A Very Raab Thanksgiving

What a fun-filled five days we had!  Wednesday morning I was up at five to pack up the car and bring a bed to New York.  That’s right…a bed.  My brother and Anna and Preston and I were going to all sleep at Katie and Steve’s.  They have one guest bedroom and I totally called it (although Chris will argue he did).  The way to solve-Kim brings the blow up queen bed to New York.  This is no ordinary bed.  No, no no.  My father bought the blow up bed that had a BED FRAME attached.  It’s about 50 pounds and I had to get it down 35 stairs and into my car.  This sparked a text war between Chris and myself the day before, a lot of choice words were exchanged until my father said he’d buy a new one, which annoyed me more so I just bought the bed.  And I got the guestroom. SCORE!  Wednesday we spent preparing the meal with Katie.  here she is getting the sausage meat for the stuffing!

After that it was Italian heroes and a lot of laughs.  Then Chris landed, demanded a pizza and we rolled out the red carpet and played Pachabel’s Canon for our youngest sibling who by the way was chauffeured by car service to my sister’s (love you Pher). Next morning was the parade!  I was so excited because the weather was not predicted to be nice.  Thankfully although frigid, (*read a tolerable 41 but still), the rain held off.  Unlike last year when we were about 20 rows back two very nice guys let the children in front of them right in the front row.  Our neighbors were down from Virginia so I corralled the four boys and with help from the NYPD they all sat front row center on 65th and CPW!  The cop even stopped a clown at the beginning of the parade to hand Pres a balloon.  He and I share a brain because he politely declined-I was thinking one of us would be holding that balloon the whole parade.  Of course once the clown passed he wanted the balloon.  The performers all threw confetti at the kids.  It was pretty awesome to be front row center.

After the parade was BAGELS!  Yum.  I love you 72nd Street Bagels.

Pres slept the whole way home and a good hour and half after we got home.

Here are some pics from the day.  Katie and Steve were the host and hostess with the mostess!  The meal was delicious and by far the best turkey I ever have eaten at Thanksgiving.  it was amazing for their first official holiday! Love you guys!  And of course, no Raab Thanksgiving is comp0lte without enough dessert to feed an army.  it was my favorite tradition.  My mother and I used to bake all day Wednesday and all of us would have friends over for dessert.  The house would rock well into the night.  Yum. 

I always take a picture of my dad basting.  And what day is complete without a little Raab sibling faces?

Even Steve gets into the action:

Happy Birthday Pher!

Preston asked everyone what they were thankful for (As Steve said, Anna was thankful for three football games on that day. *wink) and he also led me in Grace.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Stay tuned for the rest of our weekend.

Pre-Thanksgiving Fun

Wow! What a weekend.  I swear I was in overdrive most of it.  Only to settle down finally at 8:20 last night to watch a football game that was a disaster for my team.  Anyway, a million errands later (*read, laundry, changed sheets, cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, bank, grocery shopping, Christmas shopping for the siblings, wrapping for my siblings, Lowes, making stuffing for Pres’ class –eyebrow wax so I don’t resemble Bert and Ernie in Thanksgiving pictures, pedicure, dinner, baking cookies……PACKING and football) we are almost ready!  As I said on Facebook I make a good husband and wife to myself. How in Heaven’s name my mother would do this with four!  Her and my father would then cook Thanksgiving dinner for no less than 16 people and have all of our friends over for dessert.   What’s been cooking otherwise?  Well I’m about one month away from closing and here is the house this week: Driveway and walkway going in.

Preston is so excited the pull down attic comes into his room. I’m not really sure the attraction of folding wood stairs, but who am I to judge?

Cabinets and all my crown molding is in!

 

The dude and I by the fireplace!

Also this weekend, Preston had yet another birthday party!  He loves Pump it Up and thinks the P in the bounce house stands for Preston.  I don’t have the heart to tell him it’s part of the P U I for Pump it Up.

And what’s cuter than Preston’s headdress?  According to his placemat that he created, he is thankful for turkey, (which I have yet to see him eat but he swears he ate it at school), New York (yes, me too dude), the cabs, subways and parade.  I was hoping he’d say Mom, but I guess I rank much lower than the NYC MTA.  Oh well.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! Safe travels to everyone!!!

