We're not morning people...

Even on Black Friday...

We went out on Black Friday, but not until late afternoon. We're usually up before the break of dawn, but didn't find any great deals this time around, so we slept in, enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at home, then headed out to see what deals were left to be had later in the day. We started out by stopping at Chick-fil-A to get our annual peppermint chocolate chip shake, which seemed much better this year... it was sooooooo yummy! We then headed to Michael's favorite store: Fry's Electronics; we spent some time there then headed to my favorite store: Kohl's. We spent a lot of time there, and spent quite a bit of dough to boot. I guess early morning Black Friday is no longer a tradition... *sniff, sniff*... but parting with some serious cash still is. Our last stop of the night was to get dinner at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant and Country Store, we all love that place; love their catfish.

Here are my girls... Caitie couldn't wait to start on her peppermint chocolate chip shake from Chick-fil-A; Bailey was wondering why the shakes couldn't come with a nipple in place of a straw.






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How was your day?

Mine consisted of doing two quick loads of laundry, bath/shower for my girls, checking out the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV (caitie wanted to see it), making dessert, and getting myself presentable in order to share a Thanksgiving feast with family. Here are a few pics...
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Bath time for Bailey. I couldn't resist getting a few quick pics of my gal when I first put her in the tub (michael held her steady for me). I then gave her a quick bath and moved on to making the dessert. Both desserts I made came in a box; I go all out. I wanted to bake cookies as I did last year, but the oven needs a cleanin', so decided no-bake, in-a-box desserts were the way to go....
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I made fudge, and I also made peanut butter/chocolate bars. Caitie cleaned the spoon for me.

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We now own a '55 Cadillac. More on that in another post, but thought I would include a couple of pics here so you can see what it looks like. It's at Michael's brother's house for now, which is where we spent Thanksgiving. It doesn't run, but hopefully it will soon. It needs some cosmetic work done as well; mainly a paint job.

Caitie's checking out the inside, which needs upholstery.

I took this pic when we got home from the Thanksgiving festivities.

Park Hoppin'

The girls and I have been enjoying going to a couple of nearby parks after school lately. The weather has been gorgeous! Here are some pics I took while on a few of our park outings...
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I put Caitie's bike in the back of the SUV so she can ride it at the park if she so desires.

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Caitie usually ends up playing with boys instead of girls when at the park. Girls around her age will come up wanting to play, of which she will for a while, but if a boy her age, younger, or even older, comes along, she'll run off to play with them. The boy in this pic and a couple of pics below, played with her the whole time she was at this park. I thought it was nice of him to help her on the swing and then push her and then get on the one beside her to swing with her, they then went and played in the sand with his younger brother.

I like this area... lots of trees and green grass; you can see the playground in the background.

Trees, as you can see in this pic, and a couple of pics above, make for good photo ops.

She was trying to reach the branch way, way above her.

She settled for a stick she found on the ground.

Keep it simple

Remember my mentioning in a previous post of how sometimes the simplest things in life are the most memorable? Well, I experienced this once again the other night. I'll let the pics below describe what I mean...

Here Caitie is playing a pretty song, with sound effects, on the piano. Her daddy put in a mini synthesizer so the piano would make sounds similar to other instruments, and make special effect sounds as well. Caitie and her daddy played around with this while I made a simple picnic dinner (it was supposed to be lunch, but time got away from me) per Caitie's request. The task was pleasant and relaxing due to the pretty and sometimes interesting sounds coming from the piano in the living room. (if you look really hard, you can see my feet in the reflection on the piano. i'm sure you're glad i pointed that out; i knew you wouldn't want to miss it! ummm, yeah...)



Even Bailey found the music/sounds relaxing.



Here are the mini egg salad sandwiches I made, along with some chips and there's also dessert, which consisted of halloween mini candy bars cut in half; I added toothpicks to make the dessert look more sophisticated (yep, i sure did). I also put some caramel candies to add some variety, and I put plain M&M's on the plate to add color. I'm sure you're writing all of this down, how can you go wrong with such a delectable and easy meal?

