Happy Thanksgiving!

 Like most others, we had a quiet, low key Thanksgiving this year.  Unfortunately it rained pretty much all day, so we had to take our Thanksgiving pictures inside.

Kaitlyn and I have postponed our FBI Boston virtual Turkey Trot to a day when it is not raining!

We did minimal cooking this year.  Kevin and Mammy spent part of Wednesday driving around picking up our food orders.  The turkey came from Moe's, rolls from Texas Roadhouse, pies and desserts from Market Basket, and of course...  the "Secret Family Recipe" mac n cheese!

Surprised the girls with these festive cookies.  Kaitlyn got the cornucopia and Kenzie had the turkey.

And some fun cupcakes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 12th Birthday Kaitlyn!

 Kaitlyn had a great day today!  We started out with Mickey Mouse ear M&M pancakes for breakfast.  She also asked to catch up on some of her favorite tv shows, so we watched a couple episodes of Holiday Baking Championship and got caught up on the Amazing Race.

Mammy came over for lunch, cake, and presents.  We had homemade pizza.

We surprised Kaitlyn with her cake.  Since we ordered Kenzie's this year, we decided to order for Kaitlyn as well.  Kevin was referred to this wonderful lady who makes cakes "on the side" and has a son with special needs at the Morrison Center.  The cake was AMAZING and Kaitlyn loved it!

She was really excited for all of her presents,of course!

She has been needing a new bag for her library books.  She has outgrown the small Frozen tote bag- she couldn't fit all her books in it anymore!

Our Walgreens had a Harry Potter section that she had been eyeing in the store with Kevin.  Needless to say, she was very excited to get some!

The only thing she asked for was the next book in her princess series and Colorstreet.  She was vibrating in her seat when she opened the book!

Her "big" present this year...

For dinner, she requested ravioli and garlic bread. And because it's her birthday, she got a second piece of cake, haha.  

Thank you to everyone who sent her cards!  We've got a couple of cruises booked for next year in an abundance of optimism for a post-COVID world.  She has been saving all her money to buy a souvenir on the ship or in one of the ports.

Happy Halloween!

While Covid forced us to tweak some of our Halloween traditions, we managed to plan a fun full day of activities for the girls that they really seemed to enjoy!

We started off the morning with Halloween pancakes (I added orange and black sprinkles).  Then we presented Kaitlyn with Hershey's Spooky House kit.  I helped her get the structure together.  Then while she decorated; Kevin, Kenzie, and I snuggled on the couch and read Kenzie's Halloween books.

Kevin made reservations at Unos for their kids' Halloween party.  While our lunch was being made, the girls decorated pumpkins and Mommy and Daddy had some margaritas!

Then we went to Halloween at Hadlock.  This was the first time they've ever done this event and it was great.  They even gave to parents bags for trick or treating, haha.  The candy was dropped down tubes.  There were photo stops and some of the Sea Dogs sponsors had trick or treating tables (Oakhurst had chocolate milk and we got whoopie pies from Wicked Whoopies).  Kenzie was obviously only there for her Slugger! 

We stopped at the courtyard of Mammy's apartment and Paul and Michelle's house for some trick-or-treating, but those were our only two "house" stops this year.

As you can see, Kaitlyn decided to be an astronaut again this year!

Kenzie picked her own costume (we held up three choices for her and she pointed at Kaitlyn's hand me down kitty costume!).  She wouldn't wear the ears though, haha.

The father of one of Kaitlyn's best friends is the pastor at a church down the street.  Every year they do a trunk-or-treat.  This year they turned it into a drive thru trunk-or-treat! It was great... completely free, just had to reserve a time!  

One of the cars was giving out balloon animals.  Obviously, that was Kenzie's favorite!

Then it was home for a Halloween dinner of Mummy Dogs, Taco Dip, and Dirt!

Kenzie was exhausted and fell right to sleep, but Kaitlyn got to stay up late and watch Ghost Nation!

This morning, we went over to Smiling Hill Farm for a tractor ride and to see the animals.  We made reservations for the tractor ride (which is completely accessible with a ramp!), so we were the only ones on it and didn't have to wear masks.  Although she loved the ride (particularly when we went up and down hills), a certain little turd wouldn't smile whenever I took out the camera!  Daddy had to make faces at her!

Milk is good for your bones... at least according to this skeleton!

Baby cows!