I was helping my four year old with something when she poked me in the belly and said, “You have a fat belly.”
“That is not nice. People don’t like to hear that they have a fat belly.”
She poked me again and said, “You have a medium belly.”
I see many parent teacher conferences in this ones future.
Isn’t it amazing how the words, “Five minutes until dinnertime,” can suddenly cause 3 people who just spent the previous 30 minutes arguing about which game they should play, to immediately start playing a game as if they had been playing it for the last hour?
Each year I make a paper bag turkey and feathers for our family’s annual Thankful Turkey.
He usually gets called Tom the Turkey or Ted the Turkey and we add thankful feathers onto him each day.
Here’s a photo of our 2009 Tom:
This year I decided to upgrade us to brown wrapping paper.
I know, we are the last of the big spenders.
I found a turkey picture I liked, printed it out, and drew freehand the turkey onto the brown paper.
My children have informed me that it looks like Ted is holding his private parts.
Children.
You just have to love them.
Or tell them, “Do not say Ted the turkey is holding his private parts ONE MORE TIME!”
After dinner, everyone takes a feather (scrap paper I have) and writes down one thing they are thankful for that day.
After I had written my feather on the first day I asked my preschooler what she was thankful for.
She said God.
I decided to take that moment to add a bit to my feather.
Here are some more things we are thankful for…
But don’t worry the next holiday is never far from our minds.
And just to cover our bases…
🙂
Everyday, immediately after preschool drop off, where the teacher comes to the car and helps my daughter out, I vow that today will be the day I go home and clean out my car.
And yet, I don’t.
I’m just banking on the fact that my car is not the only toy filled, clothing filled, school work filled, and goldfish filled car they’ve seen that day.
I have shared some of our family’s favorite Christmas books (along with our Christmas Eve tradition) before so I thought it would be good to share some of our favorite Thanksgiving books.
I keep all of our holiday books together and only take out the ones that pertain to that month at the beginning of the month. I’m pretty sure that’s the former teacher in me coming out.
Nothing fancy for storing them – just some old milk crates in our storage closet. (Christmas – bottom shelf; Halloween – left of top shelf; February – right of top shelf)
It’s exciting to see all of our favorite books come out and sit and enjoy them. Please tell me about any favorites your family might have.
Ten Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston
-Cute rhyming & counting book with each turkey falling off the fence after some mishap-
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I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
*My friend Betty gave this book to my children years ago & it’s always a favorite – the illustrations show grandma eating the entire Thanksgiving dinner, even the pot it was cooked in!
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Arthur’s Thanksgiving by Marc Brown
Arthur is in charge of the school Thanksgiving play and he can’t find anyone willing to be the turkey –
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Thanksgiving Mice! By Bethany Roberts
-Adorable board book about mice putting on a Thanksgiving play, one of our favorites-
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Franklin’s Thanksgiving by Paulette Bourgeois
Franklin is sad because his grandparents can’t come for Thanksgiving. He decides to invite some friends to dinner without telling his parents.
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Olivia Talks Turkey by Farrah McDoogle
Olivia is up to her usual antics this time learning how to “call” turkeys with the help of her teacher Mrs. Higenmuller
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We Gather Together…Now Please Get Lost! by Diane DeGroat
We added this book to our Thanksgiving pile last year – Gilbert is not happy with his partner on the school field trip to Pilgrim Town so he ditches him once they arrive. Unfortunately it was not a good move for Gilbert.
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The First Thanksgiving by Garnet Jackson
– Simple reader that shares the Thanksgiving story –
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We’re Gong on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Not necessarily a Thanksgiving book but the illustrations indicate it’s cold and windy so I put it in our pile.
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A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD
Not a book but one of my kids favorite holiday DVD’s – always fun to pull this out in November
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And here’s our new Thanksgiving book this year (book fairs sucker me in everytime)…my 8 year old LOVED this book and read the whole thing in one day, constantly spouting out facts he found interesting.
What Was the First Thanksgiving? by Joan Holub
This 100 page book is filled with illustrations, maps, pictures, and information about both the Indians and the Pilgrims.
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I’m already thinking about adding these books to our collection next year…
The Berenstain Bears Thanksgiving Blessings by Mike Berenstain
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The Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing
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Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of The Puppeteer of the Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet
Obviously, I have a love for children’s books.
Happy Thanksgiving Reading everyone!
I have successfully eaten every Almond Joy and Heath bar within a 6 square mile radius of my house.
It might have something to do with the fact that I told my children those candy bars don’t taste good.
Or maybe it’s that I keep stealing them out of their Halloween buckets.
Either way, I was in line at the grocery store tonight and actually thought about buying an Almond Joy.
Now that’s a real sickness.
Just popping in today to share costumes from last night.
My 4 year old was a cheetah for most events this Halloween but chose to be Belle for trick or treating.
My 11 year old didn’t care about his costume so he went as a soccer player by default.
My 8 year old decided he wanted to be something from Harry Potter. Any guesses?
Yep, he’s Mad Eye Moody.
We took a $7 coat from Goodwill, ripped it up, lightly spray painted it with white (to make it look dusty) and stamped it with a black stamp pad to make it look old.
I bough these face paints and brushes this year and have loved how easy they are to use and how the paint doesn’t smear.
I would love to hear in the comment section what your kids dressed up as this year.
