November Birthdays

November is an exciting (and sweet!) month in our house with Eddie's birthday on the 8th and mine on the 21st.

This year Eddie had to share his big day with a historic presidential election so, lucky for him (and for us), he was still too young to understand exactly what was going on. We had a cozy little celebration at home that night as we watched the election results begin to trickle in.

This TWO year old is ready to party!

Eddie helping with the dishes while I baked his birthday cupcakes! ;)

The girls decorated the cupcakes when they got home from school

Me and my birthday boy!! (Avalon took this pic!)

Party animals ready for cupcakes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR EDDIE!

Blowing out his candles like a pro!

"Before" pic

"After" pic... I think he liked it!

My birthday, November 21st, was sandwiched right between our return from our cruise and Thanksgiving, so we again opted for a low-key celebration at home.  I decided to spend the day doing something radically different and out of the ordinary... shopping, by myself, for clothes, for myself. It had literally been years since I had done such a thing and I had such a nice time I think I might make a birthday tradition of it. :) But my day only got better when I returned home to a birthday party thrown for me by my sweet little family!

A "clandestine cake-baking crew" selfie :)

The finished product! I loved my cake!!!!

After shopping I returned home to this! The kitchen was also decorated with streamers and balloons--I'm so bummed I didn't get a pic of that!

Avalon insisted I wear the birthday crown and some streamers as a sash!

Eloise was "too tired" to take a pic :-P

Mikuni sushi feast for my birthday dinner! YUMMMM

<3 <3 <3 <3

Ellie gave my birthday cake her trademark thumbs up

Finishing my big day with a big piece of birthday cake.

Best. Day. Ever!!!

Hallowee-kend 2016

Halloween fell on a Monday this year, so we kicked off the Hallo"weekend" festivities on Friday, October 28 with Bogle's annual Harvest Party, held at Raley Field for the second year in a row. I look forward to this party every year! Unfortunately, the plan to play a game on the field was rained out... but since I hadn't planned on playing anyway, I was more than happy with the back-up plan of moving the party to the Legacy Club suite. ;)

View of the field from the suite before the rain began

Posing with their balloon creations. I can't remember if this was before or after part of Ellie's Ariel popped, which made me jump and caused me to spill bit of my just-opened beer onto the floor. Whoops!

Eddie modeling the turtle balloon bracelet that his sisters had made for him

Fun in the River Cat bounce house

Showing off their awesome face paintings! They waited in line (patiently!) for nearly an hour for these bad boys.

So cool!!! (And soooo fun for Mom to wipe off before bed later that night...)

Eddie opted for a DIY vanilla frosting face painting

The Halloween fun continued on Sunday, October 30 when we carved our jack-o-lanterns! It was pretty wet outside following a morning rain so we opted to carve our pumpkins inside this year.

Avalon carved her pumpkin all by herself this year!!!

Our jack-o-lantern trio

Avalon and Eloise chose their own templates, and we picked out one for Eddie... can you guess whose is whose? :)

The next day was the main event! Since it was a Monday and Shaun was off work we were able to get ready and get to downtown Clarksburg nice and early to start trick-or-treating before sunset.

Since Daddy was home he was also able to document the "getting ready" this year :)

Makeup is always an essential part of the girls' costumes ;)

Ready to trick-or-treat! I pieced together the kids' costumes again this year, purchasing only the girls' wigs, Avalon's gloves and Eddie's hat.

After changing their minds a zillion times, Avalon finally decided to dress as Scarlett Overkill (the villain from the movie Minions... she had forewarning that many adults might ask who she was!) and Eloise decided on Aurora/Sleeping Beauty. Mom decided that Scarlett needed a little Minion to tag along. :)

Ready to collect some candy!

Me and my sweet Minion!

Scarlett Overkill strutting down the streets of Clarksburg

Lovely Aurora

Taking a break from trick-or-treating to munch on some popcorn, compliments of the Clarksburg Volunteer Fire Department. Oh how I love our tiny town!

Child abuse?? LOL--I just couldn't pass up this photo op! (By the way, I think that must have been Eddie's 2nd or 3rd lollipop of the evening. He seemed to have one in his little fist all night long.)

The crew on the walk back to the van after a long hour or two of trick-or-treating. We made it back just as it started to sprinkle (rain had been forecasted for the evening).

Once we were back at home it was time to dump out the loot and check out the haul!

After a nutritious dinner of candy and corn dogs, it was a wrap for Halloween 2016!