Celebrating a bit early at Disneyland, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE SIS!
Real Parents
9 hours ago
Irony
Teaching Irony to ninth graders is fun! They get it and then they keep talking about how things are "ironic." Are they using it wrong sometimes? Yes. But, who cares, they are applying a literary term to their life!
November committment
As with Robyn, Melissa, and Nicole, I am going to try to blog every day of November for the official NaBlPo 2009. I've never attempted it, but I have been trying to write more blogs and actually share pictures (I think I did a pretty good job in October--22 posts!).
I use to scrapbook and that is why I took 1,001 pictures of everything. With the combination of school (work and MA classes), scrapbooking has gone away; now I take pictures with the plan to blog them. Some day when I graduate (and don't talk myself into going again), I'll scrapbook again.
Anyway, for the month of November, plan to hear from me every day!
Isn't it ironic that this is a blog about blogging? HAHAHA
Fall Decorations at Dland
Over in Adventure Land, Disneyland set up an entire fall/Halloween area, complete with cool, Disney themed carved pumpkins, crafts for the kids, a spooky cabin, and lots of photo op spots.
Can you believe that this is a pumpkin?!?
Ready to give out candy...
We were in costume (even Reese).We had bags of candy.
We set up our pumpkins, chairs, and tv trays on the driveway.
Dave "roped" off the new grass with caution tape.
Robyn came over as a purty kitty cat.
Melissa transformed into a pretty little lady bug.
I transformed into my busy bumble bee look one more time.
We were ready...but there were no kids!!
9 total for the evening
Carmel Apples
We heated carmel from Robyn's kit and from the bag of carmel bits (which we liked better) and dipped the apples individually. It was pretty funny as we tried to get all the apples covered.
After realizing that we needed to put the apples into the fridge, we came back and dipped them into a variety of fun stuff. Des' apple did not want to come off the wax paper--in the process of I pulled out the stick!
So many toppings, so much fun! Adding grahmn crackers, cinnimon, white chocolate, milk chocolate, coconut, sprinklers, we created masterpieces!
So much fun with the girls!
So much fun with the girls!
Fall Evening
Last night, friends and family came over and my house transformed into a fall, festive atmostsphere! Thanks to Dave's hard work, the house was cleaned and more "put together" than it has since we've lived here. There were candles burning and wassol (spelling Robyn?!) was simmering on the stove.
We ate pizza (yes, David make it into a picture this time); Dave and David admired their hard work with the front lawn.
We carved out the gook of our pumpkins and saved some seeds for roasting (yummy!).
Reese wore her fuzzy jacket and Melissa drove up to spend the weekend with us :)
Even though Sammy was sick, Tawni stopped by to spend some time with us and helped supervise the pumpkin carving!
Robyn attempted the "boo" scariness on her pumpkin.
The pumpkin carving kit that I got at Walmart for $1.50 came with "jewels" which I decided were my pumpkins nose, eyelashes, and ears!
Dave used a stencil to carve out a very detailed ghost!
Melissa went super arty with a "Welcome" carved out and star shaped opening.
David added a jack-o'lantern face to the front of Robyn's pumpkin. In order, we have Robyn/David's pumpkin, mine (with a missing tooth that I accidently broke off), and Melissa's. We also made carmel apples... another post on that coming soon!
Landscaping Part III and Completion
Here is the nifty sprinkler valve system that my dad created for our front lawn sprinkler system.
After getting all the parts connected, Dave buried all the pipes and began spreading the dirt evening. The little flags represent the sprinkers :)Because of his major (nasty, snoring-causing) cold, he hired two day laborors from Home Depot to come help him level and compact the dirt on Tuesday.
When I came today, this is the beautiful thing I saw! Grass!! David came over today to help Dave (thank you!!) and it is BEAUTIFUL!! My neighbors are pleased, so much so that they have all come over and said how nice it looks. Although the house is still multi-colored, I think it makes a major difference in the look of our ghetto, fixer-upper!
Reese likes it too even though she is too cool to smile.
80's chick and busy bee
The 80's chick and busy bee dressed up Saturday night to go to a Halloween party at Des' friend's house. Getting dressed up was the best part!
Dressing up isn't just for kids these day!
Pumpkin Patch
Saturday, I tagged along with Desiree as her mom and sister took Aubrey (Des' niece) to the pumpkin patch as the cutest pumpkin you've ever seen! She loved her hat and shoes and picking up pumpkins.
Friday night trip to Disney
Fall weather.
Great Friends.
Fall and Halloween Decorations.
Gazillions of People.
Can't beat Friday nights at Disneyland!
Sorry David you never made it into a picture!
Color Me Mine Results
Robyn and I had pretty good success with our Color Me Mine birthday art projects. My dogbone bowl is "cute" and her bowl is freakin' amazing! The woman at the store told me that she'd "pay for that at any store." Robyn... you should open a paint supply/art gallary/coffee shop soon :)
Fat Pictures
Robyn's wedding was a beautiful day; however, these are the pictures that sent me on my weight loss journey. Last night at WW, several of the women asked if I had a "before" picture and these immediately came to mind. I need to print it and carry it around with me when I decide that journaling isn't important and the chettos in my prize drawer are staring at me.
Great Birthday
26.
In all reality, this is a small number. All of my friends have bigger numbers and most of the time, I feel like I'm older than the number says... but yesterday was a great day of celebration.
I spent the morning grading persuasive essays with my fellow Arlington teachers, had a great lunch where we talked about the inner workings of books (only with English teachers), and got to be home by 1:45.
I spent the morning grading persuasive essays with my fellow Arlington teachers, had a great lunch where we talked about the inner workings of books (only with English teachers), and got to be home by 1:45.
Walking into my house, I was greeted by Dave and Reese with a tray of strawberry cupcakes (my favorite). Dave paid attention to my facebook plea for the pink peacoat from Target and it awaited me at home too :) Dave had to go to class, so...
At 3:30, Tawni came over and we went to Disneyland! The fact that you get a $72 gift card on your birthday amazes me and I wasn't going to pass it up. Although I didn't spend it yet, I hopefully will find a cool sweatshirt (like Robyn's) to purchase.
Robyn met us at California Adventure when she got off work and we enjoyed a sour dough breadbowl with soup (again, my favorite)! It was mightly cold in the breeze. 
The cute Halloween decorations always remind me of my birthday (can't have a late October birthday without having many fall/pumpkin themed birthday parties). My friends were pretty paticence with my desire to take pictures with all the decorations. This Candy Corn farm was, by far, my favorite part!
We stood in line at Space Mountain for an hour and twenty minutes so we could see the halloween themed special music and ghosts. It wasn't a lot different, but it was cool to see.
We ended our trip with a stop at the candy store and candy apples to share and eat on the tram. Tawni treated me to this cute pumpkin carmel apple. It was yummy--the chocolate was orange flavored--it tasted almost like a 50-50 bar.
On the tram on the way back to the car we took this cute picture. It isn't often that we come as "just" girls without husbands and babies. Robyn has never been with just girls :)
Thank you to everyone who made my birthday special!