Are You Smarter Than...

By now, everyone has heard of the game show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, but not many can say that they have played it! We now can say that we have! My great friend, Jennifer runs a FABULOUS trivia night every year in November for her Boys and Girls Town of Missouri. And usually, Dan and I are there! This year we invited family to fill our table!
We were supposed to dress in our school colors! Jackie went very "elementary" and even donned pony tails!
We all bought an "arm's length" of 50/50 tickets - Steve decided to wear his!!!
Nana made all these cute little turkeys as Thanksgiving was just days away...
...we all liked them, especially Papa's identical twin, my Uncle Jim!
My only job was to keep the table smiling!!! Looks like I'm doing a pretty good job at amusing myself here!
Once the trivia started though, we were working and thinking hard!

But, Nana and Papa were pooped...too much brain juice used, I guess! :) Or, just good acting on Papa's part!
And here is the Number One trivia team!!!
Okay, maybe it was more like number 6, but we sure had lots of fun and raised money for a great cause! I can't wait to see what next year's theme is!!!

OH NO 4-0!!!

The day after Laycee's wedding, I had a small get together in celebration of Dan's 40th birthday - November 15th! He knew we were meeting Nana, Papa, Jackie, Steve and Henry at Cutter's but he didn't know the rest of the fam would be there to help him celebrate!

Thanks to Jackie for getting all the decorations and food set for our arrival!!
And thanks to Steve for working the camera for the length of the party! Thankfully he managed to get himself in at least one picture!
The atmosphere was fantastic, the food was great and the boys were phenomenal! The best part though was all of the family and friends who were able to make the surprise lunch!

Cousins! Kelli, Sandy, Nick, Kari, Cindy and Aunt Margie!
Aunt Kathy and Matthew - unfortunately, Uncle Jim had to work - I'm shocked that the Casino Queen couldn't close to celebrate such a momentous occasion!
More cousins - Casey and Ed!
The one, the only GiGi!!!
Kristin and Daniel - who I'm guessing by the look of this pic, had no idea that Dan was behind them and that Steve was taking a picture at that exact moment!
Uncle Gene and my Henry boo!!!
Next, Aunt Joyce and Henry - this little guy is definitely hurting for attention in this family! :)
Nana and the birthday boy!
Papa and me - showing our best toothy grins!!! Honestly, not sure why we look so hokey here...Papa, do you have any ideas???
Daddy and his boys!!!
Aunt Margie was a hoot that day! She and Papa were smack talking the whole time...and loving every minute of it!
With all these friends and fam, we took up a big portion of the bar!
Is he 40 or 4??? The boy who never grew up - and SO much fun to be married to! Happy BELATED birthday, Dan Man!
The party may have been on Sunday, but since Dan's actual birthday was on Monday, I took a 1/2 day and surprised him with lunch out!!! Then, when he got home from work, he got MORE cake and presents!
Who would have thought that he would love his NY GIANTS snuggie so much!!! :)
All in all, a great weekend and birthday celebration! Love you, Dan!

Here Comes the Bride!

On November 13th, our good friends Laycee and Michael got married! The entire Morra family was honored by being in their wedding!

Jack was the presenter of the broom while Nick was the ring bearer, carrying Ms. Laycee's grandfather's bible! Both look SO nervous!!!
Luke escorted the flower girl, Maya, down the aisle and you can tell by the smile, he loved every minute of it!
And here comes the bride!!!
The wedding was beautiful as Michael serenaded Ms. Laycee and Laycee recited a beautiful poem to her soon to be husband!

Before we knew it, we were DANCING down the aisle as Laycee and Michael were married!!!
Time for pictures!!!
The men of the wedding party!
The women...
Once pictures were over, the party began!!! The bride and groom both had their dancing shoes on!!!
The wedding was beautiful and the reception was FUN - Nick even said that this was the bestest wedding he had ever been too! Although, he never had been to another wedding in which we did the SOUL TRAIN line - and countless other dances that as you can see by my face, were COMPLETELY new to me!!!
Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs.!!!

Hallelujah - FINALLY at Halloween!!!

