Thankfulness

So I'm a little behind, my parent came up for the week and it was pure chaos with the kids excitement.  They had so much fun and Riley even got to sleep over at the hotel (and ride in a booster seat since cousin Daniel is in a booster seat now).  Jacob was especially excited to have a whole week of stay at home days even though he talked about all of his school friends all week. 

Off to the hotel with Nana and Poppy

We started Thanksgiving Day off with our first Turkey Trot, I think we are most definitely going to have to make this an annual tradition.  Marc and I ran the 10K and it was great!  I actually had my personal best time for a run averaging a pace of 9min 15sec per mile.  After our run we had about an hour before Riley ran in the kids' 1/4 mile run, next year I'll have her do the 1/2 mile as the 1/4 mile was too short but because of her age they kind of talked me into having her do the 1/4 mile. 

This is what I get for pictures these days

And she's off

She took off at the finish line, she smoked me!

So proud of her!

She loved it!

My running buddy

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for many things but I'm especially thankful for Riley being able to run in the Turkey Trot.  I'm thankful for what looks to be a future that is cast and surgery-free and I am thankful for her ability to accept her clubfeet and not let it affect her life.  She could very easily use it as a crutch and an excuse to not do stuff but she shrugs her shoulders and just says "Yeah, I had clubfeet, so what."  I'm thankful for her resilience, ability to face adversity and most of all her contagious smile that despite countless casts, AFOs and a pretty major surgery, never stopped smiling.

Cheers to all of that and more!

After our run, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for us, which I failed to capture a picture of.

Friday, we woke up early and hit up the Outlet Mall for a little Black Friday shopping.  And then went to the regular mall for more deals with kids in tow, they were good sports and we got lots of great deals!

Black Friday shopping!

Riley got a nice Buster Posey jersey earlier in the week so we let Jacob get a Build-A-Bear

The kids literally go nuts for this store

Jacob made BuberBear - his new Spider-Man bear (he calls Spider-Man "Buber-Man")

After shopping, I made Marc go for a run with me!  Needed to run off that gluttony!

Jacob loving on his poppy

Dinner with my pretty girl!

And just like that another vacation is over and now onto the next big activities...Jacob's birthday AND Hanukkah!  Let the holiday/birthday season begin!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins last Sunday, I had high hopes that they would make it until Friday without rotting but I had no such luck and they are looking quite gnarly this morning...but that's ok because they made it through Halloween and the kids LOVED looking at them each day.  Jacob picked a happy face pumpkin for his and Riley picked Merida which went along with her costume.  I found these super seed scoopers at the craft store last weekend and they were well worth the money as the kids were actually able to scoop the guts out of their own pumpkins, which is pretty much my least favorite part because I always get cuts between my fingernail and skin but not with these super scoopers.  GENIUS!

Jacob decided that Sunday was pants optional

That's a good scoop!

He loved his pumpkin!

Merida!

Finished product

Finally got Jacob to put some pants on!

Annual Trek

We made our annual trek to Joan's Farm this weekend.  It was H-O-T!  I have a fundamental issue with it being 97 degrees in mid-October and picking out pumpkins.  You're supposed to be drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes, wearing sweaters and feeling the crisp Fall air at pumpkin patch but instead we sweated.  But I digress, the kids have fun and that's all that matters.  Of course they wanted to ride the train.  Riley rode the ponies right off the bat but Jacob was scared.  Jacob was actually scared to go to the pumpkin patch once we got there, he's "scared Halloween" thanks to all of the creepy decorations at Safeway (reason 5000 I hate Safeway) but I convinced him it wasn't scary and we should check it out, once he saw the miles of pumpkins he was good to go.  After Riley rode the pony he decided he wanted to try and he "promised" he wouldn't be scared.  Welly my baby boy has certainly grown up because he was not scared one bit.  He was so proud of his big boy status telling me over and over that he had fun and he wasn't scared.  Ri of course had a blast and was kind enough to humor us with taking our normal pictures.

We ran into Ri's friend Eli at the Pumpkin Patch

Jacob was still unsure about this pumpkin patch thing

Starting to feel more comfortable

Love these two

They love each other a little

My pony girl!

