Turkey Day Feast!

What's Turkey Day without some fun HATS! My big sister made these AWESOME turkey hats for everyone, and I mean everyone. AND we all wore them, the entire dinner. Loved it. Loved the Turkey hats. Kids got a kick out of them too. Above is the picture of my dads little family, my sisters kids, and my kids all wearing their turkey hats in the leaves.

Here's my sister making/sizing the turkey hats for everyone.

Sisters...Sisters....in our turkey hats.

The dessert plate. Now I'll point out that this is my dads plate, he tried a bite of everything!! Remember the mini pies? There they are. My mini apple, mini pumpkin, my sisters mini chocolate, my hubby made the pecan pie, and my dads wife made the banana cream. Sooo good. I love turkey day.

Here's a picture of the kids table. You know how we were always at the kids table when we were kids? I totally understand now!! So nice to have the kids in one place, it was quieter, they were happy, we were happy.  Makes perfect sense now. We gave the kids coloring pages, candy, their own food table...they loved it. Once they were done with the food, they were outside playing in the leaves, and the adults were able to eat kid free. Love the kids, but love the quiet too.

Such a nice Turkey Day. Thanks Dad for hosting!!

on your marks...get set.. go!

Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, 10k, 5k, and 1k

Turkey Day started early for my family.  My big sister flew in from out of town and decided that it would be fun if everyone in the family ran a race. So... me, my twin, and big sister signed up for the 5k, my husband signed up for the 10k, and my dad and his little family (and our kids) signed up for the 1k. Everyone was signed up and surprisingly worked out perfectly.

This is the sunrise we saw on the way up to the morning race.

Most of the kids ready and waiting for the 1k to start.  The 5 and 10k runners went first, and the 1k started after most of the other runners got back, so we were able to run with our kids too in the 1k. :)  They loved it. So glad it was a kinda warm morning and no snow/rain/ice in sight. Oh and they really did have a guy dressed in a full turkey costume that started the races. hilarious.

Since I had the camera for our run, I took pictures. This is my big sister stopping to tie her shoe, and my twin dancing around in her zumba pants chanting (I should have gone (fill in blank) before we started this race). hehehehe. Ahh...too bad the Arctic Circle wasn't open when we ran by.

my crazy sisters.

We were definitely haven't fun on the run, just something we could do together, wasn't keeping track of time at all.

yay!! everyone gets a medal. (the colors don't mean a thing)

Here come our 10k runner!! He is fast. just saying.

My jog is his walk, his run is me on a bicycle.

hehehe love ya handsome.

Wish I had taken a picture of all the kids running in the 1k.  We were all split up with 9 kids and 7 adults...all of us on the 1k. Each adult was in charge of a kid in the 1k.  They all did great and they LOVED getting a medal. My girls have them hanging up in their room.

End result? I actually enjoyed this 5k. Maybe it was the company? or the fact that I'm in a lot better shape than I was for my last 5k. Either way, I would run (sorry..not run, more like job/walk) a 5k again with my sisters. Fun way to start your turkey day! and burn some calories before the turkey feast.

Mini Apple and Pumpkin Pies

This will mostly be a picture post.  My sister and I attempted mini pies and they turned out great! These pictures are for my sour cream apple pie (should have recipe posted somewhere on my blog) and the basic pumpkin pie (found on the libby's real pumpkin cans).

Above is how I made the crusts!

 I went and got the pre-made roll out dough at the store,

 made big circles from a circle cookie cutter,

 and then we formed them into the muffin tins

(NO cooking spray  needed, they come right out).

Here are my sour cream apple pies just out of the oven.

 I had just enough filling for the full pan.

Sooo good. still my favorite pie.

My finished sour cream apple pie!

Look how cute! did I mention really good?

Now for the pumpkin pie.

They are ready to go in to the oven.  No pre-baking crust.

This one I had left overs for 1/2 of another muffin pan.

