Happy Friendsgiving!

Happy Friendsgiving!  

With Thanksgiving just past us, we head into a busy hustle and bustle holiday season and a lot of "I wants" really come to the forefront. I like to find ways to celebrate our lives and our friends all year long. We are truly so very blessed to have an amazing group of friends in our lives whose children are all friends as well.  We celebrate all of our successes together and are there to support each other when we struggle.  I couldn't ask for a better group of people to surround myself and my family with which makes writing about being thankful for friends, so very simple!  We spend birthdays, holidays, and so many "regular" days together making memories. I love that my children are learning by example, the value of true friendship.  We have teens, tweens, school-agers, toddlers, and babies. Stef, Tracy, Amy, and Amber are my people. I love their kids like my own. The men are friends, the women are friends, and the children are friends--we couldn't ask for a better group! From regular nights for supper, to birthday celebrations, to summer playdates, it's just better with friends.

These four little girls have been friends for as long as they will ever remember.

Stef, Amy, and I shared a time pregnant last year which made my last pregnancy very special!

The youngest of the group...Amelia, Liam,and Violet.

My beautiful friends and our beautiful babies!

Sometimes our crews are together, but not everyone is there. Teens are with friends, families have other obligations, we have some blended families too. We love and cherish the time with whomever is with us and look forward to the next get together for everyone!

Usually on Thanksgiving, my family has a meal together with just us. In a blended family, sometimes the mix of people changes, but with my mom and brothers across the country, it's just us for the holidays. It's a happy day where I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have my husband and children.  This year, however, some of our best friends, Tracy and Gary, weren't going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with their family until later in the weekend, so we invited them to come over and join us for our own Friendsgiving.  It was a happy day celebrating and being thankful for those we love most!

This month Netflix and the #StreamTeam have been celebrating Friendsgiving and dynamic duos! In addition the blessing of my best friends, I'm fortunate enough to have my very own dynamic duo--Lily and Violet!  A brand new Veggie Tales--In the House {a Netflix original} just started on November 26th and my girls were super excited to watch! They gathered up all their Veggie Tales stuffed animals, snuggled up in the big chair to watch another dynamic duo in Bob and Larry! (These are all Andrew's toys from when he was a toddler circa 2001ish)

Some shows to check out on Netflix for your littles that emphasize friendship & dynamic duos:

1. Bob and Larry: VeggieTales in the House 2. Bert and Ernie: Sesame Street: Elmo and Friends 3. Bo and Dezzy: Bo on the Go! 4. Justin and Olive: Justin Time 5. Tod and Copper: The Fox and the Hound 2 6. Clifford and Elizabeth: Clifford

Lily is a big fan of Bo on the Go and always talks about her energy which I love!  Violet loveloveloves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood so we're always talking friends with that show! 

And a few for the big kids too: 

My favorite children's book is Charlotte's Web, so I love watching this movie with all of my kids and talking about the friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur.  The bromance between Phineas and Ferb is fun! I enjoy watching that show with the kids too!  

1. Phineas and Ferb 2. Shaggy and Scooby: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 3. Vada and Thomas: My Girl 4. Martin and Chris: Wild Kratts 5. Finn and Jake: Adventure Time 6. Mario and Luigi: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! 7. Charlotte and Wilbur: Charlotte's Web There are some fun and also more intense friendships and dynamic duos for the grown ups to be found also!  George and I have been watching Sons of Anarchy--me for the first time and he to rewatch as the series ends and seeing the friendships and loyalty there on an entirely different level has made for some good catch up time with my husband.  I love having a show to watch together! My next solo show is going to be Gilmore Girls!   And in case you missed the announcement-- all 10 seasons of the original Friends hits Netflix January 1st! PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOT!  Mark. Your. Calendars.  1. Rory and Lorelai: Gilmore Girls 2. Schmidt and Nick: New Girl 3. Ted and Barney: How I Met Your Mother 4. Liz and Jack: 30 Rock 5. Walter and Jesse: Breaking Bad 6. Mulder and Scully: The X-Files 7. Wayne and Garth: Wayne's World Can't wait to see y'all next month--keep on watchin' Netflix!  We are!

Did Somebody Say Party? Easter Party!

Late Saturday afternoon after our egg hunt, we headed over to our friend's house for our annual Easter party with friends.  After perpetual winter, it was a perfect Spring day to hang out with friends, get some outside time and celebrate another holiday season together.

We all filled eggs and brought them to hide and the dads hid them.  We have to separate the bigger kids and the little kids because our bigger kids will mow over the little ones. ;)

The little girls were first for the egg hunt.  The Lilys actually were egg-cited despite this picture.  Charlie and Victoria were much more cooperative for the picture.

 Aaaaaaand they were off!  Running is something these girls love to do!

 Lexie {the other Lily's big sis} is great with the little ones and the Lilys wanted her help after a little bit.

Amy and I tried to get a picture of Lily and Victoria together and they were far from interested.  Lily wanted to wear her basket like a purse and Victoria was excited about her marshmallows.  

This picture literally makes me laugh everytime I look at it! 

 Next it was time for new eggs to be hidden and the bigger kids to have their turn. You can see they're pretty intense.

{Stef's pic}

 Never too old for an egg hunt. :)

Violet just watched this year. 

The other two babies, Liam and Amelia were adorable in a sweet little photo shoot that Violet wanted no part of.

{Stef's pics}

We had an easy supper and hung out the rest of evening with our best friends.   The kids colored eggs, played outside, played video games, played a board game for a really long time. There were no casualties. With 14 kids, that a feat.

My girls crashed pretty early {relatively} but were content sleeping on the couch while the bigger kids continued to play and the adults chatted. 

Sweet Liam wanted no part in going to sleep.  He hung in there with the adults for the duration.
{He and Violet have the same bunny jammies, but she simply wasn't cooperative that day for a picture together.}

We really love these times with our friends that are family and look forward to it every year! We need to be better about taking pictures of the grown ups, I've decided. :)