Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house.  We had my parent's, Eric's parents, Aunt Pat, Uncle Don, and Uncle Q over.  We all had a wonderful time and are so thankful to have such a wonderful family to spend the holiday with.  Here are some pictures from our day:

Cate all dressed up and ready for everyone to come over

Cathy brought "Pin the hat on the Turkey" to play.  We also had a game of friendly Thanksgiving Trivia.  Team Eric/Q ended up winning.

Here is the Turkey

Eric and my Mom putting the food in serving dishes

The table all set for Thanksgiving dinner

Eric carving the turkey

Ready to eat!

What a great group

All of us after a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner

A few cute pictures...

Here are some pictures from the last week:

Cate got this apron and hat from Uncle Q for her birthday.  

Eric found a way for the kids to play foosball

Cate, Buddy, and Ashton waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to come

I have recently been inspired to be a bit more crafty.  I really wanted a wreath for the front door and they can be pretty expensive.  So I decided to make my own.  

Here are all of the supplies that I started out with

Taking shape...

It is actually coming together...

The finished product.  It is now hanging on our front door and I am very proud of myself!

Sneak Attack

I thought that I would share a couple videos and some pictures of the kids from the last few days.

Here are a couple of videos of a new game that we like to call "Sneak Attack".  Eric bought a bunch of balls that are really soft and the kids love to throw them.  So the game is to gather a bunch of the balls up and then run and throw them at Daddy or Mommy and yell "sneak attack".  Clearly they aren't too good at the sneak part but I think they have the attack part down.

Snuggling up for movie night

Daddy joined in

Just when you think that you are going to go crazy from all of the arguing and fighting, the kids do something like this to redeem themselves.  It was so sweet, the kids sat down at the table and took turns tracing their hands on the doodle pad.

Ashton tracing Cate's hand

Cate got a new dance outfit from Grammy and Grandpa Rlowe for her birthday.  Here is a picture of her waiting for dance class to start.

Grammy and Grandpa Rlowe also gave her doll Lanie a matching outfit so Cate brought Lanie to dance class too.

Cate's 4th Birthday

On Cate's birthday (11/11/11) Eric and I had to work so Cate got to take cupcakes to daycare.  When we picked her up in the evening we had her present and a bunch of balloons waiting for her.  We gave her a piggy bank and some strawberry shortcake figurines.  That night my parents and Quentin came down from Steamboat and we all headed out to dinner for Cate's birthday.  After dinner we came home and had cupcakes and we all sang Happy Birthday.

Cate after she opened her present

The following day we had Cate's party.  She loves the show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" so we had a pirate themed party.  We had about 10 kids and a bunch of adults at the party.  Cate had a great time and so did we.  The party was a huge success!  Here are the pictures from the party.

Cate all dressed up and ready for her friends to arrive

Ashton dressed up for the party too

I can't believe that my little girl is 4!

My parents dressed up for the party too.  Here is a picture of Cate with Grandpa Rlowe

Grandma brought fruit for the party and here is a picture of Cate and Ashton helping her put it all together

Here is the finished product.  I love how it turned out!

All of us ready for the party to start

The kids with Grammy and Grandpa Rlowe

We had treasure maps for the kids to decorate at the party.  Aunt Pat helped Cate and Ashton do theirs.  

We also had pirate hats for the kids to decorate.  Here are some of the kids doing their projects.

We put together a treasure hunt for all of the kids that sent them around the house searching for treasure.  This is the end of the treasure hunt and the kids found coins in a big treasure chest.

We had a very full house!  All of the kids were so great and the party went very smoothly.

Grammy made and decorated Cate's birthday cake

Time to eat cake!

After the kids left Cate opened some more presents.  She got this easel from Aunt Pat and Uncle Don.

Here she is opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Today she wore one of the outfits that Grandma and Grandpa gave her.  She looks so adorable in the dress.  My cousin Eryn gave her the hat for her birthday.