Thanksgiving 2015

Well, I still haven't caught up on Halloween or even the first day of school, so I figure I should probably get Thanksgiving handled before it gets any later.  Good thing I like to catch up when I can and add 'em in for family history sake.

Thanksgiving has been a simple holiday in our family. We stay home.  Sometimes we have all of us, Andrew has been with his dad in Tennessee a couple times, and Reagan alternates each year whether she's with us or not.  We've always extended our table to include friends.  The last few years we have had Thanksgiving with part of our "framily."  This year my mom was also visiting from Arizona, so even though this was an off year for us with Reagan, we had a full table. It was the first holiday we've spent with my mom in 8 years, so Lily and Violet's first holiday with her and possibly only one ever.

We started the day off with cinnamon rolls for breakfast, a little parade watching, a little cleaning and preparing food.

Early afternoon, our "framily" arrived to hang out and help out before it was time to eat.
Lily and Charlie, were happy to be coloring the tablecloth, playing tic-tac-toe, and dressing up while supper was being prepared.

George had the carving honors and discovered part of the bird needed more cooking time which was a first for me! We had enough that was done to be able to feed the kids while the rest of the adults waited. Oh well, life goes on.

After we ate, the kids played a new game that my mom got called Pie Face. It was pretty funny! Violet was just interested in eating the whipped cream.

After Pie Face was complete, the kids scattered to play other things, and we woke up the men to play a game of Apples to Apples.  We had a lot of fun!

Tracy was taking a photo of the game too. :)

It was a relaxing, enjoyable day and I'm so very thankful for my husband and my little turkeys! Thanks for spending the day with us, Framily!

Halloween Parade 2015

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is our local Halloween parade.  Andrew was in it when he was in Scouts before he was in marching band and still marches each year with the band. We were lucky the weather was good that day and wasn't too cold at night.  We like to stop and watch the band warm up before they head to line up for the parade.  Andrew went as bacon again this year. :)

Violet loves to watch the parade and clap!  We all enjoy seeing all the kids in costumes in the band and the others dressed up who march.

 Lily was excited when the cheerleaders were stopped in front of us for awhile and was cheering along with them!

Some of the fun costumes in the parade this year:   Inside Out was my fave!

I love this parade each year and it's fun to dress the girls up in one of their costume/dress up outfits to get good use out of all of those too!

Pumpkins 2015

Halloween is a super busy time of year for us. We're still in the throes of marching band season when it comes along and adding one more kid into school activities, has made it well, just crazy. Fun, worth it, but oh so crazy.

A week before Halloween, I went to school with Lily for a kindergarten pumpkin carving activity. All the kindergarteners and a parent/grandparent/friend helper got to carve a pumpkin and have a popcorn and juice box snack.  Each of the 4 kindergarten classes prepared a little song to sing as well.

Lily was super excited when she walked into the cafeteria and saw me! It was a really fun, special morning I got to spend with my girl.

Lily picked the design entirely. She wasn't a big fan of the pumpkin guts! 

We learned the Monday before Halloween, that our favorite pumpkin farm was straying from their traditional weekend only hayrides and pumpkin picking, so we decided to pick Lily and Reagan up from school a little bit early {something I never do} to be able to go as a complete family. The weather was perfect!  (Reagan is at her mom's each weekend, so weekend-only activities rarely include her.) 

real life with this crew

Lily lead the charge into the corn maze before the photo ops!

I love when kids just do things unprompted.  Lily found our family pumpkin! Now it was just time for some pictures before heading back.  Violet was crankypants for pictures and that's ok. ;)  Selfie stick for the win to get a family photo when needed!  The guys declared this their least favorite fall activity.  Party poopers.   It's actually one of my favorites!

Do you have a favorite or least favorite fall activity?

Happy to be with You on the 4th of July!

Fourth of July weekend was jam packed for our family this year.  We had a pretty slow June socially and I seemingly just couldn't get out of my own funk.  The 9329275724 days of rain in a row didn't help either. The very end of the month ended with a death on my husband's side of the family.  We did have some pretty great moments in June and were definitely reminded to hold onto the blessings in our lives.

July started off much better--It was great to reconnect with our friends we hadn't seen in too long!

Fourth of July was hot and muggy, but really fun!  We went to a picnic at our friends' family's house. This is a tradition with their family and the second time we've gone.  This was, however, the first year we've made it in time for the parade!  We arrived and got to catch up, ate, the kids got to play, and then we headed to the parade.

We have such great kids and  I love when we're able to all be together!


  The big kids are the best kids I know.

After the parade, we headed back for more food and fun! The kids played, the guys played, the babies made everyone smile, and the women got to chat and enjoy the day.

We spent a wonderful afternoon into the evening with people we love on a holiday we love! We snapped a family picture and headed home shortly before it was time for fireworks!  Our town's celebration was happening the next day and Andrew was marching in that parade.  It was a relaxing day and we had a great time!   Happy 4th!