Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Gobble Gobble! 
Thanksgiving 2014 was a wonderful day with great friends and delicious food

My sous chefs peeling potatoes. They were a big help all day long! :) 

Emma meets 2 week-old Fiona :)

Chris carving our big bird, Bob

Emma and Arianna at their "kids table"

Oscar is ready to FEAST!

Cheese!

Post dinner dance party

Ron and Chris

 Oscar, Laura, and Matt

 Emma's ready to baby sit :)

 Silly boys

 We thought there might be 2 new babies at our feast, but Baby Boy Neal is still happy in his mom's tummy.

 Kasparek family picture 

Camden went for the stoic look

 The Kolls and Grandpa John

 The Neals and Grandma Ginger

 Time to kick back and relax

Apparently Ron's leg is a comfy pillow for Camden

 Friendsgiving tradition

The One With the Football

 Oh Camden Lee

 Arianna hanging out with Chris

Olive Picking

We celebrated Veteran's Day with an adventure to the mountains near Naples. The Oropallo family invited a group of us from school to see what goes into making their delicious olive oil.

Here's Camden hiking up into the olive grove

Beautiful olives ready to harvest

 

Emma and Kelli used teamwork for the electric machine that knocks the olives out of the tree

The traditional way to harvest

 Antonia, Maria (our outstanding hostess), and Kelli

 Adorable olive pickers

 Camden loved climbing in the trees

 Cheesy kids 

 Next stop: the oil making factory

Here are the olives moving up the conveyor belt before they separate out the leaves and get washed

 These huge marble wheels smashed the olives 

 YUMMY!!!

 Kelli, Me, and Mel at the wine tasting portion of the day

 Handsome guys

 After lunch we visited another Oropallo olive grove and saw this special 300 year old tree.  

Emma needed to test out her climbing skills

 Family photo time

 Goofy guy hanging from the tree

 love these ladies!

 Wonderful scenery as we headed back home

Kicking off November

It was a beautiful morning to kick off November watching soccer at Carney Park.  

Camden hustled all over the field again today

 Nice corner kick

Too speedy for my camera

The Loudest and Proudest came out today.  The kids loved having Zane, Sherri, and Mel there cheering for them.
Camden's team couldn't decided between the "tigers" and "inferno" so they combined the two for their name: tigferno

 Emma had a great game too!  She played tough defense and offense

 Post game picture with Camden, Zane, and Emma

Happy Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 was a busy one!  It was a no school day for the kids so they started celebrating at SAC. Here is Emma and her pal, Maddie.

 My end of the quarter teacher work day kicked off with a new teacher breakfast.

 Spooktacular time!  Nerd Minnie Mouse and Wolf Ninja are ready to get some candy

 We found a cute little lion, Oscar

Iowa Pride with Chris and Laura

Adorable skeletons, Amanda & Ron

 Arianna, Emma, and Camden

 Trick or Treating

Going through the maze

 My loves

Not only could you fill up on candy at Spooktacular, but base housing was also hosting trick or treating.  We helped Jenna and Steve pass out goodies at their apartment.

Somebody is BEAT!