Thanksgiving Prep

Tomorrow we're hosting a feast. Belle will be here, since kindergarten is off for the week, and I think Tinkerbell may pop in also. All the parents are invited for lunch and we're working hard to get things ready. The mashed potatoes are done and tucked safely into the fridge, and everybody has pronounced them tasty. I stuck a bite in Ariel's mouth when she wasn't paying attention and she went, "EEEWW I don't like... hey this is yummy!" See, you gotta try things.

Everyone old enough to help did some measuring and mashing. They all had great fun.





Aurora acting as Quality Control Manager in Supervisory Capacity:

Next we're baking cornbread for dressing and chocolate cake for cakeballs. YUM.

Nature Walk

It's pretty windy out today, but warm in the sunshine, so we all went for a walk this morning. They all have their favorite things to look for. Simba loves the wind and makes faces at it and opens his mouth to feel it on his tongue. O'Malley is obsessed with rabbits and squirrels and most especially dogs barking. Sebastian likes to look for airplanes. Duchess wants to walk up a certain street and see if Rex the cat is outside. Snow White picks every dandelion she sees along the way. Ariel does all those things, and then usually throws in a little something every time that adds depth to the conversation.

She had gotten tired of running in front of the stroller and was walking with me and "helping" me push it, chattering nonstop. She noticed that the moon is visible today and so we talked about that for a little while. I'm really going to need to brush up on all my scientific facts to talk to these kids. They're asking some good questions these days! She wanted to know why it was there during the day. Then she noticed that it's a half moon right now and that freaked her right out.

"The moon! What happened? The moon! It break'd!"

Um, I was an English and history major. Skimmed through science. I told her the whole moon is always really there, but sometimes we can't see parts of it because it's in the shadow of the earth. I hope that's right, or at least close enough for a four year old. So then we talked about how the moon spins around the earth and the earth spins around the sun, but we can't feel it, and when you see the clouds moving, they're not- we are. But there aren't any clouds today and she wanted to know where they went. Beats me.

I need to rent a Magic School Bus video or something. Not for them- for ME. Duchess is always telling me things I didn't remember from science class that Ms. Frizzle teaches her.

The duct tape leaf belt is way more my speed. I think we'll do that on our next walk and avoid all this heavy discussion. :)

Thanksgiving Niceties

We're starting to get ready for our second annual Thanksgiving dinner. We do it on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we invite all the families who can get their lunch hour off to come over. Last year it was really fun. This year they're already excited about it again. We have just over a week to plan and we're going to make some practice recipes this week, since I'm not sure about some of the gluten free adjustments I'll have to make.

They also are very serious about the decorating. Duchess wants a "koopia". Badly. And what is that? You know! That horn thing that HAS to go on the table for Thanksgiving. Buy one please. Go to Walmart. Can we go tonight?

I've never bought a cornucopia before, and I'm not sure why she's decided it's a necessity this year. As long as they don't cost the earth though, it looks like we may be the proud owners of one before too long. I suppose we could use a lesson in centerpieces and dressing the table nicely.

Counting

Just for the heck of it, I asked everybody to count to 100. I don't really expect them to be able to, except for Duchess, since it's in her kindergarten curriculum and she's been working a lot on it lately. It's a good thing for them all to know though, for sure. :) Maybe I'll post every now and then with updates to see how we're all coming along.

Duchess: She skipped #20, but then got everything else, and actually counted up to 109 for good measure.

Ariel: She skipped #17 and #20, counted up to 39, and then said 100.

Snow White: She counted up to 15, got to 20 with a little prompting, and then started giggling and saying 51! 32! what? I don't know what comes next!

Sebastian: He can count to 20, skipping #16 this time. He usually skips a different teen number every time.

O'Malley: Wow. He can't count. :) He's mine, so I can say that. I started trying to count his fingers and said ONE.... and he looked at me blankly and giggled and screamed NO and ran away. Some work could definitely be done in that area.

We have lots of fun sorting and counting activities, and they've been focusing tons on art and dressup lately. I think I'll direct them toward some math-type stuff in the next few weeks.

Pumpkin Pie

I think it has been established (although, actually I think it was on my previous blog, not this one, so I'll see if I can find pictures of the last time...) that I enjoy stripping babies and taking undignified pictures of them in large melon-type containers. :) They are just too cute, even if they get mad about it! There's such a small window of time where they fit into fruits and vegetables that I just have to go for it whenever I get the chance.

Last spring I put O'Malley and Eeyore into watermelons. Oh look, I found the pictures! Eeyore was okay with it.



O'Malley not so much.

But now it's fall!!

My sister brought her baby Peanut over today and asked me what I was going to do with my big pumpkin now that it's November. I said I should probably get rid of it, so she cut leg holes in it and scooped all the gunk out. She had that boy down to a diaper and wearing that pumpkin in less than fifteen minutes.

He was a little uneasy about it at first, but then he settled in and decided it was okay.


I love that one with the lid on his head like a hat. It only stayed on for about four seconds at a time so we had to work together to get that picture.

Yum, first taste of pumpkin. I'm pretty sure it's better cooked!

Then Aurora woke up. She's younger and I wasn't sure if it would make her really mad, but I figured it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, because Peanut barely fit in there. She'd definitely be too big next time watermelons are in season. So I stuck her in there too.


It was kind of heavy and I didn't want to get pumpkin guts in her hair so I just held it on there.


I love this one, she looks so serious hanging on the side like that.

She only got mad when I took her out. Maybe it felt a little slimy on her back or something? This is a great face though- it's like she's just now realizing the indignities perpetrated upon her. :) Sorry Aurora and Peanut, but this is too much fun to pass up!

If One Is Good, Then Eight Is Better!

I went to Costco over the weekend and stocked up on fruit and veggies. Silly me, I left the pears on the floor while I figured out where to put all this stuff. O'Malley went to town, and I'm told by several unreliable sources that Snow White helped, but she denies any participation.

We've been eating pears for snacks like crazy the last day or two- I'm cutting off the bite marks and trying to foist these off on the family. :)