Thankful For...

Mom and Dad didn't make the cut!

 

Arpeggio's!

We had one last family dinner Friday night at one of my favorite restaurants!

 

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's

Friday morning we had a yummy breakfast and a relaxing morning hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's new house!

 

 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Mike's! Of course I forgot to take lots of pictures, but here are a few!

 

 

 

Sixers

Ben, Joel and Uncle Mike went to a Sixers game tonight, which is in double overtime as of this posting!

Go Sixers!

 

 

Thanksgiving Prep

Pies, turkey brine, and sweet potatoes!

 

 

 

A Trip Down Memory Lane

We took the kids to Abacus (our favorite Chinese restaurant), made a pit stop st the house I grew up in (it's on the market but not sold yet) and I tried on my wedding dress just for kicks. 

 

 

Geared Up

Ben took advantage of our Philly trip to stock up on some Eagles gear :)

 

TSA Pat Down

Caroline's ears got some extra scrutiny going through airport security on Saturday :)

 

Week in Review

1. A lot of furniture shopping (see below post). I still need new bar stools and dining chairs to go with the table we're getting, and some type of small ottoman or two for the living room. The Wayfair app is my new best friend.

2. Booked our flight to Israel for Ben's Bar Mitzvah trip in June. The tour we're going with through the Temple quoted the group airfare rate as $1,794 per person, which would have been almost $9,000 for the 5 of us. No, thank you. I booked the same Newark to Tel Aviv round trip flight using credit card reward points for $5,200. Now I just need to figure out how to get us to Newark. I think I can book a cheap flight for around $1,000 and if I wait a few months I might have another $500 or so in reward points I can use. It's a little annoying not to be able to check the bags straight through, but our flight to Tel Aviv doesn't leave till 10:45 PM so we have all day to get there and check our bags through to Tel Aviv, and on the way back we get into Newark at 4:15 AM so we have all day to get through customs and re-check our bags for the flight home. Shouldn't be too much additional hassle, and the savings ought to make it well worth it.

3. Packing for our first trip to Philadelphia in over four years! And our first non-summer trip, so I'm realizing it's going to be in the 40s and scrounging around for long pants for the kids. It's also the first time we've flown to Philadelphia instead of driving. We're staying with Mike and Kathleen and looking forward to a great Thanksgiving week! We're heading out tomorrow so I have a lot to do still to finish getting ready!

Living Room Makeover

One way to avoid thinking about the presidential election fiasco of 2016 is to spend some energy redecorating instead of worrying about the destruction of American democracy ;) Yes, I have spent the last week and a half moping around, staring numbly at the news, wondering how we ended up electing a despicable human being to the highest office in the nation. But I have also been spending a lot of time furniture shopping.The dining table makeover will soon be following (ordered a custom farmhouse table from Farmhouse Chic but it's not finished yet).

 

 

A Little More Cuteness

Soccer pictures! And somehow I accidentally ordered trading cards :)

 

 

Congrats Abby and Mike!

On Mike's first half marathon and Abby's second full one!

 

Girl Power

Making history! (I hope!) 

 

Weekend in Review

It's been a super busy weekend, Joel and I spent Friday night in Davidson and had dinner at Kindred for our anniversary, spent Saturday shopping for a new couch, attended the LLS Light the Night walk uptown, had a late dinner at Essex, and stayed at the Marriott uptown. The kids stayed with Aunt Abby and Uncle Mike, who seem to have made it through the weekend with 5 kids more or less unscathed :) Thanks for babysitting Abby and Mike! Yesterday Joel attended a meeting with the rabbi about the Israel trip, I went to Caroline's final soccer game, and we struggled to get laundry and grocery shopping done for the week :)

Also since it is T-1 day till the election, I have been "on call" for work all weekend, although only one project came in over the weekend which one of my teammates and I worked on together (he started it on Saturday and I finished it up on Sunday). Tomorrow the kids are off school (except for Caroline) and I am going to bring them to the polls with me and let them stay up tomorrow night to witness history being made! (We're with her :) )

No matter how you plan to vote tomorrow, vote! Our ability to conduct fair and peaceful elections is one of the things that makes this country great.

Soccer Star

My cute little soccer star played her final game of the fall season today. She has done a great job this season for someone who has never played soccer before! Way to go Caroline! She is already excited to play again in the spring. Here she is showing off her participation medal. 

 

Pre-K Fiesta

The Pre-K class was treated to a Mexican Fiesta today, complete with singing, dancing, a Mexican themed snack, and pinatas, by way of which we ended up with MORE CANDY just three days after Halloween (thank you very much to whomoever came up with that idea).

Here are the kids singing their Spanish days of the week song. Caroline is in the dark blue hat sort of squished right in the middle.