…to yours, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving.
We are so grateful for family and friends like you.
Love to you all.
From our Indian and Pilgrim…
3
A thankful Thanksgiving Eve.
On this eve of Thanksgiving I have quite a list of “Thankfuls:”
- I’m thankful to wake up each and every day next to the man I love.
- I’m thankful to have the very best job of “Mommy” to two amazing girls.
- I’m thankful for our families (all of you – no matter where you are tomorrow) and their continued health.
- I’m thankful to have a house of “all our own” this year to celebrate Thanksgiving in.
- I’m thankful for the food that will be on our table tomorrow, especially this, and this, and this!
- I’m thankful to not have to go anywhere on Black Friday – except for maybe Disneyland.
- I’m thankful my Christmas cards are completed and on my dining room table.
- I’m thankful that Elfette (formerly known as Elfie) returns to our house tomorrow night.
- I’m thankful for each sunrise and sunset – each new day I get to spend on this Earth.
I hope you all have a very thankful Thanksgiving tomorrow and are feeling as blessed as we are.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Crafty Tuesday
My crafting has become a bit of a joke over here. I’m sorry to let you down yet again this week. I have been sewing away on the little purses and even took some photos thinking I might do a little tutorial for you – but it has not all been downloaded, edited, translated and decoded into a pretty little tutorial as of yet. Don’t give up hope on me…I might just surprise you with my extra time this week!
The girls are home this week and if you are a FB friend you already know how we spent day one of our vacation…painting ceilings and getting a few teeth (Em’s) yanked. Not. Crafting. In other words.
And I didn’t get a great photo of the ceiling because I finished as J. was walking in the door and it was already very, very dark. (Cursed daylight savings.) Now, I don’t generally like to toot my own horn, but….beep, beep. Our ceiling looks beautiful, if I do say so myself. I had some painter tape mishaps and need to touch up tomorrow, but behold, a shiny, clean, white ceiling and…no hole!
I’ll get a better pic in the daylight tomorrow. And other than ceilings and teeth, we have just been desperately trying to wrap up the ‘ol soccer seasons. We succeeded with Addie’s, complete with party.
And are so, so close with Em. Rain cancelled our second playoff game on Sunday, but we had a end-of-regular season party anyhow. More cupcakes.
And now we return to our regularly scheduled program of trying to get some Christmas gifts made! Please share what you are up to. Desperately searching inspiration over here. (Ah, who am I kidding…we have plenty of inspiration, just need a few more hours in the day!)
Crafty Tuesday
Nope. Very little to share, I’m afraid. I have, however, lugged all of my sewing room upstairs for Addie’s old room is now my new sewing room. The bunkbeds and sharing a room seems to be sticking and the girls are still going strong on the roommate thing, so the other room is going to be a terrific place to leave my sewing all out. And it is ready…just not much crafty going on…yet.
I have been mending, fixing holes in jeans, putting in new elastic in pants, darning ballet sweaters, taking in choir robes, and trying to finish up some of those little gift card wallets. (They are coming, Aunt Laura – I promise!) And now those little things are almost done, hopefully I can start on some Christmas gifts.
I did, however, (as I might have mentioned here, or over on Facebook, or at least 20 times to different friends over the course of today) finish my Christmas cards! I’ll give you a sneak peek…I don’t think it’ll give too much away. This is one of the shots from the photo shoot over the weekend.
I love those two. They helped me make pumpkin whoopie pies to take to our neighborhood block party on Sunday.
I forgot to take a photo of the finished product! But the recipe came from over here. They were good, but with all things I seem to make, I’ll do a few things differently the next go-round.
Addie is loving the missing cabinet, as is her Mama. Now she can sit right up on the counter while helping bake.
And the light. The beautiful, beautiful light we now get.
I’m still going back and forth on the paint colors for the cabinets. I’m going to have my design posse over for coffee after Thanksgiving and hopefully have one of the old cabinet doors painted with some examples so we can make a final decision. That is our Christmas vacation project. But thanks so much for all of the paint advice and opinions!
Tomorrow I’m going to paint up the ceiling. Our gaping hole the cabinet left is filled in, spackled and sanded. It is getting there. Just ever so slowly.
Tell me are you getting some crafting on lately? Christmas gifts or house projects?
Holiday Spirit.
All of that Christmas music around here has paid off.
I just placed our Christmas card order.
There will be no last minute scrambling. There will be no late night assembling of Christmas cards (I know J. is heartbroken over that one!). It might not be my most creative card, but it is simplicity at its finest which is what I’m trying for this year. I really want to try to simplify the holiday craziness – so that is my goal for the next month and a half.
