Our Thanksgiving Day

We had such a nice Thanksgiving in our new home! We were blessed to have Maddy and Poppy with us to celebrate. Grace was such a big helper to us this year. She loved setting our Thanksgiving table.

While Bob and I cooked our Thanksgiving dinner, Maddy and Poppy played with Grace and Jack upstairs in our playroom. Bob and I heard many, many laughs drifting downstairs while we were cooking. I went upstairs to join in on a few minutes of the fun to discover Poppy doing the Hokey Pokey with Grace and Jack and Maddy teaching some Latin dancing!!!

Jack loves to be kissed, hugged and cuddled. He enjoyed these special moments with Maddy.

We always celebrate Grace and Jack's December birthdays with a party the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It has become a tradition that Grace and Jack open their birthday gifts from Maddy and Poppy on Thanksgiving morning.


Jack's favorite gift was this toy drill that really works. Jack carried around his drill with him the entire day "fixing" everything in our home that has a screw!



Grace loved making pictures with her new stamps, stickers and markers.

Jack enjoyed dressing up for Maddy and Poppy and showing off his dance moves!

We're not sure who enjoyed playing with the puppets more -- Poppy or Grace?!? I tend to think it may have been Poppy! :)

Our day Thanksgiving day ended with Grace reading us the book Harold and the Purple Crayon. Thank you so very much to Maddy and Poppy for making our Thanksgiving so special and fun for us all!

We had a such wonderful Thanksgiving this year with Maddy and Poppy. The fun continued into the weekend as we celebrated Grace and Jack's upcoming December birthdays with an art party on Saturday! Today, we found our Christmas tree and had a special time decorating it together this afternoon. I'll be sure to post pictures of it all but tonight I think I'll catch up on some rest before another week of fun begins! I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and weekend.

Thanksgiving Day

Lots more pictures to come!

Thanksgiving Retelling Bead Story Bracelet & Necklace

Grace and Jack made bead bracelets and necklaces this morning to help teach them the story of the very first Thanksgiving! This is a great activity for fine motor skills and for color recognition but more importantly it is a wonderful way to start a conversation about the Pilgrims, Native Americans, freedom and giving thanks.Each colored bead on Grace and Jack's bracelet and necklace represents a piece of the first Thanksgiving story:

• 1 brown bead to represent the Pilgrims leaving England
• 1 white bead to represent the sails on the Mayflower
• 3 blue beads for the Pilgrims long trip across the ocean
• 1 green bead when the Pilgrims spy land
• 3 white beads for the snow the Pilgrims endured during the long winter
• 1 green bead for the arrival of spring
• 1 tan bead for the Native Americans who helped the Pilgrims
• 4 beads to represent the foods served at the very first Thanksgiving: 1 red bead for cranberries, 1 yellow bead for corn, 1 tan bead for turkey and 1 orange bead for pumpkins

Saturday Morning

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

We started a tradition last year for Thanksgiving -- painting our door as a happy Thanksgiving message and greeting! Grace and Jack painted the door in our sun room this morning and it is beautiful. Pictures of this years finished Thanksgiving door to come but until then here are some pictures of our door last year (click here).

Hand Print Turkeys

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without some hand print turkeys!! We make these every year for Thanksgiving and I love looking back on the hand prints from years past to see how much Grace and Jack's little hands have grown. The making of this years hand prints were extra special because Grace painted Jack's hand and helped him with his turkey print all by herself. Jack adores Grace and he was so happy to have help from his wonderful big sister.



Here are just some of the turkey hand prints that we made today. They will be transformed into turkeys and placed around our Thanksgiving table one week from today!

Wordless Wednesday

Thanksgiving Turkeys!

Grace and Jack made turkeys today for our Thanksgiving table. They used play dough for the bodies, feathers, construction paper beaks, pipe cleaner legs and googly eyes. Grace and Jack LOVED playing with the feathers. Grace's turkey is pictured above on the left. She used all of her feathers for her turkey. Jack decided to use only one yellow feather for his turkey and he saved the rest to put in his dump truck!

Making "Thankful Leaves"

Grace and Jack used markers and marker dots to color coffee filters autumn leaf colors this morning. They had a great time blending the colors on the coffee filters together by using spray bottles filled with water. Once the filters dry I will cut each one into a maple leaf shape. Every morning Grace and Jack will choose a leaf and I will write something that they are thankful for onto their leaf. We will hang the thankful leaves onto a small tree branch each day -- this will become the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table this year to remind us just how very much we have to be thankful for.

Cousins Rose & Kimberlee's Gymnastics Birthday Party!

We went down to Worcester, Massachusetts today to go to Cousin Rose & Kimberlee's birthday party at a gymnastics studio! Here is one of the birthday girls --- Cousin Rose. Jack and Rose share the same birthday on December 15th! Rose will be six years old next month.

Here is the other beautiful birthday girl -- Cousin Kimberlee. Kimberlee turned three years old on November 2nd!

Cousin Rose was so excited to see Grace and Jack. Rose gave them both big hugs when she first saw them. Rose has always been so sweet to our Jack-a-roo!


Grace and Jack had such a great time at the gymnastics studio. Here are a few pictures of our little gymnasts:

Paving

This was the scene in front of our house this morning. The town of Scarborough paved the road we live on. Needless to say, this was a VERY BIG DEAL at our home. We all walked down to the end of our long driveway this morning to watch and admire the paving process. :)

Jack literally jumped for joy whenever a truck drove by! We were able to watch several dump trucks dump asphalt onto the road, a road roller truck roll the asphalt smooth and a paving machine.

Grace was amazed by all of the trucks. I think the workers and drivers of the trucks were taken with our Gracie girl. Grace waved to everyone as they went by our driveway and told all of the workers what a great paving job they were doing!

Jack did not stop grinning from ear to ear while watching the trucks work. What a big morning for our Jack-a-roo!

Wednesday

Every Wednesday morning Grace has her Teensy Weensy Theater class at the Children's Museum. We always make a day of it by spending the entire day playing at the Museum. It is a fun place to learn and to have fun every Wednesday! Here are some pictures from our time there today...

Grocery shopping

Learning how circuits work to light a small light bulb

Painting autumn leaf prints

Fixing car engines

Getting a pumpkin painted

Getting a truck painted

Watching Grace perform a puppet show

Driving a tractor