Paige's 9 Birthday

Paigey!  We love this girl so much!  And she certainly loves having birthdays!  She turned 9 years old this year and is in 3rd grade.  She is a very smart girl, entered the Academically Talented program at school, is doing really well with piano lessons, has tons of friends, plays soccer and started dance.  She's got lots to keep her busy, including a very inquisitive mind.  She absolutely HAS to understand how things work or what is going on at all times--even if it drives us a little crazy sometimes.  Oh and she doesn't lack in self-confidence AT ALL!

On her actual birthday we just had a small family celebration at home.  She is going to have a party a little later when our schedule frees up.  It's pretty hard to convince a 9 year old that she should wait 2 weeks AFTER her birthday to have a party, especially when, her birthday is in October but the party is in November.  It feels like having to wait a whole month, even though it's technically only 12 days!

On her birthday, we opened some presents in the morning before school, then later that evening we had the Edrosa Family over for a birthday dinner of sweet and savory crepes and we opened some more presents.



Super excited to get the "toe shoes" she wanted!

Instead of cake Paige requested coconut creme pie.  Uh, oh!  I think she learned that from Dave.  I also included a French silk pie just because I know how much she loves chocolate too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAIGE!
 

Thai Dinner

Okay, you know it had to happen.  My dad was visiting, he loves to cook, we love to eat, so why not have a dinner party?  And of course, if you are going to cook for a few people, why not cook for a lot of people?  How about 45 or so? 

Yep, my dad cooked a huge dinner for us.  We rented the clubhouse in our subdivision to accomodate everyone and basically spent two whole days cooking away.  It was a lot of work, but my dad loves to do stuff like this, so I hope he enjoyed himself.  I'm so grateful for him, it was so good of him to work so hard for us and our friends.  Plus it was fun to have people meet my dad and taste of his culinary genius!  My only disappointment was that I didn't get ANY pictures of that night!  I know crazy!  I really feel terrible about that, but we were so busy prepping food and entertaining I literally didn't have a chance to snap any picutres.  Thank goodness for our friends, the Edrosa's they were recruited into the kitchen and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with my dad frying spring rolls and fish, etc.  They were so awesome!

Anyways, everything turned out great, the food was yummy and Dave was happy to be able to watch Notre Dame beat Oklahoma on the big screen TV.  I hope everyone had fun.

Here is the menu---10 dishes!!  (Ashley made cute name signs to go with the dishes)
1-Somtum salad
2-Spring rolls
3-Red Chicken Curry
4-Five Spice Pork curry
5-Green Curry with Thai Vermicelli noodles
6-Deep Fried whole Tilapia
7-Pineapple Fried Rice
8-Thai Basil Chicken
9-Pad Thai
10-Mung Bean Custard

I do have one picture (I didn't take it.)  This is Nicole, who went to high school with Dave and I (she and Dave actually went to Junior Prom together!)  Her husband also went to school with us but was a few years older.  My dad coached Nicole and I in soccer when we were younger.  He pretty much taught us everything we know about soccer and Nicole was an amazing player until she blew her knee out in high school :(.  Anyway, small world, Nicole and her family moved to our city this past summer.  It was fun to catch up with them again after almost 20 years!

We Love Thee Notre Dame

We planned my dad's visit to coincide with our tickets to the Notre Dame-BYU football game.  My dad had never been to a game, in fact he had never been to Notre Dame and we knew he would love it, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take him.

On Game Day we got all our ND gear on and drove to South Bend.  We even bought a shirt in advance for my dad so he was properly attired!  Also, Paige didn't go with us to the game, she's not much of a sports fan, so fortunately she was able to stay with some friends for the day.

We left as early as possible so we would have time to show my dad around campus, tailgate and just enjoy the atmosphere.  Game Days are always fun and Notre Dame has a relatively small campus, with the stadium right on campus so there is always a lot going on.

