Thanksgiving

Although we got it going a little late, we put up a bare tree trunk, and then the kids, Thomas, and I wrote what we were grateful for on leaves every day. Parker LOVED putting up leaves, and we did several leaves a day some days. I liked to do the leaves in the mornings, because it had a tendency to turn grumpy toddlers into cheerful, grateful little boys.

We really missed being able to go to Palfreymans' for pie-making on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but I managed to make a mess of my kitchen all on my own. At least we have cell phones, so I got to call to ask questions and to visit with such dear friends and family over the phone! I didn't have any pie pans, so I bought some pre-made crusts in aluminum pie pans. You can see that the edge of my jumbleberry pie's crust burned. It burned on the pumpkin too, although the homemade crust I made for the second pumpkin pie and the jumbleberry tarts didn't burn, even though both pumpkin pies baked at the same time. Another reason to just make things yourself, right? The pies were all delicious though! I loved the tarts too. There was a lot of juice from the berries left over after I filled the pie, so I lined mini-muffin cups with pie crust, and then filled them with the berry juice... so yummy.

We finished pie-making sooo late. But, I didn't want to be making pies with the boys running around, and then we wanted to let the pumpkin pies cool for their two hours before refrigerating them... so, Thomas and I watched a movie. So fun.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at another student's apartment, along with a lot of other students. Ours were the only kids, but there was Trousers the Turtle! The boys LOVE him. Trousers stayed quiet on my hand for several minutes, letting Evan pet him gently (Parker refused to touch him) until he tried to make a break for it. Notice, Evan's holding both Buzz Lightyear, and SpiderMan. We actually had to go back Sunday to retrieve SpiderMan who had been recovered from in between the couch cushions, and Parker told Michelle, "I love coming here!" I'm glad, because Parker spent much of the afternoon being a stinker! The boys took naps there, which was great, until we accidentally woke Parker up to early! He cheered up when we started playing games though.

Evan loves animals! I'm really impressed with how gentle he is with them. When we went back on Sunday, Evan ran right to Trousers's tank, and started jabbering at him. He also begged, "In!" I asked, "Do you want to go in the tank?" wondering if I'd understood him. "Please," he answered. "How 'bout we take Trousers out," I suggested. Then Evan kept trying to lift up the bucket and dump Trousers back in his water, and get in himself. Oh well. (As Evan is looking at these pictures, he's asking "What todo doing in wader?"

For most of the meal the boys were sitting at their little table in their little chairs, but the lure of Mommy and Daddy's laps was just too strong! Evan actually ate really well: ham, yams, corn, and then pumpkin pie after his nap. Parker whined and ate chocolate ice cream. Ah, the joys of picky eaters! We had a fabulous time though, and I enjoyed being able to meet some of the other students in Thomas' class.

The boys at their special table. We brought the table and chairs from home...

These adorable turkey crafts were inspired by our favorite friends here. Parker wanted the turkeys to have blue bodies, which works, because I have no more brown construction paper, and a lot of turkeys have blue-ish faces! I traced the kids hands for the tail feathers. Evan's is on the left, and Parker's on the right. Evan ripped up most of his hands, and Parker wanted his turkey tail nice and full. I let them help glue on the faces.

And, why stop with one craft? I'd been saving toilet paper rolls for awhile, so I helped the boys with these snowmen, and we glued them to the tp rolls so they stand independently. I cut out the pieces, in the colors specified, and the boys glued them on themselves. Well, I put glue on the pieces, and the boys put them on where they wanted them. Evan's is the one-armed snowman. He got bored and ran away to play before gluing on the second arm. I love how he put the nose on though. My little artists. Parker's been begging me to do more "crafts" with him, so if anyone has any ideas... please let me know!!