Turkey and Travels

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I know we sure did. We started the holiday at Eric and Amanda's house for a great turkey feast on Thanksgiving Day. Gary of course took the famous Hayden platter. Here Gary is showing Bill, Amanda's Dad, how to operate the contraption. Looks like Bill might have the idea on how to hook up the bird.
Ta-Da! Ready for the feast. And a fine feast it was. Thanks to Eric and Amanda for hosting such a wonderful dinner.

On Friday, the girls and I headed north for a two day tour to visit friends and family. We started out at our friend Mary's house for some holiday baking. Yes I do bake on occasion, and when it can be done with friends that is a bonus. Mary invited us along with her 3 sisters, her mother and a whole bunch of cousins. There were to many to count.
Here is a sampling of the counter. Some White Trash chex mix followed by some yummy chocolate noodle thing cookie. Kelly was making a cookie that had a snickers stuck in the middle with Mary's mom. I think she was just eyeing the candy bar in the finished product.
Kelly and Laura with Morgan decorating some sugar cookies.
Kelly was doing a one for the ginger bread man, one for me approach here.
Cutting out more cookies to bake.
After our baking visit, we headed down the road to Dad's house for the night. Enjoyed pizza and some of those freshly baked cookies for dessert. We finished up the night with a couple games of Uno. We didn't keep score but I think I was pretty lucky for the night.
Saturday morning we were up and ready to go for our next holiday dinner. This dinner was hosted in Herkimer.
Laura found one of Ayla's dolls that she liked to play with while we were there.
Last visit for the weekend landed us at Jason and Jessica's for the night in Oriskany Falls. One of the treats of the weekend was the air mattress. Who would have thought an air mattress could be so much fun. Laura slept on one at Grandpa's house and thought it was the coolest thing. This air mattress was a little bigger and both girls could sleep on it. Although they are sisters and tend to pick at each other.
Finishing out the visit with a ball game. Nice weather all around for the visits.

Happy Turkey Week

I've been a little slow at updating the blog this week. Last week had something happening just about every night. Between my Zumba class, parent meeting and parent conference nights, the week just flew by.

Both girls had amazing reports from their teachers. It made us very proud to hear that they really do listen at school. How many times do others wonder that same thing?

Friday I had the day off and took the girls to the doctor. Laura was for a physical and Kelly was a follow up appointment. The news of the trip was, Laura grew 3+ inches in one year. That surely explained all the nights she said her legs hurt.

After our appointment at the doctor's I went on a curtain hunt again. I can't remember if I mentioned earlier, the pattern I selected for the kitchen was no longer available. Just my luck. So back to the samples I went. Some were just so bold I could not picture them anywhere. I think the girl that was helping could tell she was not getting far with those patterns. She started to bring me samples and would say "this is a nice conservative print". I have always been told I am an easy read.

As for the weekend , we hosted a November birthday party for Laura and her Auntie Amanda. It is nice that we can share birthday months. For pictures of the evening check out Amanda's blog.

Barbie Birthday

The birthday continues with a Barbie cake made by Grandma Sheila. I think Laura was pleased with the cake selection.

A chocolate cake was requested.

Laura decided to have a couple friends over for the afternoon. We took them to the movies and saw A Christmas Carol. Good movie but probably a little scary for the kids. All the girls liked it but there were times I had to keep checking them. Afterwards, we came home for pizza and cake.
What a great time playing dress up. It is always fun to have a little sister that wants to play with the big girls, isn't it?

By the way, if you thought you were seeing double you are right. Laura's friends are identical twins. Lucky for me their mom didn't dress them alike today. If it weren't for the outfits I can't tell them apart. Should be some interesting years ahead.

Happy Birthday Laura!

Happy 7th Birthday Laura! It is amazing how fast our children grow. I never knew the meaning of that statement until I had my own. I thought it would be nice to see how Laura has grown up. I skipped the newborn pictures and went to her first Christmas at 1 month old. Happy 1st, shared with Audrey Howell. Rocking horse cake made by Grammie.
Happy 2nd. Merry-go-round cake by Grandma Sheila.
Happy 3rd. The Dora year by Grandma Sheila.
Happy 4th. First year of school, UPK. The bus also made by Grandma Sheila. Happy 5th, a pizza party and snowmobile cake by Grandma Sheila. Happy 6th, Mom made a cake this year. Stay tuned for the 7th!

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat ~ Our beautiful Belle ready to hit the road.
Followed by the Witch who didn't want her photo taken. She was ready to go. Cut loose.... More like her.

Trick or treating at Grammie and Papa's house. The costume creator.
Checking out all the goodies at Grandma Sheila's.
Now how much can I take??