First off we did a drive by of where we lived while Dave was in school.  Not much to see at married student housing except really old apartment buildings.  To our surprise and good luck, we parked next to some friends of ours from the law school days.  It was great to get to see the Bernards, talk and catch up with them.  They are BYU and Notre Dame grads, so they were excited enough for the game that Laura, who was 8+ months pregnant drove 5+ hours from Iowa to see the game.  Man, she is tough!

Once on campus, we started off by hitting the three must see sights.  Strangely, I only have pictures of two:  The Grotto, Touchdown Jesus (Library) and the Golden Dome (Admin. Bldg.)

 

We then went over to the new law school



 

then toured the bookstore which of course was a madhouse on game day, but hey you gotta do it!

 

There are also lots of traditions on campus on game day.  The football teams always goes to mass and then they march through campus on their way to the stadium.  The band also holds an outdooor concert and after they march through campus and lead everyone to the stadium for the game.  Plus there is a lot of tailgating and food to eat all over.  Another good thing is that because it was a BYU game and half the people we know are BYU alums, we saw a lot of people we know on campus--too bad they were rooting for the wrong team!

 

But my dad was loving it.  It's pretty hard not to sucked into all the fun.  We watched the team as they left mass, then we ate some brats at a tailgate and got ready to follow the band, cheerleaders and color guard into the stadium.

Coach Kelly

Manti Te'o - pretty much the campus hero

Students lining up to get into Notre Dame Stadium

Ashley got a high-five from the Leprechaun and by the time we got in the stadium, we pretty much had my dad sold.  There is just so much excitement it's hard not to get caught up in it.  We had good seats, in the end zone above the student section.  We all had so much fun, even though the Irish had us biting our nails, they played the game so close.  The Irish are still undefeated here we come National Championship!

full house at Notre Dame Stadium

Team coming over to the student section to sing,
"Notre Dame, Our Mother" after the on-field victory

Notre Dame marching band

Finishing the Basement

Hurray!!  We are officially finishing our basement.  The construction is starting and it should be done before Thanksgiving.  We aren't personally doing any of the construction but it is still a huge project.  Basically everything that you store in your basement has to be cleared out so that the contractor can get in and start building. 

Do you understand how much work is involved in not only cleaning but clearing out your basement?!  I seriously don't have time for this, but I seriously wanted my basement finished so somehow we made it happen.  Basically we threw a lot of stuff away and the rest we brought up and will store temporarily in our garage.  It looks like a hoarder took over our garage and honestly, I'm not even thinking about the time when it has to all come back down to the basement.

Ironically, because I was so busy getting the basement ready for the construction to start, I didn't take any before pictures.  I know that we have a few around here somewhere so hopefully, I'll find those and add them.

 

almost finished...

The project took 3 weeks start to finish.  The contractor was here during my dad's stay with us, so dad had to put with the hammering, banging, and people coming and going.  On the flipside, the construction workers had to put up with the constant smells of cooking as my dad literally always had something going in the kitchen.  During the last week of construction, my dad kindly made them all a big Thai lunch.  Figured they deserved to taste it after smelling it for two weeks.

(As a side note, the builder probably wondered about us, because the first week he started also happened to be the same exact time I got season 2 of Downton Abbey.  I'm sure I made a great impression by literally watching tv the whole time he was at our house!  Then the next week my dad came.  I'm sure he thinks I live a charmed life--watching tv and eating all day.  Well, maybe I do!)

Anyways, we are very happy with finished project.  Can't think of one thing to complain about.  Our contractor delivered on every promise from quality, to timing, to budget.  If you are ever in need of a contractor/handyman, have I got a recommendation for you. 

So here are a few pictures.  Still need to finish decorating (that alone is a massive project) but you get the idea.

 

 

 

Dave finally got his long-sought surround sound along with an enormous new TV.  We also got a lovely sectional leather couch.  We were hoping to bring the couches from the family room down to the basement and put the new sectional upstairs but our old couches were not even close to fitting down the basement stairs.  Fortunately, the sectional just squeezed through.  Honestly, we have been so busy since the basement was finished we haven't reallly had much time to enjoy it, but I forsee lots of relaxing movie and game nights down there.