Dan and I arrived home early Sunday morning - after our trip to St. Charles - to spend Halloween with our three little guys! Our first task was to carve our pumpkins! This by far, was the best year for this as I had 3 big helpers and of course, Dan!!!

Luke was LOVING the pumpkin guts!!!
His little hand kept going into the pumpkin and pulling out more and more "goo!"
As you can see here, Nick was not as enthused about it!
My job is ALWAYS cleaning the pumpkins in preparation for Dan and his great carving skills! I just try to think about the pumpkin guts as some sort of fancy facial for my hands - so I was totally fine dipping my hands in the pumpkins and holding all these seeds!!!
Jack was quite the carver and so precise!
Before we knew it, it was time for the boys to get in their costumes! Luke chose Mario - complete with a mustache - that he ACTUALLY wore!
Nick wanted to be a ninja - not sure that he really even knew what a ninja was, but I think he was sold on the sword!!!
You wouldn't know it, but this is Jack, as a werewolf! This was his first "scary" costume - one in which we had to prep Luke for before Jack wore the mask!
Every year my mom and dad always come over to hang with us on Halloween - this year was no different. The only difference was the fact that usually Dan and Nana take the kids around the neighborhood, while Papa and I hand out candy, but since Nana was a bit nervous to go walking around in the dark with her still healing leg, she opted to hang at home with me and hand out candy while Papa walked with Dan and the boys! Here are me and Nana!
Dan, Papa and the boys walked with our neighbors who have 4 kids - so there were 7 kids in the bunch - what a colorful group!
The kids weren't the only ones dressed up! Check out Papa chilling with Luke's mustache!
Luckily it wasn't too cold again this year and we all got to hang outside to greet the kids trick or treating!
I was messing around with the camera when I took this picture of Dan so it isn't too good, but he was cracking me up - sitting by our big cauldron of candy!

After a long fun night, it was time to head into the house and relax...and stare at my wonderful "fall wall!"
Happy BELATED Halloween!!!

We Are Going WHERE???

Dan turned 40 on November 15th. Since he is a man that has EVERYTHING he wants, I never know what to get him. Last year we went to the Beale Mansion in Alton for the weekend. This year I SURPRISED Dan and took him to St. Charles, MO! I had the car all packed and the kids were at Nana and Papa's house. His response wasn't exactly what I had anticipated as he was more concerned about his call schedule, which his office manager, Nana had taken care of weeks before! :) Once we got there though, Dan was truly excited about it - even though that meant a lot of shopping!
We arrived late on Friday night, checked into our hotel and hit the road - just down a block to the Trailhead Brewing Co for a fab dinner and some delish pumpkin ale! The next morning we were up and enjoying the beautiful fall weather - of course, with camera in hand! Dan snapped this shot of me in front of the restaurant we ate at the night before.
I think we walked into almost each and every shop along the street! It was SO quaint and cute! We also managed to find tons of great, one-of-kind gifts! Here, Dan poses with this cool Indian oustide the cigar shop!
After some shopping it was time for lunch. We headed to Magpies for lunch! Dan had the best potato soup, ever! (While I enjoyed a salad!!!)
After lunch we strolled and shopped some more and then we found a table near the street at a fab little winery there! We managed to hang out there for a few hours and people watched - a lot of people were dressed in Halloween costumes, and there were quite a few weddings around too, so there was a lot to see and definitely some good wine to drink! Cheers!
After a long day, we headed back to the hotel for a nap - honestly, we had no boys, I could have slept the day away!!! (Thanks to Nana and Papa for watching our cuties!) We got up from the nap and got dressed up to head over to the casino for dinner! After a yummy dinner - and more wine - we tried our hand at some slots! I will be the first to admit that I am SO not a gambler. I just don't get it, I guess because I didn't win, but didn't even really know HOW to win - the games were too confusing for me! We did manage to win just a bit...here is Dan holding his payout of $.01! Yep, one penny!!!
We got up the next morning - on Halloween - and took off early to get the boys! We had such a great time together, with no stresses! I can't wait to go somewhere again to celebrate Dan's 41st! :)