Thanksgiving Weekend 2011

WOW! I didn't plan on being away for so long! Life has been very busy and blogging got moved down on the priority list. How was your Thanksgiving? We had a nice, low-key day with my parents AND it happened to be my dad's birthday too..yay for birthdays!

My mom had a fun craft for the kids to do...a fruit (and celery) turkey

It was very cute (and edible too)! First, they "painted" the grapes and sprinkled dumped sugar over them...

Then my mom attached all the pieces to the pineapple body. Yum, Yum! It's nice to have fruit around to eat before and/or after a heavy meal.

After a huge meal, everyone just sat around and relaxed...with a phone or in front of the TV for football or with an iPad...

This happy, little bundle of cuteness is crawling all over the place and the other day when I went to get her out of her crib, she was holding on to the crib rail and standing!! Oh, boy!

The day after Thanksgiving, we got out the Christmas stuff.

Then, at about 3pm we decided to go out and get a tree, which was great, except for the fact that it gets dark around 4-4:30pm. So, we BLINDLY picked out a tree, came home and did some extensive pruning and trimming. TOTALLY worth it though...there's nothing like a freshly cut tree. I love the smell of a fresh tree in the house!

Once the tree was up, the kids and I made cookies to eat while we decorated...Sweet Pea requested cookies with sprinkles, so that's what we made.

I used this recipe for thick, soft and chewy sugar cookies and they were just that...thick, soft and chewy...mmm! We didn't have any sour cream,  as the recipe calls for, so I substituted cream cheese and they were REALLY yummy! Even the next day, they were still soft.

After baking cookies, it was time to DECORATE THE TREE!

We all had fun getting out all our family ornaments and hanging our special ones. I love our little eclectic family tree.

I have one day to finish up our advent calendar that I'm putting together. I better jump on it!

I love Christmas time!

Harvest Blessing Mix

For the last few years, we've made this Harvest Blessing Mix (which I found here) for school parties and other festivities. It's yummy and meaningful. Here's what you'll need to make it and what the ingredients represent:

Bugles: represents a cornucopia, a horn of plenty.
Pretzels: represents arms folded in thanks and prayer.
Candy Corn: during the first Winter, the pilgrims were each allotted only 5 kernels of corn per day because food was so scarce. (I got a 22 oz. bag of candy corn for .69 cents on Halloween clearance!)
Dried Fruit: Thanksgiving is the celebration of the harvest.
Peanuts and/or Sunflower Seeds: represents the potential of a bounteous harvest for the next season if they are planted and well tended.

There's not really a recipe for the mix. You can use equal parts of each ingredient or just eye-ball it.

This year I made simple little printable tags to include in the snack-size bags.

Go HERE to print these little tags. You can print them on Avery Badge paper (#5395) or on cardstock.

These make great little gifts for neighbors, teachers, co-workers, classmates...
put a bowl of it on the kids table for Thanksgiving...
or just use the mix to snack on anytime!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!!

Busy week at school

There was lots going on at the kids' school this week. On Monday, the boy had a violin performance.

there he is in the middle...so focused :)

That cute little girl on the left has a little crush on my boy. We were all walking down the hall and she turned to me and said, "I kissed him today!" Oh boy...we're in trouble!

Our sweet baby girl was sick this week...I hate it when the babies are sick. It's no fun. But she's feeling better now, as you can see.

Such a happy girl.

On Thursday, the kids had a Thanksgiving feast, while also honoring the grandparents. It was precious. However, I didn't get many pictures :(

Yesterday, I put the kids to work in the backyard. There are SO. MANY. LEAVES. They cover every inch of the grass!

Then, Sweet Pea and I went to a Preschool Thanksgiving Party at church. It was really cute. There was coloring, making cards and games. Simple and fun.

Potato stamps and handmade paper!

BINGO!

Today, my hubby is at a football game and the kids and I are having a lazy day at home. And that about wraps it up for this week. Have a happy weekend!

Family Photos

Due to sick kiddos last week, I didn't finish the Happy Day project, BUT I'm planning to in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

This weekend our good friend, Carly, took some family photos of our little troop. She got some great shots and we were thrilled with the results! Here's a little sample:

I was up until 1am making the girls' little headbands with a matching necklace for me. Sweet Pea does not like ANYTHING in her hair, so it took some major bribing to get her to keep it in. But she did and she did it with a smile!

