Reliving my Youth

I never gave you all a picture of Rory's Halloween.  Here it is!

My oldest friend, Amanda, texted me one day that our one favorite singer was going to be in concert at the MGM at National Harbor.  She got us tickets and a hotel room at the MGM, so we wouldn't have to drive home afterward.  
In days leading up to the concert, she was concerned because apparently this singer was a liberal lefty, and we hoped she didn't decide to get political during the concert.  If she did, we said we would leave.
Well, everything went well getting there if you consider getting lost on the way and adding an hour to the trip as things going well.  We got there and grabbed dinner trying to figure out who was going to the concert and who wasn't.
Showtime came and we took our seats.

Amanda commented that "older" people's concerts involved sitting. :)  I likes it that way.
The concerted started harmless enough.  We went to buy merchandise because Amanda wanted a t-shirt.  Unfortunately, some of her merchandise was political.  We settled back into our seats, which now included some drunk guy next to me.  He smelled awful and kept burping and blowing it into my face.  He didn't do it on purpose, but he was leaning so far over on my arm rest that it went right into my face.  Then Tori started making political statements, and my friend called it enough.  We went up to our room and cross-stitched and knitted.  THIS IS 40!  
We made it home the next morning, but we were disappointed that we didn't get to hear any of the songs of our youth before she ruined the show.  It's unfortunate, and I felt bad when Amanda wouldn't take my money for the show because "it wasn't worth it."  It was nice catching up face to face though, and I'm glad we've been friends for 26 years now.  

Busy Bucy Days

We've been on a roll with activities and happenings.  I'm going to post pics and discuss.  :)

My dad turned 82 a couple weeks ago.  He's still going strong.  We got him St. Joseph work gloves.  Rory bought some for Kevin for father's day, and he really liked them, so it was an obvious choice.

This was our resident lion for a couple days.  She had to rewrite a fable and present it to her classmates and parents.  It was a fable festival at school.  She rewrote the lion and the oxen.  She did great!

We bought Mars tickets to Daniel Tiger at the local theater for her birthday.  Show day finally arrived.  Daddy had to arrive later cuz he had some shuttling of the other kids to do, and then I left early to grab dinner on the way home.  We all reconvened and had a great late dinner.  Marley liked the show.  

My parents had gotten a white pumpkin this year, but my dad didn't like the looks of it, so they gave it to us.  We couldn't wait to see if it was white or orange inside.  It was a thick-skinned pumpkin!  Kevin did the initial cutting, and Rory did the face.  Somehow I didn't take a pic of how it turned out.

Remember when I said nothing much was happening in the way of the kitchen?  Well, Logan made dinner last week, and we all ate it up!  He found a recipe for chicken tenders in one of the cookbooks and wanted broccoli for the side.  We found a boxed mac-n-cheese in the pantry and Logan finally got to try the beloved Red Lobster box biscuits.  He always sees them at BJs, but I refuse to buy bulk biscuits that we aren't sure we like.  Everyone but Marley liked them, not surprising.  We're preparing for a busy week in the kitchen.  We have to get back to eating healthier, especially for the kids.

Happy All Saints Day!

 We had school yesterday, but the kids didn't let that damper their excitement for candy.  They dressed up as saints for school, and I took no pictures of them.  :(  Rory was St. Jean de Brebeuf, who is the patron Saint of Canada.  She wore jeans and her Canada fleece jacket.  Logan was St. Andrew.  He sported a shirt that said, "World's Best Fisherman," with a fishing pole, and his Tennessee hat with some fishing hooks on it.  Marley was St. Cecilia.  We bought a costume from Lucy's a while ago for this purpose.  It was a greek goddess costume, but it worked.  We made a harp out of cardboard that Kevin spray painted gold.  They all turned out great!  I went as St. Martha wearing jeans, my hoodie sweat jacket, Kevin's making bacon apron, a feather duster, and a red bandana on my head.  The apron was very useful with the front pockets for holding things, and I used the apron to open the doors to bathrooms and such.  :)

Rory did her usual friend outing for Halloween trick-or-treating.  Kevin, the kids, and I went around our neighborhood.  Marley wanted nothing else than to hand out some candy, but no one ever comes to our house to trick-or-treat because we have no sidewalk and the street is dangerous with all the speeding dump trucks.  My mom said that they had 41 kids by 730p, so I told Marley we'd go there next year cuz I'm sure my mom would love to have Marley hand out candy instead of doing it herself!  :)

More pics to come!