Birthday celebrations, date morning, and thoughts

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes for Rebecca yesterday. I shared them with her and she was all smiles! :-) Bill and I are pretty blessed with a wonderful daughter! I believe she had a good birthday despite it being a school day.

She was able to choose the dinner of her choice...which was McDonald's eaten at home.

She got some fun presents that she loved.

She got to have her favorite chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream complete with a candle on top to blow out! 

And she finished her day by watching "Mythbusters" on TV. That is one of her favorite shows. She is looking forward to the Mythbuster marathon that they are going to be airing starting on December 23. I told her we can't dvr all the shows! LOL

So overall, I think she had a wonderful birthday day! 

This morning, after I took the kids to school, Bill and I went out to Tim Horton's for breakfast. Bill has the next 2 days off for vacation days that he had to take or he would lose them. We also headed off to Pat Catan's to pick up a couple things I needed for the ornaments I am attempting to make for the kids. 

In other news, my thoughts have been full of what is going on with this world? Yesterday, there was an attack at The Ohio State University, where a young man attacked students with a car and a knife. This university is about an hour or so away. I used to live not to far from campus. Today, I keep reading news reports out of the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area concerning the wildfires! It is devastation and scary. That area has a special place in our hearts as that is where we honeymooned and we have taken the kids there several times on family trips. I pray for all the firefighters and emergency personal that are responding. It has been a lot to take in. So I am trying to stay focused on the here and now and enjoy the special moments like birthday celebrations and impromtu morning dates with my hubby! 

Happy 10th birthday Rebecca!

10 years ago today, I was on bed rest and awaiting the arrival of my first child. It had been a rough pregnancy. I had preeclampsia. I was high-risk. I remember going to the doctors appointments and ultrasounds and non-stress tests and just praying that everything would turn out. On November 28, 2006 I had to go in and have non-stress test done. The doctor on call (as my doctor was on vacation) didn't like the results, so he made me an emergency appointment at Riverside Hospital to have a bio-physical profile done. I remember coming home and having a grilled cheese sandwich and thinking I should shave my legs (which I didn't). During the bio-physical profile, they became concerned because Rebecca wasn't moving like she should. So the doctor came in and said "Happy Birthday" and I was like what?!!?? They decided to induce me as I was 37 weeks along and they didn't want to risk Rebecca's life. So off to labor and delivery we went. When we got to labor and delivery the nurse was laughing because she was having a hard time putting the monitor on my stomach as Rebecca was moving so much! Guess she wanted to be born that day! 

It has been quite the adventure being her mom! Rebecca is a sweet, love-able, big sister and daughter. She is one of the most kind people that I have ever met. She is very smart and artistic. In fact, last week we got a letter from the school district that Rebecca tested into the gifted program! She is in the 4th grade and most of her testing scores were 7-12th grade depending on the subject.  She is a wonderful daughter and a big helper when it comes to her brothers. She loves to read and draw and create!

In honor of her birthday, I decided to interview her and to see what life is like for her on this day she turns 10!

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world?

It's a tie between Mommy and Dada

2. What is your favorite color? 

Pink

3. What is your favorite television show?

Spongebob

4. What's your favorite outfit?

My pink dress

5. What sport do you like the best? 

Softball

6. What song is your favorite?

"Roar"

7. What is your favorite cereal?

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

8. Who is your best friend?

Amelia and Becca

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

An artist

10. What is your favorite book?

"Dork Diaries"

11. What are you really good at?
drawing

12. Where do you wish you could go on vacation?

Disney World

13. What is your best memory?

Playing on the beach

14. What would you buy if you had $1000?

a bunch of books

15. What vegetable do you hate the most?

asparagus

16. If you could have a wish, what would it be?

That everyone would live a happy life

17. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

chocolate chip cookie dough

18. Who is your biggest hero?

Pablo Picasso

19. What do you like to do best with your friends?

Play

20. What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday?

earn a lot of AHG badges

Today Rebecca has school and she requested chocolate dipped oreos. So I sent them in with her this morning. 

Tonight, she has requested McDonald's for dinner. So we will have that and then we will have her favorite ice cream for dessert (since we did her birthday cake on Thanksgiving!). 

I still can't believe I have a child in the double digits! Happy birthday Rebecca!

We put the tree up today

Yesterday, we had another Thanksgiving meal, this time at a good friends house. We were able to fit it in in between Bill's work hours yesterday. It was a lot of fun and they were such gracious hosts. It is good to have good friends in our life. After we got back home, the kids cleaned up and then we had movie night. We watched our first Christmas special of the season: "Frosty the Snowman." We also watched "Frosty Returns." The kids thought it was funny that I fed them cereal and bananas for dinner! After our late lunch (at 2pm) I wasn't cooking a regular dinner! 

Today, I spent the morning deep cleaning the living room (and searching for a missing library book) in preparation for putting up our Christmas tree. It is tradition in our house to put it up on the Saturday or Sunday (depending on our schedule) following Thanksgiving. It really didn't take me too long, as I have been able to keep up with keeping it clean! Yay me! 

After lunch, Bill brought up all the Christmas totes and he and the kids got started getting the tree up. Benjamin was so excited! 

