Balloons Over Broadway

Like many, one of our traditions is to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on television the morning of Thanksgiving.  Last night, Bryce read aloud Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet.  You guys, it's such a wonderful book!  It's informative, the illustrations are darling, and it's inspiring!  I always am excited to find a nonfiction book that is this delightful.

I love how it describes Tony Sarg as a man who never grew up or worked a day in his life, as he loved his work so much.  He was an inventor and artist who has brought joy to millions of people.  I had no idea about the history behind the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and I love that it partly grew from one mans love of marionettes, puppets and creatively solving problems!

After reading the book I asked the children if they would like to design a family balloon and Grace was excited about it (Harris was in a bit of a mood!).  She got to work and designed a frog and a fly.  I think they are so darling!

Do you think they will make the parade next year?

Preparing for Thanksgiving

We are coming out of a really lovely weekend where we spent time with family and friends, sat by the fire as the wind whistled outside and chatted with a dear friend who, no matter how long it's been, it feels like just yesterday that we were teaching together and laughing at the antics all around us! 

Today, I am preparing to host Thanksgiving and I'm super excited that all of my immediate family will be together this year for the first time in a long while!  I'm having a small procedure done tomorrow to hopefully take care of a rather pesky and painful vein on my leg, so I want to be totally prepared by the end of today!  Our turkey is ordered, our traditional menu is set, a few kid projects are in the works, the silver is being polished and I picked up these sweet cards to pass out to everyone.

Our menu is basically the same year after year.  We've had the delicious and coveted sweet potato souffle for as long as I can remember; it's a treat that we look forward to all year long.  We've also always had an amazing sage dressing but we can longer have it due to Harris' corn allergy (the base is cornbread) so I'm trying a new one this year.  I'm really hoping that it can be "the one."  

Thanksgiving Menu

Cider

Sweet Tea

Turkey

Sage stuffing

Gravy

Cranberry Sauce

Sweet Potato Souffle

Green Beans

Deviled Eggs

Rolls

Apple Tart w/ Cinnamon Ice Cream

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was perfect.  We had a slow, happy day at home.

My Mom came over and she and the children made adorable turkey fingerprint art for the table.  I even found a note in mine!  How awesome is it that Harris included a thanksgiving banner?

Our fresh turkey was delicious!  It was moist and flavorful and we have a ton of leftovers!

We had all the usual suspects for dinner- turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potato souffle and cranberry sauce.  Delicious.

Dessert was a big hit!  It was over the top good.

I hope that you all had a wonderful day too!

Awesome Book of Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that you have all had a relaxing and filling Thanksgiving Day! We have had a busy week of family, friends and fun! Today, while Thanksgiving dinner was being prepared, the children made their very own "awesome book of thanks." If you haven't read Dallas Clayton's "Awesome Book of Thanks", you should. It's positive, uplifting and a feast for the eyes! After we read the book together the children made their own.

Grace's Awesome Book of Thanks

Harris' Awesome Book of Thanks

Football Friday

Our friends, Kristin and Tim, put together a fun game of football this morning. It was the perfect activity for the day after stuffing ourselves full of food! Here's the rundown (get it?)...

Warm ups

Huddles

Plays

Hot chocolate (and lots of doughnut holes)

Time with friends.

Everyone went home with a cute football ornament!

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely, laid-back Thanksgiving. We have so many things to be thankful for, including a day filled with time together and delicious food. Our day included...

Turkey Pancakes

The preparing of and eating of our traditional (delicious) Thanksgiving meal.

Lots of games

And lots of time together!

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving!

Who's ready for Christmas?

Thankful t-shirts

I really think that it is important that our children learn to be thankful and appreciative of all that they have. We've been reading and talking about what it means to be thankful. Early in November we read the book Thanks for Thanksgiving, and I asked each of the children (separately) what they were thankful for. I then went to a local embroidery shop and had t-shirts made that listed what they children were thankful for.

Harris' list

Grace's list

I got the idea from a catalogue, Chasing Fireflies, but thought that it was rather pricey at $38 per t-shirt. I ended up spending $30 total- including the t-shirts! They turned out really cute! I'm thinking that it might turn into a new tradition.

The Day Before Thanksgiving....

We had a great day as we got ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. We made turkey cupcakes-or rather cupcakes that resemble turkeys. The children helped to decorate and assemble and somehow kept "accidentally" getting icing on their fingers. Of course the only way to get it off is to lick it!

We read great books about Thanksgiving. These three books all have beautiful illustrations and they cover everything that is important about Thanksgiving.

We also decorated pinecone turkeys to use as our place cards tomorrow at dinner. We had to drive all over our town just to find a few pinecones! Where did all the pinecones go?