Thanksgiving School Parties

It's official. The kids are out of school for Thanksgiving break! Yippeee! :)I joined Mackenzie's class for their party this afternoon. Mackenzie did a great job of quoting her memorized lines for the Thanksgiving program that her class did in the room. I am proud of how well she did! Above is Shaun and Mackenzie.
Her class decorated giant sugar cookies for the party activity.

Mackenzie, Savannah, and Hollie

Part of Josiah's class. His class all had t-shirts with a turkey made from the child's hand print on it. Super cute. They were out of dress code and in turkey shirts with pajama bottoms and slippers today!

Most of the boys in Josiah's class are in the picture. I love how excited they are, though I have no idea just what happened to cause such happy faces! Made for a great picture, though.

Mackenzie and Josiah, ready to head home for the holiday!

Thanksgiving Week

Our Thanksgiving week was a wonderful week packed full of activities. Seems I uploaded the pics backwards order, so we'll start with the most recent events and work backward through the week! :) Above is the annual picture from the Fantasy of Trees. I am so pleased with it!
Here's Josiah talking to Santa.

The kids enjoyed visiting with Santa so much that I had to call them onward in order to allow other children a turn with Santa, too! How different from the years when the kids were afraid of Santa.

Zac took this one of the four of us at Fantasy of Trees. I love it!

Here's Granna, Z-Pa, and Mackenzie and Josiah.

My two precious babies. Aren't they sweet?!

Uncle Zac with Josiah and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie

Josiah wanted his picture taken on this rock at Dollywood, so Mackenzie jumped in, too!

While at Dollywood, Granna and Z-Pa let the kids go "mining" for arrowheads! They loved it, and they found 6 or 7 arrowheads. That was a highlight of the day, I do believe.

Granna, Z-Pa, Mackenzie and Josiah with the arrowheads.

Earlier in the day, as we entered Dollywood, the kids got to feed the ducks.

Fun times.

Two sweet kids enjoying the ducks at Dollywood.

Candid pic of the kids with Uncle Zac at Dollywood.

Uncle Zac, Josiah, Mackenzie, Granna, Z-Pa

Here's our table set for Thanksgiving Day!
I do enjoy having Thanksgiving at our house.

A humongous THANK YOU to Betty for all the work she did in the kitchen to prepare for Thanksgiving. I helped, but she surely did the majority of the meal.

More food. What a blessing, indeed.

Ariel view of the pies. I made the chocolate and pumpkin pie, Betty made apple and cherry, and Uncle Dale (Betty's brother) brought a lemon meringue and chocolate chip pecan pie! The kids had specifically requested chocolate, pumpkin, cherry, and apple. That was funny. We made them all and were happy to have Dale join us for Thanksgiving. The kids were admiring the pies that Dale brought. Josiah exclaimed, "Wow! A spike pie!" When he saw the meringue. Too hilarious.

One last food picture from Thanksgiving Day. We had the four of us, David's parents, David's brother, David's Uncle Dale, and our two neighbors from Bulgaria, Geri and Trifon, all together for Thanksgiving at our house.

Even earlier in the week, on Monday night, David and I went on a date...just the two of us. Thanks to David's parents for keeping the kids so we could go out. We enjoyed dinner at The Flatwater Grill. It was fabulous. The walls of the restaurant are glassed in windows right on the lake. What a date!

One morning, while David and I were both at work for a few hours, the kids got to make things with the Easy Bake Oven and Cupcake Maker, thanks to Granna and Z-Pa's help!

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed Uncle Zac, though I think most of the pictures are of Mackenzie with Uncle Zac. Josiah latched onto him and was quite the little shadow for Uncle Zac! I don't think Uncle Zac minds too much. ;)

And even earlier in the week, on Sunday, November 21, 2010, was Zearl and Betty's 40th Anniversary. We got them this cake to celebrate with our H2H group that evening at our house.

A wonderful week. Good company. Good visit. Wonderful memories made.

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving, as well.

Our Week

Our week began with the arrival of Granna and Z-Pa on Monday for Thanksgiving week. Uncle Zac joined us on Tuesday, and we've had a great week. Tuesday, November 24, was Josiah's half birthday. I cannot believe that he is already 3 1/2 years old, and yet in some ways he seems so much older than 3 1/2! He is counting and saying his ABC's all the time now. He loves to count to ten in Spanish. He is able to legibly write his name. He loves to play with gadgets and anything that transforms, like bakugans. He loves things that go, like cars and balls, and enjoys playing computer games and watching PBS Kids. He goes to sleep at 7:00pm, same as Mackenzie. He wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30am as he only requires 10 1/2 hrs of sleep per night! (Mackenzie still requires almost 12 hrs per night!) He loves school and all his friends at school. He can lay it on thick with his perfect manners, complete with yes ma'ams and no sirs and lots of hugs and kisses; he can also demonstrate a great lack of manners complete with a rude tone of voice. He certainly keeps us on our toes these days!!! He is an affectionate little boy, and we love him dearly. He weighs 34.5 lbs and is 39.5 inches tall.
He enjoyed his half birthday celebration with Granna and Z-Pa. He even got the chocolate dinosaur cake he requested! Thanks, Granna and Z-Pa, for making his half birthday a special one.

Here's the first ever chocolate pie that I made from scratch! I used my momma's crust recipe, and my Granny Long's chocolate pie filling recipe. I let everyone choose whipped cream or Redi Whip to top their piece of pie! I was kinda proud of how it turned out!

After enjoying a Thanksgiving meal (and that chocolate pie), we went to The Fantasy of Trees. I love this as it benefits Children's Hospital, which I'm kinda partial, too. ;) The kids sat in Santa's lap and I got our traditional picture. I'm so happy with how it turned out! The kids told Santa what they want for Christmas, and we enjoyed making our annual hand print potholders and thumbprint ornaments. (Josiah told Santa he wants a light saber and a toy motorcycle for Christmas, and Mackenzie told Santa she wants a swim suit, Barbie doll, and Dora Saves the Mermaid DVD and Dora Dance to the Rescue DVD.)

Both kids enjoyed the train and put put golf at The Fantasy of Trees, too. We've had a great week, full of activities. I have so much to be thankful for...that could be a whole other post! For now, I caught the blog up with some pics and our latest activities.

Also, Mackenzie is 38.5 lbs and 44.25 inches tall. She is now 5 years and 3 months old. As I tucked her in earlier this week, she began asking questions about Grannie Horn (her great, great, grandmother who died when I was 18 years old). I enjoyed telling her about my own Thanksgiving memories at Great Grannie Horn's house during my own childhood. She asked one question after another and we ended up having a terrific conversation about death, faith, and Heaven. Her questions struck me as deep from a five year old. One of her questions was, "Mom, since you and Dad are older than me, does that mean that you'll die before me?" Again, the answer was lengthy and in depth, but her response was, "I want you and me to die together, Momma, because I need to be able to see you, talk to you, and touch you at least once every day." She melted my heart. Such a sweetie. I pray that some of what we talked about regarding faith, death, Jesus, and Heaven sunk in!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!