ouch

adelynn just cut her 1st tooth!

thankful

we had our fall frontier feast tonight. having a big thanksgiving party with local friends on saturday, but wanted to do something special today too. so we traveled to massachusetts and became samoset, miles standish, puritan woman, and oceanus hopkins.

we ate chicken, dried fruit, nuts, and corn (and of course mashed potatoes and gravy b/c it's just not thanksgiving without mashed potatoes and gravy).

we read a puritan prayer and talked about how much the native people helped the pilgrims.

halfway through dinner w remembered that miles standish had a mustache (in his pilgrim book he has a mustache) so i had to paint one on him.

so much to be thankful for.

boys will be boys

weston colored me this cute picture today...

and then informed me that they are poisonous dart frogs.

happy thanksgiving

madeline

we did five in a row again last week for preschool. this time we read madeline and learned a little about france (mostly we just ate yummy things).

crepes on monday (like the french flag?).

date at a "french cafe" on wednesday. w was a bit skeptical about dipping bread in his cocoa and drinking it out of a bowl, but discovered that he really liked it.

made cheese on friday. yep, that's right we made cheese. i learned that 400 types of cheese are made in france and i am quite certain that they are all better than the cheese we made.

did some sorting- smallest to biggest (madeline was the smallest of 12 girls). got these rods at a garage sale last summer for 50 cents btw. love them. use them all the time.

and put madeline on the map.

now.... onto pilgrims and indians and our fall frontier feast tomorrow!

the old jammies

these are weston's mcqueen jammies. he likes his mcqueen jammies. really likes his mcqueen jammies. as you can see, they are a bit outgrown. the other day he informed me that he will only wear his mcqueen jammies until he is 5 and then he will give them to addy to wear!

i love sundays

we've kind of purposed to make sundays restful around here. worshipping with friends in the morning and spending the rest of the day together. just the 4 of us. i love it. i look forward to it. this afternoon was awesome. addy was a champ and napped for 2 hours. kev got caught up on college football. west and i snuggled in a cozy blanket and he looked at books while i mindlessly read my latest "ladies detective agency" book. then we went for a walk together.

and discovered a new dirt pit

and went home in time for dinner and a movie. rack shack and benny. yeah, i love sundays

memories

found this picture the other day and laughed just as much as i laugh every time i see this pic. sunriver family vacation 1997. sweet sweet memories of those trips to oregon as a teenager. especially love the expression on my darling little brothers face!

growing up

so, i am one of those people who is notorious for running late. always scurrying around at the last minute, trying to get out the door. this was the case on monday as i was getting addy and i ready to go to w's class. i asked him to go into the other room and find something quiet to do. after about 30 minutes of showering, feeding, blow-drying, i realized there had not been a peep from the other room. panic began to set in as i briefly imagined all the things that could have been going on in the other room with my normally very loud and active boy, but when i ventured into the living room, this is what i found:

he had gone into the kitchen, gotten himself a snack, and was quietly sitting on the couch reading a book. amazing. my little guy is getting so grown up!

necessity is the mother of invention

i've been wanting to do a turkey project with w this month, but have been perplexed about where to buy feathers. i was on my way to w's class the other day and i passed one of these shops that i have passed hundreds of times.

you can't see it well in the picture but inside i spotted big feather duster. i had an epiphany... feathers. turkey. that's it.

so we bought it, went home, and got busy.

not bad, ey? it's not michael's, but it'll do. the only downfall is that w has been using what's left of the duster for a hockey stick and my living room is covered in chicken feathers.

my latest goal

-learn how to cook with tofu.

any suggestions?

bath-time

i was feeding addy the other night and i overheard this conversation between weston and kev:

(weston's in the bath... fyi- he loves his bath)

kev: "west- 5 more minutes and you need to get out."

w: "it's ten minutes on my watch!"

thanksgiving alphabet

this month we are doing a "thankful alphabet." everyday we do a letter and every letter w tells me something he is thankful for. i helped him with A. kev bought a huge bag of apples (30 cents a pound btw) and we made applesauce together so A was for applesauce:

for B i let w try to figure out how to sound something out, so i said "B buh buh B." W said, "B is for bubby, like amelia's bubby! i am thankful for wyatt." so there you have it... B is for wyatt:).

"oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good." Psalm 118:1

addy- our preschool fan club

something to ponder

"it is  mysterious dance of love in the christian community as we lay down our rights and our demands and seek to outdo one another not in what we can get but in what we can give." -john piper