HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2009

We had such a lovely relaxing Thanksgiving. It was just us 5 this year plus a friend from Erics work, Bob. He's the one that gave Foxy a home, our wiener that wasn't such a good match with little ones. They are the best of buds and that makes us sooo happy.

The Turkey turned out excellent! Brining is the way to go. Oh so juicy. Sitting at the dinner table filling like we did it again, can you believe I did it. I forgot to take any pictures except...

Except for forgetting to take any pictures it's been the best TDay I've had in a long time. I think everyone else enjoyed themselves as well. Tomorrow we are off to family Thanksgiving and hopefully a few photos to share... :)

Award of Academic Excellence

Every month the school hands out awards in different areas for each classroom for deserving students. My Girl! MY 5 YEAR OLD GIRL won the award of academic excellence for the month of October. I'm so proud, Daddy's so proud, we are all so proud of her. On top of that it was a total surprise. She had no idea that her whole family was going to show up to see her receive this award.

Mara is an old hat at this award, last year she received several of these awards. We have some smart cookies in this family! Chalk one up for 2009...

And as promised, Mr. Carey the principal bet the entire school that they couldn't sell 750 book at the book fair. They did, and he kept his promise to wear a dress to school. It was a good day had by all.

The Treating

The Witch, The Turtle and The Flamingo! Oh My! We were dressed and ready for action an hour before it got dark... good thing we decided to have a small fire in the front yard this year. All in all I think the fire may become an annual event... it was good to get them all ready for the evening. No rushing at the last second, gave them time to run around and play and great photos ops!

It was a nice break for Ken to venture out and do a "scary costume" this year... I was just in the mood for something other than fairy princesses. She had alot of fun doing something different and putting all the makeup all over her face. We tried to rat her hair but it kept falling out... something we'll have to work on in the future.

Again, not sure Jack was sure what it was all about. He did love his costume and paraded around like he was hot stuff.. or something like that.

Daddy even put on some green and blue stripes and was a Seattle Seahawk ... wink wink

And the Flamingo was the big hit of the evening. Everyone just thought it was the best costume. It's not everyday you see a Flamingo running around.

And again... there was alot of Love going around. Jacob is the loveiest little boy I have ever met. and the smile on his face, you could just eat him up! I just love this kid! not to mention he is the cutest pumpkin in the world.

Mara had on the cutest "sailor girl" costume. I thought she looked absolutely adorable. Anything this cutie patutie puts on is cute!

And Fran, not sure what he was but his was filled with spirit!










This was the end of our evening. I would say that Halloween was a success!!! The picture says it all.

Trick Or Treat

The Carving

My favorite part! After carving this year I realized just how far we've come in growing up. The first few years of this family tradition it was all I could do to get the girls (especially McKenna) to put their hands in the pumpkins, let alone clean them out. Now they have that nice stringy, slimy stuff from head to toe.

Jack wasn't sure what to do with it. It looked like it was fun to play with but he wasn't sure if he should put his hands in it while I was sitting there. At one point he thought maybe he should eat it. That didn't last long, it didn't taste like pie! This year all but Jack made there own jack-o-lantern faces and did an awesome job I think.

We all had a pretty good night. Gramma Susan got to be in on all the festivities. We were both looking so beautiful that night, not sure how she escaped the photos.

The Picking

This one... This is the one...

No wait! This one... This is it... This IS the one... I don't think he could decide. He wanted them all and I think his hands touched each and every one of them. He was in aww of all the big orange balls.

The big day... you know the picking is almost the most important part and boy did we have fun! We all loaded up and started off for Sequim. We picked this Pumpkin Patch because a few years ago we ventured to this patch and discovered they made fresh, hot, steamy donut holes right there in front of you... which they no longer do. There were a few attractions not there this year due to the economy but it was still a fantastic day.

There was alot of love being given and alot of sun for this time of year... we couldn't have been blessed with a better day.

Isn't she beautiful! I think so. I had to add this shot in even though there are no signs of the big orange balls.

And my little prince. He couldn't decide what was more fun, watching the pigs, the big orange balls or me letting him roam wherever he pleased. He visited all corners of this farm... trust me.

The crew... well most of them that would cooperate for a photo. Aren't they a good looking bunch?!?