Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving at our house. Jon was on call so we had to stay home. Luckily my Mom, Vinnie and his family, and Ross were able to come up to our place. We had a delicious dinner all together and lots of snacky things. We even had potato chips and onion dip. I love that! Mom made her awesome corn and bean salsa and I love that too. After dinner we went on a walk and then back for some Safeway Fruit Tart which I highly recommend! I am so grateful for my wonderful family and friends.

Our Halloween

We are having a great Fall, lots of learning going on at our fabulous home school. This Halloween the kids carved a couple of pumpkins with their dad(while I worked from home). Here are their creations


For Halloween night, we went to our church for Trunk or Treat. The kids dressed up as Dorothy(Wizard of Oz), a snow princess, and a pirate. I was a pirate too because we ended up with an extra pirate hat. Some people said I was Capt. Hook because of my coat. My snow princess was afraid her hoop skirt would keep her out of the donut eating contest but in the end I proved to her that it would not and so she agreed to wear the costume. Thank Goodness! A good time was had by all and the kiddies didn't eat all that much candy(just a couple of pieces and a sugar cookie really).

Our trip to Safari West

I have been having trouble uploading pictures so I had to go with this small one. Jon and I took the kids on a field trip to Safari West in Santa Rosa. We had a great time. It's really like being on a safari and I highly recommend it. You can even spend the night there.

cute things

This morning Bekah was very distraught and insisting she needed to return her Halloween costume. Why? Because it has a hoop skirt and she thought it would get in the way during the donut eating contest!

For the last couple of days, whenever my two year old Sam wants attention, he brings me some sight word readers and announces, "I can read". He then points to a word and says "what this word"? After I tell him he starts reading. Each sentence has a picture and when he gets to it he stares at the picture and then with great pride announces what it is. I guess you just have to see it. Adorable!

And not to forget Sarah, my 8 year old. Today she asked me whether Santa Claus's birthday is on Halloween or Easter. That's a little random. Cute though, just like my Sarah.

unsettling week

So I had been thinking about how lucky I was to have such a great street, full of generally nice people. The house that was foreclosed on down the street had been purchased and the new neighbors on the other side of our house seemed nice too. Things were going well. THEN...I found out a guy across the street and a few doors down is on the Megan's Law Page and that was creepy. So I went to tell my favorite neighbor, the one who lives next door to me and(this is the really short version) found out they had lost their home to foreclosure. She was too embarrassed to tell me. They had gotten a bad loan about 8 months ago and the bank wouldn't work with them to get a new loand(it went up 3%). I mean, this is a family where the husband has a good job and they are super nice. Bummer for me, the neighborhood, and our wonderful neighbors. The kids and I will miss their cats and holiday decorations.

Bekah turned 6

and since then she's been zipping around on her birthday skates. Really, it was a great birthday. First, she wanted me to make her a stack of pancakes with a lollipop on top and frosting. We started this tradition when I saw the IHOP version on TV. Much cheaper and easy to make right at home

As I was saying, Bekah got the skates she was dreaming of and the new Barbie Movie(The Diamond Castle). She also got the Barbie dolls from the new movie. I think she really wanted the movie. She only mentioned it at every store we stopped at! Nana gave Bekah the Cinderella dress from Build-A-Bear for "Magic" the Bunny and Ross gave her the glass slippers. Bekah then pointed out that she suspected they were not really glass! Silly girl.

Jon took the day off and we spent her birthday(which was on a Friday) at John's Incredible Pizza Company. It's the 2nd time we've been there and I highly recommend it. Very fun and not too expensive if you do it right. Sarah and I rode the little rollar coaster together! Jon is very good at the games and helped score us a ton of tickets so everybody got a prize that they liked. Sam got a little alligator head on a stick and he's enjoyed chasing his sisters around ever since!

Oh, and more good news. I got a new work at home project with the company I contract with. I haven't started yet but hopefully this will be a good fit for our family. I am very grateful for the opportunity and excited to get started!

I forgot to add, I tag Alie and Louise

and give Megan a little reminder nudge that Kristy tagged her too!