The pumpkin turned out great too.. ask my sister,

 she couldn't say enough about them.

(if you can't tell I'm playing catch up on all posts from turkey weekend)

Candy Turkeys

Happy 11-11-11 !!  Had to start with that. Lucky Day.

My sister and I found this CUTE candy turkey idea for the turkey day table on pinterest.com, which took us to ourbestbites.com.  (links are there if you want to see the original.)

Ams and I tried once...and these pictures are our 2nd attempt. 

 Here is a picture of most of the candy you would need if you want to try and make them yourself!  Don't forget the icing! Chocolate and White Icing

Use Double Stuff Oreos, sooo much easier (realized that on 2nd attempt). Then add a little chocolate icing and put in the candy corn candies. We then used the chocolate icing to stick the oreo cookies together and put them up against a box to hold them until the icing became stiff.

 After, we slivered the reeses so that it had a flat end, used a little icing to stick it to the oreo, and then added the malt ball for the turkey head on the reeses pb cup.

 Now for the fun part.  We used the white end of the candy corns for the noses.  Then white icing for the eyes with a colorful sprinkle confetti for the center! My bronlaw picked up the white icing with the funfetti sprinkles so it was perfect!

Sad that the last part was the hardest part for me. making little orange feet for the turkeys. I could not keep my hands still. They are still cute, but wish they were more straight. Then used a red gel icing for the gobbler. 

Cute favors huh? (sorry about the pasta background! its what I used to stabalize the oreos)  On ourbestbites.com she used them for name tags.  Smart. How do people come up with ideas like these!

Halloween Overview

The Halloween Season is over! time to hide the candy.

But here is an overview of what happened with my little family.

My daughter had her class Halloween Party.  I've been helping her class once a week and these kids are adorable. So much fun to help them with the party and see them all dressed up.

Pumpkin Carving!! These are the pumpkins this year. My oldest wanted a BOO pumpkins..so we made it a totem pole, my youngest decided on a ghost.  The C is one of my green pumpkins that we covered in glitter. Oh and all these pumpkins were grown in my backyard!

Our trick or treaters! My...I think he went with Assassin, cute Cheerleader, and a happy Dalmatian puppy dog ready to go door to door collecting candy.

See that awesome hooded cloak he's wearing?? yeah, I made it myself. His story?? that he told me months ago to make him one, and I waited until the week before he needed it to start. Which is completely true.  Amazing what deadlines will do for motivation. :)  Didn't the cloak turn out great? (he picked out all the material..just sayin).

While the girls were out trick or treating, most of the neighbors on the street gathered around a fire pit and made a "candy line" for the trick or treaters.  I thought it was great, we were able to chat, eat chili and bread sticks, and all the trick or treaters had to do was go down the line to get a streets worth of candy! Yeah..we need to do this every year. :)

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Book Review: Timeless

Timeless by Alexandra Monir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maybe 2.5-3 stars. This book is definitely for a young adult audience.

This book was highly recommended, but I just didn't love the story. The story is definitely sweet, and my favorite part was the ending (read to find out). There will be another book in the series, and I'll want to read it when it comes out. Here's one review I found on bn.com

"Michele lives with her single mother, happy in their relationship, secure in her school and her best friends, Amanda and Kristen. But circumstances change and she is sent to live with her grandparents in New York. Michele knew that her mother had been totally estranged from her rich "blue blood" parents since she married and moved to California. Michele has never known her father. Her grandparents seem cold and uncaring. She has the room her mother grew up in, her meals are served in her room, and she rarely even sees her grandparents. While unpacking a box sent by her mother's lawyer, she finds a golden key that looks very old and was owned by her father. It twitches as if it is alive. Michele time traveled back one hundred years and that's just where it starts..."

Michele goes back and forth in time, learning more about her blue blood family, and meets the love of her life...but time keeps them apart. Romance, history, time travel. sounds interesting to you? you may enjoy this book.