I still cannot believe that we are a family of 5! Yet, it feels complete and I can't imagine our lives any differently. We are truly blessed! Thank you, Carly, for your time! We are grateful that we get to benefit from your passion :)

The Happy Day Project: Day Two & Three

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Day two's project was sending someone a HANDWRITTEN note. I love this because in the technology age we live in a note written with a pen on paper is rare. I love paper, pretty stationary, letterpress...you get the idea. As much as I love technology and all it has to offer, I'm still a writer-downer type of girl.

The kids got into the action and colored some notecards and we sent them to their cousins in Georgia and our sponsored child in Africa.

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For day three, we purchased a gift card to McDonald's for the homeless.

My husband and I love to keep these little gift cards, or even just bottles of water, crackers and oranges, in the car so that when we have an opportunity to give, we can. But what if we took it another step further?

Our friends, Andy and Serenity, took their garage and made into a food pantry for their community. They get donations from area churches and organizations and open up their doors to the poor and needy every week. Serenity wrote this on her Facebook wall recently:

As we enter this holiday season and you get that urge to do the typical charity/giving (which inherently is NOT bad), take a moment to pray and ask His Spirit what action He is asking of you. Often it is a prompting and/or reminder of His call to KNOW the poor, the needy, the marginal, the sinner. The temptation is to fix the problem and give quickly, when most of the time, He just wants us to get on our knees, pray, talk, confess, and imitate His Son, Jesus. To know the poor is to know ourselves and to know our Savior.

Scary, right? A little uncomfortable? It's one thing to hand a gift card out your car window and drive away. It's another to actually sit across from someone who is homeless, have a conversation and get to know them. But, maybe that's a place where God wants us to be.

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A few years back, we had the honor of working with some of the homeless in our city and it opened our eyes tremendously. The homeless and marginalized are people, just like us. They have dreams, just like us. They have basic needs, just like us. I would encourage you to engage with the marginalized in a whole new way. Tell them they are valued. Tell them they are loved. 

Check out what Julie and Jeannette have been up to. Good stuff!

The Happy Day Project: Day One

I'm really excited to be joining The Happy Day Project hosted by Julie and Jeannette. The Happy Day Project is their take on Random Acts of Kindness Week and I LOVE the idea!

I love the idea of stepping out of my routine.

I love the idea of taking my mind off myself.

I love the idea of blessing others.

Here is the schedule:

It is bound to be a great week!

Today is Day 1: Take a treat to a neighbor.

Our next door neighbor is a single mom with 2 kids. I think about her often. I think about parenting and what a tough job it is and that she's doing it on her own. So, to give her a break, I brought them a meal instead of a treat. Nothing fancy...just chili and cornbread (and some honey butter, because you can't have cornbread without honey butter).

This was actually an accidental collaboration. You see, we had our life group over after church yesterday and I made a big pot of chili and set some aside. My good friend, Katie, brought some yummy cornbread with honey butter over and left it! I think she would be happy to know that her love and labor that went into that cornbread not only fed our small group, but it also went to an awesome family.

Oh, happy day! Looking forward to tomorrow!

This just pinned: Foodie Style

Here are few of my latest foodie pins...

Recipes for  Cooking on a Budget
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Eggnog Cupcakes
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Use a small cookie cutter to cut pie dough and press into a mini muffin pan
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I guess I better get baking!!

Halloween

The kids have had lots of fun dressing up. Last Thursday, Sweet Pea had to dress up like something on a farm. She chose a cat...

Yesterday, the boy had a Book Party at school and they had to dress up like their favorite book character. He chose Peter Pan...

Last night we went trick-or-treating with my brother in-law and some friends

The kids decided to be something different for Halloween night. Sweet Pea rummaged through the dress up box decided on a butterfly (wings only) and the boy went with his dragon costume...again. Although last year, I think he was an alligator (with the same costume).Our little friend, Buzz Lightyear, joined us too.

My brother in-law was a monk. I was a mouse. And my hubby was this guy...

We had to work her in somehow. So it was either that or me dressed up as a carrot and her a pea.

They got waaaaay too much candy!

I've been taking out the lollipops and hard candies and storing them for our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. Collection week for those boxes is right around the corner!

Hope you had fun and safe Halloween!