A Thankful Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  Although we would have loved to leave town and spend time with our extended family work did not allow it this year.  I was happy that Matt had the day off.  We were blessed with a beautiful day actually record breaking high of 75!  We took a walk and played outside.  Someone had let a whole flock of turkey's loose in our backyard and so the great turkey hunt began...

 Those kids had a great time rounding up those crazy turkey's! 

Matt gave me the day off from cooking...woo hoo!  I had the most relaxing Thanksgiving.  He planned, shopped, and did all the cooking.  Apparently I relaxed so much I neglected to get any pictures of this happening.  I watched a movie with the kids and we enjoyed looking through all the ads in the paper.  I didn't even get a picture of all of us enjoying our delicious dinner.  Thanks to Kelsey for taking a picture of our scrumptious meal (leave it to the instagramers for taking pictures of their food). 

Matt made each of us our own Cornish game hen with all the trimmings.  They were so delicious.  Unfortunately not everyone was excited about this dinner (Chase and Sadi).  I am used to the kids complaining about whatever it is we have for dinner however I think Matt felt less than appreciated when Sadi said she just "couldn't eat anything with that hole pointing at her face" (the bird booty).  At the end of the meal when the kids ate no more than a morsel Matt declared we would be having pizza next year.

Our table was adorned with a thankful tree in which we each wrote a few things that we were thankful for.  I was happy to see our kids wrote they were thankful for one another.  We played a round of would you rather Thanksgiving edition while we ate which was pretty comical..."Would you rather wash your hair with mashed potatoes or take a bath in gravy?"  I also made each of us a place card of sorts...a turkey leg filled with some sweet treats for later.

I am blessed with so much, and these are some of my greatest blessings.... 

This girl who challenges me in ways that make me laugh and want to pull my hair out.  She is quick to forgive my mistakes and gives the best hugs. 

This boy who is my personal snuggle buddy.  He ALWAYS wakes with a smile on his face.  He is the peacemaker and would be the first one to share with anyone.

This girl who although is a busy college student still calls me almost everyday just to talk.  I'm glad she still likes to hear my advice (even if she doesn't always take it). 

And this man for working so hard to support us all and give us everything we need and want.  But most of all for being the one that can still make me laugh.

Cheer Off

Today was competition day for our little Dust Devil cheerleaders.  It was an early day for us starting at 5:30 a.m.  It  may have come a bit too early for some of us, but at least we had a smile while braving the cold morning waiting to be let in.

Our team has been practicing for weeks for this day.  A little too much practicing if you ask many of the parents.  Our team of 15 were ready to take the floor.

Unfortunately we were unable to video their dance/cheer performance, so all I got were some less than impressive photos.  Sadi did a great job (front and center in the splits), as did all the girls. 

It was fun to see all the teams from all the surrounding schools show their spirit.  She had a great time and even though there was no trophy at the end she was still all smiles.

 We're so proud of our little champion.

The really nice part of this competition was that it was held at the Lawlor event center (U.N.R.) so Kelsey was able to walk across the street from her dorm and be there too which Sadi loved.  After competition we let Sadi choose where to eat her celebration lunch.  She chose to go to the Campus cafeteria, which if you ask me may be the best buffet in Reno.  She was in heaven with her never ending dessert bowls...pudding and ice cream, win, win!

I thought this was THE END of cheer, however as we were walking back to the car she exclaimed "I'm gonna cheer for the rest of my life!"....oh boy.

HALLOWEEN 2014

Halloween this year fell on Friday which was also Nevada day so the kids had the day off.  We spent the day relaxing playing games and watching Halloween movies.  The kids were excited to get those costumes on so they could get some candy!

Of course you can't go trick-or-treating on an empty stomach.  How about a snake sandwich....

with some monster toenails and ghost goo (chips and dip),

and add a side of pumpkin puke (broccoli cheese soup).  The kids weren't to excited about the "puke" soup.  It was delicious!

This year Chase's friend Dani came and went trick or treating with us which was really fun.  Poor Sadi was the third wheel with these wizards.