Who is with me?
All Christmas Music…All The Time.
Like it or not, Christmas music is here. I personally LOVE me some Christmas music, although I usually refrain until after Thanksgiving before breaking out every version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” (still searching for a really good one!). But between the girls working on a Christmas piano duet, Emma on a mission to learn her entire Christmas book by Thanksgiving (and is going to succeed, I think!), and the rehearsals for the Christmas Eve pageant – our house is alive with the Christmas tunes. Needless to say we are already dreaming of white Christmases around here.
And then I was hunting for some photos and videos for Aunt JB this week and ran across this little gem…
Even if you are not a fan of Christmas music, our lil’ Emma Grace (from back when she was only 3!) might just change your mind.
“Clap for us, Mommy!”
It all just goes by too quickly. *Sigh*
Guess What I’ve Been Up To?
A whole heck of a lot of laundry. Surely this is far too much laundry for a family of four, right? And I’ve still got a two more loads to fold…it is never-ending.
I’m also trying to help Addie get her ancestor project done for school tomorrow. She came home on Monday with the assignment and said, “Mrs. K. showed us examples of what we are supposed to do and one of the examples she showed us was Emma Grace’s from when she was in first grade!”
I said, “Oh, yeah? I remember doing that one.”
“Yeah, I just asked her ‘why can’t I use Emma’s because it is going to be the same for me?’ But she said ‘no!’ I have to do it all over again.”
That’s my girl. I wouldn’t necessarily call it laziness – I think we’ll call her “efficient,” yes…efficient.
Ridiculous.
Ok, now we are teetering on ridiculousness over here. I have not abandoned you, but after realizing how very long it has been since I’ve written anything substantial, I decided to use my extra hour today to catch everyone up on the ENTIRE. MONTH. OF. OCTOBER.
Wow – where did it go? I can’t believe it is already November. I guess most of our October was spent in a soccer-induced frenzy. With a little bit of a lot of other stuff thrown in.
Emma Update:
Em continues to be a paradox. One minute she acts like she is 14 years old and heading off to high school, confident and self-assured as she bosses her sister and friends around; and the next minute she grabs my hand for comfort and gives me a little squeeze for courage as we walk into her class, and I am gently reminded that she is a mere eight years old. Just my sweet girl.
Her conference with her teacher went very well, as we fully expected. She is pretty much on autopilot, chugging through her classes, loving all there is to love about school. She was class president the first month of school and Mrs. J. said she took her position very seriously and did very well. She was awarded Super Cougar for October when they were celebrating the character trait honesty.
She is still swimming, and although she has “cooled off” on the whole swim team thing, she is sticking with it for a bit longer until we see how it all shakes out. At least until after soccer season is done so she can have some sort of physical activity to be involved in.
And soccer! She and the Terrible Teal soccer team have already made the playoffs with a week left to go in the regular season. I don’t know that she will become a stellar soccer player, she doesn’t seem to love the game but she has made big improvements this season. And the Teal are a really exciting team to watch! After years of U6 and U8 soccer – once you get to U10 they have real goals, goalies, offsides rule – it is like real soccer! They won their game yesterday 7-3 and have only one game left before playoffs. Em’s fave positions are still on defense and as goalie. (Goalie mostly because she doesn’t have to run ;-). But at any rate, we will be on the soccer field until December now, so we are bracing prepping ourselves for that.
When she isn’t at school or soccer…she is in front of the piano. Sports might not be her thing, but I think she has a God-given talent at the piano. A lot of times she is practicing when she is supposed to be doing something else…but…she is really quite good, I think. I sit in on her and Ad’s piano lessons hoping to soak some of it in and learn at the same time. And we all sort of started at the same point, in the same book, but Addie and I have found ourselves miles behind Em. She has literally left us in the dust. I got a Christmas book for her on Friday…and I think she can already play all of the songs in it. It is amazing and fun to watch her sit down and just play.
Addison Update:
As for our little Addie. What can I say about that child – except she is one big ball of hilarious energy. She has two speeds: (1) all-out-high-octane-sugar-buzz-non-stop-on-the-go! and (2) asleep. Not a day goes by that J. and I don’t look at each other and crack up over something she says or does.
Her conference went well too, and not that we are comparing here (!), buuuuttt…Ad is not nearly as focused as her older sister. Mrs. K. said that Ad has a lot of energy and she needs to “gently remind her” to stop talking pretty often. And at home it is a struggle to get her to finish her homework, she just doesn’t “want to do it, Mama!”
