A Fab Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Bampa fried the turkey, and it was gooo-ood. Lexi mostly helped entertain the kids while the rest of us were preparing the food, but here she is stirring the pomegranite salad.

Isaac and Fin were a big help getting the table set...or not.

The girls just before dinner.

The group eating dinner.

And here is another shot, because I just felt in both shots some people looked good, and some people didn't.

After dinner, we drove up to North Lake and had a nice walk around the lake before heading home for pie. That night, me, Lexi, and Keith didn't go to bed and headed over to Walmart at 11:00 pm for their big sale. It was crowded, but fun, and we got some good deals. The checkout was a nightmare, however, and we didn't get home until around 2:30 am. Keith headed upstairs where he tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep for an hour, while Lexi and I just stayed up downstairs talking and getting a little bit silly. At 3:30, we left with every single family member to go to Target. We were one of the few people I saw there who had drug their kids out of bed, but none of us was willing to stay home and miss out on the mad rush, so they got to come with us. And really, they had been excited and looking forward to it for weeks.

After Target, we split off from my parents and Lexi, and Keith and I went to Sport Chalet, where we got an awesome deal on some sweet bikes for ourselves for "Christmas." (We've already started using them--I just didn't see the point in storing them in the garage until after Christmas, especially since we are going out of town for Christmas and are not taking them with us to "open" there.) Anyway, I absolutely love my bike, and will post some pictures of it later. I think I almost love my bike as much as Pee-wee Herman loved his bike.

Saturday morning before the Keels had to go, we went to see a matinee showing of Tangled, which we all really enjoyed. Then it was time to say goodbye until Christmas. 

Stitches for Isaac

We had some excitement over here two days ago, and I think Sareny's artistic rendering really captures the moment quite well. The kids were playing, and Isaac fell and hit his head on our stone fireplace wall. (I could mention here that I never wanted a fireplace in the first place, but that would be a bit hypocritical, as I have since come to really enjoy having it...) I was upstairs and started coming down when I heard him crying, but I started running when Sareny yelled that he was bleeding all over...you know how head wounds are.
I rushed him off to the urgent care down the hill, only to find that the building had been foreclosed on them. What a sign of the times. Took him to Goodnight Pediatrics, and after waiting there for over an hour, were finally seen by a Dr. who looked at his head, then told us we needed to go to the emergency room, because she didn't do stitches. I thought stitches was part of basic Dr. training, go figure.
So we headed off to the local hospital, where we waited for about 4 hours before they finally came in to put some stitches in his head.  When the Dr. finally came in, Isaac told him "You are slow as a slow-poke!" I was secretly glad.
The Dr., whom I can only assume got his medical degree at the backwater school of the Institute of Poor Bedside Manners, asked me loudly right in front of Isaac, "How is he with shots?" Really?? He's four, he's not stupid, and, gasp, he can actually understand what you are saying! Big surprise when Isaac started crying and saying he didn't want shots. I was so mad! But somehow, we got through the night and Isaac was pretty good, even when he was getting three shots in his head. 

The final part of the story was so absurd, I almost couldn't believe it happened. First, I have to mention that my dad likes to play around with the kids and asks them, "Who wants blisters?" Blisters being spankings, like if you were going to blister someone's bottom. It's all in fun, and the kids secretly love it and run around squealing and both getting and giving blisters.

So here we are in the hospital, about to leave. A nurse came in, gave us our discharge instructions, and we all stand up to leave. Isaac tells the nurse, whom he has known all of two minutes "I'm going to give you blisters," and he raises up his arm. I lunged and grabbed him and said "No Isaac!" The nurse was like, "What did he say?" I think that was a perfect time to play stupid and pretend I didn't understand him either, but instead, my tired and sluggish brain didn't think of that, and I tried to explain as best as I could. I was so embarrassed! Anyway, here is Isaac today, all smiles now.

Thanksgiving picinic at Westar

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we met Sareny at school to have a fun picnic on the lawn. Grammy Jo, Bampa, and Lexi had come a day earlier than planned so they could make it to this special event. Sareny was so excited! Sareny loves her Tia Lexi.

Isaac and Finley were actually a lot happier than they look in this picture--it was just really sunny and they had a hard time with it!

This is Sareny with her good friend Abigail. She was homeschooled last year, so both girls were new this year.

Sareny with her awesome teacher, Mrs. Randall. Sareny loves her!

After lunch, the playgrounds were available to play on. Isaac originally said he didn't want to play on the "baby" playground, (the kindergarten one,) but quickly realized it was a lot of fun! Grammy helped Finney cross the stepping stones.

Lexi and Isaac swinging. Later on they turned Isaac so they were swinging spider-style, and Isaac loved it and was laughing and giggling.

Finney had fun swinging with Grammy Jo.

