on the road again, on two feet!

I made pumpkin pancakes this morning from the IHOP recipe, and they came out great. Served them with sausage and warm maple praline syrup.
When everyone had carb-loaded we headed out for a run. Molly ran to downtown, Charlotte,Danny and I hit the trail along the woods. It was glorious! My favourite moment was when I mentioned the beautiful leaf colours to Danny, he said,
"Mom, there's a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon that says..Sometimes we need to be quiet and let autumn do the talking" Not only is that accurate and Adorable, but he sounded exactly like Jake when he said it! Good memories, which I am working on concentrating on!
Danny and I went to 5pm and had the pleasure of serving the mass-Father Mark talked about encouraging vocations among our young men. It was very inspirational to here him talking about his own vocation.

ready to run!

go team!!

we made it! andfinished the same time as Molly. Karen, my new birthday shirt worked great!

Friendship Friday!

List of Friends I connected with..

1. Coffee with Karen! We get a chance to reconnect and catch up on how her kids are doing, how her trip to Maine went and all that jazz. We finish our ultimate coffee clatch with a trip to HomeGoods, where we putter and chat. I needed to water that friendship flower, if I don't it will die, and then so might I!

2. Email from Catherine! Got a positive response to a request for Aunt Catherine to have a special      day with Charlotte. I feel blessed to have a sister-in-law who loves and cares...even from NJ!

3. Phone call with Allie.I have been feeling bad that we haven't spoken, I needed to work on our friendship. I am SO proud that she is excelling at cross country,working so hard at practice and so hard in school. Even emails home to Mom about her excellent math scores..This is a great young lady who I am happy to be friends with. She keeps me young(if that's possible!)

4. Outing with my girls! Now I'm not one to try to be "friends" with my kids, but I do know I have to spend time with them where I am not yelling! It sounds easy but....Anyway, we went to the regional Cross Country meet at Huron Meadows. We cheered on Brighton and CC. Brighton girls came in second and made it to the state finals!

I hope that your Friday was as good as mine!

He ain't nothing but a Hound Ghoul....

Starting off the Halloween season with a party at the Tae kwan do studio, we have ghoulish Elvis! The mask was purchased at JoAnne Fabrics and the rest we pulled together from the dress up clothes. Doesn't he look awesome?!

The party was fun, and afterwards the gang scampered right off to the fall choir concert. I declined because I was bound and determined to get the bed cleared off so that Jer could sleep in it tonight, after 2 nights in the basement.  He was very patient. Danny knocked out his entire school day, including spelling test, social studies test, and 30 minutes of piano by 12:15. He enjoyed his new Wii game, bull riding during his free afternoon. Tomorrow it's coffee with Karen and Friday night bball.

A smiling happy day!

Today Danny told me twice how happy he was! I tell you, with all the self doubt that surrounds parenting, hearing that is pretty awesome! All you want is for your kids to be happy,right?!

Danny had a great piano lesson, I had a great coffee chat with my friend Cynthia, and I got the pumpkins to the library! It is nice not to be driving around with them in the car. Danny joined 18 other teens in a carving contest. We did a PA announcement and invited everyone at the library to walk through our display and vote for 4 pumpkins. Danny's won! He is on cloud 9, and he was already happy! LIG!!
 

Library Pumpkin Party

Danny starts the scooping process

Digging in!

Winner! Most Original!

The four winners, funniest,best overall, most original and scariest!

University of Michigan Womens Soccer Game!

After 8am mass and a quick breakfast, we headed down to Ann Arbor. What a treat! We had been invited to the game by Dave, Molly's bus assistant, who is a weekend usher at U of M events. He told Coach Ryan about Molly, and she got to go into the locker room and meet the team and talked to them. It was a mutual love fest, and she received a signed poster from the team.  Coach Ryan came to the stands to meet the family, and all 3 kids participated  in the halftime musical chairs game (Alas no winner among them!) It was warm and sunny and the seats were great! It was just a fun family afternoon!
Got together with my friend Kim and took a 3 mile walk later in the day. It was great to catch up with her while Danny and Scott jumped on the trampoline. I even taught her how to Facetime! thanks for taking our call Sooz!
At 3:30pm,Jerry drove to the lake and dropped off a couple of chairs and picked up the rest of the pumpkins for the library and fished and drove home--what a guy!

at the soccer game sporting her SO scarf!

The kids with Molly's friend Dave

action shot

musical chairs

Dad and Danny enjoying the game :)

Saturday 10/22/11

Danny Pirrello, my cousin, is celebrating his birthday today. When we were growing up we hung out together since we are only 2 years apart. He is an awesome guy who loves to run, loves Penn State(who won their football game for him!) and is the best son a family could ever ask for! Happy Birthday Danny!

The tourney continues, and Molly and Charlotte had their first game at 9am, followed by the consolation match at 12noon. They lost both, but played really hard and took home fourth place ribbons. Channel 2 Foxnews came to the park and filmed the girls playing soccer, and interviewed the family for a piece promoting SO and their gala in November. That was fun.

fun at the dance

PJ tickling Danny to death!

Erin,Coach Michelle,Alexia and Kelley

gettin down with the clowns!

Molly and CEO of SOMI Lois Arnold

Charlotte

good game handshake time ;)