Jay, Sara & Ella: And another birthday is in the books!

November 15. It's 40 days until Christmas, but who's counting right?! The weather in MN has been so great this fall that it just doesn't seem like it should be time for Thanksgiving and holiday shopping! We have been busy with all kinds of random things here at the Abbas household. I wish I would be keeping better track of things and updating this blog more often! We tore down all the Halloween decorations on November 1 - Ella was antsy in her pantsy to do that! Then, we threw up a few turkey-related items, including a new project Ella worked on. Can you read her sign below? By the way, this turkey plus sign has been posted on her bedroom door, where she insisted it should be (hilarious). The sign reads "Gobble, gobble, eat more ham!" HA!

Last weekend while in Target getting some groceries, the big guy himself SANTA (I know him!) showed up. He must have run out of some everyday essentials...You should have seen the kids (and the checker outers) they were going wild! Photo ops galore!

My birthday was on Friday. No big deal. Just feeling old. :) I wanted to do something for the day though, as opposed to the typical Friday of cleaning, running errands, keeping our household in order, etc. So, I called and made a hair appointment on a whim at a salon I've never been to before and got all my hair chopped off. Why not, right? Before and after below....

Before:

And p.s. cellphone makers. I need instructions on how to properly take a selfie. Seriously....I took a million before I got a decent one. So, you get the idea - the hair was out of control!

After:

Better. Much better. Go Big or Go Home. No "trims" for this chic.

(but Kaila thought the cut might have been uneven from this shot

so I had to take another without the scarf....)

Again...the selfie is not a good idea for me. :)

But I do like the cut. Finally I might have found someone in my area to cut my hair! FINALLY!

So, feeling better about my day because of the new haircut, I decided to continue this Go Big or Go Home theme and whip up a birthday cake for myself. Did a little searching on Pinterest and found something amazing. My version wasn't so over the top as the blogger's recipe though....

But this cake is fantastic. It's a perfect special occasion dessert. I am no whiz at taking a picture of food. Everyone in my family loves it, which is a good thing because I would have been bummed if it sucked.

No fun to have sucky dessert on your birthday!!

It's a chocolate cake with Reese's peanut butter cups in the cake and then a peanut butter frosting with additional peanut butter cups on top! YUM!

TRY IT!

Saturday was the annual shopping extravaganza with my mom and aunt. We stayed in Shakopee again this year, but we skipped the craft show and headed to the Twin Cities Outlets in Eagan. It was so fun!! The weather was perfect and we found tons of deals. Saturday night, that Go Big or Go Home theme creeped back into my life. See, I had the haircut taken care of, but my grey hairs were even more pronounced now! A few weeks ago, I ordered a hair color via ESalon.

The color showed up custom made just for me. Just like they promised.

So, Saturday night, my aunt/stylist Vicki colored my hair in the Country Inn & Suites bathroom! HA! I mean, if it's going to go wrong, it is going to go wrong wherever I am, right? It turned out great though and I'm happy to report my hair did not turn a weird shade of green!