My Birthday Weekend Post

(A peek at some lingering foliage in Nana and Papa's yard.)

So, last weekend was a blast! A little crazy, but fun nonetheless.

We did the whole trick or treat thing on Halloween (Friday) night, which you can experience second-hand through the post below... Down there... Keep scrolling. See it?

Saturday we hung around the house and I got the necessary cleaning done. Okay, most of the necessary cleaning. The damned kitchen floor is still filthy, but I am pretty much on strike when it comes to that. At least until I start feeling grit beneath my toes when I walk out there. Then I'll be sufficiently disgusted to yank out the ol' mop and bucket to do the maid good housewife thing. Ilyana spent most of the day:

Sitting in front of our computer watching "doo doo doo doo doo Dora!" in her pj's...



Attacking me with booger-nose kisses/ leftover breakfast face....



And stuffing her face with tomatoes at lunchtime. :D



Later that day, we headed down to Nashua to pick up my new cell phone (woooo!!) and eat a nice pot roast meal that my Stepdad David made for me. My brother Mitch came over for dinner, and after we ate and he went home, we all sat down and watched "The Happening" since my parents hadn't seen it yet. Most of the pictures I took that night didn't come out for some reason, so here's what I got.


Uncle Mitch tries to tempt Ilyana with the Halloween spider. It didn't work.



In fact, she was not too happy about it at all.




But she let her friend, the rat, try and scare the spider away.



I told you it wasn't much for pics. I must have been too busy enjoying myself and checking out my new phone to take that many photos. Don't worry, I made up for it the next day- when we went to visit Will's side of the family...

My MIL Patti made a great ham dinner for us! (Thanks again Mom :D) Complete with rolls, potatoes, fried carrots, raisin sauce and homemade pumpkin cheesecake... mmm.... I didn't get a picture of the ham (which is funny, since it was my favorite part... guess we were too busy chowing down on it to get any photos.) but here is a small idea of what the meal was like:


Momma Patti taking the warm rolls out of the oven. She threatened my life and/or the life of my camera if she was to make an appearance on my blog. So if I suddenly disappear, you all will know where to look first for my body... :P




Couldn't wait till they were off the stove to take a pic!




Homemade Pumpkin Cheesecake. Yummmm yummm... :D



We spent the rest of the day catching up (it had been way too long since we'd seen them!), visiting and playing with the kiddos- Ilyana and Kaden enjoy each other's company so much, it is just too adorable!


Kade shows Illy how to use the blocks




So she goes and grabs some for herself!




He stacks the blocks...




And she stacks the blocks!




They both love technology, too. Kaden spent much of the day trying to snap shots of me with Papa Dave's camera while I was trying to snap shots of him.


Doesn't he look like a little angel?



When he didn't have the camera in tow, he had to at least drag along his fake pink cell phone.




Bendy Ruggles wanted in on some phone action, too. But only because it's fake. If someone were to actually be trying to talk to her on the phone, she would most likely run away and refuse to say hi. Cuz that's how she rolls.



Illy was pretty fascinated by the swirling colored lights in this wand. And being able to press the "buttin" was a super bonus.




She also really enjoyed climbing up and down the stairs (with Dada's supervision, of course!)




Nana and Papa: OMG, Jade, Will! Look, over there! It's.....



A (really cute little) POWER RANGER!



All that playing and running around really wiped Bendy Ruggle out. So what's a girl to do?

Grab a monkey, make a face...


And tuck yourself in with big pouffy pillows on the couch!




I was so grateful to get to spend the whole weekend with so many people I love... My mom and stepdad, brother, mother and stepfather in law, my nephew, and- as always-



My wonderful hubby...


And my beautiful, beautiful Bendy Ruggles. <3