Gobble, Gobble! (aka, Fa Ra Ra Ra Raaaaaaa, Ra Raaa Raaa Raaaaa)

With only one day off of work for Thanksgiving, who wants to spend it cooking and cleaning?   Well, Rip probably does, but I would certainly rather not.  Let's let someone ELSE handle all that dirty work!

So we were OFF to Knollwood!  An 11:00 am lunch reservation for 4, please!

They had little crafts at the tables. . .

Just LOOK at that awesome spread.  I promise you, we wouldn't have had all that food at our house!

Then after a few hours back at the house for naps, we headed out to buy a Christmas tree!

(Um, wouldn't have been necessary if Rip hadn't gone POSTAL on our old one.

But whatever.  It was old, anyway.  He's entitled the occasional outburst.)

And since we were out, and had already done two unusual things on Thanksgiving Day (lunch out, followed by shopping), we decided to REALLY go for broke and eat dinner out.

At IHOP!

Fa Ra Ra Ra Raaaaaaaa,

Ra Raaaaaa

Raaaaaaaa

RAAAAAAAA!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

We went to the PUMPKIN PATCH as a family!  "Nana" (aka Christina, or sometimes ChristinaBobina) came to Indiana to visit, so a festive trip to the local pumpkin patch was in order.

Actually, it was a pumpkin FARM.

Well, actually, it was a CUCURBIT farm.  I had to ask my mom what that was, and then I looked it up just to confirm.  Just so you know, it's "a member of the gourd family."  So, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and watermelons would count.  But there were no watermelons.  Just a whole buncha pumpkins.  Not sure how often anybody needs to know how to use the word "cucurbit," but it's certainly a good conversation starter.  Or stumper!!  Tee heeeeee!

(P.S.  Mom was totally right on about the definition.  How do moms always know this stuff?  Kudos to you, Mom!!)

Both of the boys were almost as excited about the wheelbarrow as they were about the pumpkins.  Although I think Mason would have liked to take one of these 400 pound beauties home!

Sadly, while we each chose a pumpkin, we never managed to get them carved.  I was SO excited about my three cute little white pumpkins. . .I had big plans to paint them.  But somehow, we juuuuuuust couldn't get around to it.  Maybe we'll make pies out of them for Thanksgiving.

G is for Giving

Remember my brilliant idea to do "alphabet activities" with Mason? Ummmmm. . yea. Remember how the last activity I posted about was in, I dunno, like October?

Okay. . .so clearly I'm not the best about keeping up with this. But we DID get through the letter "G." In December. I suppose this is a bit (a lot?) delinquent, but I figure it's better late than never. I'll try to be better with "H!!!"

Before Christmas, we took Mason to pick out a child from the "angel tree." Before we had kids. Rip and I used to make an annual event of shopping for children in need. Always one boy, one girl. This year, we wanted Mason to "run the show," so we let him pick. It was so heartwarming to see him deliberate, then choose one name from the tree. He chose a preschool-aged girl who asked for a "Little People Playset." He was so excited to shop for her and pick out something he thought she'd like.

Even though it was for a girl who probably dreamed of the Little People Happy Sounds House, Mason just KNEW she would want the farm. He was very insistent, so we let him select the farm.

I think the most special moment of the experience was watching Mason pay for the gift. We give him $1 in assorted coins every week, and he must divide it into "spend" (50%), "save" (40%) and "give" (10%) piggy banks. After the whole year, he had $4 in change in his "give" bank. Which he proudly carried around WalMart in a Ziploc bag, then gave to the cashier like a champ.

He was so proud that we didn't let him see us secretly slipping the cashier our credit card to pay the difference between his $4 contribution and the cost of the farm!

As soon as we got home, we talked about what we had just done, and asked him if he knew why it was important. I almost cried when he said "some little girls and boys have parents who don't have very much money for food or presents. We helped them have a Christmas, too." Oh, what a sweet boy!

And of course, we practiced the letter "G." G is for giving!

"BOO!" to you!

The air is cool, the season is fall,

soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore. . .

tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,

in fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you!

The excitement comes when friends like you

copy this note and make it TWO.

We'll all have smiles on our faces

when we see who "BOO-ed" whose places!

I got "BOO-ed" by my creative and spunky friend Lauren at Doodles by Lauren. Now I'm "BOO-ing" you:



1. Lara at Scrapbook Sussies. Not only is Lara one of my best friends, but she also runs an incredible scrapbook kit club and posts super cool paper crafting ideas. Love it! And love her!

2. Karen at Hello World! Photography. Karen is a wonderfully talented photographer who specializes in tasteful and precious birth photos. AND she's my neighbor and friend. AND she photographs my kids. AND the stories on her blog are so well written. She's the best.

3. Amy at Mod Podge Rocks. Because, well, Mod Podge DOES rock. And so do Amy's ideas. I use them all the time!



Keep the festivities going by following these instructions:

1. Cast your spell within the next 24 hours!

2. Copy the poem and instructions for playing.

3. Pick 2-3 blogs you enjoy visiting, explain why you like visiting those blogs, & remember to link back to me.

4. Go to the original BOO PARTY post at The Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.



Happy Halloween!

P.S. What's a MckLinky? Guess I'd better find out, huh?

Fall is in the Air

How much fun is this? A FREE event at a local nursery . . .complete with a pumpkin decorating station,

sidewalk chalk, "goo," and a flower-planting table,

and an unusually content baby.

I'd vote that's a LOT of fun for all!

C is for Candy Corn

Oooooh, I was so excited for "C" day!

Every fall, when August turns to September, I religiously do two things.  First, I put up leaf garland on all of our banisters and railings, and second, I make a delicious snack mix with fall candy.  As of today, there still isn't garland hung, but you can be certain we have our snack mix made!!

The kiddos and I went to Kroger right after breakfast to get the supplies. . .it was VERY important that we go to Kroger because they have these awesome little shopping carts.  As long as I don't need much, AND as long as the store isn't crowded, I let Mason be in charge of our purchases.  He's not very reliable, nor very coordinated (which explains why we only do it in an empty store!), but he thinks it's a blast.  Sadly, Kroger had neither candy corn nor Halloween M&Ms, so we basically accomplished nothing except pushing a miniature cart haphazardly around the store for 30 minutes.  Oh well. . .30 fewer minutes to fill!!!

Thankfully, the Walgreens right across the street had everything we needed.  Last year, I couldn't find any candy corn to save my life, so I had to have Lara send it to me from Denver.  I know, that sounds reeeeeDICulous, but what else was a girl to do?  This mix is seriously that good. 

*two bags Halloween M&Ms
*two bags Brach's Candy Corn
*one large can cashew parts and pieces
*about half a large container of raisins
*employ four-year old to pour and stir, then devour!

And, to add to our lesson for the day, Brody Boo wouldn't stop CRYING.  He is the most rotten child on the planet.  I have no one to blame but myself because I always cave in and pick him up when he goes ballistic, but it's rather unbearable if I don't.

Oh, and the longer you let the snack mix sit, the better it gets.  The cashews make everything else kind of salty and greasy. . .oooooooh, it's goooooood!