Christmas at the Zoo

We went to the Zoo Lights on the most beautiful 60 degree night!  PD was unable to join this year, but Gram and Papa, the girls and I enjoyed light crowds and gorgeous weather.  Some years we have really frozen our toes off!

The lights were beautiful as always, but the highlight this year was the Animal Show we saw.  It was the cutest thing.  All these trained animals ran around on stage.  There were dogs, cats and birds..but also kangaroos, lamas and porcupines.  The kids were mesmerized and we had great seats too.

The girls rode the Carousel without me..which was a plus because I always get a bit of nausea.  Another mommy had to help PK2 get off her horse..but that was ok.

Thanks Gram and Papa...for such a special night!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was so wonderful and relaxing this year.  It is fun the years we go to the big city of Chicago, but having four luxurious days at home is pretty nice too and just what we needed this year.  We slept late and watched the parade:

Packed up and headed to Gram's around noon:

I made pie:

Gram and Papa get all stocked up with our favorites.  Vino for me:

Chex mix for PD..do you think Gram made enough? (This is PK1 dipping into it before the meal.)

PD is the potato masher:

The incredible meal.  I am not kidding, every dish was perfect.

After the dishes, PK2 and I kicked back and watched a marathon of Cake Boss.  The PKs ask me "Why don't we have these shows at our house?"  Me, "Ask your father." Between you and me I think he is half too cheap to buy cable and half afraid the girls and I would stop studying Latin and start watching TLC all day! He may have a point..but whatever.

Then they played a bunch of games:

And Gram gave the girls their ornament for the year.  A bird for PK1 and Curious George for PK2..perfect!

And the day after Thanksgiving, PD and the girls went to Home Depot for light bulbs and came home with TEN poinsettias for me!  They were a dollar a piece.I should have been generous and given half away to the neighbors, but the house looks so great with all the red..that I just stink'in kept them!

We Won!

Warning: I did not get a lot of cool pictures from election night.  For my husband's sake I just couldn't be that dork with the camera all night.  But election night was pretty exciting and a little surreal.  Around 5 I dropped the girls off at Gram and Papa's and met PD downtown.  Even though we were were kind of giddy and nervous and didn't feel like eating, we went to one of our favorite restaurants just because we could.  There were a bunch of people there that kept coming up to PD and slapping him on the back and saying "good luck" and "heck of a campaign" and other stuff.  I had no idea who all these people were but I am pretty sure PD is getting to be too good for me.  It is a total Don Draper scenario. After dinner we went to a hotel where all the Republican parties were being held.  It was just in time for results to start coming in.  We stopped in at a few parties, but I wanted to watch the results and PD kind of needed to work so we were mostly in this war room full of dorks people at computers.  Here I am with my credentials.

Here is PD working...I know, these pictures are really wowing you aren't they?

Here I am texting my mom with updates. The room is empty because every time someone would give an acceptance speech in one of the ballrooms, everyone would clear out and go watch it.  I sometimes couldn't be bothered to go watch.

We were watching a lot of races because our best political friends are fundraisers and really needed some wins.  It is crazy when a lot of your friends' jobs hang in the balance with these elections. Also, the more "Rs" that won, the better climate to effect some change.  Anyway...here are the results with 40% in...it was closer at times than we had hoped, but PD was cool as a cucumber.

And here is the new first family!

PD was already in Cleveland today for policy work.  I am so proud of him!

Election Day

The girls with PD before their class this morning.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!  There are so many reasons I love this holiday.  I love that it means we are less than a week away from the election.  I love that it reminds me how great all my neighbors are.  I love that although there is some last minute scramble, there isn't as much stress for the mom as some other holidays.  I love that our best friends come into "the city" to trick or treat with us because the houses in their neighborhood are too far apart.  I love the weather, the leaves, the decorations.  As you know, this year I had the dog/knight Sir Bernard and a Medieval lady. One thing I don't love is that I don't get to decide what the girls dress up as anymore. Oh it is painful to yield that to them...but I do it because I don't want them fussing about it to their therapist some day. And they did look pretty cute anyway.  Here they are with our friends.  Little Neighbor Girl was Bindy (the crocodile hunter's daughter) PK2's friend was a dog in knight training and PK1's friend was also a medieval lady.  Can you believe the beautiful costume her grandma sewed for her?  

Here they are getting their hair and make up done.  I let PK1 help draw the dog nose.

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I was in charge of making 8 boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese for the hot dog roast that our neighbors do before trick or treat.  So in addition to dressing the kids and taking the pictures, I had to have 8 boxes of mac and cheese steaming hot and ready to go at 5 PM.  I took a picture of the boxes because it looked so funny all lined up.

I was going a little nuts, getting it all together when my BF showed up at just the right moment to help me stir the big pots!  She is great.  Oh...and I did change out of the sweats and t-shirt.

Here is a sneak peak of my kitchen, which has been torn up for 6 months.  But I AM loving it so far!  It is not done, but it is getting there.  I think maybe by the holidays.

Cook-out potluck at my friend's house:

And all the neighbor kids:

And the day after Halloween, when you are a home-school kid, after breakfast and devotions, but before school lessons, you do get to sort and admire your candy for awhile!

Carving

Last Sunday evening PD was home and thought we better carve the pumpkins in case there wouldn't be another opportunity.  I was SO not up for it because it had been a full day already.  But I am glad we did it, and PD does all the hard part.  It was a late night, but so fun. Please note my torn up kitchen in the background.    

Notice there are three pumpkins.  I finally got to execute the face I have been wanting to try.  Mine is the one with the big mouth.  (no comments from the peanut gallery please)

I LOVE how they turned out!  PK1 wanted a scary cat face...it really is kind of mean and scary!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Gram and Papa were able to join us for the Pumpkin Patch this year.  It was really nice weather. We saw the bee colony again.  PK1 is just fascinated with the bees and can tell you all about them.

They rode the barrel train again.  They decided this was the first year they were too big to share a car.

Gram and Papa were great pumpkin choosers.  We got some really good ones.  And I got one for myself because last year no one would carve their pumpkin with the face I wanted.  SO this year I got my own.  Gram got two for her porch as well. Here we are with our choices.

We had a really nice time.  The girls went down the barn slide and got their face painted too.  I am going to say this in the quietest voice ever because I don't even want to think it is true, but I think the girls are almost getting too big for the Pumpkin Patch.  The barn slide didn't seem that big and we were all done with everything they had to do in such a short time!  This stage of having little ones goes so fast.  As the guy at Home Depot told me the other day as he saw me try to juggle the girls and two cans of paint, "The days are long, but the years are short."

Go here 2008 and here 2009 to see our other years at the Pumpkin Patch.