Simple Thanksgiving

This year we had a simple Thanksgiving meal with only our little nuclear family, and it was so nice.  I’d call it quiet, but my kids are far from quiet, and there might have been a moment, when the bubbly juice ran dry, that Carter stood in his chair and yelled, “Nooooooo!” to us all laughing at our silly middle boy.  A roaring fire was built in the fireplace. We took turns tallying our blessings, sent the kids a’packing away from the table when they became too rowdy, and lingered over our wine before dessert followed by some time in the spa for Paul and the kids while I popped dishes into the washer and decided everything else was just fine waiting for its own ‘platters & bowls’ load the next morning then went outside to hang out with my soggy family.  We laughed again at the steam billowing off Cole’s body as he climbed in and out, in  and out, in and out of the hot tub, then went inside to get jammieifed and watch Elf for the thousandth time in less than 2 wks.

 
Simple Thanksgiving Menu
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Ham (remember, we really dislike turkey!)
Homemade Bread
Corn
Macaroni and Cheese
Asparagus with Hollandaise
Fauxtatoes
Sour Cream Apple Pie a la Mode with Whipped Cream

Bubbly Cider
Pinot Grigio
Milk

We got a big honkin’ ham, and have already enjoyed the morning-after leftovers of toasty bread with jam, ham & eggs, and maybe a touch of hollandaise, too and have plans for tomato-okra-ham stew in a couple of days followed by red lentil & ham soup in a couple of weeks with the portion I froze last night. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their special meal as much as we did and is excited about the upcoming holiday season that we’re now truly beginning.  I have a bunch of ideas for what we can do to make it memorable and am dorkily excited about the new Lego advent calendar that we get to start playing with in only 6 days!

Ugh, now to pay the piper and do those last few dishes, I s’pose.  They didn’t do themselves last night, dangit.

{this moment}

this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

{this moment}

this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

MILEstone

Look who earned his 25 mile charm at Running Club today!

Peeking in on Preschool

{this moment}

this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Party On

Carter’s SIXTH birthday fell on a Sunday this year, and, since it’s the last time for years he’ll have the chance to have a party on his birthday, we went ahead and had the Sunday party.  I spent the afternoon before hunting and gathering all the supplies and said I’d like to go to bed that day with the living room ready for the party so the next morning would be easy.  Ha.  I like to say things like that just to make myself laugh, because there is something in my genetics that prevents me from being really ready for anything more than at the last moment. 

Soooo, the morning of the party, there I was, baking the cake, which I meant to do that morning because one of the best things about homemade cake is that it’s fresh.  Thankfully, at 8:30—2 hours before I expected it—the bouncy house guy came to drop off the jumper.  Instantly the kids had something to do other than ask me how long until the party or ask to eat candy from, the pinata.  Yay!

Carter wanted his theme for his birthday to be… birthday.  I floated Angry Birds or Star Wars (I really wanted to make an Angry Birds cake!), but nope, birthday.  :)

Ready or not in the morning, by midday we were all in party mode, and ready to go.  For small kids’ parties, I think 2 hours is PLENTY of time to have them running amok, so the party pretty much consisted of playing all over the place—bouncing a lot, but also making trains in the boys’ room, taking out whatever toys they wanted, and eating pizza and cake, then whacking a pinata.

Build up their appetites.

Fill ‘em with cheese and sugar.

Let ‘em whack things.  Give ‘em more sugar to take home, plus some items Carter decided his friends all truly needed, like whoopie cushions and glow sticks.

Then send ‘em packing.  That’s how I roll.  I’m sure the sugar rush and whoopie cushions were endless fun for both guests and parents all. day. long.  :)

I also think there is some kid circle of hell that involves being forced to pretend to care one iota about the gift opening part of a birthday—for anyone that is not the birthday kid, that is.  I mean, really, how awful is that?  Even at Bun’s parties we’ve thus far put off opening anything until after the party.  Then the child is not forced to tear through the presents at some crazy speed, barely able to register what they received, much less play with it for a moment before they must open the next one.  So, we do it at a slower pace.  Carter opened a couple of presents right after the majority of the guests left, and played with them for most of the afternoon.

For months he’d been aching for the Shark Ship (if you have kids who watch TV beyond the no-commercial channels, you have seen this advertised heavily in the preholiday push).  He was so happy to take her for a spin… and let that shark munch away on all the ‘guys’ in the boat, which is also pretty cool, since it can be made into more than 2 dozen different configurations.  He pretty much opened this, and the Squid Sub, and that was all he wanted to play with all afternoon.  In the hot tub, of course.

These poor sailors pretty much exist to be eaten, extracted from the shark’s belly, and then eaten again.  It’s a rough life, being on the seas.

Fact:  sound effects are KEY.

I hope Carter remembers his 6th birthday as a special, fun day.  No party can come close to bringing anyone the joy having him in our family has brought to us, of course.  ♥

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

::a frightful lot of snippets::

~so many little bits and pieces I’ll never get to if I try to make coherent, individual posts,
so here is is, stream of consciousness… buckle up, it may be bumpy!~

Cole’s preschool class had a little Halloween Parade last Thursday.  They all were adorable in their costumes, especially since no one had any idea what to do.  3-4 year olds are stinkin’ cute.

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Bunny was named Peacebuilder for her class in October.  The theme this first month of the program was ‘helpfulness’ and Bunny certainly does love to help people, and was happy when her name was called, though someone pointed out I was in the back of the room, which did tip her off just a little, haha.

Cole had a great time clapping for everyone.  Seriously, if there was an “enthusiastic applauder” award, he’d have won, hands down.

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We fit in one final trip to the ‘bouncy house pumpkin patch’ nearby.  It was jam-packed with kids from our neighborhood, and we were there until well after dark.

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Every Tuesday Carter is dismissed from school about 40 minutes before Cole’s preschool day ends.  So, we have “Mama-Carter Time,” at the park.

Usually he chooses “Turtle Park,” which has a lot of climbing walls.  He’s been practicing on the walls a good half hour a week, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but, dang, he’s becoming kind of a monkey.

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Another new routine we’re in is a weekly playdate with the rest of the kids who have A.M. Kindergarten.  Since they’re out midday, there are still hours to play before time to pick up Bunny, and a couple days a week Carter really likes to simply be home, eat lunch, and play with his toys, but we also picnic at school and go to Running Club twice a week, and to the park playdate once weekly.  Both the boys love the extra playtime with other kids.

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Happy Wednesday!