Thanksgiving week

On Tuesday we were invited into Kate's classroom for a Thanksgiving Feast. She was so excited as she learned about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. When we got there they were dressed like pilgrims and sitting at their long table decorated with the turkeys they made the day before. Kate was in love with hers because the pine cones smelled like cinnamon. They were decorating the tablecloth with their artwork and waiting for the feast to begin. The day before I had gone in to help them cut vegetables and we ate vegetable stew for our feast, along with bread, homemade shaken butter, and desserts. It was quite a successful feast and reminded me of the similar feast I had when I was in 1st grade.






The night before Thanksgiving we made our pies. This year we made cherry and apple. I wasn't going to make apple but Kate told me it was her favorite so we did. (And I don't think she even ate a piece!) The kids love to help in the kitchen.




Thanksgiving day started with a little run. I LOVE starting the day full of eating with some kind of exercise but the closest turkey trot started at 10 and just wasn't too convenient. So a friend planned our own and it was so fun.



Then I came home and we watched the parade, cut up our veggie tray, made a turkey craft, and got ready to go to our friend's house. Sawyer wore his apron ALL day long and was constantly asking me what he could do to help. Even when it was time to eat he said he didn't want to take it off. He's a cute little chef!

 


 It was a perfect Thanksgiving feast and it was so great to share it with friends. One friend brought lima beans, which have never been served at my house before, and Kate fell in love. We were sent home with leftovers that she ate until they were gone.

We even brought the kid's jammies and put them to bed there so the adults could stay up late, eat pie and play games. Such a fun night!






The day after Thanksgiving we continued our family tradition of decorating for Christmas, eating leftovers, and going bowling. Always a fun family activity!





Then Saturday we continued one of our newer traditions, going to cut down our Christmas tree. This year we went with our friends and it made it even more fun! We searched and found the perfect tree, cut it down, put it on top of the car, and then enjoyed donuts and hot chocolate. What could be better? Especially because it was COLD!

Grateful

Today I am just so grateful for these 3. They make my life so wonderful and I am so lucky they are mine. I am so lucky.
Today was so great. We have lots of snow on the ground from our storm yesterday and it made for a cozy day of cooking inside. Ryan and Devin headed out for an early morning, snowy Turkey Bowl while the rest of us watched the parade, ate from a yummy veggie tray and cooked the food. Everything turned out yummy. I am grateful to have my parents here. It has been so nice having help with the kids and the house and to enjoy having their company. It has been amazing.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

November has flown by!

Time is moving crazy fast, as it always does when you are hoping it will slow down a little so you can savor life a little more. (and in this case we're trying to savor Houston!! 2 1/2 years ago I never thought I would say that!) But here we are, after Thanksgiving and really only about 3 weeks until we leave! I haven't been too busy with packing or anything like that but we have tried to just enjoy all the things we have loved here, especially our friends. It has just recently hit me how soon it is coming...actually the thing that made it real was the day I gave my one month notice to our beloved YMCA. Ever since then I've been pretty emotional about everything. So here is a little bit of what we have been doing.

We went to the zoo with some our friends and saw a cute baby elephant and lots of fun monkeys

It got "cold" outside so Kate got to wear a cute wool handmedown we've been waiting forever to wear! (I couldn't get Sawyer out of the picture. He was totally rockin' his outfit, beads and all.)

Daddy took and passed his final exam at Baylor!!

We continued our home school with lots of Thanksgiving art projects. Sawyer did all of these too but he was taking a nap when I decided to do a photo shoot before throwing them out.

Kate loved making butter and when we were eating dinner we set it out to put on bread. She was so excited, sitting with a big smile on her face when I was spreading it on...then she took a bite...thought a minute and said, "it tastes like milk."

We spent Thanksgiving with some friends so I wasn't in charge of making the whole shebang, which was nice. I just made 2 pies (cherry and Ryan's favorite, mincemeat), stuffing and corn casserole. I ran a 5k that morning with some friends which was awesome and then just kind of hung out with the family and cooked a little before we headed over to our friends for a feast and games and lots of fun conversation. I also made a popcorn stuffed turkey for the kids to carve.

Even though we missed our families, it was an awesome Thanksgiving with great food and friends!