Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all I wish all of you who are reading this, a beautiful Thanksgiving.  Stop and think of 3 things you are grateful for.  I've been doing this before I go to sleep each night, (I write them in a journal) and I think it's really powerful.

I woke up around 5am, as Joe wanted to get in some hunting before turkey time.  I have a few moments of silence while the babes still sleep.  I wanted to pop on and share a few gems from our week.

We've been so busy with Thanksgiving prep and festivities.  Preschoolers add a whole new level of fun and excitement!

Brooke helped make cranberry bread for her Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool.  My grandma's original recipe was using Pillsbury, but for some reason they no longer make it.  This came out pretty well!  We all love it and I can at least carry on the tradition.

I took a few photos with my iphone (I'll share some of the nicer photos next time, from my good camera!)

She made a vest and a headpiece, but was a little mad she couldn't just wear her fur vest! (Totally my kid.)

The teachers even made us moms and dads pilgrim hats.  I also received my very first homemade necklace.  I had to choke back the tears about 3 times that day.  I am so grateful to be able to spend these moments with Brooke.

We made a potato turkey {she wanted to eat all the marshmallows & gummies!}

Wednesday I met up with my sister briefly at a mall and the kids got to play a bit.  I felt bad because I've been busy cleaning and prepping so it was good to get them out of the house a bit.

And today?  Today I will host my first Thanksgiving.  I'm trying very hard not to stress.  I am a little nervous about the timing of the turkey; there seems to be a million different methods on how to make the perfect one, and I just don't want it to finish too early or not be done on time.  I'm sure it will all work out, but ahhhh! I'm so excited to have friends and family over.  It may not be 100% ideal, as I wish more family and I were together, but I will focus on what we have and be thankful for all of it.

I'm going to start a new tradition of making these Thanksgiving morning.  If I had more time I would totally make them from scratch; maybe next year.  I'm sure my curly haired babes won't mind either way.

Have a blessed & bountiful day my friends!

Thanksgiving 2014 {blessed}

Phewwwwwwwwww.   Thanksgiving 2014 is a wrap!!  We kept saying to each other, this is our last Thanksgiving with just us 3! How crazy is that?  I tried my best to keep up with everything I wanted to/had to do, but man let me tell ya, being this prego I am getting T-I-R-E-D very quickly.  I just keep reminding myself the most important thing to do is listen to my body and rest if I need to, even though that is so darn hard for me.

I was able to prep some of my goodies Wednesday, to make for an smoother Thanksgiving Day.  I will say, I have made a mental note, to prepare a breakfast casserole next year, and even for Christmas Day. There is nothing more annoying than having to stop and make breakfast, eat it, only to have a big old mess to clean up again, and then try to get ready and be out the door by a certain time.  And next year, we'll have two little ones, so I am sure that will not get easier any time soon!


Here is grandma's squash I was telling you about the other day.  Darn thing was so hard to cut open! Grams must've had super strength hehe

I think she'd be proud.  I am pretty sure she was with me the whole time.  Love you grams!

Cranberry bread.  Yummmmmm.

Thanksgiving Day she was just too cute! She loves stickers and her minnie.



I showed her to pose and say, "Fabulous" haha



On the way to my dad's, she was out. COLD.  We hated to wake her!

Here was my fancy cheese platter!



My step mom made some delicious shrimp, she poached in herbs, and my dad's cocktail sauce, certainly will clear out your sinuses!



A holiday cocktail, or in my case, mocktail.  Ginger beer, cranberries, ice, and they had spiced rum, I obviously did not.



Aunt Brianna!





My family <3







I love this shot.  My handsome hubby who is obviously partaking in "no shave November" and my cutie patootie tot who is so squirmy!  Not gonna lie, my sister made me feel good when she said my legs looked skinny haha!

And she thinks it's funny to suck her thumb and maybe go for the nose.  doh.



33 weeks and 5 days!

The bird!

