Black Friday

I didn't shop.  Well, I didn't go anywhere. I played with Ellie on the hamper. 

And took the older two outside.  It was pretty cold but somehow I got talked into being a snow monster like on Scooby Doo. 

Then we wrote letters to Santa.  They both wanted to ask for a puppy, but I nixed that.  We are looking for the right one. 

They got much of their list from the toy catalogue that showed up a few weeks ago.  Fortunately, aunt Tammy was able to help with one of the harder items!   After everyone went to bed, I did some Amazon shopping.  Hey, it was Black Friday.  

My 38th Birthday

We went to Delmonico's for my birthday.   It's so nice it's around the corner now.  Birthdays aren't exciting really at this point in my life.  But the few nice things that come with it are there. Adam playing a game. Of course.  

Ellie coloring and being cute.  I had brought her to Barnes and Nobles with me for breakfast for a fattening coffee not the skim ones I've been drinking.  She loved it.  

Abbey loves to color, too.  At intermittent times during the day I requested and received the birthday song from my two oldest.  

They were. Good.  I, however, spilled wine all over Abbey's lap.  Sigh. Poor kid.  Her dollies were there too.  They all smelled like Lambrusco.  I told Todd he didn't need to get me anything as he bought the house but he got us tickets to  Lewis Black.  Yeah!! Love shows and a comic is perfect. 

Some years I go out with all sorts of friends and some years not but always with my birthday buddy Tammy.  

We went to Carreba's as we both hadn't gone in years.  Food was great and asalways so was the company. How many dinners we used to go to once upon a time!?  We are going back for Christmas.  I decided.   

She gave me one of the best gifts I ever got. She made ornaments out of my babies !  I was truly touched and they are gorgeous!!!  Thank you xxoo love you!

Last Two Days

So we decided to redo the foyer floor.  Or have Tom and Debbie do it.  They did our kitchen floor, our shower and our chimneys.  Ellie loves Debbie to pieces.  She's taken me shopping for tile and she's been the only person around to actually help me make decisions!!

Some before shots.  Old outside brick, a slab of wood and commercial tile used in restaurant kitchens.  

It's in that closet and the bathroom.  

This was last night.  So hard keeping the kids away.  Abbey removed the plastic pins and Adam ended up sticking his hand in the wet cement. They are supposed to finish today!  Same tile as kitchen.  

Yesterdsy trying to snap a photo of Abbey in her Thanksgiving dress.  Cutest photo bomb ever!!

This morning, Abbey discovered that marble makes a great place to practice tap!

And Miss Big Girl at Panera.  Growing up too fast!  All she wanted to do was drink water I couldn't get her to eat.  Haven't spent much quality time with Todd lately.  We're going to dinner and a comeiden and his niece Jennifer is babysitting for the first time.... Looking forward to not being 'mom' for a few hours.  

Last Hurrah at the Ghetto Water Park.

Way back right before school started the old pool and slide came out for the last time. For no real reason, I hadn't used it this summer.  We kept busy and went to the spray parks a lot.  (Cute random summer pic of Ellie )

They used it for a couple days. It started raining the last day, but they didn't care.  Clearly too big for this set up, the cheap plastic pool met it's demise!

But they still had a blast.  

And Ellie got introduced to water park fun in the city :)

Toby's Birthday

A few weeks ago we went to the Oswego Theatre for Toby's birthday.  A bit of a time vortex as it was all Trinity families.  I made a connection with Sarah his mom I hope sticks and my kids like her and Toby.  

It was a Pokemon cake.  I'd never been to a party there. They did cake and gifts and then the movie.  When Adam walked in, all the boys were happy to see him.  Max and Toby are best buds now where last year Adam was friends with them both but they weren't. So an adjustment. 

He ended up super excited to see Mikey.  

Abbey observed a lot.  

Love these new seats!! Abbey ended up snuggling with me I didn't mind.  

There's mikey on the far end.  He and Adam were born the same day a year apart.  They had a blast.  I only had to yell and threaten twice.  We saw the Book of Life.  It was pretty good.  Miss the old a little but no regrets.  

Firsts

What's this? A garage door opener.  My first.  In my first garage.  I pulled bj yesterday for the first time and it was raining and I didn't have to lug my bags and kids through the rain!!  Of course, abbey grabbed the remote and my car tail gate was up and she snacked it over and over with the door I don't know how it wasn't damaged.   Add that to my first dishwasher and my first fancy grown up kitchen and it's luxury living!

Trick or Treat

I had plans to trick or treat in our neighborhood.  We even talked Holly into coming up but as the evening begun, there wasn't a single kid.   I started to stress out and worry and Todd suggested we go to out old block and I said let's try Tammy, since I had planned on ending my night there.  The kids were getting restless so as I was getting stuff ready, Todd took them to a couple of neighbors.  Ellie LOVED it.  So much so she lost her shoe, which I noticed when I came out.   I took them over to the Murphy's across the street with the only other kids and got some cute shots.  Everyone had candy.   They told me it's very quite maybe 20 kids but everyone hands out.  We hopped in the car and headed over to Tammy's.  Ellie just lived her candy.  And Tammy's decorations.  She clutched her candy and stayed with her. 

Todd and I took the other two around the block.  The had a blast.  Even a fire truck came around.  This is how Halloween should be!

Adam wasn't a fan of all Tammy's scary robots or other scary houses but he did them all :)

Tammy took some great shots of Ellie who gave her a run for her money.  

But it's not really Hallowern without Tammy!!!