Family Photo 2011

It's not very often we can get the whole family into a picture - so we try at least once a year get a shot with everyone.... and here it is!

(Bruno obviously found something more interesting to look at than the camera - oh and you may recognize it in our holiday card:)

Caits = miserable

Caits had a bit of a rough week last week... turns out she had a bad case of Croup (and Stridor) and couldn't really breath really well :(. Mom and Dad had to take her to the emergency room to get her all taken care of.... They helped her feel better but she was still having some issues so she had to spend the night at the hospital. Poor girl, she was pretty miserable...

She wasn't very happy so I came to visit her lots and tried to cheer her up. After 30 hours at the hospital I think she was ready to go home though (she found her hat and coat and headed to the door)!!
She's all better now and back to her feisty Self :)

It's that time of year again!

So this year - we're planning on heading to Colorado for Christmas! Since we're going to be away M & D decided that we weren't going to get a Christmas tree - but Caits and I decided that was a bad idea and convinced them get one anyway :) So we headed off to the Christmas tree farm with some of our friends and picked out our perfect not so big Christmas tree. After taking a nice little tour of all the trees on a tractor ride (fun bonus!!) we wondered around and found the perfect one. Daddy sawed it down in about 2 seconds flat. Check it out!!



I think we did pretty good:)

LO tree lighting!

So Yiayia and Papou suggested we all head over to LO for the annual tree lighting... there was music, and dancing and Santa was there too!! There was a big count down before they lit the trees 3...2...1... then something funny happened... no one could find the tree that lit up!!! It was all the way at the end of the square - once all the people cleared out we found it and it was super pretty!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year for Thanksgiving we had a house full!! Let's see, Yiayia and Papou were there, Uncle John, Aunt Jennifer and her parents, AND my friend Bailey and her family all came over! My dad got up at 5:00am in the morning to start smoking the turkey (which was super yummy) and everyone else brought something to share. Bailey and I even got to sit at our own table this year (it was the big kids table :).

Keep on Rockin' in the Free World

So, I have a new favorite song - it's goes like this: "Keep on rockin' on the free world!!!!" (yes, Neil Young)... I heard it in the car and told mom to turn it up. We all rocked it out a bit and I was hooked. I make my parents play it at home all the time. I tried to get Caits to sing it with me but she would go for it... see for yourself...


Soph: "Caitlyn, Can you say Rockin' in the Free World?"
Caits: "No"
Soph: "She said no."

Halloween!!

So, this year I decided I wanted to be a pig princess with wings :). So Yiayia got busy making a beautiful princess dress (pink of course :) and mom got busy trying to figure out how I would also be a pig. (She found me a pig hat that rounded out my outfit AND kept my head warm :). . And as for Caits, she was a SUPER CUTE scarecrow. We had a super fun time tricker-treating on our street and even more fun eating all the candy!!

Pumpkin Patch fun

As Halloween approaches, it's time for the annual trip to the pumpkin patch!! We hit up a Plumper farm this year to change things up a bit. We went with our friends Bailey, Parker, Kai and little baby Riley and had a BLAST!!




They had a big hay slide, farm animals, big slides and pumpkins of course... :) Check out little Caits taking on the "big kid" slides... no holding her back from all the fun.



And yes, I got to ride a pony!! Her name was "Peaches" :)

Playing Hookie (at the zoo :)

We decided to play hookie last Friday and hit the zoo!!! It was SO fun... I loved the animals - My favorites were the monkeys and elephants, but I really, really liked the goats (which I got to pet) and the giraffes too. Oh yeah, and the bears!!! I was a really good helper too, holding Caitlyn's hand and making sure she didn't climb to high on the railings!! (which she did, lots of times :)

I can't wait until we go back!! Oh, and I think we wore Caits out!!

I'm a budding artist...

check out some of my latest artwork!!... My favorite thing to draw right now is a sun with a smiley face...

And of course, I love to paint too... some of my latest here. I painted with fall colors since it's fall here :)

Our favorite post-meal snack

Blueberries...!! Oh yeah, and check out Caits and I sporting our awesome aprons/smocks... pretty sweet huh?

Twirly slide

After watching Caitlyn go down the twirly slide a few times, I decided that I didn't want to be out done by my little sis.... so I tackled the slide that I typically sit at the top of, wanting to go down, but never actually going down... who knew, it's fun!!!

Caits masters the forward roll...

For about 6 months now, Caitlyn has been on a mission to master the forward roll (which pretty much look like's she's doing downward dog :) Well, I'm hear to tell you that at 19 months she has officially conquered it... check her out!!!

Shopping companion

Mom and Caits decided that I needed some bigger shoes because my feet are getting bigger and bigger and my shoes are not!! I think Caits provided mom some good entertainment at the store... (as always :).

Pizza amore...

One of my FAVORITE meals is pizza. I like to eat it, but mostly i love to make it!! I've been perfecting how I spread the sauce, just to the edge but not over. After that, the rest is easy!! And yes, I did spread out my own dough :).

My first field trip!!

It's true. I had my first legit field trip today!! We got to ride a bus (with NO seatbelts) and everything. My mom rode on the bus too, but I didn't sit next to her. I sat next to my friend Amelia. When we got to the pumpkin farm we got to do a hay ride to the pumpkins! I searched the pumpkin field long and hard to find a perfect pumpkin. Small, round, clean, with a small stem. I'd say I did pretty good :)



After the perfect pumpkin was hunted down, I had some fun playing on the hay bails, seeing the farm animals and running through the "scarecrow" tunnel.


I LOVED my field trip - can't wait till the next!!

60th Annual Greek Fest!!

One things for sure, you don't want to miss the Greek Festival!!! The food is so, so yummy. I really love the spanakopita and the souvlaki. Here's a tip - have them dip the bread in the souvlaki sauce - um, um, um. Oh, of course you have to top it off with some loukamades. Just beware, the bees will fight you for them!!



I really loved watching the dancing too. Caits even tried to dance like them - it was silly.