Turkey butter that my sister so kindly stabbed.

My plate.

Brooke thoroughly enjoyed her meal!

Our niece came by just as we were getting ready to leave, and Brooke was SO upset to leave.  She wanted to stay and play.  Next time we will have to plan better.

Unfortunately our night did not end as happily as our day, with the niners and their terrible loss to the Seahawks.  That's about all I have to say about that.

Our Thanksgiving though, was so peaceful and quiet.  We all had a wonderful time and had so much to be thankful for.  Ok, time to bring on the holly!! Who's with me?!

Thanksgiving: Making Food and Memories

Thursday will be here in a jiffy, are you ready?  I absolutely love the holidays, no doubt.  One day I cannot wait to host my own Thanksgiving, with a big ol' turkey and all the fixings.  As for now?  I will respectfully attend my parents' house and bring what I can.  I just love being in the kitchen and cooking (and even baking) makes me happy.  I also know it's not easy to do with a tot who's not even two, and a bun in the oven.  I wanted to bring a few new items to share and some old standbys that are so engrained in our memories, that it is simply not an option to not have them be present at Thanksgiving.

We rotate my parents and Joe's parents, and this year we are at my parents.  It's a bit of a drive (45 mins) and I didn't want anything that required too much work at their house, since I know what the kitchen looks like as the main meal is coming all together.

We aren't going crazy with apps; you certainly don't want your guests to fill up on them!  But I know that it's important to have a little snack a few hours before sitting down to eat.

I'm not sure exactly what type of cheese I will use, but I want to incorporate grapes, a chutney, and some artisan bread.  I can't have goat, blue, or brie (any of the stinky delicious ones!) but I will figure it out.

I'm going to make a Fall salad because I do believe in the power of greens!! With all of the heavy foods, it's important to include leafy greens to help our systems digest everything properly.  I love the idea of pomegranate or orange slices in there to give it a festive spin.

Grandma's squash.  I wish I had written down the recipe, as for now it's all sort of taste and try to get it right.  I do know it was always our favorite and it was always piping hot; I'm talking, steam would be pouring off your plate because it was so hot!!

She used a buttercup squash, roasted it, scooped it out and then cooked it some more with something along the lines of, frozen orange juice concentrate, maple syrup, butter, and maybe even a little brown sugar.  Tastes like candy.

Grandma's cranberry bread.  I think us girls loved it so much because 1.  It's truly tasty and 2. We could help her make it very easily.  She always added fresh cranberries to the mix, which gives is an extra punch, which you can taste in almost every bite.  It may not be "homemade" but I make this every year, and only at Thanksgiving.  I make no apologies for this!

I already start to wonder what recipes my children will remember most about holidays.  Of course I cannot wait for some Turkey, stuffing, my dad's mashed potatoes and gravy.  Pumpkin and apple pie will be present too, I am sure.  I think the reason that food is so important with holidays, is because as life goes on, we don't have anything but memories.  Little bits of here and there; snapshots of what was, and what used to be.  I would love to have one more Thanksgiving, where Grandpa carves the turkey and Grandma makes her famous bread, squash and fruit salad--(my sister's got that covered).  But life doesn't work that way, and we must create new memories, with old traditions mixed in with new.  The most important thing we can do, is enjoy the time we have together and sincerely make the most of it.

I may have started listening to some Christmas music, and one line that gets me all choked up from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, "Someday soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow."

Now, I am certain that it's mostly the pregnancy hormones I tend to blame a lot on them haha but in reality, this Thanksgiving, we won't see Joe's parents, so I know that's tough on them.  We won't see my mom, because she's down in S.C.  We won't see our step brother Tyler because he's in New Orleans.  So, really, we just have to make the most of the loved ones we can see and enjoy it.

