Thanksgiving and Leftovers!!!

This year we got to enjoy Thanksgiving as just the five of us again ,and I must admit that it was quiet, calm, peaceful and practically perfect in every way. The boys each got to choose a favorite vegetable, so we had turkey, sweet potato/cranberry salad (the same as last year) and then lots of vegetables including carrots, peas, and cauliflower. It was nice to have the meal be mostly vegetables. While we ate we talked about what we were thankful for including the usual topics. This year as we have been studying the Book of Mormon I was particularly thankful for being raised in a home where the Gospel was both taught and lived and want to make sure my children can say the same.

After the meal we decided to have quiet/nap time before we tackled the cleanup. Both James and I crashed pretty hard and the boys read or played quietly. It was perfect! Then, we put the desert in the oven to cook while we cleaned up. The goal was to beat the timer and we easily won. I love how quickly cleanup goes with 5 people working together. Then, we played games and ate the pear and cranberry crisp that James already blogged. It was amazing! It was indeed a great day!

After a nice calm day we decided we wanted to do something fun with others. So, we planned what we called a 'Leftover Party.' This is the easiest party to plan because you just invite people over and ask them to bring some leftovers! It was fun to see random leftover turn into a fun meal. We did have fun making broth and soup out of turkey to go with the other leftovers. Now because James couldn't help himself he put together an amazing cheese plate to go with everything and make it into a real party!

Doesn't it look amazing! Well, it was! We invited a couple of families over from church and just had a great time eating and talking and well, eating some more! And in the end we all still had leftovers to get us through the rest of the weekend! This is definitely a party we will have to throw again! So, all in all our Thanksgiving weekend has been wonderful and full of gratitude because we have so many things to be grateful for!

Hand-Me-Downs

Having been the oldest I was never the recipient of hand-me-downs. As a mother I love hand-me-downs but have been saddened lately by the fact that Michael wears through everything he wears. Also, he grows so quickly that sometimes we miss sizes. I am learning to teach Michael to tell us when his shoes are too small. He will literally wear his shoes until his toes poke out the front because they have nowhere else to go. So, we have no shoes in sizes 4 or 6 because we didn't know that he needed a bigger size. Oops! So, Joshua has been lucky enough to get some 'new clothes' because Michael left him nothing to wear.

Interestingly Michael has now been the recipient of a hand-me-down. Actually, he is pretty excited because the hand-me-down is from ME! Now I wish that I am small enough that he could use my clothes, but alas that will never happen (though he does borrow my sweat shirt sometimes). But I was able to give him my old running shoes. Surprisingly he wore his shoes out, AGAIN and I can't find any I like for him, so I pulled out my old running shoes and passed them along to him. Yes, he wears the same size shoes as myself. But because I still am attached to my old shoes I asked him very nicely to let me know when they start to feel tight, so we can get him new shoes without him ruining my old shoes, so I can still have them as backup shoes. We'll have to see how that goes! So, welcome to our new strange world of parent to child hand-me-downs. So, this is our fun new adventure that we are excited to traverse!

Tigers!

The tigers were in town again, and with three big cat lovers it was a must see for us. We met some friends there and had a great time watching and playing with the tigers. They were pretty sleepy by the time we got to them, so we got to pet and play with them as much as we wanted and they just laid there and let us. It was great fun! But mostly I have some fun pictures, so enjoy! The cubs were about 8 or 9 weeks old and super cute!

Halloween Party!

Joshua really wanted a birthday party this year but I hadn't thrown a party for anyone else, so instead we threw a Halloween party! They were each able to invite a few friends and then help me plan the party. Joshua read a Geronimo Stilton book about Halloween parties that had lots of ideas, so we had fun researching and finding fun things to do.

Decorating was first, so we made bats and balloon ghosts to hang.

We started by letting our guests decorate their own goodie bags. It is amazing what kids will come up with (some glued candy corn to their bags)!

Then, we had a mummy making competition. It was really interesting to see how to two teams worked. One was speedy and creative while the other was slow and methodic. Fascinating!

Then, came lunch. Normally I wouldn't do lunch at a party but Joshua had many food ideas that I didn't mind, so we went for it. First, they made scary mouths out of apple slices and almost slivers. They were indeed scary. Then, they enjoyed carrot fingers! When you use real carrots and put them standing up in a bowl they really do look like scary fingers. And hey, who can pass up a scary carrot finger! YES, I served vegetables at a party and am unashamed! Then, they enjoyed the main course of pumpkin cut out peanut butter sandwiches and mummy English muffin pizzas (these were my favorite). By the way, using cheep white bread made spreading the peanut butter and honey very difficult--now I am ashamed for using white bread, but I thought it would be easier to use. Now I know that to be a falsehood.

