Thanksgiving fun

Our thanksgiving fun began with the decorating of our Christmas tree the night before our travels.  Then when we return, the house is all festive for us.  I guess it is our new tradition!

We had lots of family gatherings in our few days of vacation.  We had a pre-thanksgiving dinner with my parents and brothers.  We were excited to meet our new nephew and cousin Henrik who is already 2 months old!  And the kids had lots of great cousin time which even included two rounds of football, one of which was in the dark under the lights.

On Thanksgiving we went to Katie and Jason's and had a big gathering with some of Lisa's family.  The meal was tasty and again the kids had fun with their cousins.  The day was so nice, we were able to walk to the nearby falls and playground for an afternoon outing. 

Next it was onto Susie's for some time with Troy's side of the family.  We feasted again!  Teresa had some girl "cousins" to play with and Timothy played a little with the girls and his one young boy "cousin."  We enjoyed seeing Grandma Judy too.  Timothy and Grandma worked hard on a 1,000 piece puzzle which they were proud to complete.

And a few days after we returned from some great family time, it was cookie making time.  The kids helped me make and decorate (and eat!) some cut out cookies.  Lots of great memories!

Happy Halloween!

Another successful Halloween is behind us.  The whole month of October had some fun Halloween events.  We partied at Aunt Mary's.  We had several Halloween theme dinners.  We trick or treated at Hyvee.  And played Halloween bingo at Troy's Oktoberfest party.  So, last night was the actual holiday, but the whole month was fun!!

We carved pumpkins on Saturday morning.  I did not take any 'in process' pictures this year.  I scooped out all the guts and separated the seeds to roast.  Troy was going to carve both pumpkins.  he started with Teresa's chihuahua.  He cut out a head shape, then looked at it and discovered there was now a big head shape in the pumpkin and no where to carve a face.  I took over from there and managed a chihuahua face  with tiny eyes, nose and mouth in the chunk Troy had cut out.  I put the chunk bag in for the head and etched out a body and tail.  Teresa was pleased.  I thought we might have to get a new pumpkin for her, but it turned out with some creativity!

Timothy picked out a design online and Troy did a great job on that one!  Especially since we have never invested in those handy carving tools that make cutting easy.  Just kitchen knives for us!

The kids had a great day at school watching movies and having special snacks. Teresa was happy that she could wear her costume to school since it was normal clothes!

 I have given up on the theme dinner for Halloween night.  It is more the night for a quick dinner--although we did have some orange theme food!

Teresa dressed up as Evie from Disney's Descendants.  Her favorite part was her blue hair.  I should have gotten a better picture of that.  Timothy was the scream.  They both managed to stay warm even though it was the coldest Halloween in 11 years.  (At least that is what Troy reported from the news.)  Troy wore his Superman shirt (and was very chilled at the end despite is several layers!)  I said I was a cold mama and I was happy to come in when Teresa got cold!

Another very Happy Halloween!