Thankful for Relaxation, Family, and Faraway Friends

This Thanksgiving Break was pretty wonderful.  We didn't go anywhere for most of it and we hung out at home.  We had lots of playdates at the house, which was dreamy because I didn't have to drive and I could plan playdates at any time since Eulee could still nap at home.  What a wonderful life!

On Wednesday morning we headed over to Austin to spend Thanksgiving with J and V (like we did last year).  We did a lot of lounging and hanging out....dreamy again.

Our to-do list was comprised of playing video games, playing card games, watching tv (movies and the Thanksgiving parade), singing karaoke, and eating a lot of food.

For the food, we tried to keep things simple since it was just the 8 of us (only 4 of us were adults).  We had--
a 7 layer dip to snack on during food prep,

bread salad (J),

corn fritters (me),

fried turkey (V),

  stuffing (J), toffee cake (me),

and tiramisu cake (me).

We also had mac n cheese and broccoli on the side for the kids in case.  I know you're probably wondering why we needed 2 cakes.  I had been wanting to make the tiramisu cake for quite awhile now, but since it has coffee in it, I had to have a kid cake option as well.  So I had to make the toffee cake too.  Both cakes were new to me, but they were both yummy!  Although I have to admit that the tiramisu cake is probably my favorite cake now.  The coffee flavor is just....to...die...for.  Seriously.  No, really.  In a day and a half, 4 adults ate 3/4 of that 9" cake.  We have never eaten that much of a cake in such a short period of time.  We were all eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...making up excuses why we needed to have another slice.  It was deliciousness.  The toffee cake was good too, but really the tiramisu cake was the star of Thanksgiving this year.  Ha!  The fried turkey was stellar as well.  V brined the turkey for the first time and it was so moist and heavenly.  Even the kids asked for seconds on turkey...that's saying something!  Obviously, we had an amazing meal this year.

Here is what we were thankful for and unthankful for--
Me: thankful for "getting out of the baby stage"...and unthankful for "people who skip over Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas mode" (no offense, KL!)
B: thankful for "piano, basketball, karate, Wii, and camping"...unthankful for "aging muscles, bones, and brain" (because he actually thinks he's getting old)
J: thankful for "on-time flights and good pilots"...unthankful for smoking (because they just returned from their honeymoon in Italy where there were smokers everywhere)
V: thankful for "my first Thanksgiving as 'Uncle V'"...unthankful for "slow travelers" (because they really noticed them on their Italy trip)
Elina: thankful for "trees, plants, and Super Mario Bros" (because don't those 3 things always go together??)...unthankful for robbers, kidnappers, and wasp stings, bee stings, hornet stings, scorpion stings, and assassin bug stings (only because she got stung by a wasp or something when they went camping)
Eli: thankful for friends...unthankful for bug bites (because mosquitoes really love him)
Evie: thankful for Sun Chips...unthankful for runny noses and being sick
Eulee: thankful for candy (she's a candy monster)...unthankful for shoes (because she hates keeping them on when she's outside playing)

Then we did some karaoke.  Wow, did we EVER do some karaoke!

V got "Frozen" songs and my inner-Anna made an appearance.  It was so fun to sing those songs!  I think I frightened my kids a little though.  Hahaha!  (Sorry, folks, no videos for the blog.  Those have been placed in the vault...never to be seen again.)

Here are the kids doing their "Frozen" songs (I love that Eulee joins in, too!)-- The kids got to do all their favorite songs, like Katy Perry's "Roar" and Owl City's "Fireflies."   It was lots of fun.  The guys even did some lounge singing as well.  Gotta love our men!

And J let her inner-Ursula shine through.  Awesome.
We ended the trip by meeting up with one of my best friends, BM, and his family (from Boston).  He has 2 kids who are around Eli and Evie's ages.  We last saw them when Auntie S got married a few years ago.  Our kids had played really well together...and they still played really well together this time.  We ate at Torchy's (food truck), played at Zilker Park, and then got some Amy's Ice Cream.  It was a short, but sweet reunion.  Now we know that we have to do a vacation together somehow somewhere.  We all have lots of fun together!

Overall, a fun-filled Thanksgiving Break!  I think that as I get older, I'm realizing how much I truly enjoy and love Thanksgiving.  Don't get me wrong, I love everything Christmas...but now I love the ease of Thanksgiving.  For Christmas there's a certain pressure to get all the gifts just right...to remember all the surprises.  With Thanksgiving, we can sit back and relax more...and just hang out.  No pressure really.  One of my favorite memories this Thanksgiving was Eli and me sharing a blanket on the couch while reading magazines and books.  Honestly, I wish I had more moments like that with my kids.  Those are the times when I realize I really need to slow down.  Who doesn't want to slow down to enjoy moments like this--

and this?!?

We hope everyone had a thankful Thanksgiving!

Umbrellas, a Field Trip, Crafts, and Drums

We had a busy week right before Thanksgiving Break!

1. Evie had her class Umbrella Parade (since they were studying the letter U).  I never stayed for Elina or Eli's before...and actually, it was a very very cute parade!  The class just marched around the school in a single line showing off their umbrellas.  It was really colorful and fun!

2. Eli had a field trip to Mission San Jose.  This was one of Elina's favorite field trips back in the day.  After this field trip, Elina would take all our visitors back there so that she could give them the same tour.  Eli brought his own camera and he loved every single minute of it.  He couldn't believe he was seeing all the things they had learned about in class.  He took pictures of all of it.  B said that Eli barely hung out with his friends because he was just studying everything and taking pictures.  It was awesome!  Those moments are the best!  (He has the camera in the his hand in most of the pictures!)

