Thanksgiving 2011!

Thanksgiving was a close-call this year! Our kitchen was finished getting remodeled on Tuesday. I promise there will be a whole post just about the kitchen complete with before and after pictures soon. But it was finished just in time and we couldn't be more thrilled. Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Tuesday and we had a fun couple of days getting ready. Then Nonna and Pop-pop arrived on Thursday and stayed through the weekend while Grandma and Grandpa left on Friday.

We girls all made the center piece and name cards. It was super fun. I think the adults had more fun than Gianna!

Of course there was lots of time for playing. 

And posing for pictures in Gianna's school hats was fun for everyone!

The kids both tasted pumpkin pie for the first time. They weren't super impressed. 

Mark spent a lot of the weekend in this doll stroller for some reason. I predict it's demise will come very soon!

Gianna made delicious ginger bread with Nonna!

And she won the wish bone contest with Daddy. 

And she helped decorate the tree on Sunday. Phew, busy weekend!

Mark is 2!

November 20th was Mark's 2nd birthday. I still can't believe my baby is two! We started with a visit to Santa, hence the Christmas-y outfits on the kids. Time with Santa was apparently not on Mark's birthday wish-list. But after that trauma, he very much enjoyed all his balloons, presents and cake. (P.S. He had his 2-year appointment shortly after his birthday. He's 35.5 inches tall and 33 pounds, both 90th percentile-ish.)

And here is a video where Mark almost sets himself on fire. He's fine, just a little melted wax on his face. We're good parents...really.

Family time!

Back in November we went away for the weekend to see Doug's brother's family in PA and then on to Binghamton to see more of Doug's extended family. (We thought we'd be escaping the disaster that was our kitchen remodel, but it turns out it hadn't even started yet...but that's a whole other post!)

The kids and I spent a lovely couple of days with Elizabeth, Bella, and Jack. The kids all had a great time playing and eating together. Then Doug joined us Friday night and we all went to Binghamton in the morning. The first stop was Grandpa Ray's house.  Miraculously, I was able to get this shot of him with all the kids and no tears. I was stunned.

We had a great time catching up with lots of family and look forward to seeing them again in the winter.

Natural History Museum

At the beginning of November, our friend Kelly was visiting NYC. We were able to see her on Saturday by meeting her at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. There are no pictures of the great start of the day which was tipping the double stroller over in the middle of a cross walk: picture both kids completely upside-down and not able to be seen under the tipped stroller and screaming. Luckily, the only real injury sustained was to Gianna's front tooth. The tooth is now gray, but the dentist says there is no damage to the tooth, so losing the tooth in a few years will cure that problem. Anyway, where was I. Yes, the museum. It was very cool. The kids loved the dinosaurs and we were thrilled to see our friend!