Thanksgiving 2007

It has taken forever, but here are the Thanksgiving pics. Everyone made a pinecone turkey place card for their seats. I suggested a "Parade of Turkeys" to the table and they actually did it. Suckers! Here are Mom-mom and Jake leading the parade.










Dani parading and taking a pic of me. Sara must have had to go back for something.














Okay, now she' parading in the proper fashion.














My mother waiting to greet everyone at the table. She was channeling Martha Stewart for a moment here, but luckily it passed.














I just like this couch. (sorry)













Scarlet got a holiday haircut and was NOT happy about it.















Sara and Nan working hard on their creations. Dani was very secretive about his design, hence the back to the camera stance. That is Sean's sweet foot protruding into the pic from the left.











Jake's special fire-fighter training came in handy when it was time to light the candles.















Back to the parade. I did not tell Jeff to wave, that was his own doing.













Bringing up the rear was Sean and Nan. Enjoy these photos because I guarantee these people will not do this again next year.

Shannon's Birthday

Our dear Shannon turned 17 on Nov. 2nd. Of course we had to have cake and pie and picture posing.











We went to Medieval Times for dinner and yes, Jeff was in attendance. He took this picture.
















We had trouble with the cameras at this place. The pics were either too dark, the waiter was in the way of a good shot, or the animals moved away before our cameras could recover. Anyway, the horses were beautiful, the falcon was a good flyer who did not poop on us and the wacky choreographed fighting was interesting.









Horsey.












We all had a good time, thanks for the memories!!!

More Halloween

Sean's friend left his "Woopie Cushion" costume at our house last night. It was so cute, I had Sean model it for you fine folks. I think Dani would have loved it.

Here is Shannon's Tinkerbell pumpkin. She did a great job on the carving, however, my picture is a bit blurry. Maybe if I drank more alcohol I could hold the camera straight.

That's it for Halloween 2007.

Halloween

It's that time of year again. Here are the obligatory Halloween Photos.

The first one is Jake the fireman and Shannon the flapper. They were so cute, although Jake wasn't into it as much as he could have been.














This is a good one of Sean. He had a two tier costume. The plan was this: hit the neighborhood houses in this mask and shirt. Then, remove mask number 1 to reveal mask number 2, which was hidden underneath, as well as, a different shirt. Then, hit the houses again and no one is the wiser.














Here you see Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs. We were pretty busy at work today so it's a good thing we posed for this picture early in the morning. The costumes were slowly dismantled little by little throughout the day.

Have a Happy Day!

Busch Gardens

Sean Jeff and Amy had a great day at Busch Gardens. We saw some beautiful grey wolves in their conservation area. Here is a photo of one of them, she posed so nicely.









Here is another grey wolf, this one wasn't as friendly.















Ghosts in the trees - spooky.


















They had fabulous Halloween decorations all over, here Sean is showing you the sketeton pirates.










Here is a beautiful, but deadly owl. Everytime we walked by this lady, she had a different bird on display. One of them was a hawk. She explained that the hawk's talons could exert 300 pounds of pressure, versus a human hand which can exert only 70 pounds of pressure. She told us these birds can and do eat cats.

Sad..................

Jamestown, VA

Jeff, Sean and I took a long weekend to Virginia and one of the places we visited was Jamestown Settlement.

These pics are from the Native American "village". The colonist's part of town wasn't all that interesting to me, I don't think I took one photo of that. Anyway, here is Sean in one of the wigwams holding part of a dead bird.













Sean standing by an animal skin stretcher thing.















A view of the village.















Here is the inside of one of the wigwams. It was pretty nice. Of course, all the people back then stank to high heaven, however, the museum curators choose not to recreate that part of the experience.















I believe this is a dead wolf with his insides pulled out. His nose and claws are still intact and he is so incredibly soft.

Well, I learned that the Native Americans had more wall art than I do. And, they were polygamists who ate a lot of maize. I also enjoy the maize, but not the polygamy.

ta-ta
Amy

Coffee fiend

Sean and I did some errand running on Sunday, and stopped into Starbucks for his first coffee. We both got Tall Mocha Lattes, skim, decaf his with whip, mine without. Now he's savy to the whole coffee scene. All he needs is some dark glasses and bongos.