It's tradition

Here come the annual pictures

A little bit taller...

Still catching up to big sister

Jacob was so excited to ride the choo-choo so fast...poor guy learned the hard way it only went 5 mi/hr

Still having fun!

With a little help from little brother

My handsome pants

Paying for his pony ride

Jacob was so proud that he wasn't scared, he's been talking about the pony ride for days

4 little pumpkins sitting in a wagon!

Another year in the books, it's now been 5 years that we've gone to Joan's Pumpkin Farm!

Family Fun Weekend

Wow, what a fun weekend.  Monday came out of nowhere and I was dragging big time at work!  Marc and I had a nice 4 day weekend, we got free tickets at the game the weekend prior to Thursday's Giants game so we both took the day off and headed to the Giants game...without the kids!  It was a fun time and a beautiful day in the city!  It's so much easier to navigate without a 5 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old in tow.  The Giants lost but we got to check out the whole park, including the new garden which is pretty cool and so San Francisco.

Friday we had Riley's friend Bella and her parents and brother over to BBQ.  Riley and Bella are now at different schools so they miss each other a ton.  (On a side note, the other day we were driving and Riley says: "My friends from my old school, we're all separate now, but we're still friends. . We'll be friends forever."  It was just about the sweetest thing ever!  We really did get lucky with a great group of friends her year, we don't have the same experience with Jacob and his classmates.)  We broke our drought rules and filled up the kiddie pool and water table and let the kids splash around.  I felt a little guilty but there are literally no water activities anywhere in the area and kids still have to have fun!  We did fill the small one and not as much as normal so we were conservative.  After we BBQ we walked down to the park because its a designated "Safe and Sane Fireworks" ignition spot so we watched all of the crazies light off their own fireworks.  Some people were hardcore.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed it!

Jacob loves helping me bake...

I think he uses me to lick the spoon!

Little Dude loves Water Play!

They look so ridiculous in this tiny pool but we're in a major drought, so beggars can't be chooser!

We stepped Family Fun Day up a notch, our version of a water slide

Jacob had to get in on the action

Poor Jacob, always trying to keep up with Riley and her friends!

Besties!

4th of July Cuties!

Dublin's version of fireworks, notice the cloud of smoke!

Wheeeeeeeeee!

Saturday  we had my friend Aimee's little guys 1st birthday.  She's my friend whose husband passed right after Riley's surgery so her little guy's 1st birthday was a big deal.  All of his friends and their families came, there must have been close to 60 people there, she has a pool so we all went swimming and it was lots of fun!  Riley adores her daughter Reese, so they ran off and we barely saw her the whole party.  Both kids took like 3 hour naps so if that's a measure of fun, it was a good one!

Only picture I got at little Calvin's birthday party

Sunday we had another birthday party! This time it was our neighbor Kai's birthday.  The cul-de-sac down has a nice group of kids with siblings both Riley and Jacob's age so we spend a lot of time down there.  Kai just turned 3 and they had a water gun birthday party at their place so we all hung out, got squirted (shhh, more drought breaking) and then had pizza and cupcakes!  Then it was naps before heading up to our friend Elisabeth and Ian's neighborhood pool for more swimming with their oldest Owen and to meet their newest, Henry.  The guys had pool duty while us ladies (and Henry) sat in the shade and drank margaritas (Henry did not have margaritas for the record).  Jacob is looking out for my hydration because he came out of the pool and said "Momma, no drink wine, drink water."  Little guy is always looking out for me!

Cupcakes with the birthday boy and neighbor friends

Jacob takes his food seriously

Show me you muscles big boy!

Every day we leave a note in the mailbox at school for Riley, Jacob wanted to write Riley a note Sunday night.

We've started giving Jacob chores (vacuuming is a favorite) and in return he gets "money!" so Sunday Marc asked him to de-stem our grapes for the week.  His attention to detail was amazing and he was cracking me up.  Riley was upstairs doing her chores for her $1 so Jacob was with just Marc and myself and he was such a little ham.

And just like that, it was Monday.   What a fun weekend!