Thanksgiving in Review

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.  We made some changes and ended up staying home this year.  Kevin and I weren't feeling great and it was nice to be home to rest, relax and enjoy some yummy food.  We missed our family, but are hoping to get to see them soon.

I cooked all the things.  Pie is my favorite thing to make.  I love all the traditional foods and am confident making them since we've spent several Thanksgivings at home over the years.  The kids were eager to try all the Thanksgiving foods.  They sampled everything and decided they do like turkey, stuffing is alright, cranberry sauce is gross and they each picked a pie they liked - Pecan for Fletcher and Pumpkin for Olive.  Leo tasted a little bit of everything, too.  Sweet potatoes and homemade bread were his favorites.

We stayed home, watched some fun Christmas movies for movie night, undecorated from Thanksgiving and feel like we're ready to get excited for the Christmas season.

Here are our picture highlights of Thanksgiving:

We tried to watch the parade, got bored with all the interviews and saved our attention for the dog show afterwards.

I made pies for the grown ups and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the kids.

Leo's first Thanksgiving.  He loved the food and got into everything.  Cute little turkey!

I'm thankful for these 3 and any opportunities for holiday clothes.

I set a festive table just for the 5 of us.

These 2 have been a part of our family for 2 months now.

My kids love Play-Doh.  We did a Play-Doh Pie making contest with my mini pie tins.

This crazy 7 month old has decided standing is his favorite.  He's too young for this nonsense.

And a real life moment.  Long days.  Dirty Mirror.  Messy Bun.  And baby snuggles.

I'm thankful for all these sweet moments together.

We are Thankful for... Charcuterie!

I knew I'd be cooking more later in the week so I opted for an easy dinner last night - a Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board!  This is such an easy dinner for me to make.  No pots and pans to clean, minimal dishes, a great way to finish up little bits of everything and it just requires some chopping that I don't mind one bit.

Hello, Thanksgiving Turkey Charcuterie Board.

I'm guessing we'll be having this again before Thanksgiving break is over.  It's a family favorite.

I did salty snacks in rows for the feathers, carrot and cucumber sticks, super thin cut apples for feathers, thin slices of cheese, sweet pepper body, pistachios for a head and I served a loaf of homemade bread on the side.  Everyone knew it was a turkey without me having to tell them so I'm calling it a great turkey success :)

And in honor of Thanksgiving, I interviewed everyone to find out 3 things they're thankful for this year.

Olive // Age 7

1. I'm thankful for my family.

2.  I'm thankful my teacher and my school.

3. I'm VERY thankful for our girl kittens.  I love them too much!

Fletcher // Age 4

1. I'm so "thankyful" for Mommy & Daddy.

2.  And our whole family including the kittens.

3.  I'm "thankyfull" for my toys.

Leo // Age 7 months (what we'd assume he'd say :)

1.  I'm so thankful I can finally crawl.

2. I'm thankful for Mama.

3. I'm thankful these people are sharing their people food with me.

Whitney //

1.  I'm thankful for our cozy home.

2. I am thankful all the family time we've had this year.

3. I'm thankful for my health.

Kevin //

1. You!  (Can I say you for all three?? :)

2. Our kids.

3. Our neighborhood.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with the people you love.  I know COVID likely changed some of your plans, but I hope you can find a way to celebrate and stay positive.  Hugs to you!  

I'm going to enjoy a Thanksgiving Break and will see you back here on Monday. 

Painting Turkeys

We did a fun art project this week - painting turkeys!

I'd seen some different variations of this project and decided to do my own.  You just need Thanksgiving/Fall colored paints, thick paper, painter's tape, paint brushes, glue and googley eyes.

This was a really hands on project for me.  I had to help with every step, but we all enjoyed it!  I'm trying to plan art activities for home since both kids are missing this creative outlet at school.