We had planned to picnic in the backyard or at a nearby park, but when it got dark and I was still preparing the meal, we decided the upper deck would make a good place for an evening picnic. It was nice looking over at the lake across the way, with the occasional car driving by to add some drama. It was a bit on the chilly side, so we didn't stay on the deck too long, but it was nice while it lasted. In case you're wondering, our drink of choice was iced tea, which I poured into Little Bear cups I had on hand. Well, Michael was the exception, he had his usual 64oz soda; he can't get through a day without it. The styrofoam cup you see next to Michael's drink was the makeshift 'teapot'; it wasn't just a picnic we were having, it was a picnic/tea party. I didn't want to use one of Caitie's teapots due to the possiblity they were made in China... and you know how that goes when it comes to kids' toys... Need I say more? I think not. Bailey had eaten already, so she just sat back and relaxed while watching us eat.

Later in the evening we had a birthday party for the cats that lasted approximately 15 minutes; we go all out. They turned 11 years old last month; Holly and Molly did, I'm not sure when Sassy's birthday is, but we celebrated her birthday as well. We went to Petco a few weeks ago and got the cats some canned food, they usually eat dry cat food, so this was a treat for them, and also got a cat bed for them, which was more for Holly, but they can all share it, which we know won't happen, but it was a nice thought anyway, and we got three autumn designed collars, one for each of them to wear during the special occasion. It was a nice little celebration.

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It was a nice, relaxing day that extended into the evening hours.

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I'll sum it up with Sandra Lee's exiting line on her Food Network show... "Keep it simple(check), keep it smart (check (i think)), keep it semi-homemade." (in this case, meaning, in this post, this has to do with my delicious semi-homemade meal) ummm, yeah...

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Life isn't meant to be extravagant(difficult) and dramatic... so keep it simple, folks! Life is so much more pleasant and memorable when you do. :)

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My Girls

Pretty, pleasant, playful, park pics

After picking Caitie up from school today, we headed to a nearby park. I took a few pics...

"Hot diggity dog, we're at the park!"



I took pics of the girls together on a slide...

and on a bench.

"Is this climbable? Is that a word? Do I really Care? ummm, no. Is this Climbable?" (that's a volleyball net, in case you're wondering.) Caitie is really into climbing these days.

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Her Baby

Here is Caitie with 'her baby'. She tells me she loves having a little sister, but most of the time she refers to Bailey as 'her baby'; she says "my baby this, and my baby that" instead of calling her sister. She looks out for Bailey, and helps out when she can. Of course, when it's diaper changin' time, and I ask for a little help, she no longer refers to Bailey as 'her baby', she then becomes my baby; interesting how that works. I was wanting Caitie to have a sibling closer in age, but I think being five years apart works out pretty well; she and 'her baby' get along just fine.

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Why I like elephants

An elephant is the Republican Party symbol; need I say more? And they're kinda cute too, I guess.



Did you vote today?
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Halloween Weekend

'Twas the night before halloween, and all through the house,
not a person was cursing, no one dared to pout.
Cats ran to the chimney when they became aware
of the SWAT team girl that would soon be there.
Everyone ran and hid in their beds
with visions of SWAT team girl saying "off with their heads!"...

And so the story goes... or did it? ummm, yeah... anyway... I'm back to talk more about halloween weekend. It's more like sharing pics, really... with a few comments thrown in. Maybe you'd rather I go on with the story? nahhh... Didn't think so... Moving on to the pics...

I took this pic back when we purchased the SWAT costume; I asked Caitie to try it on, of which she happily obliged. Remember her loyal bear? Here he is again, with handcuffs on. The costume came with handcuffs, as well as other SWAT team accessories. She couldn't wait to try the handcuffs, and when Michael and I said no, we didn't want to be locked up and then her throw away the key, and all the cats ran to take cover, she decided to get her loyal bear, the one that's been in diapers, pull-ups, and a princess costume... he was now in handcuffs. (i included this pic so you could see more of the costume; and i thought the arresting of the bear was kinda disturbing cute too.)

Caitie was 'fishing' for a 'treat' at the 'Monster Bash' held at the Peoria Sports Complex; we went there on Saturday night.



