It's A Beautiful Day!

The much anticipated R-A-I-N finally arrived in So Cali the night before Thanksgiving.

 Which was fine. 

We needed it.

BUT, we were planning to make the most of the summer weather we have enjoyed/endured clear thru November, by having our Thanksgiving feast at the beach. 

Amazingly, after pouring on Wednesday, there was not a cloud in the sky on Thursday morning in Laguna Beach.

We hauled our feast down to the picnic tables

at the end of my parent's street, 

and smothered our turkey with hot gravy from a thermos.  

The sun was warm & the air was clean.

Grandma didn't cut the seagulls ANY slack as they tried to

nonchalantly inch their way closer to our serving table.

When she shakes her finger, EVERYONE listens.

Even the animal kingdom.

The little boys were done eating in 4 minutes flat, 

and moved on to more important things,

 like stick jousting 

& out-of-control frisbee throwing,

while we old(er) folks enjoyed our meal

(and Jake scored some serious clean-up under the kids table).

We moved down onto the sand when we were sufficiently stuffed. 

The kids had fun playing and taking pictures of each other.

Jed is fearless . . .

And Henry will NOT be outdone!

("Did you get my picture, Auntie Sue??")

Porter did what he does best -- keep busy & avoid the camera.

Abbie got a new toy last weekend.

A much awaited late birthday/early Christmas present.

The coveted cell phone.

To her credit, she wasn't texting when I took this photo, but looking at all the pictures she had been taking with it of her cousins & the beach.

(In fact, she is to be credited with many of the pix in this post, as is Kenzie.)

Abbie & Jack!

This is a pretty good representation of Abbie these days!

Abbie & her sweet side-kick, Harriet

(who, btw, has an awesome sense of humor!)

And, Kenzie even wanted a pic with her old mom.

Did I mention what a beautiful day it was?

To be surrounded by some of my  most precious blessings

made it a wonderful day.

The only thing that could have made it better -- 

the addition of a few more of my peeps

(namely, Carrie, Matt, Aubrye, Bryson, Zach & Taylor).

Thanks for making it a beautiful day.

CRAZY Day with Porter

It was C-R-A-Z-Y D-A-Y at de Portola & Porter engineered his own crazy look.  Note the shoe laces tied around his ankles - quite creative, I thought!  

And, lest you miss the teeny tiny 'pony tail' on top, I've included a close up!

Don't judge a brownie by its... frosting? aka what's that green stuff?

Hey everybody

this is Kenzie, I saw that my mom hadn't updated lately and thought I'd fill you

 in on some of the Coe family happenings.

Last week we had the missionaries over for dinner

nothing wrong with this picture... until you look a little closer

"What is that?" you may ask, well its kind of a long story.

It all started when we were trying to throw together a dessert for the missionaries.

& of course the chefs in the family(mom&abs) decided to try out a new recipe. (I prefer to be the official tester;) )

The description on the recipe sounded really good "brownies with

 a layer of chocolate frosting followed by a layer of mint frosting." So about 10 minutes before the missionaries got here, the disaster started. The only green food coloring we had was fluorescent. This wasn't so bad, but the butter was frozen solid so they put it in the microwave to "soften" but instead liquified it. So instead of creamy it was kinda lumpy...

In there defense it tasted really good:)

and they took my jokes about "flubber"

and porter's about "shrek juice"

with a good old laugh

although I'm not sure the missionaries will be back anytime soon:)

love to all

Kenzie

oh and p.s. you're all invited over for thanksgiving dinner ;)

Random Life Stuff

This is how Abbie looks every day when she gets home from cross country practice. Her knees have been bothering her (due to overuse & the fact that her coaches don't believe in warming up or stretching).  Oops, I digress.

Anyhoo, I just couldn't resist taking this picture for two reasons:

#1. It kinda looks like, well you know, it's time for a potty break.

and

#2. It shows how Jake looks sooooo forward to Abbie's arrival home

everyday so he can be carried around like a baby on her hip

with his head on her shoulder.

He literally starts to dance like a circus dog when 

he realizes she has returned to him!

Porter participated in the PTA Reflections art contest again this year.  He was planning on winning at every level, of course, but it didn't exactly work out that way.  The theme was  "Wow!" and he put together this cute photo collage of Jake doing a back flip on our trampoline.  He also entered a song he 'composed' on Garage Band.

 

Kenzie has made the switch from Drama to Choir this year.  It was HUGE & kinda traumatic for her after so many years of focusing on theatre, but it has turned out to be such a good thing! The choir director is a wonderful mentor & she is really enjoying learning from him & exploring new ways to use her voice.

Kenzie, Tess & Clare after their first Treble Choir concert.

Halloween for Us

Here's how it went down for us  . . .

Harry Porter attended several pre-halloween parties

& acquired way too much candy, which he consumed way too fast.

Scary.

(be sure to enlarge this pic & check out Abbie in the background!!)

In case you didn't notice, not a lot of effort went into Porter's costume,

and he couldn't have cared less! His priority was candy-gathering.

  

We got together with family & neighbors for Halloween dinner . . .  

...and shared some of our traditional faire. 

Goblin Guts & Mummy 'Dawgs' were our contributions!

The Mummy Dawgs turned out so CUTE this year!  I just couldn't resist zooming in so you could see their little faces!

Here's the neighborhood trick-or-treat gang, complete with

our local cousins . . . Ready to GO!

No Halloween is complete without trick-or-treating at "the Christmas House"; which is always fully decorated for the upcoming season!  A bunch of 20-somethings turn the driveway into a living room w/sofas & such, play christmas carols, show christmas movies, serve hot wassail & pass out 'gifts' instead of candy! (my pix are lacking at this stop, but I did take one of the street sign!).  Porter's "treat" was a lovely necktie, which he thought was really funny.  But Jed was not impressed with his flyswatter!  Be sure to check my sis-in-law's blog to see the 'snowstorm' & Jed with his new flyswatter! (Richardson Family Raconteur; someday I'll learn how to embed the link into a word like everyone else does...) 

And, hence you think Halloween was lost on my teenagers?!  Oh no!  Not them.  Kenzie went to Knott's Scary Farm TWICE in the 10 days before Halloween, (and loved it - - not my cup of tea, but . . . I didn't have to go in!)

And both girls attended the Halloween Dance put on by our church. 

(plus Abbie went to another one in RSM too!) 

Here's Abbie, Jodi & Torra, as "80's Girls" at the dance. 

They were so excited to wear the leg warmers.  Who woulda' thunk?

. . . and Kenzie & Jessica as MVHS football players!

On to Thanksgiving, we go!