You can't see in the picture, but we were sitting in front of the fireplace. It was 90 degrees outside, but that didn't stop us.

Fall activities

We took a trip to the corn maze a week or so ago, and it was pretty fun. There is Sean, Jeff and Alex posing for me.














A deserted corn trail.















Alex really liked finding the ears of corn. I asked him to pretend to eat it and he was a good sport. Sean looks on.














This is the view from the "Tower", which was a ramshackle platform in the center of the maze.














Here is Sean running on the haybales. I tried to get them both in the picture, but Alex was too fast. Don't know who the red-shirted kid is. Looks like he threw out his back and is walking with a cane.

Afterward we went to the Haunted Barn. Sorry - no pics, it would have scared you all too much.

Some People Just Know How to Laugh

Sean's 7th grade pic

Here is Sean's 7th grade school picture. I can't believe how grown up he's starting to look. I wish his tee shirt had been smoothed out, but that does not detract from his handsomeness.

Annapolis

Jeff, Sean and I walked around downtown Annapolis last weekend (pre-boat show, thank goodness). Anyway, we ate at Chick & Ruth's Delly. Sean ordered an ice cream sundae as his lunch, since he had a slice of pizza at the Market House. The waitress accused us of being his aunt and uncle because "parents would not allow their children to eat a sundae for lunch". Whatever!!!!!!!!!!

I don't want to go on a tirade about parents who micro-manage every mouthful of food their kids eat. I seriously push the healthy eating at our house, but people - ask yourselves this: when your child is grown do you want his/her main memory to be unpleasant mealtimes. Land Sakes, if you want a power struggle with your kids, choose something more dramatic than food. I am SO grateful my family never pulled that "finish your plate" stuff. Or made us eat things that tasted like crap. Food should be enjoyed, not forced down your throat.

Sorry, but that just really bugs me - I'm over it now. Have a great weekend.

posted by: Amy

Nice weather

We are so lucky with the weather lately. The plants are still looking good. I have two lemons on my little lemon tree in the pot.











Here is Fran posing for me. I asked her to pretend to stare into the distance. She takes direction well. Tangles refused to pose for me though, she is normally my best subject.

Amy

Countertop

The granite was installed yesterday. I especially like the sink. As you can see, I have some tile work to do, since we opted to forgo the backsplash.









That white strip above the counter will be gone after I extend the tile down. I am toying with ripping all the green out and choosing a different style. Feel free to leave your suggestions in the "comment" section.

posted by: Amy

Baby Kaleb

I finally went to Columbia today to visit Alicia and her new baby. He is really (and I mean REALLY) cute. He was born July 12th, so he is a cancer, like me. We totally understand each other.










Note the dimple on the check.

I want to send a big shout-out to Rob, who was at work when I came by.

posted by: Amy

Baltimore

I am behind on my blogging - AGAIN - so here are some pics from a trip to the salvage yard. Some of you may have seen this saucy little fellow on Sara's blog.

















I asked my mother to pretend to use this old washing machine. She tried her best.
















There were tons of sweet feral cats running around the place. It broke my heart because many of them were battle worn. They should be trapped, neutered/spayed and brought back. Why are people so stupid??????? Sorry, even smart people are dumb as rocks most of the time when it comes to taking care of children and animals. Hey, lets all sit around and babble about politics all day, blah blah blah and show off how smart we are. snore.................... Speaking of sweet cats..............................











no, not Jeff, I'm talking about my perfect Tangles. I caught her and Jeff snuggling one day and couldn't resist a picture. They both look half asleep.

Later,
Amy

Sean Catches a Fish

Well, fishing and crabbing this season has not gone very well, but last Sunday Sean, my brother John, and I went out for couple of hours and caught about 32 fish. Sounds impressive right. Well, the fish Sean is holding is the biggest fish caught that day. Anyway, we had fun and that's all that counts. Maybe better luck next time.