birthday was in September.  One big reason for that was the timing.  You have to book the theater ahead of time and by the time I went to reserve our date, there were no dates left, not even in October.  So November it was, and no one even cared.  JC was so happy... he finally got the party he wanted.

After the movie: The Book of Life

 Games

 Decor and cake 

 Time for the pinata

Goody bags and gifts

 Time for cake

Happy birthday!!!!

Group photo with all the kids

The party was a HUGE hit... no one had ever done a party like this before in our circle nor attended one quite like it.  I loved the fact that everything was done or provided for me and so I didn't have to do much of anything at all, except show up.  

Since I did want to customize the party a little bit so JC could have a Super Mario party, I  did a few DIY decor for the party guests:  I printed Mario photos for the pinata, made a Mario banner, got gold chocolate coins and glued Mario faces to them for each kid, printed up mario mustaches for each kid to take home and made chocolate covered marshmallows as thank you favors with Luigi thank you favor tags.  

The theater did everything else: the cake and candles, decor, pinata and candy, the food (popcorn and chocolate for the kids, chicken fingers and fries for the adults), goody bags and goodies, games, and don't forget the movie.  As a nice surprise, they also gave a gift to the birthday boy (an ice age t-shirt and a water bottle).  It was an amazing day.