She Goes Home On Saturday

Whatever will we do without her?

Merry Christmas

My three favorite girls.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Audrey's Last Day As An Eight Year Old

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

We decided to make this Thanksgiving one that everyone would remember. Last year it was just two of us and we celebrated with a nice quiet dinner at an inn. We spent the meal dreaming about our family. This year we had a family and were excited to make some wonderful memories.

The first time I mentioned driving to NYC to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Marcus looked at me like I had lost my mind. That is a look I am used to receiving. After talking it over for several days we decided to take the plunge.

I called my friend Twice Blessed Mommy who is a travel agent if she knew of any great deals and she was unable to find anything in NYC for less than about $400.00. So, maybe we can just make some memories at home. But she called me a few days later saying she found a deal that we could not pass up. We would have to pay for the hotel up front and if we cancelled we would lose our money. We talked about it and decided to do it.

Of course after making the reservation weather.com only showed rain for Thanksgiving. But we were going to matter what! Turns out it was cold, but dry.

We drove up on Wednesday, with everyone else and spent the evening in Times Square. The girls loved Toys R Us.

The Barbie house in Toys R Us.

Times Square

This is for you Twilight Fans.

M & M World

Hershey

Self portrait.

The morning of the parade. We were up and ready to go by 6:30 am.

We were in our spot by 7:30. I had stocked my bag with lots of Halloween candy to keep them occupied. A wise person told me when you are traveling with kids and they start to complain, you feed them. It works!

Nothing like a lollipop for breakfast!

Beautiful Audrey

The lollipop has kicked in!

8:54 am and 37 degrees

The parade starts at 11...

Beautiful Sojung. I think she is still asleep in this picture. Crazy American customs...

This is what has sealed the deal for parents of the year. This is Miley Cyrus.

Trace Adkins

Everybody leaving after the parade. We were actually pretty close to the street.

We didn't have any plans for lunch after the parade. We walked about 6 blocks with the parade crowd and as luck would have it we passed an Italian restaurant that had just opened their doors for business. We were the third family in the door. The food was amazing.

Someone asked if we missed eating turkey and stuffing. No! It is not everyday when you get the best Italian food for Thanksgiving. We'll have turkey for Christmas.

Audrey and Betty enjoyed their first cab ride in NYC.

Would we do it again? Yes! Anybody want to tag along next time?

Truffles

Sojung helped me make truffles tonight. They are delicious!!!!

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients needed: 1 box of oreo cookies--makes about 20 truffles

1 cup of whipped cheese cream

1 big bag of milk chocolate chips Steps:

1. chop the oreo cookies into the blender until the cookies are very soft and smooth. place in a big bowl.

2. mix the cup of cream cheese with the blended Oreos. mix until you can't see the cream cheese anymore and until you get rid of all crumbs.

3. take out a pan and place foil on it.

4. make little round balls out of the mix and place in a pan.

5. melt the chocolate chips into a pot. place boiling water in one pot and put another empty one on top to be able to melt the chocolate in it.

6. once the chocolate is melted, time to roll up your sleeves! this is the tricky part. if you wait too long, the chocolate will get hard. so you must take one little 'ball' of cream cheese/Oreo cookie and dip it in the melted chocolate. twist the chocolate all around it and try to make it as round as possible and then quickly place into the pan.

7. once you have completed step 6 with all the chocolate balls, place your pan in the fridge for an hour or two, until cold and hard.

The trickiest part are steps 5-6, and DO NOT add milk or water to the chocolate chips!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Eight Wonderful Years

Trunk or Treat Part 1

What a cute witch and cat!
Don't be scared. She is a friendly witch.

What a smile!

The cutest cat I know!

What out, though. She still has her front claws.

We went to Trunk or Treat hosted by a church in Haymarket. The girls thought they had hit the jackpot. Look at those smiles. They are smiling because their bags are bursting with candy.

Thank you!

Let's go get some more!

Taking time to enjoy a free hot dog.

Yum! Now let's go get more candy!

Our loot. Friday we are going to Trunk or Treat at our church. They can hardly wait.