November 28

HAPPY AMERICAN THANKSGIVING!

I am still getting the hang of having Thanksgiving so late in the year… this Thursday in November is still odd to me! First off, almost the middle of the week (not a Monday or Friday????) and then so much closer to Christmas! YIKES.

We had a full on turkey dinner with the fixings… homemade stuffing, gravy… mashed potatoes…

Smaller of 2 turkeys

Homemade peppermint fudge

As Joe and Faithe alternate their Thanksgiving with each of their families this year was their year with Faithe’s family. So we had our family, Nana and Baba and Aunty Judy with Uncle Jim and two of their kids (Robbie and Jessica). 13 in total made for a nice full table.

Of course there was time to play before and after dinner with pumpkin pie for desert.

Pumpkin pie

A full day ended with full kids. We decided not to go out to any of the Black Friday sales. Instead Ken and I planned on making a run out to Target the next day. I have a specific over 6 month long request from Miss  Trinity and can not risk missing the potential sale OR them selling out of those items. Well, and one on one time in a rather low key store (our area seems to not have a massive Target Black Friday rush as compared to Walmart or Kohl’s) with Ken is always a bonus.

Wore Jessica out!

It was definitely a day to be thankful!\

November 16-17

Our Saturday was nothing exciting… Just an at home sort of day…

Watching old videos of visits with the twins and Emanuel when they were babies

BUT Sunday… well we had Sunday school where the kids had their first practice for the concert in December. Ken took them and said the door was closed and the parents KEPT OUT! But I have copies of the script… just no idea what all the kids need to know quite yet.

The true excitement came after that when we changed the kids out of their church clothes, loaded up all 9 of us and headed out to a family birthday party celebrating the birthdays of two of Ken’s cousins – Robbie and Jessica at Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s. I wish I had gotten pictures but they have DUCKS now!

There is quite the menagerie, fish, dogs, a turtle, the ducks, lizards and now a kitten! The kids were in animal heaven.

Bella the Min Pin

Rascal and Bandit

The trampoline was still out and there for the boys to drag Robbie to and Echo had her own favourite dog to pet (Bandit).

With Uncle Greg

We had 3 types of desert to choose from and a nice assortment of pizza. All in all they had great fun!

The first of my crochet critters got their new homes today too!! 

Ken did spend his weekend taking an old pc tower from the garage and upgrading it to working capabilities. Our laptop that the kids play on the most is dying slowly and this tower was laying around. One trip to the computer store for some parts on Saturday for me and Baba later and Sunday night Ken had it all together and set up. No speakers yet but quite the set up!!!!

Enjoy the photo extras!!! It was a great weekend!

Ken’s cousin Angie and her boyfriend

Jessica and friend with Greg and Jim

Present time (Judy in back)

August 18

It is quite the milestone for our Echo, being 3… and a huge final milestone for our family. There is no longer a true BABY in the family. We have graduated into toddlers and big kids… next is tweens and teens! SCARY!

We had a Sunday party as that was the only day left in August that we could not only have Ken’s Aunty Judy and Jim and their son Robbie there but to also have the kids’ cousins as well. Nana and Baba got a great deal on Hello Kitty themed cupcakes so we went with Hello Kitty as our all out theme. The girls really never tire of it, though Trinity tells me she has enough TOYS, she just wants “things” that are Hello Kitty now instead.

We had an earlier party so started with lunch and playing inside.

This went on to presents…

Aren’t the Novaks sweet… a drum set !

cake…

and then outside for… well it was SUPPOSED to be fun in the sun but turned into a drastically wild and unplanned WATER FIGHT!!! Talk about hilarious. And the pool survived it! I love cousin Robbie. He is such a good sport when it comes to the kids!!!

Echo and her careful guardian Alex

I made miss Echo’s birthday dress myself using a pattern from Bernat, Ruffle Edged Tunic. You can find the pattern for free HERE. I used Simply Soft yarn with it and love the turn out. She is tiny so I was able to get away with the 2T pattern size! But that is as large as it gets.

I think we did well!!!! Enjoy the rest of the pictures!