Gingerbread houses

Dom, Diana, Brooke and I sat down a few nights ago and set to decorating our new gingerbread houses. I think they turned out really well! And I didn't have to help Dom or Diana an ounce! (As I'm sure their houses can attest!)

Now if I could just keep the kids from trying to eat them!

TeePee Tour

Tuesday, as I was picking up Brooke from school, I noticed this huge Teepee set up on the school grounds. Earlier in the day it had been set up to allow the students a glimpse to Native American life during the time of the Pilgrims.

We had just enough time to get a quick tour before they began deconstruction. Photos courtesy of Christina.

Thanksgiving-2009

This is the only picture I have to show of our Thanksgiving dinner, and it should serve as proof that is was delicious!
We tried something new this year and decided to forgo the traditonal whole turkey and instead make two smaller turkey breasts. (No one cares for dark meat, so there was always a good deal of waste) Well, let me tell you, they were so good!! Juicy and seasoned to perfection!

I also made stuffing, greenbean casserole, pink stuff, and pumpkin pie.

Great day all around! :)

Diana really wanted to try using curlers so that she could have "fancy hair" for Thanksgiving dinner. She looked so cute, and was really good about keeping them in all day, unfortunately, her hair must need to set overnight because she didn't get a single curl when we took them out. Oh well, the picture was worth the effort!

Ballerina is as ballerina does.

Though Diana only has class once a week, she never wastes an opportunity to work on her form.

Happy Halloween!

I can honestly say this Halloween was one for the books.

We knew that the forecast called for rain, but we held out hopes that the Halloween Gods would take pity on us and let us have our night without the storm clouds. No such luck.

In an attempt to stay dry, we'd agreed to take Dominick and Diana to a party at Dom's Tae kwon Do studio and then let them trick or treat around the mall. (Where Dom's studio is located) It was all supposed to be nice, dry, fun.. in theory.

To start, we didn't realize the mall had designated trick-or-treat hours and by the time we'd arrived it'd already finished. So we headed to the party which was overly crowded and overly hot, and all Diana could think of was her poor, empty trick or treat bag. After about an hour Dominick too was eyeing his empty bag with undisclosed remorse for unhad goodies.

So we did what any good parents do, we toted our tots through the rain, door-to-door for an hour and half until bags were full. I was soaked to the bones, but the kids were delighted, and really, isn't that what matters?

My "costume". Witch hat on a headband.

Soaked!

Go Team!

Diana was our sassy little cheerleader.
She made up all kinds of different cheers that she was going to try instead of using the old standard "Trick-or-treat", but a case of the nerved prevented her from actually using any of them, and she made do with the traditional verbage. LOL

Atten-Hut!

Dom looked dapper in his army uniform, with built in muscles no less!

Moewza!

This was a big Halloween year for Brooke, some girlfriends (twins) from school were hosting a big costume party and Brooke was totally stoked that was allowed to attend!!

It took us a little while to decide on a costume, but Brooke ended up putting this cat ensemble together by herself on a budget of $20! I was SO impressed with everything and she looked absolutely adorable.

She had a great time and is already planning her own Halloween bash for next year!

The Finished Product!

The kids were so pooped out by the time they finished up! (It was about 10pm!)
I have to say, I think they did a really spectacular job!!

Pumpkin Carving- The Carving.

Each of the kids looked through their books and found the templates they liked best and I took the task of transfering the image onto to each pumpkin. (Except for Diana who said all of the book's templates were too scary and wanted a "happy" pumpkin.)

Right after Brooke took the picture of me drawing, my battery pooped out, so that's all I have of the actual carving.
Dom and Brooke did almost all of their own carving save for the very fragile bits which I helped with.

Pumpkin Carving- The Gutting

Brooke, Dom and Diana all decided on doing their own, individual pumpkins this year.

I was a little hesitant that Diana would want to participate because she's usually very anti-mess, but to my surprise, she really loved it! She wasn't afraid to dig right in and rip out the "guts", and was very careful to save what she called the pumpkin's "hearts".

The kids "pulling the brain out!".

La Tortuga

Ms. Brooke.
Goofing off.
As usual.
But dang, she's cute!

Friday night Dominick tested for his "Tiger" belt. In order to receive it, he needed to perform his
Songham II and his 1-step!
He did really, reall well, and we are very proud of him!

Dom performing a kick during testing, hard to see because a classmate was turned around. LOL