Thanksgiving 2010

We had a really great Thanksgiving. We celebrated at my Grandmother's house with all of our family. My brother and nephew went to the Cowboy's game, so that's why there are no pictures of them. It was a pretty low key day, centered around our big meal. We were blessed this year with great company, good health, delicous food, and happy memories!

Day Out with Grandma and Papa

YAY! YAY! Time with Grandma and Papa!

The week of Thanksgiving, Alex and Addison were out of school for the whole week. AND my parents came in to town from Chicago for the whole week too! It was a really fun week. They came in on Saturday the 20th, and that night took Alex and Cadence to see a Stars game. The following Tuesday, I took advantage of the opportunity to spend the morning with my parents, and we all headed out to the Museum of Science and History. This was the year that my older brother was coming in for Thanksgiving. So I knew the rest of the week would be busy spending time with him and his family. So off we went and we had a really fun time!

We spent the majority of our time in the children's museum. The kids played in the grocery store, the hospital area and of course, outside. Papa doesn't always tag along on our outings, so we were really happy to have him with us too! As if you couldn't tell by that smile on Alex's face!

In the tinkering around area, there were hula hoops set out. So we all gave the hula hoops a whirl. The best part of the day was watching my mom hula hoop. If I hadn't been laughing so hard, I would have taken some pictures or video of it. We also got out and enjoyed the unseasonably warm temperatures that day in the dino dig. We had a really fun day, and I know my kids will remember the time we spent with them. I'm so thankful that we were able to spend the time with my parents!

Addison's Thanksgiving Feast

Before the break for Thanksgiving, Addison celebrated her first Feast at St. John. It was so fun! She's a Tiny Tiger this year, and her class is really cute. All the parents were waiting in the classroom to celebrate the feast, and as the kids walked in, they were dressed in their Thanksgiving art projects. It was so cute!

This was Addison as she walked in -- all the kids were a little shocked to see all the parents waiting for them in the classroom. It was funny to see all of their faces. Feast consisted of pizza, fruit, crackers, and homemade butter that the kids made. It was really fun. I'm the room mom for Addison's class this year. This was my first job, and I think it went pretty well.

This is Addison with her placemat that she made.

I just love these kinds of projects! I have one from when Alex was a Tiny Tiger too. So fun!

These are Addison's teachers: Ms. Myra and Ms. Toni. They are wonderful and Addison loves them both very much. We are very thankful that she has such loving, kind teachers and that she's able to attend St. John this year.

This is it: Halloween 2010

Ok, seriously, last post about Halloween. We did trick-or-treat, despite the holiday falling on Sunday. Aren't my little trick-or-treaters cute? I just loved this photo. We really went all out this year: we decorated our yard with Halloween lights, decorated our front window with Halloween stickers and hung ghosts in our tree. Alex just loves Halloween, and it's fun to feed that excitement all month! As I mentioned before, Roger was home this year to trick-or-treat with us. We all went out together down our street. As we made it back up, we decided to divide and conquer. So I volunteered to stay at the house to pass out candy while Roger took the kids around another street. Alex is so funny though. He isn't one to stay out, going to every last house to get candy. He likes to trick-or-treat for about an hour, and then he's ready to call it a night. I think he enjoys handing out candy almost as much as collecting the candy. But that's Alex -- he's very kind and generous. When the kids got home, they did their annual candy dive. Addison was much better this year...she didn't get into nearly as much candy as she did last year! Last year she was opening candy faster than I could take it away from her! But they had their splurge, and then we put them to bed. It was a school night, after all! And Halloween 2010 is over. Already looking forward to next year. Love this time of year!

Halloween Eve

Halloween was really fun for us this year. As I was thinking back, we moved into our house in April of 2007. So we've celebrated 4 Halloweens in this house. I can't believe that! And this is the first Halloween in four years that Roger has been home celebrating with us. That was really nice. And to top it all off, Alex was healthy! That was a miracle. He is usually sick every Halloween. I don't know what it is with the end of October, but it doesn't usually agree with Alex. Saturday morning, we decided to carve pumpkins. Thankfully, Roger helped carve. Last year, I carved all the pumpkins and was so done by the time I got them all carved. Saturday night, we headed over to church for the annual Halloween party. It was really fun! The church was decorated, we ate, the kids hit pinatas. And then they "trick-or-treated" around the church. They went from classroom to classroom collecting candy from gracious members who were passing out the treats. For a lot of the kids, this was their only trick-or-treating, as Halloween fell on Sunday this year. We all had a really fun time and we're already looking forward to it next year!

My sister, niece and nephew came by the party and trick or treated. The kids really enjoyed doing that together. When we got home, we lit our pumpkins. Addison wasn't too crazy about the "scary pumpkins." But we managed to convince her to take a picture. But if you notice, she won't take her eyes off those glowing orange things. So funny!

Halloween Spooktacular

I'm almost caught up on all our Halloween celebrations. Usually every year we make it out to a pumpkin patch. And we've been spoiled in the past with plenty of time during the week to do that. This year, with Alex being in school, we didn't get to a pumpkin patch as a family. Addison enjoyed Pumpkin Days at her preschool and Alex enjoyed Country Critters with his kindergarten class. And both came home with pumpkins. We did do a couple other things this year as a family to celebrate Halloween.

The Saturday before Halloween, we went up to our gym and had fun at the Spooktacular. We played some spooky games, jumped in a couple bounce houses, played in a maze, won some cupcakes from a cake walk. We also went through a haunted house. We've never taken the kids through a haunted house before, and I was a little nervous because I didn't know how scary it would really be. Alex LOVED it! He ended up going through four or five times. Addison...not so much. She kept saying, "haunted house scary" and wouldn't go back in again. It was a fun afternoon!

Pumpkin Day for Addison

One of my all-time favorite events at St. John is Pumpkin Days! Alex enjoyed pumpkin day twice while at St. John. This year, Addison got to enjoy all the fun events and activities. Unfortunately, my camera battery died very early in our day. But here are a few pictures.
Our first stop was painting pumpkins. Addison really enjoyed this station.

Here she is with her finished pumpkin. Yay!


Our next stop was the playground. Addison enjoyed having Daddy give her a little help on the big trike.


Next was the petting zoo. Addison loves animals, always has. She really enjoyed this part of pumpkin days. She went around and around looking at the goats, bunnies, turkey, pig, donkey, and cow. Fun, fun! From here we enjoyed stretch and grow, a snack, stations, music, story time and pictures. I never remember Alex being so exhausted, but pumpkin days wore Addison out. Maybe it was an age difference though. By the time we were done, she was ready for lunch and a nap. I love pumpkin days and I'm already looking forward to it again next year!