Schtuff

What a game last night!

First it was all...

Then it was like...

And then this happened...

And in the end, Wes Welker helped his old buddy win it.

Sorry Broncos fans, but I think the better team won.  Mwahahahahaha! 

(Are we still friends, Sandra?)

We had a busy weekend.  On Saturday, Phil was a Team Leader for the freshman retreat, and so I was on my own for the day and night.  But my awesome mother offered to take four of my kids to the Thanksgiving Parade in Plymouth, MA and so it was just me and this little bugger for a good chunk of the day:

 How cute is that minion ball?  A student made it for the retreat (their team's theme was Despicable Me) and my kids haven't stopped playing with it since! What a great birthday party idea for you craftier moms, and they also had these to eat:

Let me tell ya, as happy as I was to have 4/5 of my children doing something fun with their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins...I really missed them!  It was WAY harder watching Alexander without the others around.  Not because they help with him, but because they are built in entertainment for him.  He just followed me around all day, talking my ear off.  He even made me read books and play hide-and-seek and "helped" me cook.  The nerve.

To the moms who don't believe that having more kids is easier than having only one.  Have more, you'll see.

Oooooh, wanna drool over my new kicks?  After I waddled the Little Flowers 5k, I found out that  I won the Running Warehouse gift card generously donated by Susan, and ordered these sneakers!  Booyah!  Thanks Susan!

Flashy enough to draw the attention away from my ginormous belly.

We went to a birthday party for Alexander's friend on Sunday, and oh my gosh, talk about being ducks out of water.  The party was for a 4 year old girl, whose parents are from Portugal.  (Alexander and the girl have grown up together at the nanny's house).  

Xander with his nanny, "Ba" and her husband "Neenaw".
They love him like he's their grandson since they don't have any grandkids yet!

  They had about 50 people over to their house for the party, food out the wazoo, and a magician came and put on a fantastically funny show. 

Everyone cracked up when the magician asked Eamon to say "Knots be gone!" for one of the tricks, but Eamon misheard and said "Nuts be gone!"

All five of my kids wanted to help out the magician, and totally loved the spotlight.  I think I'm in trouble.

Maggie let go of the balloon and it hit him in the nose.  

   It was really great, but my introverted personality began to kick in, and after 2 hours, I started rounding up the troops.  After another 30 minutes of them trying to force feed us (it's a cultural thing?) we tried to leave and they kept coming up with excuses why we couldn't.  "But the kids are being so well-behaved!"  "But you just got here!"  "But they are about to cook the malasadas!"  "But we haven't sang Happy Birthday yet!"  

We finally squeaked out after the fresh malasadas were consumed and the song was sung both in English, then in Portuguese, then in English again for Xander who cried because he wanted to blow out the candle.  

I'll have to write a post someday about how we  do and don't do birthday parties at the Martin house, because as wonderfully generous and hospitable as the hosts of the party were, we all left feeling that it was a little too much.  And felt guilty that we perhaps appeared rude for leaving after only 3 hours. 

We also picked up Maggie's new-to-us bed and bureau to get ready for her birthday on December 1.  I tried to do some Christmas shopping online, but chickened out before actually hitting the purchase button.  I had wanted to get all the shopping done before Advent started (this Sunday!!!) but all of a sudden it seems to soon!

We only have 2 and a half days of work/school to get through this week, and then it's a nice long holiday weekend!  After this busy weekend, I need a break ;)  I'm sure you all feel the same way!