Anyway, it was a really fun outing, and I'm glad the school does fun things like this! We are already looking forward to next year's picnic.

Fall Craft

We made these cute little fall handprint trees a couple of weeks ago, and I thought they looked pretty cute. I made one with them to show the kids what they were going for, and later Sareny walked by the trash and saw my picture on the top. She grabbed it out, then said rather outraged, "Someone tried to throw away this beautiful picture!" I let her keep it in her room.

Halloween

We had a fabulous Halloween this year. The kids were dressed up as Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and Wendy, and they looked so sweet. We had a fun neighborhood gettogether on Halloween, and then all the neighborhood kids went trick-or-treating together while the dads stayed home passing out candy from a joint table in the street.

Here is Wendy posing by the pumpkin she and I made together. She designed it, and I drew it on the pumpkin.

My sweet Tinkerbell. 

Peter Pan by the pumpkin he designed and carved with Daddy.

Here are full body shots of the kids in their costumes.

And the group from the neighborhood just before we headed out.

We had such a great time!

At the lake

Last month, we went down to the lake with grand plans of going for a nice ride in the paddle boats. The weather had been beautiful all day, but somehow, the wind really picked up about an hour before we left our house. By the time we got there and walked down to the lake, we could see the writing on the wall. The wind was blowing pretty hard, over 20 miles an hour, so it was a no go. We'll try again soon...

Camping

While Sareny was off on Fall Break, we took the opportunity to go camping. The kids were pretty excited, and we were all glad the portable DVD player was working...

We found a campsite just outside of Prescott, and it was so beautiful! The campsite was a relatively short walk away from a lake.

Finley walked some of the way...

And enjoyed a ride some of the way...

And then we made it to the lake.

My sweet kids.

Sareny was being rather silly, but I didn't mind because I got this awesome shot of her missing front teeth.

Finley enjoys the peaceful views afforded by the lake.

Isaac stops to pose for the camera.

Sareny snatches my sunglasses.

It was so pretty there, and I love leaving the city life behind and just relaxing in nature for a couple of days.

I love taking pictures of my kids! Someday, when they are all grown up, they will appreciate it.

I think maybe if they weren't so darn cute, I could resist more.

We had a really nice time just being together as a family!

A play and a day at the park

I had a couple of people ask questions about our spooky dinner, so I will just list the menu here. The white rats were deviled eggs turned upside down with cut black olives for tails and capers for noses. The creepy crawly bugs were various kinds of olives with dried rosemary legs. The eyeballs were mushrooms with a slice of black olive on top. (Sareny loves mushrooms and begs for them at the store, go figure.) The witches hats were sliced, buttered french bread toasted in the oven. The monster toes were lil smokies wrapped in half a biscuit. The monster smiles were sliced apples stuck together with peanut butter, with mini marshmallows for the teeth. I think the hit of any spooky dinner is the witches brew; here is the recipe we use:
2 cups sugar
2 quarts water
2 (0.13-ounce) envelopes lime drink mix
1 (46-ounce) can pineapple juice
1 quart ginger ale

Stir together sugar and 2 quarts water until sugar is dissolved. Stir in remaining ingredients. For a scary presentation, place punch bowl into a large plastic cauldron, and add dry ice to punch. The punch is a pretty awesome shade of green and bubbles really nicely. I should also note that we used and diet ginger ale and Splenda instead of sugar, and I thought it tasted great, although Keith claimed it had an aftertaste.

After our spooky dinner, the kids put on a rather silly play. It involved Sareny and Ema prancing around the family room singing.

Then they were locked up in a tall tower, where they sang some more.

Then Isaac, who was the prince, saved them.

Somewhere in there, Sareny's character fainted and had to be revived by Dr. Isaac. She tried to faint again, but I said she could only faint once per play. The actors taking a bow.

And the captive audience.

The next day I took the kids to the South Lake Park.

Can I just say I love this place! It is so beautiful and only two minutes from our house. Finley wore her Fancy Nancy sunglasses and looked so cute!

Sareny and Ema wanted to take pictures with my camera, but I forget which one of them took this one.

Isaac had fun on the slide, and I loved what it did to his hair.

There were people working on the grass and aerating the soil, and Finley freaked out. You can see the machine in the background, and Finley made sure she was plenty far away from it.

Isaac kept climbing on the slide and then he would stop and pose and tell me to take his picture.

Then we walked down to the edge of the lake to see the ducks.

This fluffy headed guy was my favorite.

The kids loved watching the ducks.

Then Ema took our family picture. Take one.

Take two. I decided to remove my sunglasses, which ruined this one.

Take three. I should have left my sunglasses on, because my eyes look really weird.

So looking at these pictures, I realized that while the rest of us are in various stages of awkwardness, Sareny looks perfect and cute in every one. Kind of funny.