Thankful Version 2012

 

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  2 weeks of planning the perfect menu.  One week of grocery shopping and trying to find the right tablecloth.  2 days of pie baking.  1 day of cooking.  20 minutes of eating.  Somehow I think my equation is off. Just a little.  Oh, but it was worth it.  I admit that I am a little sad to see November slip by as quickly as it has.

 

The entire month of November has been full of moments to be thankful for.  We have spent very happy days raking piles of leaves just to jump in.  I can't imagine a better use for leaves.  We spent hours throwing Maddux's favorite Vanderbilt football back and forth across the front yard.  The daylight slipped away as we chased after Paizlee's wild throws.

I freshened up picture frames with fresh coats of paint and bought all new comforters for the beds. 

Since we are going to be spending more hours indoors over the next few months, I have been focusing on making things as cozy and welcoming as possible. 

 

I bought a twenty-five pound bag of flour and I am happily planning on how to use every cup.  The Christmas cookie list has been made and I am anxious to begin planning exactly what I am going to bake this year.  In the meantime, I made my favorite Caramel Apple Pie for Thanksgiving.  You should absolutely try it.  Just add a bit of cinnamon to your apples and your life will be complete.

 

As I type, the Christmas tree that we cut down this afternoon is happily twinkling in the living room.  We are moving ahead to Christmas and all the magic that December entails.  I hope that your November has brought you as much joy as ours has.  Now... get those cookie sheets ready.  I will be back with recipes!

Better Than Birthday Cake

Yes, the cookies and cream ice cream cake was amazing.

But the view of three Happy Birthday singing kids on the other side of the cake was even better.

(PS... Don't forget to leave a comment for my Birthday Giveaway!)

A Day In The Leaves

I think that the goal of every child should be to have friends who have more leaves in their yard than you do.

By having friends who have ridiculous amounts of leaves already handily raked into a ginormous pile two things are universally true:

a. Playing at a friend's house is always more fun than playing at home, i.e. playing in their leaves would be much more fun than your own lame leaves.

b. If leaf playing is done elsewhere, this allows the mother to not have to rake her own leaves for the entertainment of her children. Or even worse, to have to re-rake the entire yard after her children have decimated the leaf pile. -shudder-

Just saying.

What do you do when it rains for the 437th day in a row???

You bake cupcakes. Obviously. And you sit in amazement at the ridiculous amount of sprinkles that you have amassed. I think you should blame Bake it Pretty.

And then you play in the rain (or momentary break from the rain) with umbrellas. Then you sit and wonder about who invented the umbrella because you would really like to thank that person. Then you are surprised because Google declares that it was invented over 4,000 years ago. Huh. Who knew?

Hope that there are sunnier skies at your house today!

The Most Dreaded of Days

Today is the most dreaded of all days. We are potty training Maddux. And this is how he feels about it.

I have been putting it off because he so adamantly refused to do it, but today I refuse to change one more diaper. Well, one more of his diapers anyway. Today is the day.

As of 3:00PM in whatever time zone I live in (Eastern? Central? Why can't I ever remember that?) we have had no accidents and no issues. We are living by this timer and have not ventured further than 10 feet from the bathroom.

We have created our little fort of blankets and have barricaded ourselves in with Legos, books and games. Brad took the girls on an adventure of their own for the day, so it is just us. Just me and Captain Underpants.

The timer is set to go off in 3 minutes, otherwise I would be able to share with you the recipe for these super amazing Raspberry Linzer Cookies. I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow! Hee Hee! Captain Underpants needs me... Have a great weekend!

**And don't forget the giveaway! You have until Monday to enter!! :)**

Feeding the Birds!

We have lots and lots of birds in our backyard. Cardinals, Blue Jays and Robins galore. I saw the idea to make these little bird feeders over at Good + Happy Day.

All that is needed are some pipe cleaners and a few bowls of Cheerios. Want to hear a funny story about pipe cleaners?

When I was in the second grade we had to draw pictures of what our parents did for a living. When Mrs. Dyer came around to ask about my picture, I proudly announced that my dad was a pipe cleaner! Mrs. Dyer thought this was hysterical. When I later asked my mom why Mrs. Dyer would laugh at me because of what dad did, she had to patiently explain that my dad was a pipe fitter not a pipe cleaner. And now I laugh each and every time that I pull out the pipe cleaners.
All that you have to do is string the Cheerios along the pipe cleaner. You can't see it here, but I bent the other end so that the Cheerios wouldn't slide off.

I was amazed that little Miss Paizlee was able to do this project as well. She would put three or four Cheerios on the pipe cleaner - and then eat them off. Maddux said that she must be part bird.

Once the pipe cleaners are full of Cheerios, you make a circle and tie the ends together. Breuklyn was great about putting the chain together. This was such a fun project for the afternoon after we picked Breuklyn up from school. It was nice to sit and talk about her day while completing a simple project.

You can leave them in individual circles, or link them together to make a chain. We wanted a chain for our birds.

Once you have completed your chain, or run out of Cheerios, you can hang it outside for your little feathered friends. I am sure that they will appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!!!!