Now on to November!
Man o man.
This thing called life just knocks the wind out of you sometimes.
The first thing out of my middle schoolers mouth when I picked him up from school yesterday was, “Kids told me Mrs. Matheus’ son died. She got a call during 6th period that he died. He’s in the Air Force. We watched her walk out to her car and leave.”
First off. How Awful.
Nothing is worse than your child dying.
Second off. She had to find out that horrible news in front of a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds.
Fast forward two hours, back at our house, with me at the computer checking to see if soccer practice was still on.
I open an email from my boys’ swim coach.
It informs me that one of the summer swim coaches has died.
He was 21.
It was self-inflicted.
First off. Again. How awful.
Just being a parent makes my heart break with this news.
I only knew this kid from afar.
He was always smiling and laughing with the kids and the other coaches.
For three years my kids knew him and loved him.
Second off. How dare you? Why would you do such a thing?
I’m not really mad at him. I’m disappointed and sad for my kids.
And heartbroken for his family and friends.
I know I will never know what led him to that decision and I’m not sure I need to know.
But I do know that I will continue to tell my kids everyday that I will always love them, forever and ever, no matter what.
I chose not to share with my kids the manner in which Coach Jake died. That’s too much information for even an adult to comprehend, never mind an 8 year old. He died. His family is sad. We are sad.
The next day I again picked my son up from middle school and asked him if he had a substitute in Mrs. Matheus’ class.
“No. It was actually her dog that died not her son.”
We had a bit of a laugh, learned never to completely trust the word of middle schoolers sharing information in the hallways, and went on with our day.
And I may have told him thirty times that day, ” I will always love you, forever and ever, no matter what.”
*I never use real names in my blog except those of my children.
Well folks.
It didn’t get all Hakuna Matata on us over her.
It went the way of the Circle of Life in a slightly more horrific way than I imagined.
If you recall, our backyard became a rabbit sanctuary for the past week ever since my 8 year old son discovered a nest of baby rabbits.
My sweet, sensitive eight year old who loves animals with all his heart.
Ugh. This story sucks.
Yesterday afternoon the kids were playing in the backyard when my son announced that the rabbits were gone. They were no where to be found. I immediately believed him because he has been checking on them with the religious fervor of a Texas baptist. Okay, maybe that went a little too far.
But he said they were gone.
So we let the dog out in the backyard.
And everyone played.
And everyone played.
And everyone played.
And then..everyone came in for bedtime.
And then…everyone woke up the next day to get ready for school.
And then…just as I was biting into my hot oatmeal breakfast my eight year old came running into the kitchen screaming, “Sophie killed the baby rabbit! She killed it! It’s laying on the floor!”
Tears. Tears. Hysterical tears.
I ran into the dining room to find the dog in her crate and an obviously dead baby bunny sprawled out on our dining room floor.
How did this happen? The dog hasn’t even gone outside yet today?
Tears. Tears. Hysterical tears.
Still I can’t seem to move. I just stare at this dead bunny on my dining room floor.
I don’t understand? How did, oh no, I know what happened!
Last night when I let the dog in she ran right to her crate without stopping to get water. Unusual but not completely out of the ordinary.
I locked her in her crate and went to my room.
As I read a little while later I turned to my husband and said, “What is Sophie doing in her crate? She’s moving around a lot.”
OH. MY. GOD.
SHE WAS PLAYING WITH A DEAD RABBIT IN HER CRATE.
Now I have 2 kids screaming.
I yell at the dog and lock her in her crate. I order my 11 year old to get a trash bag and I go to the garage and grab some rake contraption and a sheet. I tell my son to open up the trash bag as I try and scoop THE DEAD RABBIT onto the rake.
I miss the first time but manage to scoop him up the second time.
My son is so disgusted by holding the bag he drops it before managing to open it up enough for me to drop THE DEAD BUNNY and the sheet into the bag.
I tie the bag and rush it outside.
I order my son to wash his hands throughly three times while I do the same. I wash the dining room floor and wash my hands again many times. And I do a full body shiver.
I then talk with my 8 year old, the animal lover, and mumble something about animals, circle of life, Sophie thought it was a toy, and then agree to write a note to his teacher telling her what a tough morning he has had.
I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t call my husband after this experience and possibly semi-curse at him for not being home during this event. I may have forbidden him to ever leave the house again for work.
I think it’s safe to say that this experience has affected us all.
Later in the day my four year old told the Old Navy saleswoman and the grocery store clerk that our dog killed a rabbit.
My 11 year old has definitely ruled out a career in waste management.
I’m considering plans to demolish our dining room.
And my 8 year old wants to know when we are going to the SPCA to get another dog.
Yes. He is.
Apparently he has short term memory problems.
I assured him under no uncertain circumstances that we would never get another pet of any kind.
After all, I can still see that DEAD BUNNY on my dining room floor.
I’m starting to regret showing my kids all of the old movies I love and view as classics.
Movies like Mary Poppins, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Annie.
As I was walking away after putting my 4 year old in time out, she began singing, “It’s a hard knock life for me.”
It went something like this. “It’s a hard knock life for me. It’s a hard knock LIFE for me. It’s a hard knock LIFE FOR ME. It’s a hard KNOCK LIFE FOR ME.”
Only 14 more years for her to live that hard life with us.