Thankful...

I have so many things to be thankful for this year.


I have a wonderful husband who tolerates me with a minimal amount of griping. He thought I was teasing when I said I bought a reindeer kit for the van. He was mortified pulling out of the garage, but did it anyway!

I am thankful to have beautiful and healthy boys. Vincent recently sang in the church choir at Mass and did great! He can carry a tune like nobody's business, so we are hoping he will join the choir permanently.

I got to attend Christopher's preschool Thanksgiving program. It was adorable and he was so excited about it.

There he is, the short one. Yes, those kids are all 4 year olds. We are accepting donations for his growth hormone fund.



I am thankful for my health and that I can run. Pete and I did a 10k Turkey Trot in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful morning, crisp and cold (in the 30's!) and we ran surrounded by friends, neighbors and patients. How lucky are we? I almost broke 50 minutes, with a personal best of 50 min 40 seconds, thanks to the great running group I have been running with the last 6 months!




I am thankful for all our extended family. Although I miss living near my family, we are lucky to live near my Pete's family. Above I am pictured with his 5 sisters (and 1 goofy brother-in-law!)


My kids are surrounded by cousins, much like I was growing up. We rented a jumpy (a tradition). We then locked them all up in it and didn't let them out until dinner. Just kidding. But a great idea for next year!


The little kids table was outside (making for a nice peaceful dinner for the rest of us!)

Zach was thrilled to be included on the teenager/young adult table.

Finally, the grown up table! Lisa brought her headdress this year, but left the politically incorrect dark face make-up from last year at home. Dinner was wonderful, the company and conversation even better.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May you all be as blessed as I am!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday!

I couldn't have asked for a better mom growing up. My sister and I were lucky to have her at home when we were kids. I remember that she insisted we have a hot breakfast before school every day. Of course as a kid I just wanted a bowl of Apple Jacks, but as an adult I can appreciate the work that must have been for her! She was always there after school, waiting for us with a snack ready.


I owe my fabulous laundry folding skills to her. I know that sounds funny, but she is meticulous, leaving the clothes looking like they have been ironed they are so neat! To this day I still can not fold a fitted sheet like she does. And gift wrapping? She is the best!

I do not remember that parents spent as much time in the classroom as they do today, but I always remember that she was involved with my classes, usually the class mom. That meant a lot to me, and motivates me to help out in my boys' classrooms whenever I can. She was my Brownie troop leader one year, and was at every softball, soccer and every other game we were in. She was always there. In fact, she still is. Even though we live over 400 miles away, she is an active part of our lives, frequently visiting or joining us on vacations. The boys adore their "Grandma Liz".



She is my "go-to-gal", whenever I have a question-- I still have to call her every Easter to ask how to boil an egg properly. When I venture in to carnivore territory and want to cook my husband some meat I have to call her to ask what kind of roast to buy (and how the heck do I cook it??) I still can't buy a bra without her (Thank God I don't have girls myself. Who would help them?? )

Mom, you have always been there for me and us. You are an inspiration to me as a mom, and a women. And you are gorgeous! I can only hope to look like you when I am your age. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do. We love you!! Happy Birthday!!


(sorry I didn't get a card in the mail to you on time...)

My new baby!

Here she is! A cerulean blue 2011 Lexus IS 250 with the ecru interior.


We bought a new car (for me) a couple of weeks ago. My 10 year old Honda with the oxidizing paint was just getting too embarrassing to drive anymore. Of course I still have the van for when I am driving all the rug rats around, but this one is just for me!


I love, love love the navigation system. Of course with my 1.2 mile commute to work I don't get to use it very often, but it came in handy when Joey had a game in Morgan Hill recently. I don't know why we didn't get it when we bought our new van last year.


The best part of the navigation system? I have it set to show me all the Starbucks around me. How awesome is that!

The worst part is, now I panic about getting a door ding. It was nice not having to worry about that with my old car.

Out of the mouths...

The other night as Christopher was calling me (once again) to come wipe his butt I started thinking about him and preschool.

"Hey," I said to Pete. "What do you think happens when the kids poop in preschool? Do they yell for the teacher to come wipe? Does a teacher go with them, just in case they need a wipe?"

"I don't know," said Pete.

"Christopher, what happens when you poop in preschool? Do your teachers wipe you?"

"We don't poop in preschool. " Chris said. "We aren't supposed to"

"Really?" I asked.

"Well, duh. That is why it is called PEE school!"

Halloween

Halloween is over, which definitely puts me in Christmas panic mode. Yikes! I am still grappling with the fact that summer is over. Here is a peek at our Halloween treats this year.
Christopher's preschool had a "Noah's Ark" parade. While this is a cute idea, it sent us scrambling for an animal costume. Christopher wanted to be a ghost for Halloween, so that was what I was counting on. Several people offered up animal costumes, but then couldn't find them. We did have a dinosaur costume, but wasn't sure when dinosaurs were on the timeline with the Ark. We finally went with the above Winnie the Pooh costume. Was Pooh on the ark? Maybe not, but we figured his ancestors were, right?

As you can see above, apparently there were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Ark! Maybe that was who kept all the animals in line all those days trapped on a boat. To the right of Christopher is his little buddy Aaron. They hit it off from the first day and are quite a pair. As luck would have it, he only lives 1 block away from us!

Saturday night was the Halloween party at the Saratoga Country Club that we are invited to every year by my sister-in-law. My favorite costume of the boys' this year? Zachary's, hands down. I swear he looked just like Where's Waldo!

Here we are heading in to the party. Can you guess what Pete and I are? Yep! The rescued Chilean miners. That was Pete's brilliant idea 1 hour before party time.


Zachary dancing to YMCA with Aunt Lisa.

I decided to skip pumpkins this year. With our crazy sports schedule there just wasn't time to buy them. When Vinnie heard this on Saturday he was crushed. He looked at us with his enormous weepy eyes and stated that we just had to have pumpkins. Sigh. No problem Pete said, we will run over to Safeway after Zachary's football game on Sunday to buy them, then carve them up quickly before the trick or treating began.

Of course when Vinnie and I arrived at Safeway the pumpkin bin was empty. Not one. Off to a pumpkin patch we went, where we (thank God) found some pumpkins. I was also surprised to find many other people buying last minute pumpkins. Of course they didn't have any gourds, so Vinnie and I went back to Safeway, because he really wanted to have his pumpkin eating the gourd (you can see it in the picture 2 above). I loved our SF Giants pumpkin. I decided it was good luck since they won last night, so I will be lighting it again tonight!

Finally, several friends and neighbors came over and off they went trick or treating.

Now how can I stop myself from eating all the freakin' candy in the house??!!