First Birthday!

That's right, Gabriel will be ONE on Wednesday!

Today we had a Luau Birthday Party at Grandma Teresa's house to celebrate. I made the cake a "beach" with blue frosting for the ocean and graham crackers for the sand. Mia greeted everyone at the door with a lei and she also made a Hawaiian mixed CD from some songs on her iTunes (she is such a good helper). Gabriel got a lot of fun "big boy" toys and much needed new clothes. And he dug right into the cake!

Spaghetti

Thought I would share some pictures from dinner last Thursday.

Nine

Last Sunday Mia turned NINE! I still can't believe that I am the mother of a nine year old.

On Saturday we had a super fun "Backwards Party" at Grandma Chloe and Papa's house. The party "ended" at 1 and "started" at 4. When the guests arrived Mia greeted them with a "Goodbye I am glad you could come." The best part of the whole backwards theme, we got to eat cake FIRST. We forgot to take our camera to the party but I know there are pictures out there. I will ask around and post some later.

On Sunday we had a relaxing day at home with not much to do. (Hold on is this my birthday or Mia's?) She wanted to go to Red Lobster for dinner so she could get her favorite... crab legs. 

3 months old

Nine years old

Halloween Fun

I know this post has taken FOREVER for me to get to. Sorry for that but here it is.

This year Mia decided she didn't want to go "Trick-or-treating". I of course put up no argument and jumped at the chance to hit the high road and skip all the "in town" Halloween madness. So we decided to go have a quiet fun Halloween at Ron & Chloe's (Mia's dad's parents for those of you who might not know the Douglass family tree). She didn't miss out on candy entirely, she had no school on Halloween so we went to Grandma Kathy's school and Grandma Teresa's work and they both had treats for the kids.

Peter (Mia's dad), Mia, Gabe, Mike, and I went to Grandma and Papa's around 5. We had a LOT of fun cooking hot dogs on the fire. We also had a flashlight scavenger hunt, we had to find something for every letter of the alphabet (bonus points for halloween items). I made a super yummy brain to bring (made out of a watermelon). 

I didn't get many good pictures of the kids in there costumes. Mia was a princess and Gabriel was her knight in shining armor. But here is what I did get...