Fun Family Thanksgiving

We had a fun family Thanksgiving this year, even if it was a bit smaller than usual. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Robyn didn't come this year and Aunt Katie and Uncle Bill also had other family to celebrate with (and as usual Uncle Jonathan was stuck at college). Grandma and Grandpa W., Noni, Grandpa and Oma were all able to come though.

Tom chose to smoke the turkey again this year. He used a maple brine that was really great. The turkey ended up simply delicious. I cooked a small ham to go along with it. Add in all the sides and yummy fixings and we had a great dinner. We spent a good portion of the day sitting on the newly finished deck (well no stairs yet) as it was in the 70s out. Erin was a big helper in the kitchen before Oma arrived (as once Oma was there it was all about playing with Oma). She helped me make both the pecan and pumpkin pie, and assisted Grandma W. in making some banana bread and a cheese dip.

We ended the evening with Oma and Erin continuing their playing in Erin's room. The rest of the adults enjoyed a game of Cranium and one of Wizard (a cool card game). We wore Jeffrey out so much with all the playing and eating that he actually crawled into Noni's lap and fell fast asleep. That's a very, very rare occurrence.

On Friday everyone (except Grandpa W. as he had some work to do) went to see Enchanted, the new Disney movie. The kids loved it, but got a little frightened at the end. The rest of the day we lazied around the house, playing with the kids and playing some cards while the kids were resting. Grandma W. and Erin made some lasagna for dinner. After dinner Noni, Oma and Grandpa had to head back home.

Saturday was another lazy day. We went for a drive in the mountains with Grandma and Grandpa W. and had a nice dinner at a nearby Japanese steakhouse. Afterwards we stopped by one of the local houses that really does up the lights at Christmas. They were all set up and even had parking spaces where we could get out and walk around the "show" with the kids. Jeffrey was in awe of all the lights and got very excited whenever he saw a Santa. Erin really liked the angel room which was filled with close to 100 Christmas angels.

This morning Grandma and Grandpa W. had to head back home. Erin and Jeff were sad to see everyone leave and kept trying to go along whenever someone left. We'll see Noni and Oma again this weekend and will be spending Christmas in Rochester this year, so we'll get some more family time in again soon. As for now, Erin's counting sleeps until Noni and Oma return (5) and we go to Rochester (28).

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Or black lamb to be more specific. We had opening weekend for Charlotte's Web this weekend. Tom, Erin and I are all in it. Erin has had such a fun time with the shows. She LOVES being a black lamb and getting her face all painted up. Her friend Natalie is the white lamb and they sit next to each other and kinda giggle on stage. Erin has done a great job singing loudly and gets her line out right on time, nice and loud, every time.

Rehearsals this week have been pretty crazy, and we had Jeffrey at most of them. Both kids have had colds and are now also just exhausted. By the Sunday matinee Erin had a little case of laryngitis and her voice oscillated between all squeaky and sounding like a double-bass. But that didn't slow her down one bit, and the squeaky just added to the cuteness of the "lamb" role. We did have quite an adventure in getting her short fine hair "up" so it was hidden and not sticking out under her hood. It took several clips, barrettes and elastics to do the job.

We have another set of shows the first weekend of December, but it will be quite nice to get a little rest before then. Hopefully during that set of shows I'll be able to get some videos of her on stage, but it's difficult as both Tom and I are on stage at the same time she is.

Big Girl Birthdays

Erin was invited to her first "big girl" Birthday party yesterday. Her friend from school, Abbey, had a party after school and Erin was invited. Erin thought this was just the coolest thing ever and we counted down our sleeps for 6 whole nights (that's how Erin judges time -- how many sleeps). Thursday we went shopping and Erin picked out a fairy puzzle and some dress-up wings for Abbey's present. She also picked out a new princess dress for herself because the invitation said to bring your favorite princess dress.

So after school yesterday, I picked Erin up with Jeffrey in tow (as always). Abbey's mom said Jeffrey and I could stay, but with it being nap time, I didn't expect we'd make it very long. I dropped Erin off and went inside for a while. I helped her get into her new princess dress (a red Belle dress that must be from some Beauty & The Beast sequel I don't know of). She and Abbey settled down at the little beauty parlor set-up to have Abbey's mom do their nails. By now Jeffrey was screaming because I wouldn't let him have the cupcakes he'd spotted in the dining room. I talked to Abbey's mom and we decided I'd leave Erin and come back to pick her up a little early.

I got back and there was a living room full of little girls in princess dresses, quite a sight to see. Erin seemed to be having a blast. She told me all about lunch (pizzas and little heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches), decorating her crown, Abbey opening her presents, hitting the pinata and jumping in the little castle bouncer. Clearly she had a blast.

