Happy 2010 Thanksgivings Day and a Black Friday to all!

 The week of Thanksgivings Day started off cold, with the temperatures dropping well below a freezing level.  Larissa kept chanting that she REALLY-REALLY wanted some snow.  The rest of the kids didn't care, as long as the school was canceled.  Their wish came true on Tuesday. 
Everyone got to sleep in just a little longer than they would if there was school, but by 8am we already had Gabe's friends knocking on the door, asking if anyone wanted to come play outside.  Gabe didn't want to, but Larissa and Jon did.  Even with the hand and feet warmers, they didn't last long.  Too cold to play outside we ended up hosting a video game party with a few of the neighbor kids in attendance.

On Wednesday Jon, Larissa and I took some home-baked goods and some juice to school for a Teachers Appreciation breakfast (that was initially scheduled for Tuesday).  I took half a day off from work to finish up my feast shopping.  I just beat all the big crowds too.

Thursday started off early for me.  I woke up at 5am (without any alarm set) and started getting things ready.  Turns out that my 20 lb turkey was a little to big to fit into a slow cooker (as I initially planned) and had to go into oven.  Larissa helped me with the cranberry sauce and boys just helped by staying out of my way.  By noon even Miranda was up, so we sat down for a really nice meal.  I have to say, everything was just perfect!

After eating our meal we attempted to do our typical photo session, where we all sit on the couch all dressed up and ready, then one of the kids starts throwing a fit, then another one does, I take a million of photos with a hope of getting ONE decent picture, then I get frustrated, give up and we all watch TV...

Here is the shot I find most humorous:

and here is what it felt like:

 Why, oh why do I even try?..

As we were finishing up our long day, Jon was already fast asleep, Miranda in bed, Gabe and Larissa started asking me questions about Black Friday.  After some thinking I told them get in the car, I will show you what it's all about!  So, at midnight we headed out to a new adventure.

Old Navy was already open and all the good stuff long claimed.  The line went all the way around the store and back out.  Totally crazy!  For what?...  I got all the same deals online later on!

there was no way I was going to stay in line for a $5 break!

I hope my kids learned a lesson and won't try this any time soon.  :-)


We stopped by the Krispy Kreme doughnut, hoping to bring a treat home, but they were closed.  I guess there is no Black Friday there:

Better luck another time!

Almost Thanksgivings weekend

Typically, it starts getting busy at school right before the Winter break.  Between the tests, the school papers due, and all the various school performances, it is sometimes challenging to keep up with everyone schedules...

On Thursday our Elementary school had a fundraiser at McDonald's.  Not my first choice for the dinner solution, but once in a while, for a good cause, why not?..

On Friday Jon had his classroom Fall performance.

All the kids in his class lined up and sang for us.  The, we sat at the table and did a craft together.  Nice to take a break from work and spend it with your child.

 

On Friday night we had a crazy idea of going to Krispy Kreme doughnuts and getting a treat.  Why not?..

(not sure where my pictures went...  hmmm...  Gabe?! sigh...)

We got two dozen doughnuts (because it is hard to choose), a few drinks and had a blast.

Saturday and Sunday was quiet, getting ready for a predicted cold weather with snow, and shopping for the Thanksgivings Day food (oh, and finishing up all the doughnuts)...

Fall Performance - middle school band 2010

This Tuesday Gabe's Middle School Band had a Fall performance.

It opened with three pieces played by an Intermediate Band, followed by the Middle school Choir's set of songs, then to the Advanced Band (where Gabe is playing a euphonium) for three more pieces, and finished by the High School Marching band number.

Everyone had a great time and I have to say that Advanced band was much better than I expected!  So very proud of Gabe!

One thing was very noticeable...  How much smaller Gabe is than the rest of his band.  He was probably the smallest kid with the biggest instrument in the group.  Although, we have to remember that most of the kids in the Advanced band are eight graders and Gabe is a young seventh grader.