It was a quiet night out, hardly any trick-or-treaters walking the streets of our neighborhood.  It was kind of weird.  We did one big loop of the neighborhood and headed back home to dump...

I think the houses gave out more candy than usual due to the lack of kids out.  Check out the score...

We lit up our pumpkins to greet the trick or treaters and then cuddled up with a Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus.  It was one "sweet" night.

Halloween at School

Thursday was our Halloween Celebration at school.  The kids were able to wear their costumes to school this year which made things so much easier.  Chase changed his mind several times this year about what he was going to be so this may be a surprise to some of you since he was going to be a pirate...no a spy...and finally DAYS before he finally decided on...Harry Potter!

No surprise with this one, she WAS going to be Queen Elsa again. 

 They were pretty excited to get to school and see their friends.

We did make a morning stop in to each of their classes to drop off a Halloween treat for each of their teachers.  Found this cute idea online.  Simple skeleton in a coffin with a tombstone attached that read:  rest in pieces (filled it with Reese's pieces). 

Chase was quick to find his best friend Dani on the playground who was dressed as Hermione.  Pretty sure this is where the Harry Potter inspired costume idea came from.

 It was pretty cute, and they drew quite a crowd with their "spell-off" on the playground.

Sadi and her bestie Mallory had this planned for quite some time apparently.  Us mom's were the last to know, however as we were talking we realized for the past 3 years they have dressed as the same thing. 

 These two were freezing everything...

There was a parade in the afternoon which I didn't get to many pictures of, because I was in charge of Sadi's class party so I was doing lot of prep while they were parading around the school.  Did get one quick shot of Sadi passing by.

I had been preparing for weeks for this party.  Unfortunately I was so busy at the party that I didn't get any pictures of the party...boo!  We had four stations that the kids rotated between.  First was the food/snacking station.  While they ate I had set up 2 guessing jars for them, a jar of creepers (plastic bugs), and a jar of candy corn.  We had some pretty high guesses.  I think these second graders need another lesson on estimation.

Second station was a table set up with mummy memory.  I had made paper cups into mummies, and used small chocolate bars to hide underneath. 

Third station was the crafting station where I spent all my time during the party.  It was a bone build where we made these cute little skeletons made out of pipe cleaners.  The kids really like these.

The fourth and final station was another game I called roll your eyes.  Simple game with a pair of eyeball dice I had made.  Be the first one to get all the matching eyes and you won a chocolate eyeball.  It seemed to be the most popular game, at least there was lots of giggling coming from this table.

We ended the party playing "Last monster standing".  Just a spin on the game 4 corners.  I made 4 Halloween pictures to put in the four corners for the kids to stand by.  I pulled the matching sticks from my monster can, and the last monster standing won a prize tied up with monster teeth.  This one the kids LOVED, and wanted to play over and over but we ran out of time.

It was a fun party, and I have already been asked to do another.  Not sure yet if I should be flattered or not.

End of a Quarter and Red Ribbon Week

This past week was a busy one for us.  We had parent teacher conferences and these two munchkins got raving reviews, and both brought home straight A report cards.  I am very proud of them.

It was also a full week of dressing up for Red Ribbon week (because it being the week of Halloween/parties just isn't busy enough).  Monday we were "shading" out drugs...

Tuesday was crazy hair and sock day.  Chase wasn't too sure he wanted to wear "girl" socks, but he was a good sport.

Neither of them wanted color in their hair so we opted for some spiders.

Wednesday we were all "Red"-e to say no to drugs!

Thursday was our last day of school since we had Friday off for Nevada day so we wore costumes to school.  There was a Halloween door decorating competition at school for each hallway.  Sadi's teacher asked me Monday after school if I could decorate her door.  I was a bit frantic since I only had one day to put it together, but I worked my butt off on getting an original (at least I haven't seen this anywhere before) idea up by Wednesday.  I saw the other doors and knew I nailed it.

Unfortunately my door didn't win...what!?  If the kids would have judged it, I would have won hands down.  Who doesn't like an I spy?  Apparently those 3 moms who did the judging...funny how all their kids doors won.  Not saying it was rigged.....just saying.