Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!

The first year in recent memory when none of the kids had a last minute costume freak out  - it was actually a rather uneventful evening! Abby and I were Wonder Woman and She-Ra, in case you couldn't tell :)

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Throwback

All the way to 2008! Yes you could see these if you dig back in the archives but I thought I would save you the trouble. You're welcome. 

 

Just Like Dad Used to Make

Last night I made lentil rice pilaf just like dad used to make when I was a teenage vegetarian! And it was delicious! Just the way I remembered. Joel and the kids liked it too.  Yum!

 

Friday, October 28, 2016

Pumpkin Carving!

Power tools may or may not have been involved.

 



 

 

 

 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Random Updates

It's been a busy last few days! We had a great visit from Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen this past weekend, as well as parent-teacher conferences, dentist appointments, a trip to the spay & neuter clinic for Lucy (poor baby!), still trying to get a broken dishwasher fixed (3 weeks and counting), and a trip for flu shots for the kids.

The run-down of mentioned events is as follows:

1. the visit - we did not tell the kids that Mike and Kathleen were visiting, and they were SO SURPRISED! We hung out with the kids, went to dinner & a movie, visited with Mort and Mary, etc. The girls especially were so sad to see them go home on Monday! But we will be in Philly ourselves in a few short weeks!
2. Becca's parent teacher conference: Becca's teacher couldn't say enough good things about her. She said she was delightful to have in class, a great friend to others and a wonderful student. She has earned straight As for her first report card, with 100 averages in math and english, a 99 in science, and 98s in social studies and health. Not too shabby! She is already reading above the end of year expected reading level and scored in the 98th percentile on her literacy MAPS test. She just takes a very long time to finish her work due to a combination of not being able to sit still and being a perfectionist ;)
3. Lucy and the snip snip. Poor Lucy! She got so much anesthesia that she couldn't walk for hours and was moving her head around like the room was spinning. She is fine now though and recovering nicely.
4. Dishwasher, I just seriously don't want to talk about it, all I will say is that I hate Sears repair service with a passion.
5. Flu shots - went exactly as predicted: Ben, great. Caroline, a trooper. Becca, I had to sit on her and hold her down while she kicked and screamed. Fun stuff!

And, I have been trying to stay away from talking about work/ politics , since they are so closely related, but you know what time of year this is and work is crazy!! I will be so happy for a vast number of reasons, come November 9th!

14 Years of Awesome

We are waiting until next weekend to celebrate our anniversary, unless you count Japanese takeout - yum!

 

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Fall Portrait Proofs

It's that time of year again! I will be sad next year when we don't have any more school pictures done by St. John's! Because Classic Photography just doesn't compare :)

This time around, Caroline was mostly either not looking at the camera or biting her lip. She seemed to be in a goofy mood. But here are some of the ones where she was not doing one or the other... I need help choosing which to order so weigh in in the comments! I'm leaning towards either the second or fourth one below.







Monday, October 3, 2016

Gluten Free Lunch

After services today we took the kids to the Green Flute Cafe for lunch. It is a dedicated gluten free restaurant and while the ambience leaves something to he desired ("negative ambience" I called it), the food was good. Caroline had French toast and bacon for lunch and really enjoyed it. The rest of us had paninis. For dessert we tried some mini chocolate bundt cakes and donuts. It was nice to be able to go to a restaurant where there wasn't a single thing on the menu Caroline couldn't eat! Here she is chowing down on her French toast.

 


Pretty Sunset

Beautiful weather today and a beautiful sunset to go with it!

 

L'Shanah Tovah!

Happy new year (5777)! We had a delicious dinner last night with Papa and Mary and went to services this morning I took Caroline to the family service and Joel took the older two to the traditional service. Next year I hope we can all do the traditional service together. Caroline did really great at the family service. Afterwards we hung out at the butterfly garden and waited for the traditional service to finish.