Happy Thanksgiving

Every year, this nice lady named Carol, makes Thanksgiving pies to be served with dinner for the Salvation Army. She has been doing it a very long time. For the past 4 years, we've been lucky enough to be able to help. This year, the Salvation Army double booked their kitchen where we make the pies, so being the wonderful lady she is, Carol had everyone come to her house to make the pies, just like the early days of her pie making operation. We loaded up our cars with all of the supplies and headed over to her house.

People were mixing pumpkin for pumpkin pies in the front yard, apple crumble in the back yard, lemon meringue in the kitchen, and making pastry in the living room. All of the neighbors turned on their ovens, and baked the pies. It is always a blast. This year 212 pies were made.

I was on pie crust duty, which turned out to be slightly challenging. Gail, Sara and I had so much fun laughing about how horrible our pastry looked, but we figured once it was cut into slices, they wouldn't even notice. Callie & Hayden helped cut little leaf shapes out of pastry to put on top of the pumpkin pies.

Callie was an excellent pastry maker, as well as lemon juicer, and apple peeler. This girl wanted to try everything.

Poor Hayden had a run in with the lemon zester and grated this thumb. Owies and lemon don't mix too well. We told him his pie was extra special because a homeless person was getting a little bit of him with it :)

Afterwards, the excellent pie makers got to choose a treat of their liking at the gas station mini mart. We are so grateful for our many blessings, both temporal and spiritual. Here's wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This weekend I read this

and this

and saw this

It was a good weekend ( besides from getting a parking ticket ).

The Birthday Party

For Callie's birthday, we had an "Adopt a Puppy Party". It was a HUGE hit. This was the easiest (and least expensive) birthday party I've done, and the girls just ate it up. I already had everything, except the puppies, for the party. We sent out invitations which turned out so cute. I can't seem to take it off our fridge. I made them in Photoshop, and then just printed them out on 4 x 6 photo paper. Easy breezy.





I made these huge flowers from tissue paper for the decorations. I think I will move them to Callie or Isabella's room because I don't want to throw them away.



Each girl got to pick a puppy from the Adoption Center. I couldn't believe it when I found these puppies at the Dollar Store- they are so adorable! They filled out an adoption certificate with their picture with the puppy, name, breed, color, etc.


Then they moved to the grooming center where they brushed, cut, and sprayed their puppy with Bath & Body Works sprays. We needed to open the doors to air the house out with all of the different scents flying around! But those puppies smelled great by the time they were done :)

Then they made a name tag for their puppy out of shrinky dinks. I think you could just throw a shrinky dink party for these girls, because they were fascinated by it shrinking and curling in the oven. These came out soooo cute.


We had snacks and paw print cupcakes.




We had a pinata with all of that Halloween candy the Great Pumpkin took. We had a few minutes left over before it was time to go, so the girls decided to do puppy training classes. They took turns being the instructor, and taught their puppies how to sit, stay, etc. All in all, I think everyone had a great time.

The Birthday Girl

Callie turned 7 on Friday. Hard to believe we have a 7-year old. Time really does fly by. Callie started the morning by opening presents before school. She got a Strawberry Shortcake doll from Hayden, fake fingernails and a necklace from Isabella, and Bendaroos (huge hit) and a High School Musical Bedazzler from us.

She got phone calls from both sets of grandparents before school, which was very nice. She can't wait to go to the store to spend her birthday money - thanks N&G and G&G.

Callie had her birthday party after school, but I will post the details later, it was a huge hit. Callie has been wanting to go rollerskating, so we went as a family on Saturday. She LOOOOVED it. I remember loving rollerskating rinks as a kid too, and how they always used to play "Walk Like An Egyptian". Good times.

Hayden was a trooper as it was his first time. If you noticed in the previous pictures, he was having a little bit of a hard time, and decided to stick to the wall, where he made a friend :)

Boutique Time Again

Sandy Diamond's
10th Annual Holiday Boutique
is almost here, with more vendors than last year!
.
Friday, Nov. 13th & Saturday Nov. 14th
9 AM to 7 PM
.
10506 Italia Way, Rancho Cordova
.
Handcrafted Home Decor, Gifts, Candles, Door Prizes, & More!

Garage: Mission Accomplished

I've been wanting to paint our garage white for a few years, and I finally did it last week. Even though he thought I was nuts, Jeff nicely supported me by moving heavy boxes and building a few extra shelves for me. Thanks Jeff! It looks so clean and organized. I love it!


I almost had a mini breakdown when I realized I had been painting the last 1/3 of the garage with the wrong paint color. AARGH!! It turns out I bought off white, instead of white, which I had used for the other 2/3 of the garage. I was crushed as I was nearing the end of my week long project, to realize part of my garage would have a tinge of yellow to it. To most of us, it seems like a very trivial thing to get upset over, but after spending my entire week in the garage, covered in paint, wearing the same painting clothes all week, I wasn't in the mood for the disappointment. You can barely make it out in the upper right hand corner of the picture. Now, I can laugh about it. The last thing it needs is some vinyl! jk.... not really though :)

The Trick or Treaters

1 Pirate and 2 Sleeping Beautys. This little pirate was not getting along with these little princesses, as you can see from his face expression.

Isabella had SO much fun with trick or treating this year. She would hold Jeff's hand and in between houses say, "run Daddy, run. More candy". Callie got many compliments on her long hair. She loved it.

The loot! Between the ward's trunk or treating the night before and trick or treating, we had so much candy! They each picked out a few good pieces to save before giving it to the Great Pumpkin. Sleeping Beauty was so tired.

The Great Pumpkin brought Moon Sand - which is something new to our house. Lots of fun, but oh so messy!