thanksgiving fun

every year, i get a little sad for thanksgiving. as soon as we've digested the turkey, we start gearing up for christmas. don't get me wrong, i do love christmas. and maybe that's the problem. we're so excited that christmas is coming that we shove thanksgiving to the side. i don't know... i just wish thanksgiving and christmas were a little further apart so that we would take more time to really focus on thanksgiving. (even then, i guess we'd just start our christmas planning a little early!) before the christmas busy-ness takes over the rest of the month, i wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures from thanksgiving this year.

the kids and i started off the week of thanksgiving by making these cute hand and foot turkeys. (not to be confused with hand, foot, and mouth disease! been there! done that!)


while the kids did enjoy making the turkeys, i think they were more excited about the glue sticks than the actual craft itself.


on thanksgiving day, we headed over to brian's parents' house to get ready for lunch. jeff & kristie were out of town this year (we missed them!!), and we invited our friends sam, jen, lola, and amelia to feast with us. here is the loaded table...



this boy is ready to eat!


lola loves those olives! and this picture makes me want to say, "olive you, lola!" i do love this girl. she plays so well with my kiddos, and she just steals your heart. you really can't help but adore her. (and she's turning 3 on saturday!)


after we finished our delicious feast, we relaxed and played the wii. jen beat me and brian at tennis, though her husband finally put her in her place. :) thanks, sam!! here is jen beating my socks off in tennis.


i should have given up on the wii and just joined the girls' tea party. as soon as they sat down, lola exclaimed, "we need to pray!" and then my little stinker knew she was being funny by pulling her hat down over her eyes during the prayer. this picture just cracks me up.


this was my view of jen most of the day! (and she could probably say the same thing about me!) she is loving her canon 50d, and she got some great shots of our turkey day. some of these pictures are hers. i'm using them with permission. though i did tilt and process and mess with them all. i didn't have her permission for that. :)


and we did make the turkey cookies! the kids had a lot of fun with these, though they needed our help with the fine details. caroline did not need anyone's help digging into the icing on numerous occasions before we were finished decorating them. here are the kids with the finished turkeys.


the cookies didn't turn out quite like the pictures, but the kids didn't seem to mind.


lola enjoyed every second of eating that cookie. and caroline is not taking her eyes off lola!


ethan was very proud of his creation. he put the candy corn on all by himself.


we all got a big laugh out of the fact that caroline chose pink eyes for her turkey. as if our family has not had enough of pink eye this month! apparently, this turkey's pink eye was pretty bad, and it spread to both eyes. honestly, by the looks of that turkey, pink eye is the least of its worries!


i know i posted our little thanksgiving play already, but i wanted to share a few pictures that jen took during the play. caroline was not satisfied playing the general role of "pilgrim girl". therefore, she played the part of "pilgrim girl who did not like her hat".





she eventually put a smile on her face... i'm pretty certain this was after she found out that there was bread involved.



oh man, i could eat these girls! they do love each other.


here's one more shot of ethan as pilgrim man/william bradford/abe lincoln/whoever.


little miss amelia napped through all of thanksgiving lunch and for most of the afternoon. see her sweet thanksgiving bib?! my mom found that last year after thanksgiving, and i've been waiting all year for her to wear it!



she is not so sweet in this one!



some thanksgiving kisses from my baby girl.



i love my three turkeys!



we filled this thanksgiving weekend with friends and family! on wednesday, one of my dearest high school friends came over for lunch with her husband and niece and nephew. i had not seen melissa since my wedding, and i was so thrilled when she told me she'd be in town for the week! i loved meeting her husband, and the kids really hit it off well. we played the fishing worm game (leftover from caroline's party) and dug out all the kids' dress-up clothes. and i loved seeing my friend. melissa is the same down-to-earth, beautiful, encouraging friend that i remember from high school. i hope that our next visit is not 5 more years down the road!!

melissa and her husband, arturo- aren't they a beautiful couple?!


dr. ethan checking melissa's vitals- she is a doctor, so ethan dressed up as a doctor for her. :)


finishing off those gummy worms from her party! our guests were such good sports!


the day after thanksgiving, my grandma, the kids, and i took a drive to see my great aunt and uncle and their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids for the day. we do this every year, and i always look forward to this visit. the guys are always so great about entertaining my kids, and this year was no different. here is micah humoring my kids in a game of war.... later, ethan played football with all the guys. he had a blast.


and everybody always loves the babies. this was amelia's first time to meet most everyone out there. and she charmed everybody as usual... here she is loving on "uncle" terry. she had a field day with his beard! sorry terry!


the next day, we took another day trip to see brian's grandparents and aunts and uncle. ethan and caroline had so much fun singing and playing with everyone there. here is caroline beating aunt joanie in a game of go fish.


and the smile on grandmommy's face as she held amelia made it worth the trip.


SO! we had quite a busy thanksgiving weekend! we have much to be thankful for! and now that i have finished this blog post, i can officially start celebrating christmas! :)