Turkey Day 2010

Thanksgiving was a nice, quiet family day for us this year. (Well, a quiet as you can get with three 2.5 year olds!)  There are certain traditions that we keep and look forward to each year.  It's amazing how excited JP was the past few days saying "I can't wait, I can't wait!"

We start off the morning with a sweet treat- this year it was my Grandmother's sweet rolls.  We then watch Santa "fly" down Broadway in the Macy's Parade.  I asked each of the kids what they want Santa to bring them this year: Ryan "a motorcycle", Caitlin "a motorcycle" although she often says a "purse", JP keeps changing his mind like usual, and Madison said "a baby".  I said, "oh a baby doll?", and she replied, "No, a baby."  Sorry Maddi, you'll just have to play with Aunt Anne's when it arrives in February!

We also get some new games each year.  This year was Scrabble and Operation.  We never even made it to Scrabble, but the Operation buzzer was going for most of the day!

I did about 1/2 of the cooking on Wednesday and that made it easy to finish on Thursday while the trio was napping.  We had quite a feast with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green been casserole, cranberry salad, and rolls.  I even ended up making 3 desserts this year.  Pumpkin pie (of course) and then Pecan Chocolate Chip Pie for Joe and Cherry Cheesecake for JP.  We always get sparkling grape juice and  this year we let the trio try some too.  They are still getting the hang of drinking out of regular cups, but they thought they were pretty special for getting such a big treat.

We go around the table saying what we are thankful for.  Joe and I each gave lengthy answers about a warm home and wonderful family.  JP said he was thankful for Netflix on the Wii (we dropped cable a few months ago), Madison said she was thankful for cranberries and I think the other two followed with different types of food sitting before them.  It is so much fun to see the trio starting to understand more and more about holidays.  Christmas should be extra fun this year!

All Of Our Turkeys:

Ryan and Caitlin having a hard time keeping away from the desserts:

Yum!

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Carving the turkey:

Our Feast!

JP and Maddi giving cheers:

Rayn and Dad giving cheers:

Time for a little Operation:

You've got to have a very steady hand!

Mom & Dad very thankful for all our blessings! (photo by JP)

Winter Welcome

One of the things we love about our neighborhood is all the community events.  From summer movies and concerts on the town green, to the farmer's market, to holiday celebrations, we love that we can walk to lots of great family activities.  Last weekend was the Winter Welcome Celebration where they lit up the Christmas tree and lights in our town center.

It was so dark I was basically pointing my camera and hoping the flash would capture a few cute shots!

Daddy and Maddi:

JP watching the dancing Christmas Tree:

 The girls ready to roll:

Watching the tree light up:

Ryan's hat was a little big! And it cracked me up that JP put his hat on over his bike helmet!

Now You See Them

JP's 2nd grade school picture turned out so great despite him giving himself a haircut the day before:

Now You Don't!!

JP lost his second front tooth today.  That, along with his new haircut (to even things out), he looks like a new man!  I guess we all know what he wants for Christmas!!

May I Never Forget

May I never forget that they were once small enough to fit across the length of the stairs.

  

Halloween Night

Halloween night was a big hit.  JP was especially excited this year.  He designed a "Game Box" costume and I did my best to create it.   It had a Tic Tac Toe game on the front and a Dart Ball game on the back.  Joe said JP got many compliments walking around the neighborhood because it was such an original costume.  The day before Halloween JP asked me to make lines for a number grid for him.  He wanted 105.  He filled in all the numbers and then told us that he wanted to go to 105 houses on Halloween (I have no idea how he came up with that number).  Joe carried the list for him and crossed off each house.  He was able to make it to 60 which I think was still quite impressive!

The trio went to about 7 houses on our street and said "Trick or Treat" at each one.  They also got in a lot of "Thank yous" too!  They loved it and especially loved all the candy.  After they got home I let them each have about 4 pieces.  Oh my, I have never seen them act like this before.  Crazy!  Running around,dancing and singing songs to the Trick or Treaters.  They had fun passing out the candy and took turns putting it in everyone's bags.  I had about 550 pieces of candy this year and really only handed out one piece unless we knew the kids.  We were done again by 7:30.  Hundreds of kids came to our door within 2.5 hours!  Trick or Treat in our neighborhood is always so much fun!

Here's the trio seeing our new flying ghost decoration for the first time!

JP excited for the big night:

We Skyped on the computer with Nana & Pa before heading out:

Our CU Buffs pumpkin!

Our house was looking spooky!

The kids hit the street!

The girls on a candy high!

Getting candy to hand out.

JP and all his candy! He loved his black hair we gave him for the night too!