Timey Wimey

Halloween happened this week!  We aren't really Halloween people, and the boys don't have any idea what is going on, so I didn't think we'd do anything.  But then we got invited to our friends' annual Halloween party, which we've missed the last 2 years.  Family costume brainstorming followed and we decided to be as nerdy as possible.  John and the toddler both went as the 11th doctor.  He's my favorite, and also the easiest to dress as.  Baby had it easy and went as Alfie Owens (aka Stormageddon), and I was completely ridiculous and sewed myself a Tardis dress.  You know, since I have a lot of free time with 2 babies!  

The dress took more time and effort than I originally expected, but I think it turned out okay.  I thought we looked pretty good as a family costume, but then several people asked if the toddler was a Shriner.  Nope.  

So now we have about a year to come up with something clever for 2017!

New Mexican Christmas

Most of the time, when I say I'm going to "New Mexico," people just hear "Mexico."  Then they are kind of disappointed when I explain that I'm actually just going to the Southwestern United States, and not some amazing beach resort.  But New Mexico has been kind to me over the years, so it's all good.  I mean, the beach resort sounds nice, too...

Anyway, a quick Christmas recap!

Usually we end up wearing sombreros in Los Alamos

John and I flew into Albuquerque on the Saturday before Christmas.  His grandparents from Northern NM picked us up and took us back to Los Alamos.  We spent a few days there, mostly relaxing and eating at all of John's favorite restaurants.  I don't like Mexican food, so I mostly subsist on quesadillas and sopaipillas.  This is fine by me.  On Monday, the boys ventured into Santa Fe for some errands, and John's grandma took me shopping to buy exactly one million new outfits for my baby.  (Okay, maybe not that many, but I sure felt spoiled!).  That evening, we met up with John's aunt and uncle for dinner.  On Tuesday, John and I went to check out the science museum in Los Alamos.  I kind of think I'm a nerd sometimes, but when I end up at a science museum I am just bored.  I was more interested in the history of Los Alamos in respect to the nuclear bombs.  The museum was more interested in all the different science applications for nuclear research.

Christmas Day

On Wednesday, John and I drove all the way to the opposite end of the state to the other side of the family.  We had fun catching up with his aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. We ate plenty of food, played games, built gingerbread houses, opened presents.  And that was just the first day.  On Friday, we were all scrambling to get everything set up for the big 50th anniversary party on Saturday.  It all came together beautifully, and the party went well!  Then John and I had to leave early Sunday to fly home.  And that was a whole whirlwind of the week.

Almost the entire Smith side at the anniversary party - The camera obviously blurred me since I'm the newest Smith

As I always end up saying, I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, but we did have a great time with everyone!

Making Turkeys

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is making candy turkeys as decorations/dessert for the table.  My mom got this idea many years ago from someone, and we have been doing it ever since.  Here's what you need for each turkey:

1 Oreo or Peppermint Patty
1 Small Reese's peanut butter cup
3 candy corn pieces
1 chocolate chip
1 dollop of green frosting
1 pinch of pink frosting
1 pinch of melted chocolate chips
2 adorable nieces (optional)

First, we prepared the "glue" that holds all the pieces together: 

M mixing up the pink frosting

D mixing up the green frosting

melted chocolate chips

Then we start the assembly process.  It helps if you put the Reese's in the freezer for awhile before you start, as it makes the melted chocolate harden quicker.

You dip the tip of the candy corn into the chocolate, and then stick it on the back of the peanut butter cup.  These are the feathers. 

D is hard at work

finished product

The next step is attaching the turkey body to the base.  We use green frosting for this to look like grass. 

and then set the Reese's on top

Just a dollop of frosting...

The last step is putting on the face/wattle. We use a chocolate chip for the face, and pink frosting to look like a wattle

M is very focused

And here's the final turkey!  I mean, it's pretty accurate, right. 

Here's a whole flock of turkeys

For dinner, we put them in these cellophane bags and added orange ribbon for a little extra fanciness. 

These are the perfect little treat to have right after dinner, when you are too stuffed to even think about serving the real desserts.  Then a couple hours later, everyone is ready for pie! 

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

 Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  I did not intend to neglect the blog all week, but John and I were out in Indy visiting the fam, and I was too busy to blog.  Some of my activities were:

"Helping" Dad carve the turkey

Climbing trees with D

Getting my hair done by E

If you follow me on Instagram, you have a sneak peak of some of the crazy stuff we did, which I will be posting about in the next few days.  It was such a fun week and I miss them already!

What did you all do for Thanksgiving?  I seriously need to catch up on my Google Reader!

Independence Day Wrap-Up

Well, if you read this post yesterday,  you might be wondering how the shirts turned out.  You don't need to wonder any longer, because here's the final product: 

We're almost TOO patriotic, if that's even possible

I also have to show you the inside of the cake I made, because I was pretty excited about the red white and blue interior!   It was also pretty delicious, if I may say so myself. 

After hanging out with friends on Tuesday evening, we had a fun-filled day planned with John's family.  We ate entirely too much food, went to see "Brave", and shot off fireworks.  It was a pretty successful 4th of July.  We also got a pretty epic fireworks show from the people who live across the street from them.  I don't even want to know how much money they spent on their fireworks!   

Sparkler time!

Our stash of fireworks

Money CAN buy happiness - for 50cents each! 

The moon was so pretty!

Magenta Frost was our grand finale

We also were in suspense all day because some of our best friends were at the hospital trying to welcome their first baby into the world.  I was checking my phone every few minutes to see if there were any updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Email.  We were fairly sure it would be a 4th of July baby, but this little girl had other plans and apparently didn't want to share her birthday with America, so she made her appearance early on the 5th.  I'm so, so, SO EXCITED for our friends, who are going to be totally awesome parents!   

Did you have a happy 4th?  Do anything exciting?

Fourth of July and a DIY

Happy Fourth of July!  I hope you are all having fun with friends and family!  Don't do anything foolish with fireworks, ok??

So, here's a fun patriotic DIY project, that you could modify for whatever design you wanted on a t-shirt.  I have to give all the credit to Brooke for finding this idea on Pinterest.  We got together on Sunday afternoon to make this happen. 

Supplies:

• t-shirt
• Cardstock - for cutting out the stars
• Painters tape
• spray paint (red and blue for this one)
• scissors
• some kind of straight edge (like a yardstick)

Step 1: 
tape your shirt in whatever pattern you are going for.  We just stuck the stars to the upper right corner and then did the stripes.  Make sure the tape is really sticking well, to avoid messy lines. 

Step 2:  Somehow, you need to protect the sections that are different colors for when you spray paint.  I taped a box over the stars part, and then used notebook paper to protect the stripes part when I sprayed the stars.  

Step 3:  Spray Paint the shirt.

Step 3:  Once the paint has dried, you can either leave your t-shirt as is, or you can turn it into a cute tank top.  We used this tutorial, and I didn't take pictures of every step.  Here's the part where I had just cut off the sleeves and the crew-neck.    

And here's the final result!  

  

I think it's pretty fun and cute!  Perfect for hanging out with friends and shooting off fireworks.  I even made a 4th of July cake for our party!   My artistic skills rival that of any 5 year old!  If you are troubled by the wiggly stripes, just pretend this flag is waving in the wind.  And please don't count the stars or stripes.