Thanksgiving

A few pictures from Thanksgiving at our place.  Lots of family and friends over, and great to see everyone.

Click on the above to see a short slideshow.

Orangutan power!

 

Diwali Outfits

The kids put on all their bangles and fancy clothes and went to temple with their Nonni....

Pumpkin carving

Slideshow of (messily) carving the pumpkin

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch

The kids had a great day at the pumpkin patch yesterday with their granddad and then came home for some warm stew.  Today they baked biscuits for breakfast, and then we all went to the ski swap, where they got kids ski boots, in the same brand that their mom uses.

Busy weekend, and they're still not feeling 100% -- there was some vomiting this morning -- so we figured out how to use the steam vacuum cleaner too.

Click on the picture for the full slideshow.

Mmm snail sauce

Who says kids don't like escargot, at least playing with the shells, covered with parsley & butter!

Fwd: Princess balloons

Ariel and Rapunzel, in balloon form...

The Blessing of the Animals

Today was St. Francis's day, when the traditional blessing of the animals is given.  We corralled all the felines, into three hissing bags, along with the more placid containers of dogs who are no longer with us, and brought them to the church courtyard for prayers.  All of them, the hissing and the calm, were thanked for their love and companionship over the years, and we prayed that we will always keep them in our hearts.

Afterwards was the Airing of Grievances when Ru Ru let us know that she didn't care for the whole adventure, so she peed in the pet carryall in retaliation.  So I had give her a bath when we got home, and she is scheduled to be groomed tomorrow, so she's going to go through all this again tomorrow.

If you click on the picture above, you can see a slideshow.

Pablo

After 14 years, the family dachshund passed away last week.  He had been struggling in the last month or so, but he enjoyed life greatly -- sunning himself, getting pet, filching the occasional treat.  The girls really loved seeing him and are saddened, even if they don't understand completely, why they can't see him anymore.  At least everyone got to see him on his last weekend, as somewhat fortuitously the whole family was in town for his last few days.  

The girls ask about him at night, when they recite their prayers, when among the list of petitioners, are all the pets names.  Good pets are companions that live on in our hearts.  Pablo was one of those.

Boxes

Moving day

A day at the circus

The kids went to the circus last week and if you click on the above, you can see some pictures.

A day at the beach

Click on the picture to see a slideshow, including flying a kite at the beach!

Only 4 months til Thanksgiving...

Turkeys roaming the neighborhood.

Cat heps us pack...by getting in the way

Disneyland

If you click on the picture you can see a slideshow of the kids trip to Disneyland.

Jumping and swimming

You may be able to slow the speed down of these in your computer by changing the settings for viewing.  [you can in windows media viewer, but i'm not sure if youtube/blogger allows that]

The girls are ready to move into their new pool!

the last BEST DAY EVER

 

yet another BEST DAY EVER

 

even more BEST DAY EVER