Our Baltimore Weekend!

We had a GREAT weekend in Baltimore. I have to say, Preston lately listens…like never. I say something and he basically takes it under advisement. So one would logically deduce he sucks in the car right? Wrong! This kid from day one on this planet has ROCKED in the car. No DVD player either. This child LOVES car rides. That’s why in addition to telling me how to get to New York from Virginia, he has now mastered that we also utilize the Harbor Tunnel and the Delaware Memorial Bridge to get to New York. His sense of direction is uncanny. For example, in August when we went to Matt and Jessica’s wedding he went to the rehearsal dinner. Two months later we returned to Bayside for dinner before Katie’s marathon and went to dinner at the restaurant across the street from where the rehearsal was. Pres took one look around, turned to me and said, “that’s where we went for Matt and Jessica.” He can navigate the subway system and does not live in Manhattan. He knows the names of roads in our area. He is SO like Mommy in that respect. I love directions. And I never have GPS (well I now have according to my friend Scott, Global Preston Satellite). I use MapQuest only. Pres is just an angel in the car. We put on the iPod and just rock out! He is my little teammate for car trips.

We rolled into Baltimore on Friday for his yearly checkup with Dr. Ain. Friday night we took advantage of the fact that my cousin Tim lives in Silver Spring with his wife Kathryn and baby Charlotte. I was so excited to see them. Tim and I grew up together. We even went to high school together. It was really awesome though on the first day of freshman year when Tim and Kim Raab showed up and everyone thought we were twins with rhyming names. Here we are as kids with our Grandma Raab and then graduation day from St. Anthony’s in 1996.

Besides having an amazing visit with my cousin (as if time never passed at all), Preston and Charlotte finally got to meet and take their first cousin picture. Kathryn is such a sweetheart and I look forward to even more visits with them since we don’t live that far apart! We need to see each other for more than just weddings!

Then Saturday it was off to Baltimore for our POLP meet up. It was a GORGEOUS day in the Inner Harbor so before meeting everyone Pres and I walked along the water.

We then met up with our group to go to the Maryland Science Center. It was so much fun and the kids are really starting to remember each other. Preston is over the moon with Peyton. We have all seen each other four times in six months! I am just thrilled at the closeness of our “family!” I’ll let the pictures do the talking! Pres and Ivy!

With Simon!

Pres and Parker-I almost cannot deal with the cuteness of this picture.

Paula and Peyton and Melissa, Sonya and Zoe all braved the hurricane winds machine.

Pres was so taken with Sonya and wanted to push her in her wheelchair. Melissa was so sweet, lowering the handle so he could “help.” And can I tell you that I adore Little Miss Sonya’s attitude? She is so adorable and can definitely hold her own. I could hang out with her all day!

Then it was up to the observatory to see the sights and the giant telescope!

We ended the night with out to dinner with Paula and Melissa. Can you tell these two boys adore each other?

Thank you again Jenn for helping plan another amazing day!!! I love you guys and cannot wait for our next adventure. Like Katie Johnson said to me, it’s great we all have our kids, it has made us all friends!

Mr. Builder-Put Up That Wall!

We have walls! When I start getting all upset that the holidays are on my heels and I’ve bought like three gifts and how I still have not figured out the perfect birthday party for Preston and how I still need to play Santa and get all my extended family shopping done before Thanksgiving in New York…I stop to think really I mean what do I have to get Preston?  I’m buying him a house.  If I forget a Lego set this year or the 92nd Thomas engine, I can always fall back on, “Dude, I bought you a room with a bathroom.  So cut Santa some slack here.”  Pres, due to his amazing sense of direction and never being inside the house other than the model, knew exactly where his room was based upon the three windows in the front of the house.  Here he is in his new room. He is so excited! 

In his closet:

 

Here is the kitchen and dining room!!!

So excited!  And for good measure, here are some pictures of the dude from this week!  We are off to Baltimore-see some of the “family” there this weekend!  Just thought I’d get in a quick blog in between packing, laundry, Grey’s and Thursday Night Football!

Clearly from the above, Pres needs MORE Thomas engines for Christmas.

Carseat back in for long excursions like this weekend!  He told me it’s much more comfy!

The only time Preston is EVER quiet.