Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did!! There were 15 people at my table, even thought Rahul and Prachi came a little late. I am glad that Prachi is feeling better

Theresa was over yesterday afternoon. (She brought us lunch! How nice is that!!) She brought us extra tables and chairs too. And she set the table! WOW! What a great person. This is how my table looked last night before I went to bed.

Getting ready to do some serious cooking!

Here is Lon in his super fancy outfit. I laid out his snoopy fall shirt and chinos, but he wanted to wear this outfit with the tie, suspenders and vest. He liked his tie.

Then it was Mr. Goofy Face.

The first look at the turkey. I thought I had set the turkey on fire earlier. I put the giant turkey (25.9 pounds) in the paper bags (it took two) and put it in the oven. I was doing other things when the smoke alarm went off. The house was filled with smoke, I opened the oven and more smoke poured out. I saw flame! But the turkey itself was fine. The grease from the bags dripped onto the hot plate bottom of my oven. The oven did not like it one little bit. I put a large tray under the turkey and wiped out the bottom of the oven with a wet towel on a stick. It turned out fine. I found out the fans work great, the new furnace fan cleared out the house in minutes. Later on tonight, after I finish the dishes I will run a clean cycle on the oven.

Getting ready to feast!

Miss Ashley! She called last night, finally letting me know she was here. She is working and saving money so she can go to college next year. It was really nice to see her! She was also super helpful, filling glasses, clearing the table!

Still waiting on the feast.

The cook. Yep, it's me.

Uncle Chong and Uncle Vasu.

Chong thinks my mother ROCKS. And she does.

Baking Pumpkin Pies with Auntie Harshita!

Today, after a slow start, we baked pumpkin pies! Auntie Harshita came to learn how to bake pie. She is GREAT at pie crust!

Auntie Harshita gave me a very quizzical look as I put food coloring into little cups and painted a slab of pie crust. Lon helped paint the pie crust too!

This is how the pie crust with the swaths of color turn out when you cut it into leaves. Harshita thought it was very cool.

It was a fun afternoon. We got all of our pumpkin pies made.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

We were honored to attend Brian's second birthday! We can not call him baby Brian any more! He is getting so big, but he still likes to be tossed in the air!

Lon and I made his cake. Lon cracked the eggs and helped me measure out all the ingredients. It was really fun. I did decorate the cake after Lon went to bed. Frosting is way too tempting.

Brian likes trains. Who doesn't? So because I did not want to draw one, I had a cake pan shaped like a train and used that. There is a cake under the blue frosting. It is not just a huge lump of sugar. Both cakes were white. The under cake had a lemon filling. The cake was gone by the time we left. Successful cake.

Brian enjoying all the yummy food his Mommy made! We had egg rolls, noodles and some very yummy tofu beef egg thing I could not stop eating! Those were so very good. They also had grapes, strawberries and assorted veggies and rainbow goldfish. I think Lon only ate the rainbow gold fish and cake. He did have a good dinner when he got home.

Happy Birthday to Brian!

Cake is good.

All the kids helping with presents.

Megan, and Gracie with Kayla. She was not as upset as she looks. I think she was just sneezing there. She is so sweet!

Brian having fun with his new toys.

We all had a good time.

Hands

Today we went to Mom and Me Art Class. We missed the first class last week, due to the delivery of the washer and dryer (yea!) This was part of the art we made today. I am going to frame this and keep it forever!

Lon painted my hand and I painted his hand.

More of his art work soon as it dries.

My New Toy

We went to look at the animals last weekend at Denny's Pet World. They have kittens, bunnies, all sorts of other small furry rodents and fish. They had a DVD playing in the front of the store. Squirrels jumping to corn held up by a bungee cord thingy. I HAD to have this!

We rigged up a stand. (okay, Mark mainly did this)

The squirrel is looking.

I think we might have to hang it up just a touch higher

The squirrel is having fun and the cats love it almost as much as I do !

Washer and Dryer

Today I was making an applesauce cake, the weather was perfect for it. Lon was helping me. We got VERY messy. It was fun.

He gets very into his baking. We heard a big noise, a rumbly truck kind of noise.

It was a big rumbly truck!! Inside the truck was our new washer and dryer!! WOOHOO!