After eating I set out a variety of craft supplies and asked them to make a spider. They could be scary, funny, creative, or just whatever they wanted. It was great! I was impressed by their creativity! At the end there were a few minutes left, so I let them go outside to play. Fortunately, we are stilling 50 and 60 degree weather here, so it was a lovely afternoon and they gladly went out to play.

We ended with these great cookies that James made. Yes, they look amazing and of course, they taste amazing. The ones with brown filling are Nutella! Mmmmmm. . . . He always amazes me with what he can do!

Now for the goodie bag! We made bats straws (bats taped on straws-but they were pretty impressive), orange play-do (yes, I made this too and let me tell you, if you cook your play-do it doesn't get hard when the kids leave it out. I'm not too sure if I like this or not), little halloween notebooks, and of course, a little candy.

This was probably one of my finest creative moments, so hopefully the boys enjoyed it, well, I know they had a blast, so it was a success.

We were pretty wimpy with costumes this year, so if you are trying to figure out how they are dressed, they are wearing brown and camo, so they are army men. Yes, they were clearance clothes at Old Navy, but the boys love them and now they have new clothes for the colder months ahead!

Oh, and I am sorry for the horrible pictures, but the camera hadn't made it home from James' concert, so you got ipod photos. But hey, they are better than nothing!

Canning, Canning and More Canning!

This year I learned to can. I know that James has canned jam in the past but I didn't realize you could can more than jam. So, this year I have learned to can peaches, tomatoes, salsa, chicken, chicken stock and am getting ready to learn to can pears (hopefully on Thursday).

Some may say that I have been a little out of control. I have a new canning buddy and we have gotten together on several occasions to can tomatoes, salsa, and dehydrate peaches. We borrowed a pressure canner, she had one and we bought one, so at times we have had three pressure canners going at the same time. It was AWESOME! At home I still have the borrowed pressure canner and have been known to run both canners all day. I have officially canned 100 quarts of tomatoes! The boys learned to blanch the tomatoes for me and did all of the blanching for the last 24 quarts. They are AMAZING! I also fell in love with canning chicken breast. Chicken has been on sale lately and I found that my freezer can only hold so much chicken. So, instead of buying another freezer I learned to can that chicken! It might be said that I canned about 100 lbs of chicken. Hmmm. . . maybe I am out of control!

I am now done with all of those item and am ready to do pears! I have my first 20 lbs and just need to figure out where to find more. We have run into some cold weather here, so gardening is quickly coming to an end. A local farm now has all of its produce on sale for $25 per bushel. I of course ran over and bought lots of apples, sweet potatoes and squash. Now I need to find uses for each of those things. Any great acorn squash recipes out there?

I think I have come to love canning so much because I feel like I am preserving food we will actually use. As much fun as it is to store wheat, oats and beans, one needs more variety in their life. So, now the goal is to go through the winter with a very low food budget. We'll see how it goes! Soup season here we come!

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

We didn't end up with a ton of photos from his birthday, but Joshua did say it was "probably the best day of his entire life, so far."

So there you have it.

We had waffles for breakfast, and Joshua opened a new [to him] suit that he wore to church so proudly. He got to practice the primary program, which he loves, and eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. He helped me make ice cream and decorate his soccer ball cake, and we enjoyed garden pizza for dinner. The "garden" part was a specific facet of his request, so he walked through our fading garden with me looking for suitable vegetables. We ended up with garden tomatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and some store bought mushrooms, onions, and red peppers. Here he is with his ultimate creation.

After dinner he opened his presents: nano bug, robe, slippers (he is so his father's son) and probably his favourite, The Game of Life. We played a round as a family and had a grand evening. What a blessing Joshua is in our lives.

So Much Soccer!

On Saturday, we had what we consider to be a singular event in the history of community soccer. OK, it's probably not, but we were a bit overwhelmed.

You see, we have three boys playing this year, and they are all three in different age brackets. To add to the impact of this season, LIz and I are coaching Michael's team, which has been a wonderful learning experience for us. On Saturday, however, we felt a little stretched.

We had FIVE games on Saturday.

Five.

F I V E.

Yeah, we only have three children. Jacob started his game at 9 am, the same time as our double header with Michael's team. When he and Joshua didn't show up at our field after that game, we figured they were just playing soccer with some of their friends around the fields, and let it go. They've proven that they make good choices when they're together. As Jacob dragged himself over at the end of our second game, however, we learned that he had just finished his second game as well. Yes, they had a double header that overlapped our double header, and we didn't even know it. It was crazy, but we acknowledged the crazy, and packed up our stuff and headed over to watch Joshua.

Of the five games, we won four, and tied one. The tie, however, was against a team from a different area, who get to practice more than we do and have been playing together for five years. They've never lost in Galesburg. Saturday, however, these green coaches helped their team tie. We play them again next week. Maybe, just maybe we can pull off a win.