While Bill and the kids were putting the tree up, I was straightening up the kitchen and made a batch of pumpkin bread!I will say that the kids and Bill did a great job on the tree this year. When they were done, I started putting out other decorations in the living room. I realized that our living room gets all the attention. I may try to find some things for our dining room and kitchen while I am out and about.

Dinner tonight was leftovers! The kids finished off a lasagna from Wednesday night. Bill had a turkey sandwich and part of corn casserole cake that my mom sent home. I had another Thanksgiving style dinner!

After dinner, the kids and I cleaned up and then turned off all the lights and watched another Christmas special ("The Spongebob Christmas Special") by the light of the Christmas tree before they headed off to bed.   

Now, I am going to try to get some ideas for their Christmas ornaments that they will receive from St. Nick next week...I have an idea of what I want to do, but I just need to follow through on it.....

Thanksgiving dinner was a success!

Yesterday, like so many other Americans, we headed out to my parents house for our family Thanksgiving dinner-- And now that I think about it, we do have to go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house! LOL. Unlike in the past, I didn't have to make/bring anything except for 2 birthday cakes as we were celebrating my niece's birthday and Rebecca's birthday as well. My mom made everything else for Thanksgiving dinner. 

We had 15 total this year for dinner. Our family (me, Bill, Rebecca, Jacob and Benjamin), my brother Joe's family ( Joe, his wife and 3 kids), my brother Josh, my sister Mary, my sister's friend Jess (who was from Canada and came home with my sister for their college break) and my parents. 

Dinner was very yummy! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, corn cake casserole, stuffing, rolls, candied yams, and cranberry sauce in a can. 

After overeating dinner, I washed all the dishes by hand and my sister dried them and put them away. The men spent time watching football on TV and playing with the kids, who were having a ton of fun running around with their cousins (even though they weren't supposed to run in the house!)

Then it was time to celebrate Lacie and Rebecca's birthdays. My niece Lacie's birthday is today and she is turning 12.  She is into Super Hero Girls, so I made her a Wonder Woman cake.

Rebecca's birthday is Monday and she will be turning 10.  She is into Shopkins, so she got a Shopkin cupcake cake.

After they blew their candles out on their cakes, they opened their gifts. 

Then it was time for dessert! There was the 2 non-dairy birthday cakes to choose from, along with pumpkin pie, peanut butter cup pie and lemon meringue pie and Santa ice cream pops. The peanut butter pie was my choice and was very yummy! 

Then it was time to head home (with leftovers in tow!) and go to sleep with full bellies and warm memories of a wonderful Thanksgiving day. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers today! I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and wonderful day!

Station Square, Mongohelea Incline, Hard Rock Cafe, Swimming and Snow

On Saturday, after our trip to the museum, we decided to meet up with Fang and Jordan at a shopping area called Station Square to do some shopping, ride the incline and have dinner. 

When we arrived, we took in some more of the scenery and Ben loved it as he got to see a train go by. 

We met up with Fang and Jordan at Crazy Mocha coffee shop, where I had a frozen white chocolate mocha drink. Yes I was drinking a frozen drink while it was freezing outside! 

We then decided to head over to the incline to ride up to the top of Mount Washington so we could show the kids the beautiful views of the city.  We rode up the mountain on the Monogahela Incline- which was built in 1870 and is the oldest operating funicular in the USA.

The views from the top are beautiful to say the least and are spectacular. You have gorgeous views of the city and the converging of the three rivers. 

 
There were plenty of opportunities to take family pictures and there were several groups of people taking photos at the top. We joined in of course :-)

When we came down the incline, we decided to return to Station Square to do some browsing of the shops and to get dinner. The only souvenirs I bought was a magnet(as I collect them for our fridge) and a puzzle for dear Hubby. 

After shopping for a bit, we decided to have dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. It was a delightful meal. Fang and I both had their  local legendary burger which was a perogie style burger-- a hamburger with mashed potatoes, grilled onions and cheese on it, served with ranch dressing on the side. It was tasty. 

Then it was time for us to say goodbye to Fang and Jordan. It was an amazing day and long overdue and we promised each other it wouldn't be another 7 years before we saw each other in person again. 

After we said our goodbyes, we headed to the hotel that I booked for the night. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites just outside downtown and the kids were surprised that it had an indoor pool. We enjoyed some pool time before bed. 

The kids enjoyed staying at the hotel and they slept well that night!

The following morning we awoke to giggles from the boys and everyone felt rested. We had breakfast at the hotel, where they had a good offering of breakfast buffet items such as eggs, sausage, yogurt, cereals, muffins, waffles, etc. 

 
After breakfast, we headed back up to the room to pack and then headed home in the snowy day. The kids were excited to see the snow and Benjamin kept saying "It's a snow day!" 

Bill drove there and home and he said after we safely got home that the roads in Pittsburgh were icy and slick but he didn't want to say anything to me until we got home so I wouldn't worry. The boys fell asleep in the van on the way home. 

Thankfully, we made it home safe and sound and we have wonderful memories of our day in Pittsburgh with our wonderful friend!