Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We spent the morning at home, watching the Macy's parade, having a tea party, building new buildings in Adam's city, doing homework, and making food for our yummy turkey dinner. It was Gwen's first Thanksgiving and she ended the day with a belly full of potatoes and rolls. 

 Our little Turkey

 We spent the afternoon and evening at Mamma and Bampa's house. We had a yummy dinner and had fun playing with our cousins. 

 Adam, Tessa, and Ellie

 Ready to eat!

 Zeke and Gwen

 Gwen did really well feeding herself a roll. 

 We spent the evening, visiting, coloring Thanksgiving pictures, playing basketball, watching "Brave", and we sang Happy Birthday to Mamma. We put trick candles on her cake, so all the kids got to help blow them out. We are so thankful for Mamma and all that she does for us! She's a wonderful Mamma, Mom, and Mother-in-law. We are so lucky to have her!

It was a very nice and relaxing Thanksgiving. Once dinner was over the kids were ready to put up Mamma and Bampa's Christmas tree. They are anxious to get the Christmas season started!

Thanksgiving Countdown

Day 4-Popcorn on the Cob

The kids glued popcorn onto some cob pictures and we were supposed to watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but we weren't able to get it. Hopefully next year. 

 We have been reading all of our Thanksgiving books. I love when I find the kids with a pile of books. Even Gwen loves looking at books. 

 Day 3-Thumbprint Turkey's. 

Adam and Tessa each made a turkey out of their thumbprints. 

 Day 2-Indian Vests

We made our traditional paper bag Indian vests. They both made Thanksgiving hats at school, so we just did the vests this year. Adam filled his vest with Indian symbols he learned at school. Tessa made up her own symbols for things like Squid and Jelly Fish. Creatures the Indians ran into often, I'm sure. That's our Tessa Boo for you!

 We also played a Thanksgiving alphabet game and Pin the Feather on the Turkey. 

They are excited to watch the parade tomorrow morning and spend the afternoon at Mamma and Bampa's house. We are so thankful to live close to our families!

Thanksgiving Countdown

We have had much to be thankful for this week! It has been a busy week getting ready for Uncle Matt's wedding, but we have loved being with all of our family. 

We tried to keep up with our countdown activities with everything else we had going on. 

Day 10-Thankful Place Mats

Adam and Tessa made Thankful Place Mats to use the rest of the month. They had fun cutting things from magazines or drawing things they were thankful for.

 Day 9-Thanksgiving Bingo

On Wednesday we played Thanksgiving Bingo and helped Adam with a special project for school.

Each first grader was asked to disguise a turkey. They could decorate or color their turkey however they wanted to disguise it and then they had to write about why they turkey was trying to hide. 

Adam wanted to make his turkey a basketball player. We made a Kings jersey and basketball for the turkey and Adam colored everything else. For his story, Adam said that his turkey ran into the Kings locker room and put on a jersey so the farmer wouldn't recognize him.

On Wednesday I started baking for the wedding. I realized at one point during the day that it was much easier to cater without a 10 month old "helping" me in the kitchen. Here is a glimpse at Gwen's handy work.  

Day 8-Hand Print Turkey's

Adam and Tessa made Hand Print Turkey's and wrote what they are thankful for on the feathers.

Adam was thankful for Teddy Elephant, food, our family, and basketball.

Tessa was thankful for Gwen, crowns, mommy, and cookies.

 Day 7 was sacrificed to wedding preparations. I catered Matt and Briette's wedding and it went so well! The wedding was beautiful and I got so many compliments on the food. I made 2 flavors of cake balls, pumpkin harvest cupcakes, sugar cookies and had a caramel apple bar. All the work was worth it!

 Day 6 was spent with family-being thankful for our family and thankful for the temple and eternal marriage. We are so happy for Matt and Briette! Their special day was wonderful. Their nieces and nephews adore them!

Poor little Gwen was such a good girl all through the wedding festivities. She did so well considering how busy I was all day. She eventually crashed on Eric's shoulder and got a little nap. 

Day 5-Turkey Pictures

We spent Sunday at Mamma and Bampa's house playing with cousins. We took our activity over there for everyone to do. Each of the older kids colored turkey's and then proudly displayed them in Mamma's kitchen. 

 We love playing with our cousins! We ventured over to the park and had fun on the playground. 

 Zeke, Tessa, and Paige

 Zeke, Adam, and Wynn

 Eric got everyone playing Freeze Tag. 

 We played some Duck, Duck, Goose and then Adam was thrilled to play a game of basketball with Daddy, Big Uncle Ben, and Wynnie. 

It's been a fun weekend and we are so excited for a fun Thanksgiving in a few more days!

Thanksgiving Countdown

It's time for another holiday countdown! I love countdowns because they keep me and all of my activities  organized. It's also nice because it takes care of my Mommy School themes for a week or two. 

Last week for Mommy School, we learned about manners. We read several books on having good manner and Tessa learned how to properly set the table, she learned about the polite things to do when we have to sneeze, burp, etc.and had a craft to go along with that, and the final day we had a tea party to practice all of the manners we had been learning about. 

Tessa planned the menu and set our table. We had hot chocolate, popcorn, pretzels, and goldfish. Of course no tea party is complete without a crown and some jewelry. 

 Last Friday we began our Thanksgiving countdown. Before we got started, I found Adam in the backyard playing some snow basketball. 

Day 14-Turkey Hunt

They LOVED this and played it forever! Adam had Tessa and I laughing hysterically when he busted out his "guns" to find his turkey. 

 Then Tessa had to give it a try.

Gwen enjoyed her bananas while the kids were "hunting". 

 Day 13-Pilgrim Cookies

We had a pre-Thanksgiving party with all of my cousins on Sunday evening, so we made some treats to take. Adam was gone all weekend, so it was just me and my little Chef. 

 Day 12-Play the Dice Game

They had to roll certain numbers on a dice to build either a Pilgrim or an Indian.

 Day 11-Play "Don't Eat Tom!"

For our Family Home Evening activity, we played "Don't Eat Tom!" 

Tom the Turkey is looking full of blessings this year. Every Monday in November as part of FHE, we add thankful feathers to our Tom the Turkey. We have one more week to go, but he is looking bright and beautiful! We also have a thankful journal that the kids and I (and occasionally Daddy) write in every morning. I love hearing the things that they are thankful for.