Chuck E. Cheese Awesome Photo Cards

When we were at CEC this last time, we took advantage of their picture maker card system. The cards come out with your picture and they are the same material like driver's licenses so you can keep them forever. It is so cool! Danny really took advantage making about 8 cards while Austin only made 3 of his own.

Santa and Mrs. Claus

These mugs were given to me as a gift many years ago but I still love to pull them out each year and have at least one cappaccino each Christmas in them. The kids loved them so much and wanted to drink coffee from them too but I told them that they aren't old enough yet... to drink from my mugs, not for the coffee... I let them drink coffee if they want to. I know, I'm such a bad mom!

Letters to Santa

These were the kids' Christmas letters to Santa. Danny wrote his all himself, with a little help from mom and dad on the spelling, and Austin's letter was wrote by mom over Austin's hand. They both decorated the letters themselves and then hand delivered them to Santa at the Santa Breakfast in our neighborhood. It was so cute.

Responsibility Chart

This is Danny's responsibility chart. He completed each task throughout the week and was rewarded $1.00 for the week of good work. He is learning what he needs to do in order to help out around the house and has been doing it so willingly. This is such a great tool and really helps him to keep track of what he needs to be doing without being told. I was astonished by how much he wanted to follow it. He would wake up, get himself dressed and brush his teeth without me even having to ask once. (For all you moms out there, I got it at Target for $10.69... definitely worth it.)

My Snowglobe

School Thanksgiving Lunch

The kids' school had a Thanksgiving lunch where you could go and join your child for turkey, dressing and the fixings. It was awesome! We picked up Austin at the front door (his class lets out at 10:30) and then Kamal, Austin and I walked to the lunch room to meet Danny. Danny came in with a little pilgrims' hat and he was a helper that day. He helped out carrying the lunch boxes. When he was done, we all went to get our food and sat down at a table. They had turkey, dressing (stuffing), mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, roll, pumpkin pie, lemonade and tea and tons of it. Delicious! We had a great time and even got a family picture together.

Care Packages to the Troops and Camoflauge Day at School

On October 11th, the kids wore camoflauge to school in honor of the veterans on Veterans' day. They looked so cute that I had to take a couple of pictures.





On October 12th, the kids had a playdate to make care packages for the troops. Austin fell asleep before we left so it was just Danny and me. The kids had a blast making cards to put in the packages and then formed an effecient assembly line to fill the boxes. They did a great job. After they were done, we had them pose with the boxes so we could take a quick picture of them. Then, the real fun began! They climbed the stairs and were jumping off to see how far they could jump. It was so cute that of course I had to get video of it! Enjoy!

Halloween and The Race for the Cure

Halloween night came along and we had a fantastic time. Najib and Margo joined us as we walked the neighborhood trick or treating and then when we got back home, we blew up the inflatable haunted house. The kids enjoyed playing in it until some trick or treaters would come, then they LOVED passing out candy. Later on, Raed joined us to pass out candy and play with the kids in the haunted house. All the neighborhood kids enjoyed going through our little haunted house to get candy. It was a really fun night.

The very next day was The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure here in Austin. I got up and met my friends Amanda and Daphne at Starbucks at 6:30am for a cup of joe. Then, we headed down to The Domain for the race. Once we got there, we met up with the rest of our group and then headed for all the free stuff. It was great! I got so much stuff for the boys, myself and Kamal. It was like a mini Christmas. I got a free picture taken at the booth for Bank of America with the capital building in pink. It was fun.

Then, we walked our 5K, enjoying getting to talk and laugh all the way. We went over a bridge at one point where there was really pretty scenery... water with turning trees reflecting in it and a very blue sky. It was gorgeous. Once we finished, we went our seperate ways and I drove to Krispy Kreme to get some doughnuts for the kids. It was a great day.

School Carnival, Halloween Carnival and Halloween Party

On October 24th, the kids' school had their annual carnival. The kids were super excited to attend and we invited Margo, Najib and Rajaa to go with us. We met at the house and walked to the school where the kids had a big time eating cotton candy, nachos, playing all sorts of games and riding the train. It was a wonderful time.

We did the cake walk while we were there and Danny end up winning! Lucky number 10. He was so excited and kept saying "I'm the winner!". He got some brownie/chocolate chip cookies and after we ate our nachos and sausage wraps, he passed out some to each of us.

On October 30th, we had two events to attend, one at 4pm and the other at 6pm. The first was our annual Halloween carnival with our neighborhood group. We were supposed to have the event in our neighborhood, however, it had rained a bunch the week before and the place we were going to have it was really muddy. It was moved to a church with a huge concrete platform and that actually placed us closer to attend the second event. We were happy. Danny dressed as a pirate, Austin as a ninja, I went as a toy cowgirl and Kamal went as Kamal. :-)

The carnival was in full swing when we arrived and the kids made themselves at home, going from table to table to complete the different crafts and games. Austin hung around so I got to help him with some of the crafts but I rarely saw Danny... too many friends, too little time! Once the pizza was served, things calmed down for a bit and Kamal and I actually got to visit a little with my friend Carla and her daughter Samara, which Danny loves hanging out with. Then, after the pizza break, there was the costume contest in which each child got their chance to strut their stuff down the red carpet... it was adorable and I loved it for the mere fact that you actually got to see each and every child in their costume. Fantastic idea! Finally, it was time for each of the mothers to grab a bag of candy so the children could go trick or treating. They enjoyed that so much, you can imagine.

After the carnival was finished, it was off to the second event... a Halloween party at Jaime's house! We ended up getting there about an hour late but things were just getting into full swing. The pizza arrived a few minutes after we did and the kids dug in. There were jumpers in the backyard and when we went inside, the kids disappeared into the upstairs play room. It was so much fun to get a chance to talk to my friends that I don't get to see all that often because of our CRAZY schedules and the kids had a wonderful time playing with all the different toys... they didn't want to leave! The food was wonderful, the company even better, and we had such a great time.

Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West

Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was an enjoyable read. It's about a screenplay writer (Renata) located in the US, who finds out through a National Enquirer article that her boyfriend (Ferg) who is shooting a film on location in Irelenad was spotted at a pub with the very sexy star of the film, Esme Vasquez. There were some incriminating photos that showed that the two might be more than friends. This set off a turn of events that lead Renata closer to finding out some major family secrets that had been tucked away for years.

I enjoyed reading it although it took me a while to really care about the characters and get into the story. Once I started finding out about some of the dark secrets, that's when I was hooked. It was a really easy read.

View all my reviews >>

The Apprentice by Terri Gerritsen

The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really liked this book and now vow to read the whole series. It was very CSI and once I found out that the author was an internist and knew about these things, it made it even more interesting for me. When she would describe how they knew how long someone had been dead and that they could tell if a hair was from a live person or from someone postmortem, I was totally hooked.

Jane Rizzoli is an interesting character to begin with and given the history she has with the first serial killer, you realize quickly that her tough emotional armor has some holes in it. The book starts off with the serial killer thinking to himself in prison and you understand right up front that he may be breaking out soon. I was captivated from the very first page.


View all my reviews >>