Thanksgiving week

Monday started out as they usually do around here, a mix of school and child labor as we try to get the house in order after the weekend.  The difference was that last weekend I had done a lot of thinking about homeschool and made a few decisions.  First of all I decided that our cramped little school corner wouldn't do anymore and so we rearranged the living room.

 Tuesday was a half day of school for Tyler and when he came we decided to brave the snowstorm and make an Ikea/ Costco/ Cracker Barrel run.  We didn't want to get snowed in and I HAD to have a school table for the kids before I attempted another day of homeschool.  So off we went and Tyler let us listen to Christmas music the entire drive!  Unfortunately we didn't make it to Costco for food and such, but we did get the girls Christmas dolls from Cracker Barrel and came home with a tabletop and legs from Ikea for a steal that Tyler cut and assembled to make our awesome and amazing table!!!  I don't know how I did without it.

 To make matters even more amazing, Tyler took us to the Kids Museum on Wednesday!  We were going on 12 solid hours of Tyler time by this point and were drunk with excitement from so much of his uninterrupted attention! Or maybe it was just me.

 The kids ran crazy and we painted and silkscreened and paper-wove to our hearts content while the wind blew and the snow fell outside.

 Quinn was on the verge of popping another tooth and was in that tired, angry, sad, sick, slightly amused mood as we strolled her around the museum.

 And I was trying to plan out the next 24 hours and figure out what needed to be put in the oven when and if we had enough refrigerator/ oven space and time for everything.

 Tyler had invited a few friends over from school, and the girls were pretty excited about Thanksgiving.

 Heidi came to my purse to steal my keys so she could drive the smart car.  She then insisted on leaving the keys with the car and hid them.  Luckily I was able to find them after she ran off to pursue some other activity.

 Alex was a big help Thursday.  She assembled the cracker try, the veggie platter and scooped the cranberry sauce into the cup.

 Tyler did all the yucky turkey handling AND whipped up a pecan pie Thursday morning!  It was beyond delicious and I probably ate half.

 It was a fun mix of friends and the kids only misbehaved mostly.  The food was good and the company was great, the next best thing to having someone else do the cooking and spending it with family.

 I think my favorite part was the cow we got.  The girls and I found it at the store last week and together we decided that we NEEDED it!  Tyler thought (still thinks) I'm crazy for buying a cow gravy (or milk) boat, but the fact that the girls were just as excited about it as I was, pretty much made my life!  It's nice to outnumber Tyler 3 to 1 with my crazy schemes and purchases.

 I decided I had better try to capture this cute little mouth before it explodes with teeth.  Tyler suggested I wipe her face, I thought it was too much work at that moment.  He was right.

 Friday I got to take Alex and Heidi on a date to see the new movie "Frozen".  We LOVED it, my new favorite Disney film.  It was so much fun taking the girls to the movie and getting popcorn and a soda.  They loved it and so did I!  This is also the 'before' picture of my hair.  I had about 10 inches chopped off that night.  It is wonderful.  After the movie we went to get tights from Old Navy.  Heidi cried when we walked in the store and then ran away twice. I lost Alex once.  Doesn't look like we will try Black Friday shopping again for another 10 years.

 Sunday one of Tyler's teachers invited us over to his house to see Santa!  The whole place was decked out in decorations and there was a magical table filled with cookies of every kind!  It was amazing!  Alex even braved up enough to ask Santa where the deer were and he let her ring the bells to call them.  She then insisted we look around the backyard for them and when Tyler informed her that flying deer don't exist, she was full of questions.  I've told her the truth about 10 times, but she refuses to believe, so I've decided to be honest but vague and let her believe what she wants to at this point.

 Quinn believes.

We came home and decorated the house and set up the tree.  Alex is more into decorations and activities than I am for the first time and it's so fun.  It seems that in the past it's been me dragging the family along on traditions and such, but this year Alex has taken the lead and is pulling the rest of us along.  It looks to be a fun and eventful holiday season!