Birthday Cake Belly

On Friday we celebrated James' 47th birthday. It was a quiet affair... just the four of us, a pizza and red velvet cupcakes. Every year I try to make James a red velvet cake, and every year I mess it up. This year, I decided to play it safe. I ordered half a dozen cupcakes from our favorite cake shoppe. Everyone was happy, but Josie was thrilled. Cupcakes are her favorite thing in the world! (at least this week they are...) Here, she shows off her "Cupcake Belly":



We have all been incredibly sick for the majority of this month. It started with Maddie, she let herself get run down by not getting enough sleep, and the rest of us followed in short order. I thought I had dodged the 'crud' but this was not the case. Even James, who normally stays healthy, was down for a few days. It's been just terrible.

Worse of all is watching Josie suffer with a horrible stuffy nose and wicked cough. Her sleeping pattern has been disrupted- so I'm up most nights around 2:30 AM comforting her. When I get up, the dogs get up. So, in the middle of the night our house is lit up like a Christmas tree, the dogs are running around in the yard and I'm stumbling around, looking for the most promising option for temporary relief of coughing spells.

During this time, we also had painters in the house. We decided to lighten up the kitchen and family room areas - as I've stated many times, these areas are in the rear of the house. The yard is heavily forested so the house gets only filtered light for most of the year. Now that all the leaves are gone, we get a bit more natural light, but it's still not enough to brighten my rooms or my mood.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving at my brother's home in the Richmond area. It's not a long drive from here and it's the first time in while that I don't have to worry about cooking. Josie had her Thanksgiving celebration at school last Thursday and the kids were just adorable. All dressed like pilgrims.

Thats about all from here right now. I would like to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that you all take the time to visit us here.

VOTE TODAY!

Okay, don't watch the video if you don't have a sense of humor. It's hysterical and it was sent to me by my friend, Sue, in Alaska.

More Halloween

Here are the few Pics I promised of Maddie and Josie. For the past 3 years, Josie and Joey have hit the streets together on Halloween. Maddie also stayed with tradition and went out with our neighbor Jason and assorted friends. Maddie made a late night of it - trick or treating and then hanging next door. She moseyed in about 10PM. We turned off the lights at 9PM as the street was deserted. All that left over candy !!!

Here's another of Maddie and Josie and Josie and Joey respectively:

Halloween 08

We had a wonderful Halloween! We started out on Thursday,with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Josie's preschool class. We learned about bees and how honey is made; we learned about how pumpkins grow and we learned about all different kind of farm animals. Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Roosters and Cows.

I also learned to double check my camera before packing it - as I neglected to put the battery back in my camera after I charged it . Thus, no photos of the pumpkin patch. I don't think the kids would have stood still long enough for a photo, though. It was VERY COLD for our morning outing - when we arrived at 9:20 it was 48 degrees with a 15-20 MPH wind!! We dressed properly, but that wind cut through us.

Here's Josie just after carving her pumpkin:



And here is Josie's 'scary face':



On Friday Morning we celebrated the Fall Festival at Josie's Preschool. And it was a hoot! The kids were just adorable and there was so much to do! They had game booths, a parade and then a party. James and I had a ball with Josie. It was great to see how much the other parents used their creativity in the kids costumes and how much they really got into the whole Halloween spirit:

Here's Josie with part of her Preschool posse: Megan, Roma, Josie and Riley:



Here's Josie in her costume:



And here are a few of the other costumes we just loved:











Here are Josie and her friends enjoying the festivities:











We thought that the best costume by far was worn by Josie's teacher, Mrs. J. She looked just awesome as Madeline! And in a nod to the wonderful books, Sr. Mary Vincent posed as Mrs. Clavell for my photos. Just loved the spirit of these two wonderful ladies!!:






I will post a few more photos of our actual Halloween night. Very subdued this year, which was a surprise because it was a Friday night and it wasn't really too cold. Anyway, next post will have some of Maddie and Josie in costume...