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!  

 With the color in - waiting to rinse (which was really messy....wish I had a stylist sink from the salon!)

Ta da!  See ya grey hairs!

So, this post had a ton of self taken cell phone pictures, and for that, I'm sorry. 

Happy Fall / almost Thanksgiving / pre-Black Friday deals week!!

Halloween and other happenings!

Excuse me, how is it mid-November already?!  A few items of note from our past few weeks and what is planned ahead:

I made the annual apple pie a LONG while ago now, but since it was so delicious I thought I'd save a spot for it here on the blog.  It may be my favorite dessert for fall.

Jay and I went to the MN Gopher vs. Nebraska football game!  It was super fun - probably the most fun I've had at a sporting event!  And now Jerrysota is no more.  Sad!  I hope the tradition he was building will continue.  

Jay was out of town the entire week following the game for a work trip, so it was just Ella and I.  Ella got to spend the weekend with Grandma Jolyn and Grandpa Paul though!  She had a good time with cousin Harrison at Sever's Corn Maze!

 She did get sick though on Sunday night - we all decided it was a case of homesickness!  Poor thing!
She was just missing us I guess!

We started the giant job of raking leaves!  But we took time to play in the big piles too!  

We painted our pumpkins too!  

This year, my pumpkin is Nemo ala Finding Nemo.  Isn't he cute?!

Ella wanted to paint her pumpkin to be a Minion!!

And Jay decided his was going to be a donut.  So...there you go!

One of those weekends in October was Confirmation Sunday and we celebrated with our nephew Kylen.  Ms. Ella got all fancied up and insisted on wearing multiple necklaces throughout the day!

She also insisted on bringing her puppy purse named Rose along for the day!

We dressed up quite a bit in October!  Tuesday night at dance, the girls wore costumes. 

Her 2 besties Julia and Emily and Ms. Ella!

There was a Harvest Party for the first graders at Meadowview!  It was a short and sweet party in the morning - a bit odd, but it worked out okay.  Ella wore her real Halloween costume - Anna (from Frozen). She decided that since she was Elsa last year it would only be fair to be Anna this year.  Pretty sweet logic for a 6 year old.  She is a kind hearted girl that's for sure!  I was working one of the event booths, so I didn't get time to take many pictures, but I did snap this one with Ella and Julia just as the kids were heading back to class.

Ella was really excited for the Trick-Or-Treating and all the fun of seeing the kids and costumes!  

A few pictures from our Happy Halloween!!

 There was a booth set up at the Middle School for Friday night's trick-or-treating event and 

Anna and Elsa were there - Ella was so excited.  :)

 

 

 I am pretty sure she had a fun time!!

Weekending in early October....

Well, I haven't been able to keep up with the blog posts like I had hoped to do.  Some updates of our October 2015 so far....

Ella participated in a dance clinic with the Farmington High School Fall Dance Team on Saturday the 3rd.  She had such a good time dancing the morning away with her two BFFs Julia and Emily!  And, the dance was choreographed to Shake It Off by Taylor Swift - Ella's favorite tune!  They performed the dance for parents after the session was over, and then they got to perform at last Friday night's high school football game!!  It was VERY exciting.  :)

The three girls are in the front doing a pig-tail pose (apparently this is cool to 6 year olds!) 

 After the dance clinic, we headed to lunch - can you tell she was still so pumped from her fun morning?!

Ella and her BFF Julia.

 They thought it was VERY cool to be hanging out at the high school.  :)

We also made a trip to the apple orchard that afternoon!
Ella took a ride on a mini-wagon ride.  HA!  We didn't end up buying any apples though.
They were out of the kind I was hoping to get.  Boo.

We took a fall walk on our neighborhood trail system which was a good time.  Ella was thugging it in her pink heart glasses and hoodie!  Love her!

This past Friday the girls danced at the high school football game.  It turned out to be a good night weather wise, so it was fun to be out!  The dancers did great and the girls had a BLAST!

I can't believe it's almost mid-October already!  Ella had conferences last week and she is doing great in her first grade class so far this year!  They have placed her in a Gifted Excelled Learner program that meets each Tuesday in the 5th grade pod.  I guess she tested well for reading and math so they wanted to include more challenge for her (and other first graders that are joining her).  Good for her! We're excited for her!  She loves school and thinks homework is super fun.  Let's hope that continues!! 

It's MEA this week, so we've lined up a few doctor and dentist appointments to fill the time, but hoping to enjoy some time outside (maybe?!) and get some fall baking done!  Happy Fall!

Our Star of The Week

Ella was the Star of the Week this week for her class!

She had to talk about herself to her class and she did a great job!  The above poster I had to pull together last Friday and it was a total crazy day trying to get pictures printed!!  I wanted to highlight her answers to a few questions:

When I grow up I want to be:  a doctor
My favorite thing to do is:  Play
If I had one wish, I would wish for:  a baby sister (seriously....she continues to talk about this!!)

I met her at school on Friday for lunch and she was sporting this sweet Star Student Hat!!

And it was homecoming, so she was wearing her Tiger Orange and Black!!

Love it!  She was so pumped to be Star of The Week!

Turkey Day 2015

We had another great time in Worthington this past weekend for King Turkey Day 2015!  Some pictures to recap our time....

Waiting to watch the Turkey Race (Paycheck of Worthington vs. Ruby Begonia of Cuero, TX)

 Entertainment from fake Paycheck...

And here comes real Paycheck - BIG WINNER THIS YEAR!!

Then it was time for the Grand Parade - Chase, Lexi, Carter & Ella had a blast getting loads of candy that none of them will probably even eat!

 Go Trojans!

Giant Turkey took part in the parade this year - HUGE!