Our Thankful Turkey

We will pack away the Halloween decorations later today and I know this will really upset Z.  The month of November is a favorite for me (love Thanksgiving and the anticipation for December) and I wanted to give Z something fun to look forward to this month.  I was thinking of doing a Thankful Countdown or something like that until I found the perfect project on Pinterest.

Are you on Pinterest??  I am a bit addicted at the moment and many I know don't understand its value.  All I can say is that if you are a creative soul or are looking for some ideas for a project (home, kids, recipe etc.), you can find it on Pinterest :)

Anyhoo...back to the Thanksgiving project, we decided to make a Thankful Turkey.  We sent many of our favorite people letters in the mail which included a paper feather.  Here is what the letter said,

This Thanksgiving, Z and Lil' C want to know what the special people in their lives are thankful for.  Please write something you are thankful for on the enclosed feather (please be creative and don’t put Z and Lil' C) and mail it back to the our family.  They will take the feathers and attach them to their big paper turkey and hang it at their Thankgiving Table to remind them of all of you on this special day.  We wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving. 
PS  Sorry we did not enclose postage for you to send your feather back but we hope that you will mail it back anyway ;)

We are making our Turkey body today and we will attach the feathers as they come back.  I too am looking forward to see what people have to say and think it will be a great lesson for Z and Lil' C.  I also think they will love getting all that mail :)  That is one of the best parts of December (all the mail) and so it will be fun to get lots of good mail in November too.  The project cost about $10 and I know it will be worth every penny :)

We sent out over 60 feathers and Z is hoping to get at least 58 of them back.  So if you receive a feather in the mail over the next few days, please fill it out and send it back.  We look forward to including you in our Thanksgiving feast :)

An Interesting Halloween

Well we were hit hard with the October storm that hit the northeast.  We only had 8 inches of snow but lost power with only flakes falling.  The power went out at 4pm on Saturday evening and did not return until 8:30 pm on Monday.  We had bought a new generator to prepare for the event and were so excited to be able to rough it at home.  We had heat (the pellet stove), our laptops and ran the freezer filled with meat every once and awhile....Our generator could do much more but we wanted to start off slow.  We were doing okay until 5:30 AM when the new generator broke :(  So on Sunday we once again packed up the 300$ worth of meat and journeyed to my mom's where there were shower's, laundry, heat, the internet and all the comforts of home.  Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us in!!!

 Trick or Treating in our town and my sisters was postponed until next weekend but we went last night in my mom's neighborhood.  My BF La came up with her daughter and we had a great time.  It was Lil C's first time and she had a ball.  Here are some photos of our crazy weekend!

  Halloween Decorations with 8 inches of snow!

 Baby girl saying, "It's Knowing!!!"

 Thought I was done transporting my meat around the state!!!  Needed a trip to the Red Store to make it all feel better :)

 Frosty the Rotarian (dad made the snowman) and Z playing in the snow

 Foliage still looks pretty :)

 Sledding and Snow play on Halloween!  Town forgot to turn the sprinklers off

 Trick or Treat Part I

 Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo

 Bob the Builder

 Trick or Treating in the Snow

 Even the Police were handing out candy :)

Constipated Jack-o-Lantern

My brother in-law and his buddy challenged their women to a carve-off.  The men went to the garage and got out the power tools as the women took a more traditional approach.  Here are the results (the boys pumpkin is on the left).

 

Yup, that's an outhouse!  They built an outhouse for their pumpkin with extra wood they had laying around.  This outhouse is complete with a hole for the pumpkin feces, toilet paper roll, hand towel and moon carved on the door.  If you look closely the constipated pumpkin has beads of sweat from working so hard ;)

The girls pumpkin was adorable but clearly not in the same league as the boys :) 

And then there is our Jack-O-Lantern.....designed by Z and carved by S.  Simple, spooky and my favorite of them all!

Have a safe and spooky night!!!

Making Memories....

Photo taken by Sarah Moore Photography

 I simply love this time of year!  One of my favorite parts is the leaves.  I love the bright colors, I love catching them as they fall to the ground and I love raking a big pile to jump into.  Fall helps you to feel like a child again and you can't help but smile and giggle as you chase leaves or jump into them.  It is pure JOY!

