thankful

Every teacher on the planet asks h/her students to write about what h/she is thankful for this time of year.  As a teacher, I loved reading what the kids came up with.  As a mom, I look forward to and treasure these writings as well.  Every year at our Thanksgiving breakfast, I record what we are thankful for in a fun little journal.  Sweet tradition, but I can't find the journal this year!!! We'll do it anyway in hopes that mom will eventually uncover it.  Until then...here are the girls "thankful assignments" from school.  One warms my heart, the other cracks me up!  

On Thanksgiving my family has frends over and we eat good food and play.

We play games and have candy!

I am thankful for my family because thay are fun.

I Love my family!

The best thanksgiving would be thaving my gramda and grampa over. (Ella, 8 yrs.)

I am thankful for my dog kus he dus not get muth utenshin frum us.

So he is sad ulot.  (Claire, 6 yrs.)

Hope you find time to love and laugh a lot today...Happy Thanksgiving!

words

A growing vocabulary...Thomas has it!   Each day seems to bring a new word.  I love this stage:) Here is a sample of a few of his words...

ma=more

ain=train

goo=good

key coo=thank you

key coo (while shaking head back and forth)=no thank you!

buh=bug

me =milk or moon

papee =pacifier

mi mee =mitten

chaulk ee =chocolate

bee =spit up

boo boo=booger

yah (with a long Norwegian draw) =yes

and my favorite so far....hi bubee = hi brother

friends

Our dear friends, the Spakouskys, will be moving to Washington in just a few weeks.  We will miss them so!  Until then, we are trying to soak up every opportunity for fun together!

mighty hunters

Tom went deer hunting this weekend.  Dead animals aren't typically something I post on my page, but it is a big part of his world.  The guys had a great hunt and came home with 5 deer. I'm delighted to have him home!

blog books no more?

This week, I decided to begin the process of putting the past year into a blog book as a family Cmas gift.  Thought this would be a neat way to remember each year's milestones and events, especially since I've abandoned the scrapbooking concept.  Well, I'm bummed.  Went onto the blurb.com website last night that I'd heard was the ticket to turn your blog into a book and ....NO MORE!  They no longer support blogger!  They only support "live journal" and "typepad" blogs.  Rrr... I read many very upset comments from others like me wondering why and if they'll support blogger again sometime, but the responses were basically "not in the foreseeable future."  Bummer.  Anyone know of any other options?  I wonder if I should switch to live journal or typepad just so I can get a book each year?  Anyone have any experience with either of these?  Let me know if you do, please!

a girl after my own heart

Date night.  Claire and I!  Claire told me the other day, "Mom, you and I have never had a date."  I thought a bit and realized in her eyes, she was right.  We've been plenty of places together, alone, but nothing officially called a "date." ( I do grocery dates with the girls, but maybe those don't count?)  I think she had so much fun on her "Daddy date" this summer, that she wanted to do it again!  

Here's how it came to be...Tom asked both girls if they wanted to go shooting this morning. Ella gladly wanted to join him, Claire said, "no thanks." So...Claire and I spent a chunk of time together as we waited for Tom and Ella to get home.  We read and read and read books together in the recliner and began a craft together.  She carefully picked out the dress she would wear and I did her hair, just as she requested. (a braid on each side & pulled together in back)  We talked about what she wanted to do together and she carefully made this list...

1.  cuvr (the main event was to be shopping for a cover for her new bible)

2.  kraberee cadij (I suggested browsing Cranberry Cottage as she'd never been there and I      knew she'd love it)

3.  frostee (from Wendy's)

4.  turgit (Target, just because)

5.  aowt to eat (out to eat)

I cracked up when we were leaving Shalom that she pulled out her "list" of things to do and reprimanded me for forgetting the frosty at Wendy's!  "See mom, you're forgetting number 3!" We didn't ever get to #3, but we did enjoy dinner and dessert together at Evangelos.  She had requested pizza and as we were leaving Target, I asked her if she wanted pizza hut or pizza from somewhere fancier.  And how did I think she would answer?  Fancy, of course!  As we were eating, I described my favorite dessert to her there and asked her if she wanted to try it or go get a frosty.  Being the chocolate lover she is, she picked wisely and chose to have dessert with class.  I ordered the chocolate silk cake with extra whipped cream for us and this is when the fun really began....we fought over the whipped cream!!!!  She'd never eaten with a long dessert spoon before and we had great fun with them.  She told me she liked our date because it was nice and quiet, we didn't have to rush, and it was all for her.  Sweet.