Happy Birthday Brad!

Yesterday, I threw a surprise party for Brad's 30th! It turned out great! His friend, Greggor, took him fishing and brought him back right on time for the surprise. All the party guests were so generous, loving and helpful. It was a great success and Brad had so much fun!

Here I am with my "To do" list for the party. I love a good list (or maybe 3 or 4 drafts and then a final list). More importantly, I love getting to check off an item on the list.

Most of our guests were from out of town and I was so thankful they all made the hour and a half trek to celebrate Brad.

What a sweet Bromance!

I was very happy that Mimi and Kevin pushed their flight back to Sunday and were able to make it before they moved overseas to London. We will miss them.

Janeah was a huge help to me in the kitchen. She helped me get organized and get all the food out.

My parents came up a little early and helped me get the party set up. Very appreciative.

Brad got a new wizards pipe from his mom and dad, but I forgot to take a picture of it. He was super excited about it!

Little Millie slept through the whole party, but she still joined in with a balloon on her wrist.

The kids had a great time running around the house playing together.

Finn was great at scaring the girls by being a monster and a dragon. They seemed to enjoy running away from him and he seemed to enjoy scaring them.

Clara decided she wanted her face to match her green outfit...and she succeeded.

Here are some of the party decorations.

I had a fun time making Brad's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake. He said his favorite was Raphael. My dad helped by making his weapons and shaping his limbs, to make him look more intimidating.

What a wonderful night and an incredible man! I love you Brad!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebrations actually started last week. We had the joy of hosting the college bible study at our house and serving them a Thanksgiving feast! There were about 10 of us.

It was my first time making a big Thanksgiving feast. It is amazing, you start cooking around noon and just keep cooking until you eat. That doesn't include the dishes you were able to cook ahead of time, either. I can now see how helpful a double oven would be. Just getting the timing of when to cook all the dishes coordinated was a feat in itself. All that to say, it was a lot of fun and such a blessing to serve all those guys and share good company for an evening.

Finn sat next to Greggor, who kept asking Finn if he'd like different foods to eat. Finn's answer was always, "Uh, Yesth". He was a good little eater. His favorite food was the cranberry sauce. Cadence was a little more shy around the group, but she leaned over to me while we were eating and said, "It is so nice to have so many friends here." She was a bit pickier with her food, but she did eat turkey and a roll. We had an 18 lb. turkey and there was nothing left at the end of the night. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie and chocolate and pumpkin walnut brownies. Yum!

Today, the actual Thanksgiving day, we enjoyed time together as a family. Thankfully, we had enough sides left over from last week, so all we had to make was the turkey. We got a smaller turkey for the 5 of us and have plenty of leftovers. Yeah! I love turkey leftovers for sandwiches. Yum! Aria even ate turkey...pureed turkey, that is.

After dinner, Brad got out the Christmas decorations and we put up the tree! Finn and Cadence helped put the ornaments on the tree and Aria played with the jingle bells.

Pugsley even joined in on the fun and got into the Christmas spirit.

The other day I found matching pajamas for the kids at Old Navy. I was sooooo excited to find boy and girl matching clothes. Very cute! Cadence and Finn wanted to put their p.j.'s on as soon as we got home for the store, at 11:30am. So, they had a pajama day.

Here are three piglets in a bathtub!

Cadence had picture day at her preschool last week. I asked her what she wanted to wear and she picked this Korean Hanbok that our friends gave her when she turned 1. We let her put it on at home, but not for the school picture. It was a little small and a bit over the top for a school picture.:) She looks good, though.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

Yesterday we decided to go on an impromptu trip to the zoo! It was a cool day, perfect for walking around and looking at animals. So, after eating lunch at home, we packed up and headed down to the zoo while the kids napped in the car.

Cadence wanted to see the sea lions, which turned out to be a very active exhibit, not PG rated. They were barking, diving into the water, jumping up on rocks, and having a little romance. The kids thought it was funny how they were "playing" together.

From there, we headed to Finn's favorite animals, the monkeys. Unfortunately, only one monkey came out to see us, but he was entertaining. I think he enjoyed the spotlight.

Then, it was time for me to feed Aria. So, while I fed her, Brad and the kids went to see the tigers. Brad said that the tiger was walking on top of the edge of his wall and Finn kept saying, with real concern, "Don't fall in tiger. Be careful! Don't fall in tiger." What a sweet and caring boy. On their way out, they stopped for lollipops! Why else would you drive an hour and a half down to the zoo, but for lollipops.

The trip wasn't over yet, though! We had a gift certificate to Cinzetti's, that we got from my parents last Christmas, and we still had to use it before it expired. So, we called up Mimi and Kevin and were able to treat them to a wonderful dinner and have some fantastic company. They are always such a blessing to be around and so tolerant of our energetic kids. We took a nice little walk after dinner so that we could talk more before having to part ways. It was a fantastic day!