It Was a Wicked Good Weekend!

My husband set up a fancy-schmansy theater date for us. Perhaps you can guess from the title of my post? You definitely can't tell from the one picture I took from our fun night out. (See below) Don't we look Pop-u-lar?

For our next adventure, we headed up to Flagstaff for the 4th of July. While we were there, the kids & I enjoyed some of this yummy dessert. (See below) What I didn't realize about said dessert until too late was that it had cappuccino! So much for a great night's sleep.

Then Derek dominated in his firm's three on three tournament.

And, since we were stuck in the van for a little while while it rained I taught Eli to be a gangsta'. Peace out!

Hallo-Thanks-mas

Yesterday when we were coming home from church, I saw a couple of guys with ladders and tools walking around a neighbor's yard. I thought, "Oh, just finishing up some yard work." After a closer look, I discovered they had been busy, little elves and installed Christmas lights on the house. Christmas lights? Already? THEN...

Today I went on a walk with the kiddos. I've been trying to do that every night to make the time go by more quickly and get a tiny bit of exercise and mostly to enjoy the temperate climate of this time of year. Anyway, walked by the above mentioned house and the Christmas lights were on! Seriously.

Okay, I absolutely love Christmas. It's definitely one of my top two holidays, but it's not even the middle of November yet. I realize the department stores and every other such stores are already bombarding us with Christmas merchandise, but what the heck happened to Thanksgiving?

My poor daughter is so confused she keeps asking me when we're going to celebrate Christmas and I have to constantly remind her that we have to celebrate Thanksgiving first. Then she asks me when we're going to celebrate her birthday (which isn't till April) and I have to remind her it's not for a long time. Yesterday, she told my grandma that she could go trick-or-treating with her. The poor girl has some sort of holiday schizophrenia going on.

This is the Halloween that does not end...

So, when I was growing up, each year I celebrated Halloween one time, one day of the year. It seems to me that in everyone's attempts to make Halloween wonderful for our children, Halloween gets done multiple times a year anymore. For instance...
Halloween #1: Our ward's Trunk or Treat where we were able to have chile (I made a really yummy white chile that I took) and hot dogs and drink root beer. The kids walked around and got buckets full of candy at this event as well as winning little prizes at the various booths.
**Sidenote**I do have to ask though, whenever my grandma makes rootbeer, she always puts dry ice in, to keep it cold and probably for entertainment value as well. This rootbeer was that "left on the counter too long to be good and cool" temperature. Doesn't homemade rootbeer need dry ice or is that one of those myths that I've created from my upbringing? I'm looking to find out if I'm abnormal or do the rest of you do dry ice too?
Halloween #2: Ryanna's pre-school did a small little Halloween where we moms each did a little activity with prizes for the kids. I did the cupcake walk. Ryanna helped me decorate the cupcakes. They were strawberry with cream cheese frosting.
Halloween #3: Our community where we live held trick or treating the night before Halloween because I guess in past years our subdivision got slammed pretty hard and some of the residents were upset that their own children didn't get any candy because houses would run out before kids who live here could get any. I really liked this because it allowed me to meet my neighbors. It's hard in this day and age to meet your neighbors because people work so much and when they come home, they don't go out. I met a lot of people and really enjoyed myself and the kids came home with loads of candy.
**Sidenote**NO Owen's costume is not him being eaten by an alligator as I got asked TWICE. Seriously, that's a little out there for me to even think of. He was a dragon. It's not my fault he wouldn't wear the head piece. Doesn't he know I'm trying to get good photos here? Those Anne Gedes & Tom Arma photos where the kids are in cute animal costumes--don't believe it for one second! Those kids were doped up on Dimetapp or something to get them to grin and sit still and not try to yank the head piece off and give an Indian war cry in your face. At least my son would never go for it.
Halloween #4: Ryanna helped me to pass out candy to the kids that came to our house on Halloween night. We didn't get nearly the crowd I thought we would because so many people turned off their lights and didn't participate on the real night because they had done the community trick or treat. I thought it was a good chance for Ryanna to give since she had received so much. I think she might've enjoyed the power of distributing the candy more than she did getting it even.
Wow! That's enough Halloween festivities to last a lifetime...or I guess till next year anyway!
**Last Sidenote I promise**Due to the amount of times Ryanna was able to dress up, she was a Princess for some activities and a cow for others. Her choice.

Do you know what day it is?

Believe it or not, I was unaware of this until yesterday, but today is International Chocolate Day!!! I'm not making it up I promise. I was very excited to hear about this special day, but sad to realize that not enough of us are aware of its existence to make it important. I mean, really, when's the last time you stopped and thought about all of the wonderful things chocolate has done for you?

Here's a few of my reasons for loving it:

1. I used to be thin, when I was like 4 years old, but then I discovered chocolate. Since that day, I have had extra padding to cushion me if I fall.


2. Sometimes I'm sad or mad or bored...then I eat chocolate and I feel HAPPY!! (followed usually by guilt, but that's a different blog).


3. Peanut butter used to be so lonely, but then it met chocolate and they have been the best of friends. They are two of my closest friends.


4. Everybody loves kisses and hugs!


5. You can buy chocolate in icecream, another favorite of mine!