Once Gabe was onstage, sitting in a back row, all we could see was a little bit of his horn. Back row, fourth player from the end.

November 12 weekend

On Wednesday Larissa got a call from the Grocery Outlet store and found out that she won a coloring contest.  She got the first place that came with a $25 gift card for the store.  We didn't waste any time and got a bunch of food for the house.  Thanks Riss!

 

On the weekend we watched some movies, and I did some jewelry projects.  Nothing too exciting.  Lunch with Jon and Larissa at Hot Pot n' Sushi was pretty much the highlight of the weekend. 

Kids ordered their usual, fried calamari for Jon and a Spider sushi for Larissa.  I did most of the eating though.

On Sunday we asked Gabe to clean our older neighbor's driveway (he has a giant tree in the front yard that is dropping leaves at a high rate) and next thing we know two of his friends grabbed some tools too and got to work.  As a reward I took all the boys to McDonald's for a treat.  It doesn't take much to do a good deed and it sure doesn't take much to show someone a gratitude for the job well done!

Happy 10th Birthday Larissa weekend

Our weekend started long before Saturday. 

Monday was Larissa's theater performance.  It was not at all like the ones put on by a previous teacher.  Perhaps it's the stile that didn't agree with us, but we were quite disappointed...  Larissa also decided not to attend next session, so I had her un-enrolled.

On Thursday, the 4th, it was Tim's birthday.  Since it was a weeknight with work and school, we didn't make any big plans.  Tim got a Kinect system for Xbox360 and spent the night playing it with the kids, while I attended my last Sketching class.  Nice dinner and a relaxing night watching TV was just a perfect way to end the day.

On Friday night I had tickets to see Filmmusic performance.  Initially I had two tickets for Tim and Larissa to go, but then we scored two more free tickets.  Tim didn't seem interested, so I took Miranda, Larissa and Jon along.  We really didn't know what to expect.  We knew that we will be seeing an old movie and there will be live music.  What we didn't know is that there will also be actors on stage reading all the lines from the Gulliver's Travel animated movie, orchestra, soloists, and a group doing the sound effects.  We had a blast watching the performance and would probably do this again!

Saturday was Larissa's 10th birthday.  We didn't feel like making a cake, so I baked some cupcakes.  For some reason my batch only made eight cupcakes (I was hoping for 10), so I lined them up like a Roman numeral "X" for 10.  I think Russians have an expression for that "Necessity is a Mother of invention".  I AM Russian after all.

All Larissa wanted was to go shopping at Justice store, and a Build a Bear store.  We accomplished the first.  I simply didn't have enough energy to do the latter.  Another day!

Quick lunch with Mom to follow at Quidoba's, then home to play Kinect!

Halloween 2010 weekend

As usual, we waited till last minute to decide what characters we want to be this year.  In past, I think, the issue is that we have collected quite a few costumes over the years and with that much selection (even is most of them are now too small), we just don't know what to do.

On Friday we went to Tim's work Halloween party.  We got there a little late, so finding a parking spot was not easy.  After checking in at the front table, kids went around, trying to get their card stamped with the needed three stamps, so that they could enter into a prize drawing.  We were there about an hour and that was just enough time to stay in three long lines... and get the three stamps...  We didn't even get a chance to go through a scary town set outside.

Saturday was just another day, spent mostly at the Toyota dealership.  Jon, Larissa and I went in for a 7am appointment, dropped the truck off, and went out for breakfast at the Black Bear.

Kids discovered a jukebox

After hanging out there for a while, we walked back to the car shop and spent another few hours there watching kids' movies, browsing the web...

Sunday - Halloween.  At the last minute we decided to change Larissa's costume a bit, and headed out to the Goodwill store.  We found a perfect dress for her zombie-princess look.  We almost felt bad cutting up the dress, but it was so worth it.  Make up touches added to it and she was one cool goth girl!

Here is a closer look at Larissa's makeup:

Jon dressed as a skelleton  and Gabe as a Scream character (how original...)