Gingerbread Houses + a Tree

Hello? Am I here? December is flying by and I have a dozen Christmas-y posts I want to write, yet instead I have spent many nights up late wrapping presents, getting ready for Santa, and many days trying to keep the kids from tearing the house apart while the rain poured down.

We spent one fun afternoon avoiding the weather at Mrs. E's house making gingerbread houses. All good fun, except Keller is having a heck of a time understanding why he can't just eat all of the candy off the house.

Birthday at the Ranch

Mr. S turned 5 a couple of weekends ago. Yep, I am really that far behind on posting. His party included horses, trucks, apple bobbing, ornament making, Spiderman Cupcakes, a pinata, and a visit from Santa. It was an event! Can you guess which was Vera's favorite part?



The apple bobbing was hilarious! I swear Vera finally just reached in and put the apple in her mouth, but she isn't admitting to it.


Cute cowgirls!


Excitement was in the air when the kids saw the big guy coming down the hill...


...Vera could barely contain herself.

Keller's New 'Do

Ta-Ta's Baby Shower

Ta-Ta is having a baby and it was baby shower time this weekend. Can you guess if she is having a girl or a boy?

Being the best little sister in the entire world, I had the honor of planning her shower. The benefit for me is that I get to rub the belly at least once a week (kind of like a good luck Buddha).

I admit, I LOVE making diaper cakes!


Aunt Steph made the trip special to see Ta-Ta and attend the shower. Yep, the sis is glowing!

My kiddos were thrilled that they got some Aunt Steph time this weekend. Keller especially loved the fact that she brought a HUGE dump truck for him. The boy is into construction trucks at the moment.



Making onesies is always a crap shoot at baby showers...some turn out good and some turn out just a little different. I had the great idea to provide stencils and spray paint to decorate the itty-bitty onesies. It would have worked fantastic if the spray paint was a little more controlled and the stencils were a bit bigger. Instead, the spray paint went where it wanted. Just ask CC, who got a spattering of green paint from Vera's design. Notice how everyone moved away from the little kiddo as she painted.



This is when the geek humor started.

Christmas Shot Rejects

For the most part, I feel like I get pretty lucky with the Christmas card shot. It helps that I don't put the entire family on the card and just grab a snap of the kiddos. This year it only took one afternoon at the beach with Tay and CC to get shots for both of our families. Now that the Christmas cards are out (for the most part), here are the shots that I liked that didn't make the cut.

I was so tempted by the baby bird mouth open pose, my kiddos' favorite look.




This was the second choice shot. I love it, except you can't see the munchkins' faces and that is pretty much required of the official shot. This picture also proves what we have always known, the sun really does shine out of Vera's behind.

Turtle

I love when you come across a photo that you didn't take or a moment that you forgot and the whole thing just comes rushing back and is hilarious. During Thanksgiving break Keller comes running out of the back room at Nonni and Nonno's house mumbling that a turtle is sitting on the cat. A turtle that Nonno had watched the Keller Dude place gently on the Sushi's tummy. Seriously, what even possessed him? Why do I think it is funny? Poor Sushi, you can just see the thought bubble over her head, "Is it time for them to leave yet?"

Tangled and Ice Cream

Vera's good friend Little K turned 5 yesterday and a trip to see Tangled was on the schedule. Both girls were super excited upon entering the theater, getting to put on their super cool 3D glasses, and then the movie started. What is up with Disney? In every movie there is a scary part or multiple scary parts. Little K cuddled her kangaroo and spent the entire time in her mom's lap. Vera, about halfway through, kept asking when it was going to be over.

Here is the thing...I loved it! It was well done and Flynn Rider is dreamy. ; ) Vera might be ready in a few years. For now, we will just stick with educational tv. Word Girl anyone?


The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream after the movie was a hit!

Dottie's Family Dinner

Turkey enchildas for 30, our fam was so there! Dottie, a cousin of Jan's, hosts an annual after-Thanksgiving dinner that gets everyone (and I do mean everyone) together to eat and be merry. We even managed a group photo.



J's contribution, R/Cing (yea, no idea how to actually state what we were doing in correct terms). Basically, we had races with the little cars. It involved running if your car flipped or was flipped by the competitor and just a tiny bit of trash talking.

Both kiddos were enthralled with the vintage Fisher Price Little People. Uhm, so was I. Dude, those things are cool and I want to either find my old set or buy new (old) ones.

Yummy!

You gotta end the night with a horse ride and a photo bomb by Trev.

San Francisco Zoo

Hello SF Zoo, we were very pleased to meet you. Oh, and we were super impressed that you let visitors see where the animals hang at night. To Vera's delight there were reindeer, zebras, a rhino, and bears...all animals that she does not get to visit at the SB Zoo.

There was also this guy.


Lucky for us, Opa met us at the zoo for some fun family time.


Awww...love that Christmas decorations are up.



Yes, there were different pictures of different family members posed as different animals. This was the best one. It was followed closely by Jan as a peacock and Vera as a spider.



Have you ever seen an anaconda? It was the biggest snake I have every seen in my entire life. It was HUGE! His body had to be a small dinner plate size around.


Gotta love Yoda Chimp.


Group shot, so fun to have our two sides of the family together.


This little area was my favorite part of the entire zoo. First, it was quite chilly outside and this little area was heated. Second, it is called the giraffe lounge. Third, you get to be really close to cool giraffes eating their dinner.

Thanksgiving Dinner

There were two remarkable occurrences at this year's Thanksgiving dinner. The first was that all 18 members of the Mazzetta/Anthony Clan ate together at one enormous table. In all years past the group would be split into three to four separate areas to eat dinner. Awesome idea Auntie Lo-Lo!


The second yummy addition to the Thanksgiving dinner this year was that Heather made chocolate lava cake. It was delicious and so much better than pumpkin pie. Have I mentioned before my dislike of pumpkin pie? All desserts should be chocolate, not squash.

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner Park Play

We love finding new cool parks. Burton Park is AWESOME and was just what the kiddos needed to get some wiggles out before Thanksgiving dinner.