Here she's going down a 'Cars' (disney movie) slide. I think she was going about 50 mph down that thing... yikes! She said she wanted to go on it again, so off she went, but when she got to the top, she refused to come down; she let other kids go in front of her. We had to talk her down... maybe 'scream' would be a better word... it took quite a bit of coaxing, and threatening to leave her there, before she finally came down. I guess she had a delayed reaction to the first time on the slide... she said it was fun, but then fear set in.



Bailey couldn't understand what was so scary about the slide, she came down it, no problem. (you took me seriously there for a minute, didn't ya?) Actually, Bailey was enjoying the atmosphere and the beautiful weather.



Here's Caitie sitting on a huge baseball. That's pretty obvious, but thought I'd mention it anyway.



The pics below were taken on halloween....

I got a quick pic of my girls before heading out to trick-or-treat. Caitie's Bolt costume wasn't done until the last minute, so there wasn't time for taking pics, but after so much thought and effort going into the costumes, I was determined to get at least a pic or two. I used flash, which I can't stand to do, the girls weren't in the mood for posing, Michael was getting antsy, and I was trying to come down from the adrenaline rush I had been on for the last five hours, so I wasn't able to get a nicely posed, everybody smiling, blur-free, kinda pic that I usually like to get, before heading out. But hey, I'll take what I can get.
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I took a few pics while going door to door. Here's Dracula and Bolt... quite a combination. A lot of people were calling Caitie a bunny, a cat, and I don't know what all, pretty much everything but a dog, of which Caitie finally started to correct some of the people, which surprised me. When we first headed out that evening, she would barely say 'trick-or-treat', and wasn't saying thank you, she would just walk away, but after being called a bunny or cat over and over again, she finally decided to speak up and let people know that she was a dog. I felt bad for her at first, but then after a while, some of the people took notice of her collar and called her Bolt, this made her happy. Before the night was over, she was saying trick-or-treat and thank you. Right before we got home, one of the places we stopped at gave her candy and then said she could take some for us as well, so when we got to the next house, and she only got one piece of candy, she asked the guy if she could have more to give to us; it was nice of her to ask since she was thinking of us, but I couldn't believe she did that. I was embarrassed, but once we were out of hearing range, I started to laugh. It was an interesting evening, to say the least.



I took quick pics of Caitie when possible, which wasn't too often. She was commenting on something here, but I don't remember what now. I don't remember much of anything that happened after 'the incident'. Yes, there was an 'incident'. We had been to a few houses when it happened... I walked to the front door of a house with Caitie, the people were already on the porch handing out candy to others, I stepped out of the way to let some people through, and when I turned around to leave, there was a big crash; the person's potted plant fell over and broke. My camera strap had caught on it and it fell. I was mortified. I offered to pay for another pot, but they said never mind, that they had plenty more on the side of their house, and they would just replant it. They were really nice about it, which I was thankful for. I wasn't really embarrassed, I was more upset than anything. I kept talking about it while walking to the other houses. Caitie kept telling me, "It's all right, mama, don't worry, they said they would take care of it." and then she told me she would share her Twix candy bars with me since they're my favorite. She was trying to make me feel better. I thought that was so sweet.



It was a nice evening; the weather was wonderful, and Caitie got lots of candy. As you can see in this pic, her pumpkin pail was full of candy. It was actually getting heavy by the end of the evening, so I helped her carry it. When people took notice of Bailey (she was in the stroller most of the time, so not everyone saw her), they would give Caitie an extra piece of candy to give to her. When this first happened, Caitie said she would save the piece of candy until Bailey's old enough to eat it. It was a nice thought, but I don't think so. :)

I took a few quick pics when we got home from trick-or-treating. This is the back of the Bolt costume. That's a black lightning bolt on the left of her top, in case you were wondering. Cute tail, eh?

I asked her to show one of her 'paws'; I love the padded paw part. She makes a cute Bolt. She loves that movie, and loves playing dog, so the costume was a hit. That made the effort both Michael and I put into it all the more worth it. I think Bailey's costume came out cute as well. It turned out pretty nice considering it was a last-minute costume. I wanted to get more pics, but Bailey was in need of a diaper change and it was feeding time, etc., so I wasn't able to take more pics.