Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year. We had our family of four plus four others. This year I made almost everything from scratch, I even dried my own cranberries.

The Menu:

Fruit Cornucopias (I did not make the waffle cones)
Orange Cranberry Pecan Salad
Yams
Stuffing
Rolls (made from natural yeast!)
Cranberry sauce
Turkey (cooked by PE)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (brought by my sister-in-law)
Corn (brought by my other sister-in-law)
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie

I replaced all sugar with honey. The pies were excellent, especially the pecan. I really liked the cranberry sauce, and it was really easy to make. The rolls turned out pretty well, and I really liked the ones I added cranberries to. The stuffing needed more bread in it. The yams were excellent. The salad dressing was bitter and I ended up adding honey to it to make it edible. I think I would try I different salad next time. The fruit cornucopias were easy and delicious, a big hit with the kids. And PE made a delicious turkey, I only wish we had cooked a bigger one because we're already out of leftovers.

We were really glad that our nephew was able to come! We didn't think he would be coming because we thought he would be with his dad. He is the only cousin that P1 knows, and it is fun to watch them play together.

 

This year we did a Thanksgiving tree, and it turned out really well! It was fun to see what P1 was thankful for, and it ended up helping him want to say his prayers. He has been going though a phase where he doesn't want to say the prayer anymore, but when we started this tree, he wanted to say 10 bedtime prayers.

"I'm Thankful For..."

P1: Trains, Animals, Food, Nice People, Toys, Applesauce, Cookies, Trees, Cars, Family

P2: Climbing, Dad, Books, Water, Coloring, Walks, Cookies, Crackers, Gil, Applesauce

Mom: Friends, Home, Power, Family, The Truck, Healthy Food, Good Health, Jesus, Sleep, P1 being potty trained, 

Dad: Work; Gil, Ilana & Mom; Good traffic days, Treats, Summer, Weekends, No debt, Ninja blender

Trick-or-Treat

P1 really wanted to be a giraffe for Halloween. And we had a little monster costume that fit P2 this year. They both really liked wearing their costumes.

We had a Halloween Party at the church where the kids could go trick-or-treating at the classroom doors. And then they had games in the cultural hall. P1 really enjoyed playing Bingo. P2 really enjoyed eating candy.

 

 

We went trick-or-treating at Grandma's house before dinner. Then we had some Jack-O-Lantern brains for dinner. It was yummy!

Then we took the kids trick-or-treating around the block. P2 was very good at grabbing candy and putting it into her bucket. Then we left P2 home with dad, and I took P1 out for a little longer. We ran into some friends, and joined their group. 

All in all, it was a successful Halloween!

Pumpkins: Painted, Carved, and Stickered!

Pumpkins basically took over my life this year.

I really enjoyed painting them. I started out with some for Dia de los Muertos, and then I thought it would be fun to do Jake from the Neverland Pirates. Well, then I had to do Izzy and Cubby. Oh, and I couldn't forget Skully. And then P1 asked me to paint Bucky (their ship). And then there were 2 more white pumpkins which would be perfect for Captain Hook and Mr. Smee...

Bucky took the longest to do, but came out well. I think Mr. Smee turned out the best though.

 

We carved a pumpkin when our nephew was over. P1 refused to touch the pumpkin guts.

 

 Foam decorated pumpkins lined our house after our Halloween play group. We had lots of extra pumpkins and stickers, so P1 helped me make lots of faces.

 

Then PE and I carved one. It was big enough to put 2 images on the pumpkin. PE carved White Tiger from Spiderman, and I carved Merida from Brave.

And with so many pumpkins sitting on our porch, I felt obligated to carve a couple more.

 

Halloween Play Group

We hosted a Halloween play group the day before Halloween. We had lots of little pumpkins for the kids to decorate. We used foam stickers to decorate, and it was a huge success!!! The kids loved it, and the stickers worked very well and were mess free!

Some stickers were pre-made, but we also cut out fun shapes for the pumpkins.

This reminded me a lot of doing crafts at the Girl's Home for family reunions on my dad's side. One of my aunts would always bring lots of crafts for the kids to do.

Pumpkin anyone?

P1's pumpkin! Then he covered the rest of it in fun stickers!

 

P2 liked sticking them all on the top of her pumpkin.

One of our new friends volunteered to do some Halloween musical activities for the kids. She was fabulous! The kids loved it! She did a lot of fun songs/activities with the kids.

We had 15 kids and 8 moms. All in all, it was a very fun and successful party!