It's My Birthday

What a perfect birthday celebration!

 @ Church

 Sisters Thai Restaurant for a yummy birthday lunch

US Botanical Garden in D.C.

Birthday cookie by the fire

Overnight Date

With my parents' visit always come a bonus overnight date!  This year we headed to Fells Point, MD. We ended up having a progressive dinner that wasn't planned but turned out super fun.  For appetizer: cheese, crackers, fruit and wine at the hotel.  For dinner: crabs, shrimps and asparagus at Riptide by the Bay.  For dessert: some hot chocolate as we went on a ghost tour.  For night cap: 'smores, chocolate and Grand Marnier back at the hotel before turning in for the night.  

The next day, we did a quick tour of Baltimore (the touristy part and the ghetto part) and ended up at Under Armour Headquarter where Brian has had a project there.

 

At Under Armour with Felts Point's view across the river

So Thankful

Our Thanksgiving morning started out with getting the turkey in the oven, watching the Macy's parade and relaxing as a family.  In the early afternoon, we headed out for a family walk at the Eleanor C. Lawrence visitor center and enjoyed a beautiful hike.

Once home, that's when all the crazy cooking begun!  My mom did the gravy and I did the rest of the sides.  The best part was that we invited our neighbors, Matt and his daughter, Emma to join us before they headed out to a Japanese restaurant.  I'm not a natural hostess, but this was a perfect way to invite them into our home and show them the love of Christ.  And hey, why not right...the more the merrier!  The food was fabulous as always and I love the now year #2 "turkey in a bag" recipe!  Thanks Mom and Dad for coming our way!

All in a Day's Work

Brian flew to Florida for the day and this is the picture he sent me:

*jealous*

"Instagram" on Blog

 Gavin's preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Our 1st home made pizza!

Paint Your Own Pottery

Ethan has been wanting to go paint pottery since last year. So this year we told him we'll have a mini birthday party and he could invite Mallory to join us.

Their final creations!

After an hour of painting, we headed to Pot Belly for some yummy ice cream.  What a great way to end the afternoon!

Ethan's Eight

I can hardly believed Ethan is eight already! Where have the time gone?

 Brian's surprise note for Ethan

  

Got to open all the gifts right after school

 
 Ethan requested we bring a fruit pizza to share at small group

All his friends made it extra special for him!

We are so proud of who you have become! Love you and hope it was an extra special day!!

Just for Laughs

Baby Shower for Su

After all the prepping, cooking and cleaning, the baby shower turned out fabulously!

 

 

Belated Pumpkins Carving

So with all the busyness this year, we totally forgot to carve our pumpkins before Halloween.  So here we are, two days later.  We got a system down: the boys get all the yucky stuff out, I hand draw the designs and Brian carves.  But even that it's kind of a lot of work (for us) and I'm wondering if we should continue this tradition next year.  I did decide to nix the whole baking the pumpkin seeds thing because that is a lot of work as well.  Plus, I've burnt them the past two years and they ended up in the garbage can anyway...

 

Left: Ethan's dog (that looks more like a lion), Right: Gavin's Avenger