ACK! Did those last 2 months just fly by or what????

I cannot believe that I haven't posted here since Halloween! Several friends have been begging me to post again! But I haven't gotten a chance to download my pics off my camera yet, and I blog much better with visual inspiration.

Truly, there hasn't been all that much going on to write about. Thanksgiving was really fun; we stayed home and ate dinner at C's parents' house. The food was fantastic, as always, but since D and K are the only kids there, the atmosphere is pretty sedate. I didn't remember to bring my camera, so no pics of the feast. This year I made an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and some chocolate pastry puffs instead of chocolate pie (sorry, Uncle Tom!). The apple pie was my best ever - I used a new combo of apple varieties, but of course I didn't write down which ones and now I can't remember what they were. The chocolate pastries were inspired by a recipe I found in Family Fun magazine, they are just pie crust cut out with cookie cutters and stuffed with chocolate chips. The pastry came out nice and flaky, and the chocolate chips made a tasty filling; the kids liked them. The only thing is, all my cookie cutters make average sized cookies, and once you seal 2 together it doesn't leave much room for filling! I need to find some good oversized cookie cutters to do this one again.

Once we finished dinner, we (the 4 of us) hopped in the car and drove down to Springfield to spend the weekend with some very good friends who were up from Atlanta (spending the holiday with their family). We stayed 2 nights in the same hotel they were in, and we had a great time with them. They have 2 kids the same ages as ours, and they spent every available moment in the pool (swimming in winter is always a treat). Unfortunately, Danny managed to come down with strep throat Thanksgiving day - he was ok through dinner, but miserable by the time we arrived at the hotel at 10 pm. So the next day, while C and Dennis were out doing the Black Friday shopping (leaving at 4:30am) I took D to the nearest Urgent Care for antibiotics. If you were paying attention to my Facebook entries, he had had a sore throat the week before, but tested neg. for strep; so I was just thankful he was positive so he could get the meds and feel better sooner. That afternoon, while C and Dennis rested from their morning excursion, Lori and I went out shopping with the rest of the kids. Not that we could get a lot of Christmas shopping done, with the giftees right there, but we had a nice time out of the hotel. Later that night, Lori and I went to the movies with her cousins and saw Twilight. (Even though L loves vampire stories, she hadn't read the book or seen the movie before, so I told her she had to see it. She's the only person I know who saw the movie without reading the book first!) Saturday we went to one of Dennis' old haunts (Springfield is his hometown), a local dairy farm. The kids had fun going through the barn, and Lori and I had fun going through the gift shops! Then we went to the restaurant there for lunch before setting out for home. It was really great to see them again; C has been down to Atlanta to visit a few times but I haven't seen Lori in a year and a half. I wish it wasn't so far away, I really miss hanging out with them.

After Thanksgiving weekend, nothing eventful at all happened. We were massively busy getting ready for Christmas, and trying to keep D and K focused on school. So really, there wasn't anything to post!

In my next post I'll have pics of all the decorations and stuff, and some of Christmas Day. I promise it will be soon!

Earlier this week...

Earlier this week, Katie's Awana club had Crazy Hair Night. Awana is a Christian club at our church; this was their alternative to costumes and such. Her leader suggested last week that we color her hair using Kool Aid, so I gave it a try. I used 4 pkgs, with just a tiny bit of water in a dixie cup and applied it using a pastry brush. It made a mess, but luckily Kool Aid is washable! We also used the silver hair coloring to put a stripe in the front, just like we did for the pop star hair. Then we curled it as much as possible (boy, her hair just doesn't want to hold any kind of curl!) and sprayed glitter all over. Pretty crazy! The girl next to her won the contest, but Katie was runner up. I was surprised that almost all the girls had crazy hair - most of them just did crazy hairdo's, not coloring and stuff. It was really cool to see so much participation.

Happy Halloween!

Ok, I know it's been a long time since I posted; ever since I got on facebook, I've been addicted and my blog has suffered.

Last week Chuck carved out our pumpkins; he loves to do this because he sorts out all the seeds and roasts them in the oven. He and Danny love to eat them! Danny and Katie draw out designs on paper, and C does the actual carving.

Here are the finished products:


Danny's is supposed to be Kirby, but I didn't have orange construction paper for the hands and feet, and Dad got too tired to carve out the cheekies. I like Katie's too, with the fangs and the little pac man eyes.

Here are pics of Danny (Indiana Jones again this year) and Katie is a pop star (note: she is NOT Hannah Montana!):






















She hated getting her hair done up, but she loved the makeup! Here is a close-up:


Those are actually sunglasses on top of her head; she had seen some at the costume store but they were $8! So I got a plain pair at the dollar store and some pre-glittered felt at the craft store, and made my own for less than $2. Oh, yeah! The shoes aren't exactly glamourous, but they made it easier to make it through 2 hrs of trick-or-treating!

This year, Danny went out with a friend in their neighborhood, while Katie went out with her 2 best friends here. I had a great time, because the moms and I gabbed the whole time and I hardly noticed how long we were out. The girls also had a great time!

Katie had a great haul, and as my due I got all her peanut butter cups : ) Danny isn't back yet with his Dad, but I'll bet he did well too!

Personally, I am so glad this holiday is OVER! It really isn't one of my favorites.