Thanksgiving 2015

This year, we got to have 3 Thanksgiving dinners in one week! First, we went to Nana and Pop-pop's for an early one before they went to New York to visit family up there. The kids had a blast when Pop-pop made paper airplanes for them and they got to throwing them from the loft over the living room. :) Sadly, we forgot the camera, so we don't have any pictures. :/

Later in the week, we rode down to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make Thanksgiving dinner for them. On Wednesday, we had a little surprise for the kids. They'd been dying to see Star Wars for a while, but we don't own the movies. (I'm still kind of a purist and have been waiting in vain for the day they release the originals in their old, unedited glory... I may have to give up on that.) However, Grandpa has all 6 movies, so we had a big marathon and watched Episodes 4, 5, and 6 on Wednesday followed by 1 and 2 on Thursday and then 3 on Friday. Of course, they loved them. :) Now they're dying to see Episode 7 when it comes out.

During a break in the movies, the kids did some decorating for the Thanksgiving table.

The kids decorated by making their traditional Thanksgiving chain of what they're thankful for. Then they made turkeys from pears, zucchini and carrots.

 They were very cute. :) One slowly sagged as the sticks pressed further into the pear so it looked like it was pecking the ground.  

We didn't let them watch movies the whole time they were there. We made them take advantage of  the beautiful weather we had while we were there. 

As always, a favorite pastime is to go on the roof of the workshop and throw sticks or whatever off. This time of year is great because there's an abundance of acorns.

 We found a lot of them in various stages of sprouting.

 Some of them had tiny feeder roots coming off the main sprout.

 That didn't stop the boys from throwing them off, though. :) 

 Olivia did her best Pippi Longstocking impersonation, walking the peak of the roof. She recently read the book a few times.

She and Rebecca went with a big homeschooling group  to see a performance of it at UNCG last week.

 On the night of Thanksgiving, we went out to see the  nearly full moon. The kids were surprised by how bright it was. They could even see their shadows like in Owl Moon.

 The next day, the kids really wanted to ride horses, so Grandma took them all out for a turn on the horse.

 While he was waiting for his turn, Ezra did his best Hulk impersonation with the quick-release cross-ties.

 Finally, it was time to go on the horse.

They all had so much fun!

Later that afternoon, we packed up our things and headed out to the Great-Grandparents' house for our third Thanksgiving dinner of the week. The kids headed right out to the backyard where they love to play.

Ezra being the monkey that he is. :)

 Of course, the best part for the kids was going on the zipline. We enhanced it this visit with a swing seat. We also taught the kids to help stop each other near the end so there were less close calls with the brick wall. :)

They just can't get enough of that! I'm sure I'll eventually give in and put one in our yard. :)

Here is Rebecca's G-dad with the kids. They adore him. We spent a couple days the week before Thanksgiving at their house. The little girls like to sit on G-ma's lap (when her pain would allow it) and watch cartoons.

We discovered a Pomegranate bush in the backyard of Rebecca's grandparent's house. Rebecca was super excited about this find! G-ma tells us that it was at her home growing up. Then they transplanted it to this house. Rebecca's dad remembers eating from it as a kid. The pomegranate seeds were much more tart than the ones found in the store but they were delicious! We froze a nice supply of seeds so we can enjoy them for a while. It would be nice to figure out if we could grow a bush for our home from a cutting. :) 

Gabe's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Gabe!

Our tenderhearted, excited about life, and goofy son turned 4. Rebecca and I worked together to make him a bulldozer cake. This was actually a few days before his birthday but we were headed out of town and, with the Labor Day holiday, Grandpa and Grandma were able to join us for a celebration. We did this at breakfast. The kids were delighted to get cake and a party first thing. :)

"Don't I get cake too?"

On Gabe's actual birthday, we were in Harrisonburg, VA where I was working with my parents. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. They put the sombrero on Gabe and sang to him. He also got ice cream. His expressions and enjoyment were priceless.  The same could be said for his siblings. There was lots of joy to go around that night.

Pop-pop and Nana are down there on the end. The ran from our end of the table (when there was food) to their end of the table for sitting in laps. 

"You take pichur?"

"I smile!"

"I take over world!!! Muahahahaha!!!"

Emma sat in a high chair for the first time. She did pretty well, though Rebecca had to have some quick hands to keep her upright a couple of times.

Ultimately, though, the excitement was just too much for Emma...