I really wish I'd been there to enjoy it with her, but Jeffrey simply had other ideas. I wasn't going to wear us all out by battling with him the whole time and that was clearly the correct choice.

I can't believe how much my baby girl is growing up. Going to parties all by herself. Having little "makeovers". Making special friends. It's amazing to watch it all happen.

What could it be?

A couch you say? Not quite. A couch with blankets piled on it? Getting warmer. What you see is a couch with two children sleeping on it still wearing their sneakers and jackets from a playdate.

We had a playdate with some friends yesterday and within 5 minutes of leaving the house both kids were passed out. They slept through the Wendy's drive through. They slept through being carried inside. They slept through being plopped on the couch and covered up. And they slept through mommy taking pictures. Jeffrey finally woke up about 6:30 to some cold chicken nuggets. Erin followed right after. We've been running pretty busy recently and here's the result....a joint nap on the couch right in the middle of dinner time.

Happy Halloween!!!!

We had another great Halloween here. Both kids dressed up as completely adorable Peter Pans. They were arguing about who would get to be Peter Pan since September. We tried convincing Erin to be Tinkerbell or Jeffrey to be a pirate, but neither of them would have anything to do with it. So matching Peter Pans we had. Noni made their costumes and Grandpa made some little swords to go along with them.

We got great use out of the costumes. They wore them to the library for their "costume party" (which was really nothing more than story time in Halloween costumes). They were so adorable sitting next to each other playing on the computers before story time started. Erin got to wear her costume to church on Sunday and visited a local nursing home with her Church School. And then on Halloween Erin had a Halloween Party at school and wore her costume. Jeffrey and I were invited to come along for the party and he wore his costume as well.

This was the first year that Erin carved (with help of course) her own pumpkin. She picked out a little pumpkin when we visited the Apple Orchard with her school back in September. It was still good for carving over the weekend. Friends of ours had a pumpkin carving party. Erin helped to dig out the guts and then told mommy how the face should look. I even let her help cut out the eyes and mouth. In my completely unbiased opinion it was totally adorable. The kids had a blast just playing. They rolled down the hill, played on the swing set, rode in a wagon for hours. They were filthy and exhausted when we got home, but it was great watching them just play.

Erin's school party was quite adorable. They had a little lunch and then sat in a circle to sing songs for us, "Twinkle Twinkle," "Eensy Weensy Spider," and a couple of cute Halloween songs. Then they all got instruments and marched outside in a parade for the moms and dads (and fussy little brothers). Erin played the spoons. Outside they played games. Erin liked the fall relay race the best. They had to jump over a hay bale, jump into hoops, toss the hoop over a cone and then ride trikes to the finish line. Erin loved it so much she fibbed that she didn't get a turn just to take a second run (we had a discussion about this in the car on the ride home). They also tried eating doughnuts on strings without their hands and had a pinata to hit around.

For trick-or-treating we headed into town to hang out at Mr. Sid's house (our usual Halloween hangout). I took a few pictures of the kids sitting with the pumpkins and playing with their swords outside the house before we left. Let me tell you the swords were a huge hit. And I was quite proud at how careful Jeffrey was with his (in general). Once in town the kids had the run of Sid's lawn. He goes all out with his decorations. There's a graveyard, lots of ghosts and skeletons hanging in strobe lights. Colored flood lights lighting the graveyard. The biggest hit was the smoke machine that came out of the coffin. The kids would take their swords and battle away the smoke. With the colored flood lights behind them they kinda showed up as Peter Pan shadows battling the smoke. It was very very cool.

We did take the kids out trick-or-treating. This was Jeffrey's first time really getting into it, and old hat for Erin. She knew exactly what to do and ran from door to door always saying trick-or-treat and holding out her bag. Jeffrey would get over excited and scream "Trick-or-treat....Goody Bag!!!!" while shoving his bag right into the air for that precious candy. Then they'd yell thank you while running back down to us. Apparently someone as school taught Erin the famous trick-or-treating saying "Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet, Give me Something Good to Eat." She would walk between houses singing it at the top of her lungs. As far as I know she didn't share that at any doorways, but entirely possible. I tried blaming it on her daddy (known to share such silly knowledge) but she admitted she learned it at school.

So all in all we had a great evening. Jeffrey helped the teens hand out candy at Mr. Sid's when we got back and Erin helped Ms. Lynn bring out goodies to snack on. Jeffrey probably consumed 5-6 lollipops throughout the evening, and Erin had her fair share of chips and other snacks. I'm just so glad we got to spend such a fun night together as a family with some friends.