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Light Adventure!

Last year, I made these boxes for the 12 Days of Christmas. Inside each box is a little card that tells what what we are going to do that day and usually an ornament that depicts in some way what that activity is.

Today, Day 1, was "Go Look at Lights." This is a tradition that I have been doing every year of my life since, well, as long as I can remember. My mom would load us in the car and we would drive and drive...

... which is exactly what we did. Pajamas are a necessity on these trips. So is hot chocolate. And singing. There was lots of singing.

We also started a new tradition this year, to go along with the 12 Days. I wrapped 12 Christmas books and each day we unwrap one to read. Eventually I will accumulate enough books to have enough for 25 days in December, but 12 days is a good place to start. Today we read The Snowbelly Family of Chillyville Inn. It is fun to have holiday books that we only read at certain times of the year. I think this would be fun to try for other holidays.

I hope that you and your family are having a cozy December!

Raking Leaves Can Be Difficult...

... when there are children jumping in the piles of leaves! It takes considerably longer than necessary when it is required to rake the leaves again and again...
and again. (Not that I would know anything about jumping in piles of leaves.)

Let's Make a Spooky Castle!

Maddux: Hmmm... I wonder if the Spooky Castle really needs all of this candy. If I eat some of this stuff, no one will notice. (Maddux licked every single piece of candy before he added it to the Spooky Castle)

Breuklyn: I'm ready for my close up!

Maddux: If I climb up on the table, I can concentrate on applying the frosting. (Plus, it got him within arms reach of Breuklyn's candy)

The finished product. The Spookiest Spooky Castle ever. Good job, guys!

A Scavenger Hike!

My parents were here from Virginia for a long weekend! We had an amazing time. One of the highlights was when we went to The Stone Door. It is a beautiful hiking trail that is paved the first 1/3 of the way. I thought it would be fun to check out the fall colors.

This is supposed to be a waterfall. Not so much, eh? We haven't had any rain, so we weren't surprised at the lack of falling water.

I bet you are wondering why Breuklyn has her trick or treat pumpkin, aren't you?
We had a scavenger hunt to go along with our hike. They had to find red, yellow and green leaves, an acorn, a feather, pine cone, rock and berries or seeds. This way, the focused on all of the nature that they were surrounded by. I wanted them to see all of the fun things that fall has to offer. When they would find something from their list, they would put it in their bucket.



Except for all of the bees while we were trying to have our picnic, it was the perfect day. I love fall.

The Backyardigans Live!

We went to see the Backyardigans Live: The Tale of the Mighty Knights on Sunday and I have to say that it was the best show that we have seen with the kids. My favorite was Austin, in case you are wondering. (Psst... Austin is the kangaroo) I have to say that Uniqua really rocked it out though. I will miss the days of Nick Jr. television shows when they are gone. I am not that anxious to move on to SpongeBob Squarepants and Hannah Montana.

We love the Backyardigans at my house. However, since seeing the show I can't get the knight song out of my head.



"We're knights that's right. With smarts and strength. And guts and might.
We're never ever rude. Always polite.
Our knightly skills are out of sight."



I'm going crazy with this song! I am sure that the lady at the bank thought I was nuts since I was humming it unknowingly while waiting for my turn. She smiled at me and said, "We love the Backyardigans too." I am going to have to force the kids to listen to Sara Bareilles for a while in the car until I can return to my normal song frequencies.

And here we are in all our Going to see the Backyardigans glory. Doesn't Breuklyn look thrilled? Ah, family together time.

The Great Flower Adventure

This is my house before The Great Flower Adventure. Do you see those plants that are growing in the flower bed in front of my living room window? I have no idea what they are, they came with the house and they are UGLY. They also have roots that go all the way to China. My trowel broke in half, yes, in half. So much for my brand new trowel. I then had to bust out the shovel and stand up on the flower bed thing so I could dig them out. I am sure that the neighbors were fascinated and were placing bets on whether or not I would crash through the window.


Doesn't Maddux look thrilled? Breuklyn and Maddux collected over 100 snail shells from the flower bed after I would pull the plants out. They were so aggravated to find that some of the shells actually had, gasp, snails in them and they would try to escape.

And this is the after picture. I planted over 100 annuals. We also planted a lilac bush and some black-eyed susans, but you can't see them in this picture.

Another shot of the yard before, complete with Paizlee coloring with her sidewalk chalk.

And after. Now it really feels like home.

The Eggs That Survived

These are a few of the eggs that survived... well, they survived until Paizlee found them and threw them. Good times.

At Least Paizlee is Smiling

I swear that Breuklyn brings home every single germ that is floating around her school. If one of her Pre-K comrades even blinks weird, we all get sick. Except for Paizlee. She must have a different immune system, thankfully. The children have been scoured of all germs and are safely quarantined for the evening (or tucked into bed, whichever way you want to look at it). Now I get to watch the Pavlik vs. Taylor boxing match that Brad bought on Pay-per-view. Can you sense my excitement? I didn't think so.