Grandpa Comes to Visit

So the end of October was a very busy time around our house, but it was busy in a great way.  First and for most, my dad came to visit for two weeks.  It was so fun to have him stay with us.  He also happens to be an awesome house guest.  He is very low maintenance.  Basically, he spends the whole day working and cooking in the kitchen and then loves to watch action movies in the evening.  How great is that?!

I am not exaggerating when I say that within the first day of being here, he had gone through my fridge and cut and cleaned all my veggies, helped me with the final harvest and cleaning up of my garden, made salsa and I'm sure a soup as well.  Pretty much all I did was take him to the grocery store to buy food and he was cooking up a storm and cleaning up the rest of the time.  My dad is so cute and loves to cook so much.  What a great blessing he is to share his culinary talents with us.

Here he is teaching Paige how to make pot stickers.  He even brought her a little plastic mold to help her shape her pot stickers.

 

Cooking is just one of my dad's great talents another one is soccer.  It rained almost every day he was here so we had to go "indoor" for some soccer skills training.

 

He also to go to an awards breakfast at Ashley's school.  She won an award for good character.

 

The Pumpkin Patch

I know my girls are getting a little old for this, but since they had Colombus Day off from school and it was the right time of year, we decided to go to a pumpkin patch.  Actually we went to Blackberry Farm, it is a cute little place and they just added a huge outdoor play structure to so we went to check it out.

Of course, since it was "Pumpkin Weekend" at the farm, we started with painting our own little pumpkins.

Then we went over to check out the new area and the zip line.

Next up, were carousel rides, we did this about 5 times in a row.

Then the train and wagon hay rides!

What a cute little place to spend a Fall day at.  Of course, our day may or may not have ended with ice cream!

Backyard Hobbies

So our family is taking backyard hobbies to a new level.  First off, the birding.  I know I have talked about this before.  This has completely turned into Dave's thing.  They are his birds or should I say "friends."  A real, human friend of ours teases that one day the birds are going to come and claim Dave as their own.

He has really got quite the system out there, with multiple bird feeders, a squirrel baffle and now...A HEATED BIRD BATH!   Yep, you read that right.  It's a regular day spa out there for the birds.  He has also successfully deterred all the annoying black birds and grackels so we pretty regularly have gold finches, purple finches, house finches, cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers, robins and red-breasted nut hatches.  In addition to these regular visitors we also have chipmunks and two big fat gray squirrels. 

I hate to say it but as annoying as those squirrels are, I personally get a kick out of watching them try to figure out how to get at the bird food.  You can just see them looking up at the feeders, thinking, judging how far they can jump, testing out if they can jump from the picnic table onto the feeder stand and all kinds of crazy stuff.  Do you know how funny it is to watch a squirrel over and over try to climb up a pole, hit the baffle and slide down.  Hilarious, especially if your threshold for hilarity is low.

We also have another "pet" that we are currently caring for.  A Venus Flytrap.  A friend gave one to Paige and right along with the birds she and Dave have started caring for it.  Dave did a bunch of research to teach Paige how to care for it and viola it is thriving.  It started off with two heads and now has like seven or eight.  The best part about this pet is that you can set it outside during the day and it catches it's own food.  Not sure what we will do in the winter, there aren't usually a lot of flies around, that's probably when this fun little plant will start getting on my nerves.  I'll be worried about feeding it, but definitely not interested in catching flies and other bugs for it.

Finally, there is my little backyard hobby--the garden.  Dry conditions made it a tough year for some of my veggies, but the tomatoes went gangbusters.  Too bad I'm too busy and unmotivated to do some canning. 

As you may have noticed, Ashley doesn't seem to have a backyard hobby.  I guess it's just really not her thing, which is okay because she often gets recruited to help with everyone else's projects and she is a pretty good sport about it.