Then at the end of the field trip, they became Junior Park Rangers!

3. Eli finally got to perform in the Drum Circle for the Fall Harvest Celebration at school.  Every little kid at the school can't wait until it's his/her turn to participate in the Drum Circle.  Eli had lots of fun and learned a lot.

4. Eli's class had their First Grade Craft Sale.  Each child picked something to make and then they had to bring 12 of that item to sell at the craft sale.  The only catch was that the First Graders had to make most of the craft themselves.  We had so many amazing things--homemade soaps, bird feeders, perler bead bowls, perler bead magnets and keychains, thread bowls, suncatchers, salt dough ornaments, homemade gak, and upcycled CD coasters.  Eli chose to make homemade playdough.  We ended up making playdough with 2 holiday scents--mint and gingerbread.  Then we packaged them up in cute little jam jars with some holiday decor.

I wanted to make something else for the craft sale, so I decided to make jellybean bracelets.  These things were actually tough to string.  A lot of the blogs say that they let their little kids string the jellybeans, but I don't buy it.  No way.  RM and I made the first batch together and our fingers were killing us.  The needle can get really sticky, too.  It takes more time than you would think.  BUT these babies flew off the tables.  Every kid wanted a jellybean bracelet.  It was great!  The first day we sold all 11 of our bracelets.  So for the second (and last) day of the craft sale, I made 13 more.  And those disappeared quickly, too.  I even color-coordinated the second batch.  I don't know why really...I mean, half the kids didn't even wear the bracelets.  They would just start eating it right out of the bag.  Ha!  I think if I had just bagged loose jellybeans in a little bag, they would have sold just fine as well.

The homemade soaps were the first thing to sell out at the craft sale.  Then the jellybean bracelets.  The bigger perler bead bowls were a huge hit as well.  This is just really useful information for future kid craft sales!

What a busy busy week before break.  Needless to say, we were thankful when Thanksgiving Break finally began!

Pierced Ears

I don't have pierced ears.  For some reason, the thought never appealed to me as much.  I think it was a combination of knowing it would hurt and seeing some of my family members deal with infected piercings.

Well, Elina finally started asking about piercing her ears about a month ago.  She noticed that she was the only girl in her class without them.  So she started interviewing J about pierced ears.  How much does it hurt?  How long does the pain last?  Will I die from it?  You know, the typical 9 year old line of questioning.  After she spoke to J (at length about it), she never brought it up again so I didn't push it.

Then J came this past weekend for a visit while my parents were in town.  J told Elina that she could take her (figuring that I would never willingly take her myself) and Elina was totally up for it!  So we all went to Claire's, picked out some studs, and the rest is history!

For those who are curious, Elina said it hurt VERY VERY much.  And her ears felt really hot afterwards.  (In the first picture below that is pure pain on her face...after that she's just trying to remain calm and cool.

But honestly, by the time we got home, she didn't complain anymore.  She was just ecstatic to have earrings!  I have to admit that they look really nice on her, too!  Good call, J!

While we were at Claire's a 2 year old was in line to get her ears pierced after Elina, so we encouraged Elina to not scream and cry so that the little girl wouldn't get scared.  We were proud of Elina because she was brave and didn't make too much of a fuss. She did a great job!

Here's before--

Here's after--

How pretty!

First Tooth and First Championship!

Eli had a stellar week!

First, he lost his very FIRST TOOTH!  

His bottom front adult tooth already came in before the baby tooth fell out, so he's had shark teeth for a little while now.  The dentist said it actually happens more than we think.  Eli said it felt weird, but it didn't really bother him all that much.  Then last week, he bit into his lunch a little too hard and his tooth got more loose and bled a little.  The very next morning, B thought it was ready and he pulled it out quickly and painlessly!  He didn't shed a single tear!  (Unlike Elina...that girl cried buckets before B even pulled her first tooth!)  The only bummer was that B didn't even tell me he was really going to pull the tooth so I didn't get any pictures or video of this milestone!!  Boo hoo!  But Eli looks like such a big boy now, doesn't he?

The other great thing that happened was at Eli's basketball playoff game.  This is Eli's first season playing basketball, and we have to admit that he isn't the most talented boy on the team...in fact, he's probably maybe might be the worst one on the team.  BUT the amazing thing is that he doesn't even know it!  The best players on the team usually don't pass the ball to Eli during games and he hasn't complained about it.  But then last week he actually had the ball passed to him and his face just lit up with this joyous smile.  I'll never forget it.  (Unfortunately, I didn't get it on video...of course not!  I have a million videos of Eli missing his free throws, but I totally didn't get a video when it counted!  Such is life!)  So after Eli was passed the ball, he kind of just stood there and smiled, but then he passed the ball.  It was so cute!

Eli's defense is actually pretty good though.  He really knows how to keep his arms up in your face.  Not only that, but he also sticks his tongue out while he's doing all this!  I love it!  His free throws are ok, but he's not super good at catching passes.  For some reason his fingers aren't sticky enough to hold onto the ball!  It's frustrating, but we know he just needs more practice.

At Eli's playoff game, someone actually passed him the ball and he actually made a basket!  We were jumping up and down!  It was awesome that the only basket he even attempted was during a playoff game AND that he scored!!  (Of course, I didn't get any of this on video...)  Since he did so well during this game, the coach gave him the weekly sportsmanship medal.  He was in heaven!

Right after the playoff game, Eli's team played their championship game and won!  It was a really close one, too, if you can believe it.  They only won by ONE point!  Go, Eli!

We've already signed Eli up for another season of basketball starting in January.  Can't wait to watch him play again!

It was definitely an amazing weekend for Eli!