Joseph's Awards Ceremony

Today was Joseph's first awards ceremony of the year, and it was great! I am so proud of Joseph. He received two awards today, Perfect Attendance and Most Improved Academically. Both awards were not easy to achieve and we are very proud of Joseph's efforts. Perfect attendance has never been an award he's received because of all his doctor's appointments and he has always struggled academically because of his learning disability and receiving most improved academically shows that all his hard work studying has paid off. Did I mention how proud I am of him yet? Because I am, he tries so hard and stays up late reading and reviewing all his work and to get recognized for his efforts is absolutely amazing! When the teacher told me he was going to receive this award at our parent conference I cried, I felt like we finally conquered a piece of NF!

P.S. This morning Joseph asked if I was going to the awards ceremony and I said I didn't know because we were never told if he'd be receiving an award (I wanted him to be surprised). But in true Joseph fashion, he said he was going to dress up and comb his hair "super nice" just in case they called his name! He's grown out of suit, otherwise he would have been wearing his suit and tie for the awards!

Happy Halloween!

I know it's a little late for this post, but Manny's back home and I've been enjoying some long needed family time instead of computer time!
We had a great Halloween this year! Joe's best friend, Z and his family joined our family for the night. The evening was great, tons of pizza and sweets! As you can see, Star Wars was the major theme for the night,

and let's not forget the kitty-Cat

and the hippie!

Oh! I can't forget to add a family photo-

Joseph was Captain Rex from Star Wars, Noah was Iron-Man and Devyn was a red Samurai Power Ranger! Don't they look cute? As you can see we had a huge crowd of trick-or-treaters, I can't imagine what the neighbors thought when we rang their doorbells! 

Halloween was great, we had a blast, we laughed a lot, ate too much and had more sweets left over then we could have ever imagined! Thank you to my sister-in-laws, Crystal and Cia for the cupcakes and rice Krispies and to my great friend, Melissa for your cute witch cookies!  

Those cookies were so cute and delicious, you may lose your reputation as a bad cook! Well, maybe not yet-

I do have to say, your brownies did taste good, once we were able to chisel a piece out!

Even though I've never been a fan of Halloween, I have to admit that the night was nice. I thank God for blessing us with family, great friends and a safe Halloween!

Happy Birthday Auntie C!

I can't forget to mention another important event that took place this weekend. Auntie C's 40TH  25th Birthday!

 Happy Birthday Auntie C, we love ya!

Battle of the pumpkins!

We spent this past Friday carving our pumpkins. To prepare for the pumpkin massacre I turned on the Halloween music while Manny whipped out his painters tarp and brought out his manliest pair of rubber gloves to cover his "ouchies." Yup that's my "Manly-man" with the rubber gloves carving pumpkins!

Ok, enough with making fun of my cutie-pie hubby! But hey, he's my best friend and that's what best friends do, they don't lie! :) Now let's move on to the kiddos!

Of course Joseph had to spend about a half an hour picking out what stencil to use,

While Noah stabbed every pumpkin within reach.

Here's a photo of Joe doing the dirty work... 

I don't have any photos of Joe carving the pumpkins because he said it was too hard and it hurt his fingers. (Surprise, Surprise!)

Now, this pumpkin has the most meaning to us. Joe picked this pumpkin out at the Pumpkin Festival because of how it looked. This is Joe's pumpkin that has NF just like him. (I can't wait to show you how it turned out, it made me a little teary eyed to see it finished.) It's our NF symbol for this Halloween.

Grandma and Grandpa also stopped by for a visit. It was a nice break for the kids, they were already over the whole pumpkin carving experience.

 In the end, it took Manny and I about an hour to carve 4 pumpkins. Here they are, our masterpieces...

Now which one is the best? I'm not going to tell you who carved what, but I'm pretty sure mine is the winning pumpkin! Argh! Matey! Do you agree?

***And yes, Manny I do know  this photo of you wearing girly blue gloves will be on the internet-FOREVER!!!! But like I said, what are best friends for?

 

Noah's first Halloween Party!

Today Noah experienced his first class party, a Halloween Party! His preschool allowed the kids to attend school in their costumes and they passed out goodies and went trick or treating within their building. This Halloween Noah has been obnoxiously picky indecisive on what he'd like to be, first it was a police officer, Darth Vader, then Spiderman, then a red Power Ranger...Finally, (as in Monday evening) he decided to be Iron Man! isn't he the cutest little superhero?

Here's a picture of the little ham showing his costume off to the classroom,

And of course, it wouldn't be a party without some food, friends

laughter and games,

And let's not forget to squeeze in some learning!

Of course Mommy Dearest Mother Hubbard had to make some sweets for the class, and let's just leave out the crap fun I had making these supposedly "simple" treats.

All in all, today was a great day! Noah had a blast at his class party and is now demanding candy everytime he says, "trick or treat" and Joseph is upstairs with a stomach ache from eating all the chocolates Noah didn't want. Happy early Halloween Everyone!

Sous Chef

I love cooking, I love cooking for two reasons, I love food and I love the quiet time I receive while I'm cooking. In a house full of boys, my 2X2 kitchen is the only place that's off limits to everyone! Well, almost everyone. This is my Sous Chef, Noah.

He pours, pinches, stirs and makes the biggest mess I have ever seen! Today my little Italian helped me make lasagna with french bread. He looked so cute pouring the ingredients and stirring the sauce. He's going to make such a good husband one day!

Of course I couldn't finish this post without a picture of my taste-testers. These two guys worked up a serious appetite at work and at school today and from the moaning and groaning coming from their end of the table tonight, I think Noah and I did a job well done! Oh, and look at how much these two look alike, it's almost creepy! I feel like I was just the surrogate when I see pictures like this!

And another thing before I leave, look at this bad boy!

Yup, I finally bought my springform pan! Most of you already know that I've been bugging for this pan for awhile and I finally bought one yesterday! So there you have it, my first cheesecake I've ever made, Cheese Cake Factory better watch out! 

CSA

I have had several people ask me about my CSA, so today I thought I'd talk about it. CSA stands for community shared agriculture and in my never ending quest to feed my family healthier and organically I thought a CSA would be the best choice for my family. I am a member of Farm Fresh to You and I love it! They send me a box of organic produce a week for around $30 a shipment. The kids get so excited and can't wait to see what fruits and veggies will be on our doorstep every Friday morning. I love knowing the boys are eating healthy, and are excited about fruits and vegetable and I LOVE not going to the grocer every week. Because of the CSA I now only go to the store about twice a month for milk and other staples. Not going to the grocer every week saves us a lot of money and with organic milk costing $6-$7 a gallon I need to pinch those pennies anyway I can! Now if only I could raise my own milking cow? Hmmm? I'll save that idea for another day, but if you'd like more information or would like to join a CSA you can click here and read more about it and be sure to mention I sent you along with promo code 6164  and you'll receive $5 off your first order! Woo-hoo to that!
*I must mention that a few fruits are missing because Noah snatched the green grapes and Joe took 2 kiwis to school for snacks. Like I said above, the kids act like it's Christmas when the box arrives!