I am so Thankful for...

Two sons who are wonderful human beings! 

A husband who moved me to Minnesota to be with my family on Thanksgiving! Thanks honey!

Banana Grams...fun to play with your cousin on Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Pie!
A sister and brother in law that hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving meal! Thanks Sal and Johnny!

A Father who can laugh at a practical joke that his grandsons played on him...a golf ball hitting his windshield on Thanksgiving Day!

Place cards

Zoe made these fabulous place cards for our Thanksgiving Table. I love that I am the Indian Maiden!

Maine Cottage Furniture

My darling Redondo neighbors gave us a very generous gift card for Maine Cottage Furniture when we moved last August. I spent part of it on some gorgeous "wave" colored bedding. I still had quite a bit left on the giftcard so today I selected one of the new items called a Ruben Hassock! Isn't it cool? You can use it for a footstool or for extra seating. I ordered 3 yards of matching fabric to make throw pillows for the front room! I can't wait to get the packages in the mail. It will remind me of all the Redondo friends that I am really missing today! XOXO

Another Birthday cake at the rumpshaker

Will turned 16 and invited some of the great kids in his class over for a little dance party. Looks like they had a great time and Will got to blow out some more candles on his cake!

Photobooth at the "Rumpshaker"

My creative and productive better half fulfilled my lifelong dream (not really) to have my very own photobooth! He used some 2x4's and made a frame. Then he stretched some flannel backed constuction material over the frame. This worked great because the flannel side was not shiny and did not allow the flash to bounce off the walls. Also, it was sheer enough to let the light in from the outside to give enough light inside for the photo! I set the camera up on a tri-pod on the outside of the booth. While I did not have a remote clicker, the kids could take turns taking photos of their friends. It was a really fun way to get some photos of teenage kids who really don't want you around during their parties!

I converted the photos to black and white in photoshop and then placed them in a digital file from designer digitals. They had some vintage photobooth frames that I think worked really well! I printed some of the photos (just off my old black and white printer) out during the party...so fun!

You are never too old for a prize in the cereal box!

Will and Jack had to open BOTH boxes of cereal this morning when they saw that there was a prize in the box! These little Guitar Hero electronic music boxes are pretty cool. We didn't even have to put batteries in them!

Michael Phelps and A Pirate

Halloween trick or treaters were scarce at our house this year. I think we had a total of 25 kids come to the door. That was quite a change from the 300 to 400 kids we would have in Redondo Beach. The boys both had parties to go to, so they didn't even trick or treat. I guess they are really growing up!

Sweeet 16

Will turned Sweet 16 today. It has been an eventful week... he finished his Eagle Scout project on Saturday (still has to get the paperwork in!), and got his Minnesota driver's license on his birthday! To top it all off, we got to eat some delicious cake made in my new bundt pan!