Thanksgiving 2010

We had Thanksgiving at mom's this year. I made green bean casserole, but Thursday morning I realized I bought everything to make it EXCEPT the green beans. Go Christi, right?! Good thing Harris Teeter was open.

Anyway, Ian filled out these leaves and put different things he was thankful for on them and then put one on each plate. Very cute and creative I thought!

Waiting for the big dinner and soaking up some football, of course.

Pop-pop not expecting to get his picture taken.



A cherry pie made by my mom! We have this once a year and it is delicious. I told my grandfather that it was cranberry pie and it didn't taste very good. LOL

Ian was pretending he was biting into his favorite pie: Pumpkin Pie!

I couldn't believe the amount of turkey the boys ate on Turkey Day. Ian was loving the drumstick!

I went Black Friday shopping and enjoyed it once again! I was in line at Target for about 1 hour. That was from 3-4am! I was home from shopping at 9am and I saved over $350!

Mom bought the boys their own Christmas tree last year for Christmas gifts, so this was the first year we put them together. Gavin made the angel at the Y Camp over the summer, so it was a nice touch to the tree. My dad bought the kids small ornaments (all sports related of course) plus some bulbs not knowing they were receiving trees. So, we split those in half and went to town decorating. The trees are in front of their windows and looks so nice at night when we plug them in!

The lighting makes it look like Ian has dark hair on top! Nope...still blonder than blonde! The tree looks so small when he stands next to it.

Thankful Tree

The kids and I put together a "Thankful Tree" and hung it up on the wall in the kitchen. I wanted them to come up with what they thought they were most thankful for.

Gavin told me what to write and Ian wrote his own. They were all very thoughtful and clever. I really like how Gavin said he was most thankful for Connor and Katie. :-)

Here is everything that made it on Ian's list:

1. "toylits"...spelled just like that!

2. beds

3. people who fought in wars

4. eating

5. animals

6. houses

7. people who went in the Olympics

8. school

9. my mom and dad pay for me and Gavin to play sports

10. family

11. mattresses for camping

12. transportation

13. friends

14. for the world and God

15. sports

Gavin's list includes:

1. Cody

2. Thomas the Train pillow

3. soccer

4. the whole wide world

5. bedroom

6. Connor and Katie

7. candy

8. our house

9. food and drinks

10. our country, outerspace, the moon and stars, etc

I took this picture of Justin and Ian this morning at their friend's birthday party in Cary. They have known each other since age 3. Although they attend different elementary schools (darn), they meet up with each other at church and Sunday School. The Allen Family means a lot to our family and their boys are absolutely wonderful and good friends with Ian and Gavin.

Fall Outing and Thanksgiving Feast

Cailean and Ian are in the Y-Guides for the second year and continue to have a lot of fun with their tribe. Last Sunday all the 2nd years in the area met up at the "Fall Outing." They can go canoeing, cookout, all different kinds of activities at Camp Kanata.

Ian's tribe led all the tribes in (first year and second year). Pretty impressive they were chosen. The head person there was completely impressed with the torch thing that Cailean and Ian made. They put a set of buck horns on the top along with feathers and beads and berries and leaves and who knows what else.

On Tuesday I was at the four year old Thanksgiving Feast at Gavin's pre-school. He called himself "Fast Cheetah" and he is thankful for...1) playing basketball 2) playing soccer and 3) eating big chicken! Oh he cracks me up. Big chicken!!!

A Few Days with Nana and Poppi

Cailean's parents arrived Tuesday late afternoon and Joyce was all set to attend Science Night at Ian's school that night! On Wednesday I actually was able to walk with a friend in the afternoon while they stayed home with Gavin. Cailean came home Wednesday night from a training trip. Then, on Friday he chaperoned Ian's field trip at the museum and Cailean's parents walked around with Gavin at the museum, too. I have a hard time missing a school event, but this year has been challenging to say the least. Since I increased my hours I earn vacation and sick time every month. So, I'm trying to get some in the bank. Cailean took this field trip and I hope to go next semester.

Friday night the four of us took Joyce to her first basketball game and was quite impressed with the event. The boys had fun, too!

