Thanksgiving

Maddy and Poppy come to our home every year to celebrate Thanksgiving.  While they are here we also celebrate Grace, Jack and Eve's birthdays and Christmas!  It is always an extra special visit.  Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend.

Here is our thankful tree showing the many blessings in our life and all that we have to be thankful for!

Maddy and Poppy brought Grace, Jack and Eve matching pajamas to wear for Thanksgiving.  They all looked so cute together!

Our turkey hand print cards!

Maddy and Poppy enjoyed taking Grace, Jack and Eve on a walk along the Long Trail.

Here is our dining room just before we sat down for our Thanksgiving meal.  Grace, Jack and Eve always decorate the table and this year they decided to decorate it with butterflies, which were spread out all over our Thanksgiving table.  It was so colorful and pretty!

Gracie girl! 

 Big guy!

 Evey pie!

 Thank you so very much to Maddy and Poppy.

The Birthday Cake...Three + Three = Six

*Grace smiling when she first sees her birthday cake*

The birthday cake was the finishing touch at the end of Grace's special day yesterday.  I was secretly hoping to make Grace's birthday cake this year but I gave Grace the choice of having me make it or choosing her own.  Grace opted to choose her own cake.  Honestly, I really can't blame her.  I think Grace knew that if I were to make it that I would more than likely put in some wheat germ and flaxseed, substitute white flour for whole grain wheat and add some vegetable, probably kale (it is a super food after all!), into the cake batter.  When Grace and I were at the bakery together yesterday I simply smiled when Grace chose a cake with a thick layer of sugary frosting with brightly colored pink frosting swirls...thank goodness for this mama that birthday cakes only come once a year.  ;)

What I do love so much about Grace's birthday cake this year is the story behind the candles and how much it reflects who Grace is.  While Grace was in school last week Eve, Jack and I went shopping for her birthday candles.  While we were looking at the number candles it was Jack who smiled and said, "We should get threes."  I wasn't sure why Jack wanted to get the number three for Grace's sixth birthday so I asked him.  Jack said that we should get two number threes because 3 + 3 makes 6.  I thought this was such a clever idea and absolutely perfect for Grace.  Grace loves math and numbers so I knew that she would find this very funny...and she did.  It was a fun and silly way to end her birthday.  Now, in just twelve days we will be celebrating 2 + 2 and shortly after that 1 + 1 and we can't wait!

Happy Birthday to our Amazing Grace

Happy Birthday to our Amazing Grace!

December 2, 2012

6 years old

December 2012

Almost 6 years old!

 November 2012

5 years, 11 months old

October 2012

5 years, 10 months old

September 2012

5 years, 9 months old

Grace begins kindergarten!

 August 2012

5 years, 8 months old

July 2012

5 years, 7 months old

 June 2012

5 years, 6 months old

 May 2012

5 years, 5 months old

April 2012

5 years, 4 months old

 March 2012

5 years, 3 months old

February 2012

5 years, 2 months old

 January 2012

5 years, 1 month old

Grace's Fifth Birthday

December 2, 2011 

Grace's Fourth Birthday

December 2, 2010

Grace's Third Birthday

December 2, 2009

 Grace's Second Birthday 

December 2, 2008

Grace's First Birthday

December 2, 2007 

June 2007

6 months old 

 December 2, 2006

4:09 a.m.

8 pounds, 13 ounces

20 inches long

Our Birthday Girl

We had such a wonderful day with our birthday girl.  Today was full of some of Grace's favorite things and it was just right!  It seems like just yesterday that Grace was born and here she stands before us a brilliant, thoughtful, funny and creative six year old!  Happy, happy birthday to our sweet Gracie girl.

Six!

Happy Birthday to Grace!

We are ready to celebrate every minute of today from beginning to end.

Look for pictures of Grace through the years tonight.

Celebrating!

It has been SO LONG since I last posted pictures.  I do have lots to catch up on and I'll try to catch up this coming week!  We are off today to begin the birthday celebration of Grace's 6th birthday, which is tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had such a lovely Thanksgiving with Maddy and Poppy.  I will be sharing pictures of our Thanksgiving day soon.  After Maddy and Poppy left yesterday morning Grace, Jack and I attended the Maine State Ballet's production of the Nutcracker.  The performance was so beautiful and is was the perfect way to begin the Christmas season.  Today we are also decorating our home and tree for Christmas!  We are also counting down the days to Grace's birthday (December 2) and Jack's birthday (December 15).  Such fun times!

Clementines + Cloves = Fragrant Thanksgiving Pomanders

Grace made clementine pomander balls to give as Thanksgiving gifts for her teachers at school.  The beautiful citrus-spice smell warmed our house as Grace was making them and the pomanders serve as a beautiful decoration on any Thanksgiving table.    

The Story of the First Thanksgiving

Every year we make necklaces using colored beads to tell the story of the very first Thanksgiving.  Each colored bead represents a piece of history leading up to the first Thanksgiving.  Grace made a Thanksgiving story bead necklace for all of her classmates and teachers at school last week and this morning Jack made a necklace for everyone in our family to wear on Thursday.

• 1 tan bead to represent the Pilgrims leaving England
• 1 white bead to represent the sails on the Mayflower
• 3 blue beads to represent the 66 days it took for the Mayflower to cross the Atlantic Ocean
• 1 green bead to represent when Pilgrims spotted land, which they later named Plymouth
• 3 white beads to represent the first cold and long winter that the Pilgrims endured 
• 1 white bead to represent the arrival of spring
• 1 tan bead to represent the Native American named Squanto who greatly helped the Pilgrims
• A red, yellow, orange and tan bead to represent the foods at the first Thanksgiving (cranberries, corn, squash, pumpkins and turkey).  The first Thanksgiving was a great feast, which lasted three days!

 Jack hung the necklaces on the back of our dining room chairs, which we will all be wearing this Thanksgiving!

 

Thanksgiving Books

Eve loves books and she has really been enjoying looking at all of our Thanksgiving books this month.  Eve has also loved learning about the first Thanksgiving.  One of Eve's favorite words now is "Squanto" and she has such fun reenacting the story of the first Thanksgiving with Grace and Jack.

Being Thankful

Every November we create a project where we can show the many, many things that we have to be thankful for in our lives.  This year we gathered small tree branches from outside and arranged them in a vase to resemble a tree.  Each day we write or draw several things that we are thankful for on pieces of paper that resemble autumn leaves and hang them from the branches on our thankful tree.  I will be posting pictures of our thankful tree later this week.

Every day when we pick Grace up for school one of the first things she says is to me is that she can't wait to go home because she has, "so much more to be thankful for."  Once we arrive home Grace heads straight for our art room to write down her thankful thoughts to hang from our tree.  In the picture above Grace is writing how thankful she is for bees because so much of what we eat is pollinated by them!   :)