Pumpkins and Cake

Today was my mom's birthday, so we went to my sister Christy's house to celebrate. She has 4 children (3 girls ages 7-4 and a baby boy) who love to get together with Griffin and Sammy and have fun. Christy's house is very close to ours, as is Mom and Dad's, so we can see each other as often as we want to, which is nice. I know some people don't have that luxury, and it makes me appreciate it even more!

The kids made "pumpkins" out of paper bags, and they all ended up with paint all over their faces because Jorge, Christy's husband, put a drop of paint on one of the girls' cheeks and then they all HAD to have paint put on their faces too.

While Mom and I helped the kids with their art project, "the guys" -- Dad, Jorge, Mike and Wesley (my 17-year-old brother) -- played pool. Then we went upstairs and played poker. Well, the guys and I did. I was the only interested female. I'm learning a lot about playing poker, and it's fun! I would never play with money, I don't like to gamble, but free poker is nice.

After poker, Christy and I started cooking. She made a delicious pot roast and I made some yummy sour cream and onion mashed potatoes. We also had veggies and dinner rolls. A very tasty meal! We had already had the cake and ice cream when we got there 3 hours earlier, so we were pretty full when we got done eating.

I had fun listening to Mike and my family banter about math-type problems. Okay, here's one. If you have 3 doors, and there is money behind one door, and you choose one door and then one of the wrong doors that you didn't choose is eliminated, is it better to switch doors or stay with the one you originally chose in order to end up with the money? The men said switch, the women said it didn't matter... Wesley is going to write a computer program to do a trial and see which one works more often. And Dad and Mike did their famous card tricks on each other. They both know one, so they did them on each other and then *gasp* explained how they did them for us! Now I know how it's done... at least until the next get-together, I tend to forget these things quickly.