On Saturday Joyce, the boys and I headed out for the football game. We left earlier than planned, so we picked up some lunch and tailgated in our area for a little bit before heading over to another tailgate with some friends.

I had two sets of tickets. So, Ian and I sat in my seats for the first half while Joyce had Gavin in the other section. We met up at halftime and was able to sit together in their section. At the end of the third quarter we started to leave and then went back to our seats to stay until the end. Leaving the grounds was an adventure and I think I'll never stay to the end of the game again! LOL

Party!

Ian's baseball team had its end of season party at Backyard Bistro tonight! Definitely bummed that Cailean is out of town and missed it since he was an Assistant Coach. But, he was able to listen to a few minutes of it via cell phone!

This team was not supposed to win and play like they did because there were only 4 returners out of 13. Well, the Scrappers did the opposite. They went 12-1-1 in regular season play and were the season champions. Also, Coach Rick said he looked at the stats for a bunch of years and no team in this league (age 5-7) had a record like that. Very impressive! So, the Fall 2010 Scrappers had the best record ever for the league!

We had a blast with this group and we've met some amazing people!

November...

First, Happy Birthday to my brother in law, Neal! The boys sang to him tonight and asked quite a few questions about his age. For some of them...I didn't prep the boys!

Friday night we had a sleepover at my mom's house. Cailean was hunting Saturday morning and I was running a conference at work, so mom was able to watch the boys when the woke up. We all congregated over there and watched the first half of the football game before returning back home. It was definitely a treat for the boys to stay there!

We've had to change around our Sunday schedule for the next few months. Since Ian is in 2nd grade there is a class during church called PCPW (Preparing Children to Participate in Worship). They walk down the aisle together at the start of the 11am service. They sit together in the first two pews and then a 1/3 of the way into the service (after children's time), they go back to the classroom and then we pick them up after the service.

The kids enjoy Sunday School, too. They get to see their friends each week that they don't see during the week (so many schools in our area...don't go to the same ones). I'm a volunteer in their classes...2 Sundays with Gavin and 2 with Ian. It has been a lot of fun and I've done it for a few years now.

It's sorta weird to not have baseball consume most of our nights and weekends. Last week we met up with one family for dinner and let the kids play. We were at Chick-fil-A for THREE hours! WOW! That's a record. Monday night is the end of season party at a restaurant, so we're excited to see everyone again! It was such a great group of kids and an awesome group of parents!!!

Cailean's parents are coming into town this week. They'll get to see Science Night at Ian's school on Tues night and go to the museum where Ian's class will go on Friday. Hopefully we'll be able to watch a basketball game on Fri night and football on Saturday.

That's it for now!

The end of October...

Where in the world did October go? Anyway...we managed to make it for a few hours to the state fair on Y-Guides Day. Ian and Cailean earned patches for their vests. Gavin loved the rollercoaster and I took him on that. We were in the very last row and Gavin laughed the whole time and then even let go to raise his hands. Ian is not into all the rides like Gavin, so he enjoyed taking a break with his dad. The three of them did manage to go on this ride...

Out of the thousands and thousands of people at the fair we ran into Gavin's buddy, Katie, and her brother and sister. It was great to see them there and they were excited to see each other!

After eating some pizza we attemped a family photo. Not the greatest but it'll have to do for now.

Gavin's pre-school had its Fall Lunch Bunch. It's a time to have lunch with your child and it's also a fundraiser.

Gavin's first season with CASL. Can you find him? He is wearing a black/red football sweatshirt towards the left/center.

Gavin's pre-school had a Halloween parade...sad that it was his last one. :( Love these three little ones!

With Gavin's Halloween parade in the morning...Ian's class had a Reader's Play in the classroom towards the end of the day. They did a great job saying lines from a book. Gavin, Cailean and I were able to attend and Mrs. Rood did a great job with them! After, a few of the parents stayed to help out with Pumpkin Math!

It was also Tournament week for Ian's baseball team. They won the first two games and lost the third game. So, they ended the season as not only Regular Season Champs, but with a record of 14-2-1. We're very proud of Ian and of the Scrappers!

For Halloween we went around with one of Ian's teammates, Timothy. His grandparents live near us, so Timothy's family and our family went together and had a GREAT time!!!