February 1-2

It is hard to believe that the twins are finally double digits… 10 years old! And Emanuel… 8! Where has the time gone???

Of course there was a day or two before that. On the 1st, which also fell on the first Saturday of the month was Home Depot Saturday. We actually had forgotten all about it with Ken’s surgery the week before, Chinese New Year and planning for Ken’s dental extraction. Thankfully a family friend called Nana to talk about something and mentioned her husband was out at it with one of their grandsons and we still had time to make it in! Ken and myself had birthday party errands to run for the 2nd which was the best day for a family party for the boys what with Nana and Baba leaving for 9 weeks on the 6th. And while we were gone Nana had a full out hair parlour going… cuts, blow dries… it was great. We came back to some very dapper kids!

Sorry these are not my camera

Of course the 2nd was a busy one… Sunday school first which leftmyself, Echo, Nana and Baba to get the final stuff done for the party. Balloons and cleaning – Skylanders colours!

Note the matching socks!

We had the party at 11 am as Ken’s aunt Judy was working that weekend and Uncle Jim had to head off to work late in the afternoon. They brought Robbie and then we also had Joe and Faithe and their kids. My friend Shandai was supposed to come but was sick so we are hoping for a rain check with her before too long! We had lunch first. And presents…

And then cake…

It was a great day ending in a quiet evening/afternoon with the Super Bowl. And we start the countdown to the great Nana and Baba exodus in earnest. Lots to do and little time to do it in!

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!\

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!