As far as the food is concerned? One thing I've definitely learned is to taste just little bits, and I can always take home leftovers.  I don't really have much room to eat a lot being pregnant, but I know that you don't need to shovel all that food in, and make ourselves feel sick.  It's good to indulge every now and then, but more important to be honest with ourselves about when and what we are indulging in.  Just my own personal thought…

What are some of your favorite traditions, past and present?

Toddler Homeschooling: Thanksgiving Theme

November 3-7

Age: 22 months

Keep in mind, these activities take longer to plan than they take to actually do.  The key is prepping, setting up and getting ready to switch gears when your tot is done.  They have short attention spans, so it makes for quick thinking!

On a side note, I am not planning on homeschooling my children for real. I'm pretty sure we'll send Brooke to pre-school when the time is right and I'll continue to supplement education at home as her education continues.  I just enjoy it and seeing her grow, so that is why I do it.

Tips--

Go.With.The.Flow. Don't have super high expectations; at this age it's all about exploring and playing. She loves to get messy, and it makes me cringe, but soap and water does wonders.  I also like to hang her work up so she can see it and we go over what she did again and again.

Letter:
T

Crafts:
Q-tip paint
Paste leaves activity
Turkey hunt

Books:
The Night before Thanksgiving
Fall is for Friends
Who Loves the Fall?
Ten Fat Turkeys
The First Thanksgiving 
Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks

Song:
"I'm a Silly Turkey"

We worked on the skill of "dot dot dot" in the circles.

I gave a brush and a pumpkin too since there was more paint left over.

She showed interest in the glue stick the other day, so I just cut some of the square images out and taught her how to paste.

I reserve the books for when mama is beat and not ready to turn on the TV.  I pulled them out and she legit, sat and listened to ALL of these books! I read most of the words, sometimes we just pointed out some objects she knew on the pages.   I cannot explain how much it warmed my heart to have her sit and read with me.  Usually she is up and running, but she really listened to each story.  Warmed my teacher heart I tell ya!!  I was super excited my stepmom had all these books from a kid she used to nanny.  I swear I was probably a little too excited about it, but what can I say.

I <3 reading.

Since she loved these two stories, we've been reading them still.

One of the printables was for "cutting" but I put it in a plastic sleeve and we are working on "tracing" with a dry erase marker.

I laminated some of these words and we say them.  She obviously knows them only by the picture, but the exposure to the printed word can't hurt!

Wednesday we did another painting "T" activity.  Turkey today!

And then I just let her paint some more.

Our new books came in the mail!! We had a ball reading them. She loves flap books. The turkey one is cute and of course, it's important to start instilling thankfulness.

It was nice to read the new books upstairs after her long nap and snack.  She was raring to go!

Thursday:

I got my new shelving today, so I have been trying to organize all of our school stuff!! Really, it was funny because she was just all up in my biz-nass and trying to get into all of it.  So we kept taking breaks.

We broke into the Sensory bin.

She wanted to draw with the expo marker/white board.

She wanted to play with play-doh.

She even played with the box the shelf came in for a bit.

This is what I mean about going with the flow…kids will show you what their interests are, you just have to be open to it.  She also told me "potty" and put her hand on me several times, so we stopped and did that a few times too.  She had already gone in her diaper, but her thought process is getting there!  

These fridge magnets are great too! Since our letter of the week is "T" I keep pressing it and we'll sing it.  I'm always in the kitchen, so it's pretty easy to remember. I also have the bath foam letters and we always go through those as well.  Like I said, exposure and repetition seems to be key!

Bottom line, I keep reminding myself to HAVE FUN.  Kids know when you're not happy.  Kids will connect and remember whether it is a positive or negative experience. I don't want to EVER associate school with something that we are fighting on.  Sure, when she actually goes off to school we will have tears and frustrations and stress…but not now.  We just are exploring and having fun…and making LOTS of messes in the process.  Sorry Daddy! hehehe  Luckily when I asked if he liked our daycare setup, he said there was no other daycare he'd rather send his daughter off to.  That made me feel good. :)

Any fun toddler tricks you're up to these days?