November 21-22

We had a rather special Thanksgiving… this was our FIRST American Thanksgiving… turkey and all! The preparation was quite extensive with a second table brought out of the garage, the good china and silver on the adult table and all. There was tons to do the night before and in the morning Nana and Baba were busy cooking quite early in the morning. We had TWO turkeys, two kinds of stuffing (one with sausage), mashed potatoes, a variety of olives, buns, corn… so much food!

The Johnson men carving one of the turkeys

We did DOUBLE our Gratitude turkey for Wednesday in order to fill out our tail a little more.

Gavin

Miss T

And the twins made their turkey centrepieces from the Art for Kids site! Simple and fun and 3D!!! You can find the how to on another site HERE.

So cute!

Really beyond getting ready for Thanksgiving… oh and Ken going in for an IMPORTANT meeting… well we spent time with Nana and Baba and did our basic school stuff. I am definitely going to have to get us back on track with our dinosaurs but we are taking a temporary hiatus on learning about new ones!

Thursday/Thanksgiving had us put our final two feathers on our Gratitude turkey. They LOVED this daily activity!

Zander

Emanuel

Joe, Faithe, Gabriella and Zachary were first ones here followed by Ken’s Aunty Judy, Uncle Jim and his cousins Robbie, Jessica and Angela with her boyfriend Stefan. We had a full house and the kids were over the moon!

Outside with Gabby and Zachary

Hanging out with Aunty Faithe and Nana

We used our very special Home Depot turkey napkin holders AND our Art for Kids turkey centrepieces. The kids were so proud of being able to help decorate the tables. Gabriella brought special paper napkin holders also with a turkey theme!

The kids’ table (sorry Robbie and Jessica! But thanks for supervising!)

Visiting

We ended the day with sitting around and relaxing and LOTS of visiting.

Post dinner rest

Quite the amazing first day of a FOUR day weekend!!!! AND our first day of true snow that STICKS! Though it did not come until the evening. Definitely time to get those boots for the boys!

Thanksgiving is a tiring holiday!

November 17-18

We actually MISSED recording our thankful thoughts Saturday!!! But with good reason – we had a HUGE reason to be thankful that we shared – we got to go visit family for a birthday celebration!

Visiting

I really didn’t take too many pictures but we had a ton of fun

So we had family, pie, good food, puppies and plenty of hugs all to be thankful for! And a lovely reminder as to WHY this move south was really a good reason. For the first time ever we are close enough to enjoy a more casual celebration with members of Ken’s family. It was two of his cousin’s birthdays this month – Robbie and Jessica so we were over at his Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s to celebrate. Ken’s other Uncle Greg and Debbie were there too so we had a large portion of the Johnson clan to enjoy time with as well as the relative puppies, fish, and a frog to see! It was a terrific afternoon/evening!

Bossing around Uncle Greg

In the morning Ken and the boys got their hair cut AND Ken SHAVED! So not only did we party but we partied with style! I am one happy (and proud) Momma and wife! On Sunday we DID remember to think of our thankful things!

Trinity: kitties

Emanuel: Thomas the train

Gavin: having a turkey on Thanksgiving

Zander: having a mom and dad

Sunday was a busy but quiet day. We had a slow morning with our new colouring book stack for the kids in the morning. It seems to be working as long as the kids don’t get too excited! And then it was time to rally the troops and run errands.

Of course we had to spend some time on the Nat Geo magazine Gammie got for the kids.

While I do not have the safety buttons I need to finish the penguin for my nephew yet I DO have stuffing… that means the teapot CAN be finished… which would complete everything but Trinity’s wand for her Christmas presents! That feels GREAT! Now to find a special box to put the set in as every little girl wants a nice box for her teaset.

We treated our pretty well behaved kids with ice cream cones from McDonalds on the way home (and a plain burger for Miss Echo). Thankfully we got a good deal on the necessary turkey the day before on the way home from our party so it was minor groceries and stuffing. I love that the nearby center has quite a few of the stores we like (Cub, Michaels, Bath and Body Works, Walmart) all in the same area so we could park and go to a couple and then head to the other side and walk the rest.

When we got home it was MY turn to put a feather on our Gratitude Turkey (sorry about the hair, I was in a rush to get things done).

Turkey

We also made a Thankful family poster. We all took turns drawing little pictures of things we are thankful for. The end result was rather nice, I thought AND it had us ALL talking about and thinking about things in our lives. What made my heart happy was the lack of THINGS, toys, possessions and instead so many things like the sun, friends, family… dinosaurs (guess who said THAT one?). The race is on to get toner so that we can get our centerpiece done for the Thanksgiving table in time.

Our family page

The emails have been checked and it is certain – Tuesday night (after 10) Nana and Baba return so the race is on to try and get all the little things we wanted to get done before they get home done. We have rebuilt the cabinet we brought down with us which of course was missing the rod for the coats that we need a home for (of course a dowel works so we may need to go and get a new one) but we have been working on clearing spaces here and there. The kids are VERY excited that they will be back soon!

Some evening block building (Gavin)

September 21-22

Nana and Baba are home safe and sound and only one day late! So we did the minimum of schoolwork and awaited their return. Farmer Boy is officially DONE! I think we all breathed a sigh of relief!

Not sure WHAT those faces are about

Each chapter illustrated and written

the lapbook portions I found online

Two extra illustrations to enjoy

We coloured, we tidied, we wandered around putting the house to rights and then – they got home!! Talk about some TANNED grandparents… and Nana’s hair – lovely!!! Echo especially just ate up the added attention. She REALLY missed her Nana and Baba and took turns sitting with them, playing and of course babbling away! Still no “Baba” yet…

Nana and Baba!

There was presents to see and then of course Baba’s birthday cake!!

Cake

Saturday was full of family time. Ken had to program another test code for another job application. This was a time consuming one so we were pretty well grounded. Which worked in our favour as Ken’s aunty Judy, Uncle Jim and two of their kids (Robbie and Jessica) came by to spend half the day with us. Judy is Ken’s dad’s youngest sibling and only sister. We caught up on everything and had an amazing visit topped off with pizza. We hope to go visit at their house really soon… maybe meet up at the zoo?

Drawing pictures for Aunty Judy

Baba and Uncle Jim

With Judy, Robbie and Jessica

However, he did have time to run with the kids… well run them with the remote control car. I am so glad that that little gem made it through our move. I am wondering, though, if we are the only people with kids who chase the car? Oh well, at least they had fun doing it!! 

Chasing the car

It was the first day of fall… and boy has fall come to us. The leaves are still mostly green but there is a definite chill in the air. We had to pull out the sweaters, long sleeves and even some pants. I am thinking my many scarves (and those Karyn made last year) are going to come in handy!!!

Miss Echo

And so the weekend progresses… amazing how busy we feel when we are standing still!

Trinity and her braids thanks to Nana