Turkey & Snow Days

The turkey has come and gone…finally! Sheesh, even with family taking leftover turkey home we still ate on it for a week, finally re-cooking it in the crock-pot with bbq sauce for a change. Family might have been quietly laughing at me for buying the 22lb turkey, well I am laughing with you now.

As you can see we had Jill’s family at our home this year, which was a nice change for us not having to drive in any direction for the gathering. Jill’s parents parked their RV in the driveway with Dan & Carol crashing at night with them and all the kids sleeping in the house. We brought in our six-foot table for the big meal and, as you might notice, a wonderful fitted striped sheet for the tablecloth. Hey…we can be formal! It was cloth after all. (fyi, we found two table cloths stashed away after every one was gone…note for next time)

There were other funny things during the day that our home did not quite provide, not enough “nice” plates to go around, not large enough bowls for the stuffing or potatoes to be mixed in, and at the last minute Oma had to run next door and barrow chairs for everyone tushies. I don’t recall any complaints, we all just worked with what we had and ate a good meal enjoying the family company. Thank you Sandy and Carol for all you did as well.

To top off a wonderful meal with a wonderful family…the Dolphins beat the Lions!

We had a good night of snow last week, it didn’t last very long and was not very deep but we know how to make the most of what we get. A few beautifully crafted Snow Angels and one Snowman named just Bob was pulled from our front yard. Though the Angels disappeared within hours of creating them, Bob hung out for days and days finally becoming an ice skating rink for Jo and a large snow mountain for Cole and his batman car.
With Christmas heading our way now the kids have each had a chance to look at the Toys R Us catalog and given the colored coded marker for each to circle what they would like under the tree. Well just like a good kid…not one toy has gone unnoticed! Sure does not help to narrow down what they “really” would like to have but sure funny.

Tree yet to get - Santa yet to visit…But our lights are up and we are feeling the holiday spirit.

Chair – Arrrrg

Well as most of you know we have not been frightened to do projects around the house and some of them have been very large. Not knowing what you don’t know can help you tackle things you just shouldn’t at times.Neither Jill or I had ever upholstered before and we had no idea what we were doing, well it sounded like a good project for us.

The whole job went really smooth, we both figured out what we did best and just worked together like a fine oiled machine. No backfiring on this engine…I know, hard to believe. Jill did an awesome job on cleaning the chairs and then she took Jo to pick the upholstery out. Good Job Oma and Jo, Moma approves!ARRRRRGGGgggggggg!Cole and one of his new dress up characters. A cowboy hat with staples, necklace and a bandana and Cole becomes “Jack Sparrow”. No sword so he uses his light sabor...he is happy.

Ok, while typing this up the kids just came out in this! I laughed hard! I have no idea on this one! But they said they looked “Hot!”.One day I think I will take a photo of the kids every time they change their cloths in one day. Some days it can be a LOT. It’s only 10am right at this moment and Cole has changed four times and Jo is working on her third. Gotta Love It!

Parade and Cows

We loaded up the van for a weekend down south and this trip we loaded two extra bodies for the ride down and back. Cousins Derian and Hannah were getting to go over the river and through the woods with us to Grandma’s house, Grandpa’s too. All four grandkids spent a night together with just Gma & Gpa and were very excited. The ride down was sure different, more conversations in the back seats than we are use too and some of the discussions were funny. The older all the kids get the more fun they sure seem to become, purposeful funnies from them.
On Saturday they went to town for the parade and were lucky that the sun shone on them for at least that part of the day. They all had little sandwich bags for caring the candy that they picked up but those just were not large enough. The gentlemen that were standing behind them yelled and hollered that candy needed to be thrown their way so all four kids hauled quite a load. Oh, and I hear that Cole has been recruited into the Marines now and someone tried to get him to promise the Army but they were told he was already spoken for.

The twins had a great time with Gma & Gpa, ending with the new Santa Clause movie. They fell asleep as Oma drove them down to Rachelle and Connie’s for the rest of the weekend. Worn out for sure!
We took a walk to Connie’s folks place down the road to feed, pet and ride the cows. The kids were excited and sure seem to enjoy walking down there more than I can get them to do at home. I guess country living suits them.
The apples were red and the kids were throwing them on the ground for the cows, well Jo’s boots were red too…see where I’m going with this? She had a couple cows try and eat her boots right off her feet. She got a little scared but they only gummed her boots before figuring out they didn’t taste good and she laughs about it now. We learned that red rubber boots are not the best choice to wear into cow field.

COUNTING DOWN TO TURKEY!!!

Trick or Sick?

Well, we had a fun time on Halloween, the kids were so excited that it was hard to get them to eat dinner and, WOW, were they chatty!
Once there was a little good food down their tummies the kids got into their costumes and headed out the door! According to them we could not get out of the house fast enough. Our first stop was the McBee’s home to pick up the first bit of candy and presents that come as well. Francis always buys them gifts for Halloween instead of just the candy. New books and some squishy balls to play with, a photo or two and out the door we ran.

We meet up with a neighbor kid to walk with, Savannah the Princess. We crisscrossed our street as we headed toward the church at the end of the block, trying to time the party the church had starting at six. The three kids almost ran from house to house and we said hello to the neighbors that passed out the candy. The church was fun, a few games and a couple small plays to watch and more candy. Yummy!

Home after that to hang out and eat candy, and did they eat!! Cole not so much but I guess Jo ate more than we thought because around 5am she woke throwing up. We have been battling some colds here at the house so we thought that hey…she might just be getting sick. But then when she got up at 9 and it rushed out of her other end…well lets just say that she is very limited on candy today.

YIPPY...TURKEY MONTH!

Star Wars – Pumpkin Carving Party

Ok, Jill had a teacher workday on Friday so we pulled the kids out of school and headed to OMSI to play for the day. They have a Star Wars exhibit right now and, well, anyone who knows Cole knows we really could not miss this opportunity.
We had an exhausting day spending hours in the Star Wars exhibit alone. It was great to see the costumes, light sabers (handles) and ships for the movies. Some made us laugh with the pieces they used to construct them and others were just jaw dropping. I know for myself I was very tickled to see R2D2 and C3PO, made my heart jump and a smile came on my face.

We played with anything and everything we could, creating hovercrafts (using magnets) and riding on a hovercraft as well (that used an air cushion). We played a neat 3-D interactive game, building a colony only to find we had more war break out than we did live in peace. Jo even tried to make robot legs walk which was very difficult to do, they had robotics stations amid the Star Wars ones.
The Star Wars day was ended by a ride in the Millennium Falcon! It was not really a ride but it was a replica of the cockpit so there were only the four seats and a bunch of buttons and switches. It even had the microphone which Cole leaned over too and talked to the X-Wing Fighters that we were following. There was a movie screen surrounding the ship and we shook a little as we jumped to light speed. The kids both think we really went into space and saw all those planets and asteroids. Way fun! Oma and I missed most of the “movie” because we were watching the kids and their reactions. Oh, and Mom played with as many switches as I could the short five minute ride we had.

If you want to see all our Star Wars photos click here or click the link in the right hand column.

Jill took the kids to some friends Sunday Night and they all carved pumpkins. They had a wonderful time doing this together. The kid’s pumpkins are very small but they had a very good time and hope to do this activity in the future. That is pumpkin a carving party.