So Thankful!

Thanksgiving was at our house this year!  We typically trek to Oklahoma to visit Nick's family during Thanksgiving, but this year, we invited them out to our house.  

Angel Tree:

Our visit started out with a little start to the Christmas season!  The Junior Woman's Club that I am a member of supports an Angel Tree every year in downtown.  The tree was decorated the night Nick's parents arrived.  So, we headed there with the boys and met Nick downtown for dinner.

The boys put on ornaments along with all of the other children there.

They each picked an ornament with the information of a child to donate to for Christmas.  I don't know that they fully understood what was happening, but it's a good start for when they do.

The grass outside the community center is like a magnet for chase!  They started chasing each other and it translated to chasing Pawpaw!

We drove down to the pier for dinner, where we met Nick.

More chasing

Chase with Pawpaw!

Watch out, Matt!

Time for Dinner!

Pines Park:

The next day, we drove to Dana Point and took everyone to the playground!

Love my boys!

More chasing!

Somehow we managed to escape pictures of our Thanksgiving meal.  It was delicious, but I must give most of the credit to my mother-in-law!  She did some great work as usual!  While everyone took their Thanksgiving naps, the boys and I made some homemade whipped cream for pumpkin pie!

I think they liked it!

Birthday weekend!

We were getting close to Matt's birthday and Thanksgiving and we invited Grandma to join us for some of the festivities before Nana & Pawpaw arrived for Thanksgiving.  

Grandma read them bedtime stories during her visit and was able to stay for the party too!

Matt wanted his party somewhere fun, full of lots of things to do.  I think we found it!  We had it at Pump It Up and Matt was so excited!  

Here are the boys watching the safety video.  Can you tell, Nick was really into it?

Continuing the Phineas & Ferb theme from Halloween, we got Matt a Perry the Platypus shirt for the occasion.

Having fun yet?

Looks like little brother was having some fun too!

Who's driving that car?  It's our sweet neighbor Parker!

I had to take a break from the party and make sure things were going okay with the cake and snacks!  I also had to put the finishing touches on Matt's cake.  

Matt and I brainstormed about the tree for a while, and I think it turned out much like we planned!  Nothing like a Milky Way with a cupcake on top, decorated to make a tree!  He wanted a fence too, but since I am not a professional baker, and we already went a bit beyond my capabilities, I had to stop him there.

Back to the party room!  Nick took a few turns on the big slide!

The gang took a group picture before they headed in for snacks and cake.

The silly pic!

Matt wanted so badly to play something like pin the tail on the donkey, so he and I brainstormed and got creative again.  I helped him draw the pic for the game and he painted it.

Little did we know, he loves the royal treatment!  He didn't leave the chair until the party was over.

Party favors, oh my!

Yes, Mommy went a bit overboard and not only made the cake, but because of the them, insisted there be theme related cookies as favors.  Well, there aren't Phineas & Ferb cookie cutters, so what did the over the top mommy do?  I made them!  

Everything turned out great in the end, but I think this was the beginning of my putting an end to the big birthday celebrations!  I need someone to reign me in and get me under control before the birthday season hits the Trevino house again.  Please hold me to my word!  I don't mind adding cute things, thematic details, or making a cake... I just need it to be a bit lower key so I can keep my sanity!  ;)

Pretend City

The boys love Pretend City, and one day we swung in there to play!

They got really into the construction this visit.

Making sure the walls were sturdy!

Could this be teamwork?

Putting in the pipes for the bathroom on the other side.

I talked the boys into going in the gym area for a group activity.  The were really resistant and it seemed to take forever for their turn, but they hung in there and had some fun!

Driving a car (and making an unusually loud squeaking sound on the steering wheel!)

Playing with the water and discovering currents is fun!

More construction!

Ending Soccer Season

Just to reiterate, Matt loved soccer!  He played all the time.  Every time he could, he'd go out front and kick the ball around.  He got in the mix a bit more as the season went on and thankfully that meant I saw less of myself in him.  I definitely hung back and wasn't aggressive in sports, so it was good to see him grow during the season.

There are just a few more pics of his last games:

He loved having control of the ball!

Taking the ball down the field

A goalie's job is never done.

Pep talk for the team!

Again with the pictures, Mommy?

Take that ball, Matt!

Don't know who's giving directions to who in this one!

The end of season party directly followed Matt helping me pick up presents and deliver them for our Juniors Angel Tree project.  So, he kept his Santa hat on for the party!  It was a crazy evening, along with half the families in the city it seemed.  We apparently picked the busiest night at the pizza place!

Here are the boys lined up to receive their trophies.

The boys with their trophies!