Gobblepalooza

The month of November seemed to slip out of my fingers; so now I gotta play catch up. First up--a story about eating...my favorite kinds of stories.

This story involves, Rolls, salad, turkey, gravy, jello, carrots, pie, brownies...food, food, and more food.

Ya, ya guessed it. Thanksgiving. I have never had the "privledge" to cook an entire feast of food at my house. My lovely aunt and uncle invited us over and just asked that I bring some side dishes. Who'da thunk that making 1 salad, 1 fancy carrots, and 1 jello dish would take 4 hours that morning. Geez oh petes...

Riley and Zoie were in seventh heaven. Riley loved it cause she had people to play with and things to decorate. Zoie loved it cause she got food. Anytime food is around, Zoie is content. Berns and I were just happy to be with family laughing and creating fond memories for our kiddos. We are thankful for so many things--but mostly for each other. Life is good.

This is the face you get from Zoie when you ask her to say "cheese"...priceless.




This is the face you get when you ask Berns to say "cheese"...uh...priceless?

The Dark Side

We took a superb trip to Disneyland last week with the majority of my family. While there the oldest grandkids got to partake in the Jedi Academy. Something I never thought Riley would be interested in...think again Shea.

As luck would have it Riley, cousins Riian and Cole were pulled up on stage to fight the villans. Darth Mal, Darth Vader, and Darth sumthing-or-other. Riley got the luck of the draw for a one on one battle with Darth Vader.

Light Sabers were slashing and soon enough Darth Vader said in his very breathy creepy voice, "Come to the dark side." On which Riley replied without missing a beat. "NEVA!!!!! (never)"

The crowd applauded and hollared. There you have it friends. Now introducing Riley Skywalker.

Seems to make "cents"....

Riley: "Mom, I'll make a deal with you. I'll give you .80 cents and you give me .90."

Me: *silence*---who is this girl!?

I tell you what people--dont take loans out from Bank of Riley...she seems to have interest figured out.

Karate Kid

This is how our discussion with Riley went upon picking her up from school the other day:

Berns: "Riley, how was school?"

Riley: "A kid in my class tried to kiss me! Gross!"

Berns: "Well thats no good. What did you tell him?"

Riley: "I told him this: 'I can do karate- I can do it now!'"

Berns: *silent extremem laughter*


That's my girl!!

Great Green Globs....

...of greasy grimy gopher guts. Well, maybe not so much this year. More like a miniature hot dog and..Spiderella...yes, that's right, Spiderella.
Halloween this year was gobs of fun starting on the Wednesday before with our annual Costa Carving Party, a trunk or treat shindig on Thursday night at our church, a carnival on Friday at the Performing Arts School I teach at...and then FINALLY trick or treating on the actual Hallows Eve. (just typing it all out wears me out)
I never realized one measly Halloween could be so exhausting!
Riley picked out her costume (if you know her, the moment you saw that it was Spiderella-that was a dead give away.) I forced Zoie to be a hot dog...but in all honesty it fits her personality perfectly. She would have been out of her place in a princess dress or witch hat...
Maybe next year Berns and I wont be so lame and we will dress up to...(hint hint babe, hint hint).
Here's some pictures from the activities..Berns took a video of the girls trick-or-treating that I will post later...cause they are laughable.
I've decided nothing is better than dressing up like goons and getting free candy--EXCEPT, having children that will dress up like goons and get the free candy FOR you...EX.CELL.ANT.

She's ready to go!

Spiderella...frightening eh?


My itty bitty hot dog

Cabin Fever---DISCLAIMER--Ridiculous Picture Overload

What's more fun then spending a weekend being lazy, roasting schmarshmellows, making carmel apples, riding four wheelers, skipping rocks, eating ice cream, visiting "mom-and-pop" shops, paint balling, and forgetting about every day life in general?-----Spending the weekend at a cabin of course!
Vegas lacks mountainage (yes that's a word)...well...ok, not true. There are mountains in Vegas...but they lack mountainy (another "real" word) things. They are beautiful in their own little way. The rocks are red and fun to climb in--but there is a definite lack of large pines, ferocious bears, and random lakes everywhere. So once again we mooched off our good friends and caravanned our way up the Cedar Mountain in Utah.
It was so nice spending time with friends and watching our girls enjoy every aspect of playing outdoors. Riley enjoyed decorating a miniature cabin so it would be "fancy". Zoie enjoyed getting as dirty as humanly possible as she stomped and rolled through dirt and fallen pine needles.

Boys were boys...Girls were...dorks and fun was had by all. It is now my dream to own a cabin when I "grow up"....you know, a long with the house in Durango, Brasil, and on a beach that I want.....

Faux Pumpkin Patch

Vegas lacks fields for harvesting, tiling, and seeding---therefore the "real" pumpkin patches dont exist here--HOWEVER (dramatic pause) there is something that will suffice. Pumpkin Patches on the side of the road equipped with big blow up slides and jump houses, petting zoo's, rides, and pumpkins galore. The girls loved the petting zoo...I loved the slide (i'm going back for seconds)...Berns loved laughing at the ridiculous girls in his life.
I'm a country girl--but since there is no counrty here my faux pumpkin patch will do just lovely.