Gobble, Gobble

With the Thanksgiving Holiday approaching, Braedan's school put together a program for all the classes to take part in and given that his school career has just begun, this was one of the most entertaining moments but I know there will be plenty more to come. I was afraid he would get stage freight but he did so well, and he even tried to showcase some of his dance moves while up there. I didn't get too many good pictures while he was up on stage since I was seated a little far from it, but I did manage to catch up with stage star when it was all over.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parents Gone Wild

Last month the hubby and I enjoyed a rare opportunity to go away for a weekend, just the two of us, without our favorite third wheel tagging along. The chance to celebrate a friend's wedding in New Orleans lured us away from our parental duties for those few days. My friend Jessica and her husband Mark will forever be remembered as the ones who got us to go away on our first real vacation without Braedan. Having the opportunity to spend time with friends, whether they are near or far, is something I greatly cherish nowadays given that time and distance may prevent it from happening as often as I'd like. And I can't imagine another city to have done it in than New Orleans.

And I couldn't help but laugh at ourselves during that weekend, because someone could capitalize on situations like these...follow parents with cameras while they go away without their kids and create a "Parents Gone Wild" franchise. I say this because while the hubby and I were there we did things we haven't done in ages, like stay up until 3am, drink before 2pm and, a biggie for me, wear shoes that weren't flip flops, ballet flats, or tennis shoes for an extended period of time. As you can imgaine, we had the best time and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to spend some alone time with the hubby and catch up with old friends.

Our first night in New Orleans

The hubby listening to a jazz band on the steps of the courthouse on the following day.

Taking in more of the sites that same day

And, last but not least, the few things I miss about living in Chicago.

Halloween Fun

I know that Halloween has come and gone, but I wanted to share and show all the fun we had that day and the few days leading up to it. In my previous post I talked about how this time of year is suddenly a busy time for us and the weekend's events certainly didn't let us down. The fun started with a visit to our first family Halloween party, and the best part for me, besides seeing Braedan thoroughly enjoy himself, was getting the hubby to do something he's never done before, which is dress in costume.

The next evening we attended a pumpkin carving party, another first for us, and the hubby did a great job with our pumpkin...with a little bit of help from Braedan, of course. But Braedan made sure to grab a bite to eat before he went hard to work at carving. He is dining with his buddy Carter below.

Helping daddy clean the pumpkin.

The finished product

And for the piece de resistance, Halloween night itself lived up to all our expectations. We spent the evening with our friends, the Jensen family, starting with dinner and then heading out for trick-or-treating. While I watched Braedan that night I laughed thinking about what a difference a year can make. Last year, he didn't want to wear the cowboy hat that went with his costume, he wasn't talking a whole lot and half the time he rode in a little push car and had more fun pretending to drive rather than go up to a house to get the coveted candy.

This time around he really got the hang of trick-or-treating and even practiced his good manners while doing so by responding with a "Thank you, lady" after receiving some candy during one of our stops. Who knew a pirate could be so polite.