So imagine our surprise (and extreme delight) to the string of perfect spelling tests and timed math tests she has going right now. Every week her tests come home as proof that she is s.m.a.r.t. So I’ve given up fighting her on her homework. When she starts slipping maybe I’ll have to crack down on her again. But very much like the reading, when she was ready…she figured it out. And apparently she is ready. I think there is nothing better for a Mom to hear than, “No, I want to read to you tonight.” And her cute, little scratchy voice sounding out all of those glorious words…that is priceless.
When she is not trying to read or avoid homework she has also been trying out soccer. Yes….again….might not be her sport. She seems to…well, she runs like a ballerina and is a little afraid of the ball still.
But she loves her friends on the team and is having fun, so that is what really matters.
She and her BFF, Emma P. have joined their big sisters, Emma Grace and Avery, in the church choir this year.
They sang in the choir last week and I have video but the audio isn’t syncing with the picture! It is so frustrating because they are adorable, but they are singing in church again next Sunday so I’ll try to capture it with my other camera. We’ll see how that one does.
Addie also became an official Brownie Girl Scout last Friday! Her sister actually got to “twist me turn me,” help pin her and welcome her into the troop. Since I was up doing my troop leader duty I don’t have a single photo of it. My friend did video it with my camera so I’ll work on getting that video up soon, too. She is super excited about it and keeps telling me, “I just did a good Brownie deed, Mama!”
I know there are a million other things that have been happening around here. Cuteness like pumpkin patches…
And Nena and Bill visits and Disney trips…
…but this post has already gone on far too long as it is. It is, as I said, a bit ridiculous.
I promise I’ll be much better in November!
Crafty Tuesday
Well, as you can tell by the amount of (or rather lack of) posts around here…we have been just limping along and trying to get through each day. I have so many projects on the list it isn’t funny, but not many are getting done. We have had company for the last few weeks, so I’m making November the month of getting stuff done! (How did it get to be November again??)
As far as craftiness this week…we have been stealing a lot of other people’s ideas. Stole this one for our Halloween treats to hand out at school. (Addie did the google-eyes for me. 🙂
They were a hit, but much like the cakepops…I think the second batch is going to be much better. We learned a few things along the way.
And if you make nothing else out of pumpkin this fall…you must try this Pumpkin Roll.
It might not look as pretty as the picture in the recipe, but it got a big thumbs-up from everyone around here.
This year was the first in year I haven’t had to make any Halloween costumes. It was liberating, but a little sad too. I did fix a bunch of costumes to sell in our Costume Show at the Carnival, so I got my fill I guess.
Addison wanted to be the “fancy, sparkly, pink Batgirl.” She held up the costume at Target and asked “Can you make me this, Mama?”
I told her no, but I could buy it for $19. I can’t even buy the fabric for that price. So she was done.
Emma came home and told me that she and Audrey were going to be minions. Had to look that one up, too. Apparently they are these little creatures from the movie Despicable Me. I did not see the movie, still haven’t but Mommy Jamie and I fashioned the heads for these guys and I dyed some overalls and “voila!” – they were on their merry little way, too.
And that was Halloween around here. The girls didn’t have school, but since it was a school night our Halloween traffic was lighter than last year. Still, it was fun and I’m happy to take the spiderwebs down for another year. (Yes, MOST of those spiderwebs were decorations…)
Crafty Tuesday
Oh boy…I have a bunch of stuff going on here, all kinds of crafty business BUT unfortunately I haven’t even had a few free minutes to photograph any of our crafty goodness…so you get poorly lit iphone photos instead.
First up, we had to make some Terrible Teal towels for our terribly awesome soccer team. A little back story – when we found out the girls’ color we were joking that they should be the Terrible Teals so we could make them some Terrible Towels ala the Pittsburg Steelers’ towel. We may or may not have a few Steelers fans on the team. So we made rally towels for the team.
Of course I also had to make some sort of mascot, so meet our Terrible Teal…isn’t she cute?
Next up, Emma was asked by her teacher to teach the class to sew since they were reading a story about sewing in literature circle. So we prepped pieces for everyone in her class and she taught her fellow students to sew a mini monster pillow modeled after the version she made at her birthday party.
She did terrific and all of the kids were so excited with their creations.
Thankfully I had two other moms help with the threading of 30 different needles. Yes, it was two afternoons of exercises in patience, but it was fun in the end.
And then we went from that straight to making t-shirts for the 30 Girl Scouts. Yeah…all of this the same week as our major Carnival. It was an exhausting week. But in the end it was all good. The tees turned out cute, too.
Each girl has a t-shirt with their name in the middle of the trefoil and the troop number on the sleeve. So now we all match.
And that is it for last week. This week we concentrate on all things Halloween. Hopefully we will see you before next Tuesday, though!