Funny Story

At Catholic Coffee Club last Monday I went around the class asking the teens a question. We were trying to kill time while waiting for everyone to arrive. So I posed this question to the 15 teens that were present. "What is your favorite dish served for Thanksgiving?" I got all the standard answers . . ."My mom's dressings, no the pies are the best, I love turkey and gravy." I even had one teen that told us about her family from Cuba and there tradition of serving roasted pig instead of turkey. The rice dish was her favorite.


Then it was Bear's turn. "We have this very pretty bowl that is orange and yellow. It is shaped like a leaf and mom serves potatoes out of it. It is the prettiest dish I have ever seen!" What a nut this kid is. Leave it to him to turn the question around. Bear is one of the funniest people I know.

Pickle is 10

My precious Pickle is now 10 years old. I can't even believe that he is becoming such a happy young man. He asked for an ice cream cake and we were happy to oblige.
We all enjoyed a great dinner and then the delicious cake that he called his King cake.
Pickle decided to light it all the candles himself. With all the tricksters that kept blowing out the candles, we began to worry that this ice cream cake was soon going to be a puddle before we got the chance to sing to him.


Pickle is a beautiful, kind, creative, strong, loving, and imaginative young man. Well love you so much Pickle. Happy happy birthday!

Girls Night Out

A good friend of Goobers had her Sweet 16 party at the beginning of November. We know the birthday girl through our Catholic Coffee Club. She is Goobers age and she also has a sister that is Sugar's age. They are a great pair or sisters to be friends with my pair of sister friends. My little Tom-Boy girls were invited to a night out on the town. They would be transported by a Limousin, were semi formal gowns and have a blast.
Pooker helped that to get ready. They looked so beautiful, My camera lens is once again broken so no formal pictures. This really saddens me as they did look fantastic.
All pictures of my gorgeous girls have been taken from various facebook pages of the girls that went with them.
The parents followed them around and took care of everything while the girls rode in style. I love that they went bowling in their semi-formal gowns. Too fun. They had a blast.

New friends.
Sugar with the birthday girl.
Look at all those beautiful girls.
This is a fun group of kiddos that all looked adorable and enjoyed themselves. It proved to be a wonderful night out on the town for a very young group of beautiful women.

Mom and Dad get away to Mississippi

J needed help again with a trade show. I was happy that the kiddos were able to handle things for three days so I could go with him and help.It is a known fact that the finest dinning in Biloxi Mississippi is a small little restaurant. Mary Mahoney's is one of the oldest homes in America. "You haven't been to the Gulf Coast until you've been to Mary Mahoney's!" I admit that I cried when I read the history on the menu. Yes I said "I cried!" Mary was a woman that loved history, loved food and loved people. I could so relate to her.
I can't even begin to speak as to how great the food was. I do food but can't cook at all like that. Yummy.
I grabbed this quick picture as we were leaving. I love that panting. All the walls were filled with antique art work.

Don't leave and miss the Patriarch, the 2000 year old oak that sits in the courtyard. Yes, I say it was 2000 years old. They claim that 3 experts have examined it and dated it to be over 2000 years old. This tree was around at the time of Christ. That is one old tree.
Mary Mahoney's is mentioned in two of John Grisham's books. Mary Mahoney's is really just one of those place where someone found a beautiful location, this old french home. It was already filled with history. Then a very loving person started cooking for all her friends and serving them in this spot of history. The combination of great food, warmth of loving friends, and beautiful history makes for a wonderful place to visit.

The trade show happened to be at the Hard Rock Casino/Hotel. It was fun to walk around a see all the music "history" and memorabilia. I didn't like the smokey smell of the casino but the rooms were very comfortable. J did enjoy seeing Richie' Sambora's guitar and jacket. Richie plays for Bon Jovi (Jason is one of the bands biggest fans.)
Once again our time out together was short lived but wonderful. We are so blessed to have a little time here and there every now and again to spend together.

I live with crazy people.

A few days back Bagel and I are chatting and she got my attention when she lowered her voice.
"Hey mom, remember that picture of Santa Clause that Maggie took last year. The one she took in living room?"
"OK, yes, why?"
"Well I think it as dad. It looked like his hand."
"What are you saying? Do you think your dad is Santa?" (I asked with fear of her response.)
"Are you kidding me, our dad???? Dad's not that rich. He is not fast enough to travel all over the world. And we don't even own a sleigh."
"Silly me, what was I thinking?"

Tonight's dinner was salad. I chopped three heads of lettuce and added everything I could find. I figured it was a good day because we even had croutons. Two huge bowls of pretty salad. Jumba wasn't too impressed. He crawled up to the table and saw the two huge bowls salad.
"Lettuce, no meat, what are we rabbits?" I would have expected that from dad but not from a three year old. Then Bagel walks up to the table and sees the salad bowls, "Oh man, are we poor?"

After forcing the family to sit and eat the conversation took off like it always does. The older kids got into some more adult type talk. They quickly recognized that the conversation was too mature. They hushed each other and got quiet. This is when Bagel let them know that they could say anything. "Go ahead guys, were too little we will forget anyway."

The silliest remark by far was the one that I was forced to say this afternoon. We finally got the blow up turkey out of storage and in the front yard. It is a fun decoration and we all like it. While sitting outside waiting for a friend to arrive I noticed that Pickle was sitting on the Turkey, punching it in the face. Without thinking I yelled, "Stop punching the turkey." I must have sounded like an idiot.

A good routine

Hey it is only November . . . I think we are doing pretty good. I am most happy about how the school weeks are falling into place. The older kids have a routine, it does need tweaking but the little ones were not working hard enough. I bought a few more books. I dug through some books that we have not used in years.
With a little extra planning I had a room full of young kiddos working hard all week.
Next week we will repeat while also trying to tweak the schedule of the big kids.

No matter what, I am proud of these kiddos. They work very hard to learn. They may or may not have above average score on any tests; but they are very smart. Here's to another great week!

Off Duty Halloween 2010

The discussion about Halloween got a little heated this year. The older kids keep coming up with great plans for costumes and I tried to get them to let the little ones pick their own this year. In the end it worked out because the little ones got pick out of the buckets for the ZooBoo and the neighborhood party and then the family theme was set for Halloween trick or treating.

The preparations were on.

Friends came over to play. Mr. Daniel is Pooker's friend and he is very loved by the little ones.

Kat came early to help with preparations.

Larry and J cooked.

and enjoyed some laughs.
This year's theme was "Off Duty" The girls were Off Duty Princesses and the boys were Off Duty Super Heroes.
The girls had gone so far as to pick out names.
As always they were one happy group as they headed out looking for treats.

These two will be friends for ever.
And so will these two.
The wagon is supposed to be for the little ones when they get tired. In the end the wagon was left behind and everyone walked.
The good news is that we found Bannon Princesses on the road.
Pooker stop feeding Superman's ego.
Kat brother T-man was with us as well.
Goobers and Kat looked so beautiful.

Poor Daniel, all those Princesses around.

The night was wonderful and the weather was warm. We all remembered the year before when Mrs. Linda was with us. We all missed her so much. Halloween was the last time I saw her so the night was a little sad for me. I must point out that in the end the night was very happy. Mr. Larry, T-man and Kat shared their night with us as we all missed their mom. We laughed and rejoiced in time together and in her memory. She would have been happy. Rest in Peace Miss Linda.