Getting Real With the Pumpkin Fairy

I don't know if you have heard about the Pumpkin Fairy before but it is all new to me.  Now that Z finally gets Trick or Treating and has a real love for candy, I have been trying to come up with ideas on how to help him consume less of the sugar.  No I am not a crazy mother who won't let her child eat any of the loot, just want him to eat less.  I have a friend who's dentist actually pays his child patients by the piece if they bring in their candy the week after Halloween.  This idea got me thinking, what could I do??  Then I discovered the Pumpkin Fairy.

Now the idea is that you have your children pick a few pieces of candy and then put the rest of the stash at the end of their bed Halloween night.  When they wake up, the Pumpkin Fairy (or Sugar Plum Fairy as Kara over at Simple Kids calls her) takes the candy and leaves a special (non sugar) treat in its place.  Now I think this idea is very sweet but I just don't want to add to the many illusions that are already going on in my child's head.  I mean between Santa, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and our two elves who come in December.....there is a bit of an overload. Usually once they figure one out, the whole thing is over and so I didn't want to add another less common known fairy who could be easily discovered.

So what to do???  Well I decided to be straight with Z and played a little "Let's Make a Deal".  I told him that on Halloween night there will be a present wrapped.  He can either take his candy stash or he can pick 5 pieces and take the present.  He has already decided that the present is the choice he is going to make.....I think I am going to get off easy this year ;)

If You Give Lil' C a Party...

Lil' C is now two and her birthday party Saturday was so much fun!  We created the party around her favorite books from Laura Numeroff (author of If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Pig a Pancake etc.) and she LOVED it.

I wanted to do a brunch and so we dined on all of the 5 main character's favorite foods.  There were moose's muffins, mouse's chocolate chip cookies, pig's pancakes, cat's cupcakes and dog's donuts.  We also mixed in some other foods (quiche, lasagna and veggies and dip) to curb the sweetness :)

 The Invitation went along with the style of the books and had pictures of Lil' C for each phrase.  This is how it read: 

If you give Lil' C a party,
she is going to want a cupcake to go with it.
When she sees all the cupcakes you make, she will want to text all of her family and friends.

With family and friends coming, she will want to decorate.
Once she gets out the balloons and decorations,
she will want to listen to music as she decorates.
hearing the music will remind her of dancing,
dancing will make her thirsty and she will want some milk.
the milk will remind her of cupcakes,
and she will probably ask you for one.and chances are if she asks for a cupcake, 

she will want a party to go with it!!

The party was mostly adults (only 6 kids including my own) and so I created activities for both adults and children.  The adults had a TV Trivia game, mimosas and I searched for funny pictures of the guests for a "Looking Fabulous Contest" (inspired by Pig taking fun pictures in If you Give a Pig a Pancake).  Winners of the games received scratch tickets :)

Here is one of the 6 winners from the "Looking Fabulous Contest".  S tied in the Male Category :) 

For the kids entertainment I had a Sweet Treat Scavenger Hunt where they searched for the character's missing treats.  I also set up stations with activities from each of the books.  We had Moose's Puppets, Cat's Dinosaurs, Dog and Pig's Dance Party and Mouse's Drawing.

It was such a fun party to plan and Lil C had a fabulous time.  She wasn't really into opening gifts but enjoyed the time with family and friends!  I was exhausted by the end (party started at 11am and our last guest left after midnight) but it was all worth it to celebrate two amazing years with my beautiful little girl :)

Her Birthday Breakfast with Z, Mom and Dad

Her Doll House from Neene and Chi Chi (her auntie's got her some people and some furniture ;))

Cake!!!

Her Bear Picture

After Party Fun with Grandpa J

Argh!!!

Listening to her Gift from Grandpa and Mimi (She has listened to it non-stop since she got it!)

My Baby is TWO today!!

We are very busy getting ready to celebrate Lil' C's 2nd birthday so I will be brief.  Next week I will share all the details of her party :)

I cannot believe that the little sassy light of my life is now two, it blows my mind.  I can't remember life without her yet it seems like just yesterday she was this small.  I love you baby girl, thanks for making me laugh, for giving me cuddles and for reminding me to appreciate life.  Your enthusiasm is contagious!  You truly light up every room you enter and your personality (and temper) make  you unforgettable.

I love you more than words and wish you the very happiest birthday!!!