Day of Thanks

Since none of my children are big fans of pie, we started the day making these turkey cookies. Tanner and Ella did a wonderful job and the cookies were a big hit at our dinner with friends. We enjoyed dinner with about 8 other families from our ward. The food was great and the company even better. We only took pictures of the kids jumping on the trampoline. The kids spent a lot of time outside in spite of it being 30 degrees.

My mom called on Wednesday with a cute, inexpensive, no-prep idea that I decided we should do. I picked up a cheap vinyl tablecloth and had each of the children trace their hands, write their names and one thing that they were thankful for. We will get it out each year and have them do the same thing...hopefully it will be a fun tradition.

As far as what they were thankful for....

• Tanner said he is thankful for mom and dad (such a sweet boy).
• Ella is thankful for her Barbies (which she had just been playing with)
• Sarah said she was thankful for "ooowah" which is the Laurie Berkner band DVD.
• If I had to guess about Rylee, I would say she is thankful for such a kind, caring, snuggle-rific Dad.
  
  

Day Two

I had big plans to drag the kids around Wednesday morning...a little shopping and Sarah's storytime, before heading to playgroup. But, it started raining and didn't stop ALL DAY long. So we just went to playgroup. One of the moms brought this fun inflatable and the kids had a great time. After playgroup, Tanner headed to a friend's house and Ella had a friend over to play. The afternoon passed quickly with Ella's friend, Rachel, declaring in a super-duper play date. We rounded out the day with dinner and a fun game of family hide and seek. Apparently my kids have trouble with the obvious since they had a hard time finding me when I just put a big bag over my head and sat in the couch in the living room!

Thanksgiving vacation, day one

I usually look forward to any school break with a bit of anxiety and maybe a bit of dread. I love having my children around me, but struggle sometimes to keep them entertained without allowing the TV to do the job for me (my overly guilty conscience would not allow that). Tanner has been begging to go to the art museum since the girls and I have been going regularly. He has felt a little left out. So here are my little artists...I think Sarah could spend hours at this easel.

Their project this week was actually still life pictures using chalks or markers, which the kids were not interested in. They also had the supplies to make these cute turkeys, which they did enjoy. Notice the pink feathers on the turkey on the right. Ella was quite thrilled to discover those!

We enjoyed lunch at McMommy's (the best lunch spot in town), spent most of the afternoon raking leaves and ended the day with parent-teacher conferences. We'll see what the rest of the week holds for us.

Tanner Says Thanks

Thanks to all of you who have saved and sent your box tops for Tanner's dress-down day at school. A special shout out to Aunt Erin and Uncle Alex who supplied about 60 total and have him well on his way to his second 100. He took his first 100 tops in today and was very excited! He can continue to collect them all year to earn more dress down days, so keep saving and sending!

Marc's big adventure

Marc went to Utah over the weekend on the premise that he wanted to be present for the blessing of his newest nephew, Charlie. He took the camera and this is the only picture of Charlie, with his aunt and cousin.... There were several more pictures of a little side trip on Saturday.....

...to a certain stadium in Provo....

...but, whatever the reason for the trip, he brought me a few BYU brownies....YUM-O!

Well fed or bad scale?

I took Sarah to the pediatrician last week for her two-year check up. She was happily declared a healthy girl, and found comfort from the torture of two shots in a sucker as we left the office. I was a bit surprised by her height and weight. When she was 18 months, she weighed 24 lbs, 4 oz and was 33 inches tall. Now at two, they tell me she is 33 3/4 inches tall and weighed 29 lbs...which means she gained nearly 5 lbs but only grew 3/4 inch. Now I would think that adding that much weight to her and not really getting taller, would make her fat, which she is not. So, since we came home and I had a chance to think about it, I am sure that the scale was wrong or at least misread by the nurse (which is funny because that is usually what I say when I step on the scale at the doctor's office, too). It's interesting to me too that I don't want my girls anywhere near the 75th percentile (which she now is) in weight but for my son, that's great. The double standard has begun.

Busy Halloween

Halloween was a VERY busy day for us. It was one of those days where we went from one thing to another for most of the day. We had lots of fun though and the kids got plenty of sweet things to eat. Marc even joined us around lunch time which was a great bonus.

Our first stop was Daddy's office where they invite families to come and trick or treat through the offices in the building. Sarah and I didn't have time to stay for the actual parade of kids but she got a lot of oohs and aahs from the office staff and a treat bag to boot.

Next we were off to preschool for the Halloween program. Ella did a great job, singing all the songs and doing all the fingerplays. She looked very cute in her fairy costume. Next stop, trick-or-treating in downtown Perrysburg. The downtown businesses hand out candy during the day. We have gone every year. It is fun because it only takes about an hour and nets plenty of candy so that the night time trick-or-treating can be skipped! It was a beautiful SUNNY fall day....perfect for being outside.

Our playgroup met at the library. Here are all the kiddos before we got started.

Next we were off to Tanner's school for his Halloween parade. Marc and I decided it was scary to see how the costumes morphed from firefighters, pirates and princesses in the young kids to really frightening, gory, bloody things in the older kids...it makes me a little frightened for what is to come.

We found a little nature trail that lead back to the car from Tanner's school. The girls thought it was really fun.

Ella and I then went to the mall to get some shirts that Aunt Erin wanted from H&M. After we came home we had dinner and Marc offered to take them out trick-or-treating and noone wanted to go!