Bunco Babes

Christmas Bunco! Our neighborhood Bunco group meets every month for a girls night out. December has always traditionally been Kate's month. She puts on a wonderful Christmas party and gift exchange in place of our monthly bunco.

I was assigned dessert. I made Oreo Truffles; the easiest dessert EVER! Go HERE to find the recipe. They don't look too different than the picture.

Since I made such an easy dessert, I decided to try something else a little more ambitious... Snowmen Cake Pops! If you go HERE, you can find the recipe, directions, and a picture of what they are supposed to look like.

I didn't use sticks.... As a result, the chocolate puddled around the bottom, and our snowmen look like they are melting. I couldn't find the matching cookies or the candy coated sunflower seeds for the noses, so we substituted moon and star sprinkles. The cookie hats were replaced with Butterfinger bells.

Here are my snowmen helpers hard at work! Chris was putting on the hats and the arms. Cheryl was putting on the nose and the buttons. AND this all needed to be done before the chocolate hardened. They were purposely getting in each others way. We laughed and laughed! Then we ran out of white chocolate and had to use milk chocolate, so we have racially diverse snowmen. Cheryl tried giving the milk chocolate snowmen dreadlocks! lol!

On to Bunco night where there was lots of food, fun, and laughter. Kate's tree (posted above) was beautiful, and her entire house was decked out for Christmas! Look at the great appetizers shared by Stephanie, Tina, and Anne.

Kathy, Julie, Connie, Anne and Kate are digging in for dinner! Dinner was pot luck and everything was WONDERFUL! I was so stuffed!

Here's our Bunco Babes. First there's our Bunco queens, Stacy and our hostess Kate!

Lorraine, Tammy and Kathy, all with beautiful smiles!

Anne and Iris, looking very festive!

Another picture of Stephanie and Tina... Looking gorgeous, ladies!

It's me getting into the picture with Nora.

Here's a few photos after the gift exchange... First of all, here's Kate getting FIT!

And Tina, looking FABULOUS in her new wrap!

And here are Julie, Connie and Lorraine admiring Tina in her new wrap... or is that smile on Julie's face from the chair?

I don't know what time I stumbled back home from next door, but Chris said it was at least 11:30pm. A wild late night for me, hahaha!

Merry Christmas, Bunco Babes!

Jena's new bed!

It's been over a week since I've shared any Jena pictures. I think it's time for an overload of Jena cute-ness!

Jena is such a cuddler... she LOVES to sit/sleep in our laps! I don't know how much longer that's going to last. She is getting to be a BIG DOG!



When we were at Costco, we found a dog bed with a fluffy fuzzy pillow. It is perfect for our cuttle-bug Jena. As you can see, she didn't have to wait until Christmas! She LOVES her new bed!

Creative Share!

Okay... again not my share, but Chris's... Is it bad that my son has more crafty shares than I do?

First share is this darling snowflake pendant. Oh, if I didn't mention it before, the kids design their own jewelry. No patterns are given out in this class!

Chris didn't like how this came out, and he said that he lost points on it because the design was so simple. I said that I LOVE it, so he gave it to me! Won't this go great with my Christmas outfit?

Next share is an AMAZING surfer-themed cuff! He cut out five shapes from three different types of metals and riveted them all together into a SUPER COOL bracelet. He got 45 out of 40 points on this project. The teacher said that it's the BEST project she's seen all year. She took a photo of it to use as an example for next year's class.

It's kind of hard to get a picture of since it's curved, but the front is the word "surf." There are two scroll design elements on each side of the word. Then layered on top of one side is a plumeria flower.

And layered on the other side is a sea turtle.

Cheryl said that she wants one, and placed her order, lol! Too bad, Cheryl, this is a one of a kind "original"!!!

Chris is also turning out some great art work in his drawing class. I wish he'd bring some of his pictues home so I can see them, but I guess the teacher displays the students' work on the walls. I'm going to have to wait to the end of the semester to see what he's been doing.

12 more days until Christmas! Can you believe the days are flying by so quickly?
Christmas will be here before we know it!

Dana Point Turkey Trot 5K

There's nothing like a quick little race on Thanksgiving morning with 2500 of your closest friends, ugh! BTW, say "Hi" to Flat Stanley (this was taken before his "unfortunate incident" which I will tell you about later).

Our plan was simple, Chris was going to pace me to an under 25 minute finish. But, he said that he didn't factor in all the people... granted that 2500 isn't that big of a race, but it was a group start (not staggered) and some of the roads were pretty narrow. It was hard to get by when the person in front of us suddenly slows down to a walk... there was also dodging strollers and repeated groups of Santa with eight reindeer (sometimes nine).