Our old Kenmores were good, but they were old, almost 13 years old. We ordered the new ones when we went to Costco to get a mattress/bed for Lon.

I cleaned under the washer and dryer space while they were loading up the old ones in their truck.

Bringing the new ones in.

Aren't they pretty? I have done LOTS of laundry tonight! It is quiet and so nice.

Yes, I am keeping the little carpets. Grandpa Yetka made those.

Happy Halloween!

We had a very busy Halloween. Lon went back and forth on what he wanted to be for Halloween. A knight in shining armor, Curious George, a pirate. Those were all in play. Then on the Wednesday before Halloween, we were at Sweet Caroline's, and he picked out the fire fighter costume! Who knew? It was a great pick, he could wear warm clothes underneath, wear boots and it was a raincoat too! How cool!

On our way to the Pee-Wee Monster Bash. Every year North Kirkland Community Center puts on a Pee Wee Monster Bash for the Under 5 crowd. It sells out every year.

Waiting in the rain for the doors to open. This year we had to drive up since the weather was awful. We left really early to get a decent spot. We did, but Lon wanted to get out of the car faster than they opened the doors.

Our little monkey. He did not want to wear his coat for awhile, eventually he put it back on. At the PeeWee Monster Bash they give you tickets for each event. That makes it fair, everyone gets a shot at each game and gets prizes for each game. The cookie from the cookie walk were really good! Lon gave me a nibble.

The basketball toss. This one gave Lon a little bottle of bubbles. One of Lon's favorite things! Except in the bathtub. Not a fan of bubblebath!

Lon put his costume back on and played pin the eye on the monster! For this game, he got a paddle ball! I was never very good at those. I don't think I ever met anyone who was.

The baby gym room was all set up, and Lon loved it. He had lots of fun. The next stop we made was the cool down room. Lon finished his cookie, had some apple juice and watched Monsters, Inc. for a while. He was getting overwhelmed. Everyone was. There were lots and lots of kids. We saw lots of friends! (Ty, Alex, Jacky, Lon liked that)

After the Pee Wee Monster Bash we came home, relaxed a little. When Daddy came home, he took Lon up to the store and Mommy set up Giaganto Pumpkin. Lon was NOT pleased that Mommy did not wait for him to help. He was pleased when I let him put the candles and cinnamon into out carved pumpkin.

Daddy helping Lon get ready to go out. We went out at 6pm. Which was not too early, just the right time for Lon. He walked almost a 1/3 of a mile in search of candy.

Lon and all his candy. There was LOTS.

What our pumpkin looked like lit.

Farm Tots

I had never heard of this program at South 47 Farm until the last day it was available! A chance for the last hayride of the year for Lon.

Lon rode the hay bales again.

Lon is thinking Mommy did not bring quarters to feed the goats and alpacas. He was wrong, Mommy did bring 2 quarters!

He has now discovered how cool those head shot things are! He loves getting his picture taken in them every chance he gets.

While we were waiting for the program to start, Lon went back to the hay bale ponies.

I tried to get a photo of him with the scarecrows.

The program started with the little ones playing in a box of dried peas and barley. Lon thought it was pretty cool, all those dried peas. We went to our table, Lon got to color some pumpkin pictures, we sang some songs, learned some more about how good vegetables are and then went on the hayride.

Farmer Everett is in the background helping all the people are on board.

After our hayride, Lon got to pick a sugar pumpkin. He ran down to the pumpkin field.

He picked a very cute little pumpkin. I did not help him with that.

Talking to Mr. Chicken. Lon wanted to pet the chickens, but they were not co-operative in that regard. This one did like to hear Lon talk to him, and as long as Lon talked he stayed near the fence.

Farmer Everett called out Last Hayride! Lon really wanted to go, but he already used his hayride ticket. He ran up to Farmer Everett and asked if he could go on the hayride cause he really loved hayrides! Farmer Everett said he could get on. When we went to pay, we were told that it was okay, Lon was so cute the ride was free.

We stopped at the eucalyptus grove and they gave us a piece. They cut it down each year, and mulch it well. It comes back and grows to about 7 feet over the summer.

After Farm Tots, we went to Ty's house. We got Ding Dongs! Ding Dongs! Lon was okay with them, not wild about them.