Step 1:

Select your paint colors, get your paper out and start taping off the turkey.  Both kids shared one paint tray and then had their own bowls of water to rinse their brushes.  Start taping the head first and then do the feathers.  I let the kids decide how many sections and what shape the sections would be on their turkey feathers.  They helped press the tape down and I made sure the edges were crisp.

Taping is done and we are ready to begin!  I did one kid at a time and they were a little confused about this turning into a turkey.  I assured them they'd both look like turkeys at the end.

I reminded them to use one color at a time and to paint one section at a time.  It went great.

We had to let them dry for 30 minutes and then painted the turkey faces.  Once everything was dry, I removed the tape.  The kids tried to help, but it was more of an adult job.

They both turned out so cute.  They're hanging in the kitchen and are ready for Thanksgiving. 

We also made some hand print turkeys.  Googley eyes are great for this, too.  The kids enjoyed tracing their own hands this year.

 Happy Thanksgiving week!

Play-Doh Turkeys

I have a really fun turkey activity to share with you today.  We made Play-Doh turkeys over the weekend.  The kids loved them.  It was easy to prep and they turned out so cute!

I'm sure your kids or any little ones would love doing this at Thanksgiving.  Lots of things might be different this year, but there's still plenty of opportunities to focus on being thankful and making turkeys with your kids this week.

You just need: Play-Doh and it's a bonus if you have googley eyes, Play-Doh tools and a plastic knife.

I gave each kid six colors of Play-Doh.  I opened new containers and just cut each color in half.  Each kid got a craft tray to build on and then our turkey context began.  The only rules - you must use all colors of Play-Doh, googley eyes and all the important turkey parts :)

Both kids - age 4 & 7 - loved this activity.

They worked so hard on their turkeys and they were super proud of their turkeys.  Both had very different strategies, but I love the final product. 

Olive's turkey: She spent so much time making sure all her feathers and details were just right.

 

Just Cheerios and frozen teethers for this guy.

 

Fletcher's Turkey: He cut out and rolled all those feathers.  Then he rolled them flat.

Happy Thanksgiving week!

Birthday Favorites

It's been a fun birthday week!  We've got date night this weekend and no big plans.  The weather has been great and I felt super loved all week long.  It's amazing how phone calls, snail mail, packages and special things can make a girl feel so special.

Birthday Favorites:

Plain cheesecake with all the toppings.  My favorite topping is Hershey syrup and mini Reeses.  Bonus: The kids don't love cheesecake so I didn't have to share :)

I got a treadmill and new workout clothes for my birthday!  New Nikes, leopard and floral yoga pants.  I've been wanting one so I could have an indoor workout option for the cold months at home.  I am already loving how easy it is to get in a quick workout while the baby naps.  Kevin worked super hard to make this happen.  Treadmills are heavy!

We aren't really taking the kids out and about to stores much so they scoped out my Amazon wish list.  They got me some really fun stuff :)

Birthday roses from Kev.  From the grocery store :)

My friends had personalized sugar cookies made for me and gifted me the prettiest lantern filled with succulents.  I loved it!

Lots of time at home in our pjs since both kids are home from school right now.  One perk of school going virtual is that we don't have to set alarm clocks right now.

Leo and I got to run some errands to try to get all the things done before school got cancelled.  He's the best little side kick.

The big kids worked really hard on my birthday cards this year.  They drew family pictures, wrote notes and got me this cute Three Peas in a Pod Christmas ornament.

Tons of crawling and helping me enjoy my birthday week.

My parents came for a visit last weekend.  They arrived with all of our favorite treats, gifts for everyone and we enjoyed seeing them.  We hadn't seen them in two months thanks to COVID.  It was cold any rainy for most of their visit.  We stayed indoors and snuggled kittens and kids.

 

A friend hosted a drive thru playgroup to their family's giant construction business.  We drove all through and then her husband did a boulder lifting demo for us.  The kids were very impressed.

We headed to the park with friends another day.  The weather was gorgeous and they introduced us to some new trails and areas of the park.

No one loves a foot rub more than Leo.

The weather was warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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