Well, we tried... but, I ended up finishing in 25:26. Chris sprinted ahead on the last stretch so that he could watch me and get my time right when I crossed the line.

My Time:
Women: 86 out of 1246
F 40-99: 11 out of 243
Age/Grade: 66.75% Place: 137
Finish: 25:26 Pace: 8:11
Tag Time: 25:26
Gun Time: 27:08

Chris's Time:
Men: 226 out of 1046
M 16-19: 39 out of 87
Age/Grade: 53.93% Place: 462
Finish: 25:03 Pace: 8:04
Tag Time: 25:03
Gun Time: 26:46

Bad Dog, Jena!

We went to a pet fair today (sorry Mary, I forgot to bring the camera AGAIN!) The advantage of being so darn CUTE is that everyone gives you free stuff! One booth gave Jena a free squeeky cat stuffed animal. As you can see, Jena is very hard on her toys... That cat lasted just over an hour in Jena's clutches.

Doesn't she look proud of herself? She really got that Cat! I gotta keep reminding myself that she's just a puppy...

It's not all her fault... I think Cheryl and Chris encourage her, lol!

She's such a goof-ball! At the moment, she's sitting next to me watching the Christmas tree... she looks like she's ready to pounce on it, if it makes a wrong move.

It will be interesting how the Christmas tree will fare against Jena overnight! We shall see... lol!

XC: The End of a Season...

It takes 2241 photos...

58 photo albums...

Each album with unique photos for each boy...

9 commemorative frames for the Seniors...

And one VARSITY LETTER!!!...

To make a GREAT XC season! So long XC!!!

Kitchen Update

We've made some more decisions! Dan over at CalBath in Newport Beach has been GREAT!

We are definitely going with these Westboro cabinets by Kraft Maid:

In maple with honey spice finish, and buttermilk quartz counter:

We picked this Deerfield sink from Kohler. The garbage disposal will be moved to the left:

Jim picked this Arbor faucet by Moen:

Plus we've decided on bar pulls from the Top Knobs, Hopewell Collection. They come in sizes from 3" to 30":

Progress is being made! The floor decision comes next!

Layout Share!!!

Yes, don't fall over, but I did a layout! It's about how we got our sweet Jena-girl. I used some old Crate Paper. A girl's gotta have PINK!

Happy Birthday to ME!

I'm doing these posts one at a time so not to overwhelm you all with TONS of photos. BUT, along with Thanksgiving... November 25, was also my birthday! I just LOVE this frame the kids made for me! It's going on the wall in the dining room!

We celebrated on Sunday after Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's house. My mom planned a sushi lunch (my favorite), with macaroni salad (another favorite), and ham/cauliflower chowder (yet another one of my favorites)!!! Mom treats me so WELL... every birthday for 51 years! LOVE YOU, MOM!

Sunday was also, "learn to drive a stick shift day"! Papa took Cheryl and Chris out in the truck. This was actually Cheryl's second time out with Papa. She said that she did pretty well... she only stalled four times! There she goes...

Chris lost count of how many times he stalled, but he's sure it was more than four (actually a LOT more than four). Papa said that Chris needs a lot more practice, hehehe... You know who we are calling for that, Papa!

It has been a busy weekend with Thanksgiving, my birthday, the Turkey Trot Race, and I have some craft shares... stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a BIG family Thanksgiving. We are blessed with lots of family and extended family! There were so many people gathered at the beach house, that they made TWO turkeys. Don't you just love that view out the window? My friend, Mary, has snow on the ground, but here at the beach, it was such a BEAUTIFUL evening. Here are some shots of the beach out in front of the house... lots of beach and very few people...



Look! Two beautiful Juliette-s in purple! I think purple was the color of the day... I was wearing purple too!

They were out on the balcony enjoying the GORGEOUS sunset! Typically, we need clouds to get a reflection of sunset colors, but tonight is a special treat!

Here we all are giving thanks to God for all he has blessed us with. The food was plentiful and delicious!

One more photo to share... I just LOVE how this photo came out! Cheryl LOVES her Papa!

I hope you and your families had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So Many Reds...

When we got home from the kitchen store, here is what we found... Cheryl decided that she didn't like her room green anymore, and was painting her walls white.

Three white walls, and one..... RED.....
Who would have thought that there were so many different colors of red!

Cheryl settled on "Glowing Ember"; a nice rich red. It took two coats to cover the white, but here it is all done.

Cheryl has been psyching herself up for a red room for all summer, and even creating some new pictures to set off her new wall color. I think her pictures are AMAZING!

She's still looking for a new comforter and after that it will be fabric to make curtains or a valance. The room is going to look GREAT when she's done!