Funny Video

You have to click on the link below and pop over to my hubby's page and watch the video he posted from the service on Sunday. It's hilarious!

http://www.frankchiapperino.com/2008/11/2008-election.html

Baking with Auntie Krisi

We have been so busy lately, I haven't had time to put any pictures on flickr or blog our happenings. As you can see, I'm tryin' to catch up!

Last week, we were making Halloween cookies for Michael's party at school. Auntie Krisi was out visiting that day and wanted to let Michael help us out. He had a blast! He is a very detail oriented child and caught on very quickly to the process of forming the dough into a ball, rolling it out, cutting out the shapes and then putting them onto the cookies sheet. He couldn't wait to bring the cookies to school.

Fall Festival

A few weeks ago, Frank was in Chicago for a few days on business. Whenever he is gone, I try to keep the boys busy. It just so happened that there was a Fall Festival at the Sunnybrook Country Club while he was gone, so I decided to take the boys. The grounds were decorated beautifully with flowers, pumpkins and other fall decorations.

Inside there were tons of vendors selling beautiful homemade crafts and many sweet treats. Outside they were giving wagon rides. They also had fire trucks and an ambulance that you could go inside. AJ enjoyed being out and about with all the activity. I thought that Michael would love the firetruck, but when we went up to it for a closer look, he got really nervous. I think he was intimidated by its size. His favorite thing of the day was the ambulance. He surprised us all by walking right up the steps and into the back of it. He was all smiles while checking out all the equipment and showing me where 'sick people sleep'. The EMT made his day by giving him a special color book and crayons. It was so cute. He thanked him and then asked for another for AJ!

Apple Picking

Last weekend we went to Highland Orchard to do some apple picking. This has been a tradition of ours since we moved out here almost ten years ago. We always go to the same location - Highland Orchard. It's a great place with lots of stuff to do - especially for the kids. They have a cute little playground, some goats (which we ALWAYS have to feed), a wonderful little store (with a great bakery!) and a deli. They drive you out to whatever orchard you want, based on the type of fruits you want to pick. We usually have some of our friends go with us. This year, our friends John and Cyndy (along with their daughter Ashleigh) and Mandy joined us.

The kids had so much fun feeding the goats. We then let them play on the playground for a few minutes before heading out to the orchards. The kids were such big helpers and had a blast! They all LOVED the apples - even AJ (who had never tried biting into a whole apple before). It was an absolutely perfect day to be outside. This is my favorite time of the year! The weather was gorgeous and the leaves were just starting to change color, making the valley a breathtaking sight.

We packed our apples up and headed out to catch a ride back to the store so we could get a few specialty items. Their apple cider donuts were unbelievable! I wish I had gotten more - one was not nearly enough. After we finished shopping, we stopped at Ludwig's Corner to buy some mums, hay, and pumpkins to decorate the entrance of our houses. Last, we headed to Isaac's for some lunch.

By the time we got home, the boys were exhausted. I put them to bed and started working on the apples (with my handy dandy apple/peeler/corer). It took a few hours, but I got them all peeled, cored and cut up. I made a pan of apple crisp and froze the rest. It's so nice to be able to make fresh apple desserts during the wintertime. It was such a fun day!

Mission Complete!

I had one goal for the day....to find Michael a Halloween costume. And we succeeded! We had such a fun day. It actually started last night. Frank was in NY for a retreat and was scheduled to come home today, but surprised us by coming home last night! I was so happy to see him! He went to work a little late this morning so that he could spend some time with us. The boys really enjoyed that! After he left, we got ready to go and headed out to shop.

Yesterday, the baby and I shopped while Michael was in preschool. We went to Kohl's, Children's Place, Gymboree, Boscov's, The Halloween Store, Sears - basically everywhere we could think of in Coventry Mall. We had a lot of fun, even taking a break to play with the toys outside of the toy store and stopping for lunch before heading back to pick up Michael. But, we were totally unsuccessful in our main purpose for the outing - a Halloween costume for Michael. When we went to pick up Michael, I ran into our friend Amy and asked if she had any suggestions. She recommended Target. So, that was our first stop for today.

I was so surprised when we got to the Halloween section. They had a TON of costumes. Every other store had a few picked over leftovers or nothing at all. I was so excited to find such an assortment - especially his size! We went up and down the aisle shopping for just the right costume. Michael kept shaking his head or telling me "No mama!" every time I held up a costume until the very end when I held up the SPIDERMAN costume! He hesitated a bit (and I figured that this may be my last opportunity to save myself from a bunch of grief), so I instantly showed him how Spiderman shoots a web from his hands. He watched me demonstrate for a few minutes (Ya - at this point I didn't even care if anyone was watching me!!) and shook his head confirming to me that this was THE costume! I could have done a special dance right there in the Halloween aisle at that moment! I had succeeded in finding my 3 year old a costume that he actually wanted! This was really important to me considering that if he helped choose the costume, I was hoping that it might mean that he might cooperate when we try to get him into the costume!

I was beside myself with excitement and contentment for the remainder of our shopping experience! I guess that's maybe why we ended up with a few extra items (i.e. candycorn, Halloween Reese's Pieces, a cookie sheet with Halloween shapes, etc.)

Once we checked out, I figured that since it was lunchtime, we might as well continue our fun. So, we headed over to the eating area and got Michael a healthy lunch of hot dog and cherry icy. Oh, I guess I should mention the healthy part - a mini drinkable yogurt! :-) AJ enjoyed a large jar of bananas and some graham crackers. He had been snacking a bit earlier.

I couldn't believe how lucky I was to find exactly what we were looking for on our second trip out. Oh, in case you are all wondering...this was all about Michael because I had already found the perfect costume for AJ - NEMO! It's the absolute cutest thing I have ever seen. It's made by Disney and is gonna be hilarious when it's on. I can't wait to get their pics taken. I will definitely post them so you can see how cute the boys are in their costumes!

The boys and I had such a great day that we decided to make daddy's day extra special too. We're making him a special roast with veggies and potatoes along with homemade Italian bread (which he absolutely LOVES!)