Thanksgiving 2011

It was probably the most boring Thanksgiving in our lives,but given the fact that we were sick, it was fine. We spent it at home and the food was delicious (I don't mean to brag, but it was really yummy). The menu was chosen based on our favorite things. We love turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes, Caesar salad, Tortellini Alfredo, stuffing (this was actually my choice) and bread. Raphael chose the drink, which was orange soda. The desserts were Pudim de Leite (Flan) and Ice Cream Pie.
We ended up eating the Tortellini Alfredo for lunch, but saved the rest for dinner. Here is what we made.

Halloween Day

It was a fun day!
I made spider web pancakes for breakfast. Then after school the neighbors got together for a party. It was fun to chat with everybody and to see so many new faces.
Then around 6:30pm Marco went home to hand out candy and I took the kids trick-or-treating.
Trick-or-treating was fun and almost the usual, until Raphael sang to an elderly lady that opened the door to hand out candy. He sang "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll just pull your hair." Can you believe that the stinker sang that? I was SO EMBARRASSED!!! The lady was nice and didn't say anything, but I wanted to hide so bad. Raphael is usually so polite... he told me he was just trying to be funny... so I wasn't mad for long. But he'd better not bring this song again next year. :-)

Eating candy upside down on the couch. He wasn't too happy I took a picture of him in his PJs... 

Jack, The Monkey

Last year I got so busy with Julianna's baptism that I didn't take any pictures at Halloween... my mother-in-law took some though and I hope to see them someday (hint, hint :-) ).
So I'm taking things slowly this year... one kid, one pet at a time...

Since today was trick-or-treating at the library, I took some pictures of Jack. I took a bunch, but most of them were blurry... Jack won't stand still!

While I'm in the library subject, I also picked up some books on hold for Julianna (she has her own library card and chooses them online). I was expecting to see princesses, unicorns, ponies, etc. But when I saw her choices I was a little surprised. It's so sad that my little girl is growing up!

Sadie, The Cutest "Tiger"

Today I had a lot of fun with Sadie, our dog. We took her to Petsmart for a costume contest. I thought a lot about an original costume, and I wondered what I could do that would match her looks. Since she's already red, I decided to decorate her as a tiger. I love the result!!!

She won 3rd place!!

Lots of people asked me what breed she was. A few times I answered "she's a cross between a tiger and a Retriever" and one person said "Really? Wow!"  :-)

So here is how I transformed my dog into a tiger. She's already red, so I just added black stripes. I used a washable marker to draw a pattern on her (use one hand to hold her steady and the other the marker). Then use black face painting to go over the stripes. I used my finger. It was really easy actually.

I used two of these and bought them at Walmart

The only problem with this costume is the mess!! By the time Sadie was done with all the activities at Petsmart, I was covered in black paint. It was so worth it though!! She was the center of attention.And the paint came off really easily in the shower.

Random

The past few days in pictures!

Ice cream cake I created for Julianna for her birthday. It turned out really yummy! I'm going to call it Julianna's Cake. :-)

Jack Getting Stuck in a Toy... Poor guy!! And I Taking a Picture Before Helping Him. Hahahhaa

This week was all about Jack. Sometimes I focus on the older ones a lot, so I picked this week to make my little guy feel special too. We went to the children's library, to the Children's Museum, to feed the "duchies" and played a lot at home too.It was a great week! Jack is learning so much lately. He has been eating really well too.He outgrew his milk sensitivity and after a couple weeks reintroducing it slowly, he's drinking cow milk with all his meals.Yay!!

I love Jack's concentration look in this picture

Jack saw himself in the mirror, smiled really big and kissed himself. So cute!

This is the water area outside. Jack was fascinated!

He pushed this car for about 30 minutes. No wonder he crashed after five minutes in the car ride home

And here we are... its' impossible to take a decent picture together!

Happy Birthday Julianna!!

Yesterday was my beautiful Julianna's birthday. She's the best daughter a mother could ask for!! Happy birthday, Princess!!
In honor of her birthday, I'm sharing a homemade card Raphael wrote her himself. The disclaimer is that he did not have any "intentions" with the card. He literally thought he was writing Happy Birthday.:-) (he just started Kindergarten) We all laughed a lot over it though. :-)

Sadie

Here is our new dog Sadie. She is Jack's age (born June 2, 2010) and just as hyper. She's very friendly, but gets too excited sometimes and we have to be careful so she doesn't jump on Jack and Raphael (which she does all the time). She's a quick learner though and I'm sure the jumping will be gone soon. I also hope she'll get along with Bayla (our cat).
I walked with her for the first time last Friday. Let's just say that she walked me. For one hour and a half, I was literally dragged. It wasn't a pretty picture. I saw many people laughing and others looking at me weird. I knew that was not normal. I came home and researched a lot about dogs, walks, etc. and saw many training videos on YouTube. I'm taking her on short walks now and really making her walk side by side with me and not pull on the leash. Let's see how long it will take her to learn. I'm also training her to not jump on people.
Sadie is very beautiful. She's like a work of art. Her nails alternate black and white in each claw. She's rusty in color and has white on her neck and torso and also in her paws. Her fur is shiny and she's very athletic. She's a Boxer/Retriever mix. She looks like a retriever, but has color and personality of a boxer.
Wow, I never write this much, but I do want to remember this. :-)

Jutta's Surprise Birthday Party

On Tuesday we threw a surprise birthday party for this my sweet friend Jutta. I think everyone that was there will agree with me that it was really neat to see this lady so happy! Jutta jumped for joy!! On the same night, we surprised her with a cute new bike that we bought as a group. Jutta loved it!! Although I don't have pictures of her with the bike, I have a video that I will post later tonight (it's on Marco's phone). It's worth watching!! It was really a wonderful night. Thank you so much to all that participated in coming, bringing yummy foods, group gift, cards, etc. Thanks Lisa for taking pictures! You all are great! :-)