Thanksgiving is always a good time. As is our tradition, Mike's family came down last weekend and spent the week enjoying their grandchildren, shopping, soaking up some sunshine and helping prepare for the holiday. The kids enjoy many fun things when their Aunt and grandparents are down: movie nights (and afternoons), face painting, dress-up, crafts, outside play, etc. It was a hectic week, but still a nice vacation.
Avery, Cole and the entire family helped prepare our "feast" as Avery calls it. We tried brining our turkey this year, which is essentially an aromatic salt bath to seal in the juices before roasting. In addition to salt, we had allspice berries, candied ginger, brown sugar, whole peppercorns and vegetable stock. While the flavor didn't really change, it was a very juicy turkey indeed. Definitely a keeper.
That was the only real break from tradition -- my group is serious about their Thanksgiving being consistent in order to achieve full nap potential afterwards. As such, the turkey was accompanied by sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, crossaints, stuffing, cranberry sauce --- not like Grandma Dorothy's though :( --- and of course Grandma Sacher's pumpkin pie with Cool Whip! Delicious if I do say so myself. Many thanks to the people in my life, especially my Mom, that showed me how to cook and bring family and friends around the table to share these special memories.
Our visit with Mike's family ended, as it always does, with breakfast at "Another Broken Egg" Cafe. They have the most wonderful Santa and the kids were decked out in Sunday best to state their case for being good and to provide an inventory of items for appropriate compensation of such good and noble acts through the year. WE SHALL SEE!!!
We are truly, truly blessed!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Holidays w/ Mickey
During the Summer my family had decided to venture to Disney World as our Christmas celebration.... plus there were great flight deals from Wisconsin ;). We rented a home that our immediate family had stayed in earlier this year. It is a rental property about 5 minutes from the park, has 5 bedrooms, large kitchen plus a pool & spa (very reasonably priced).
Our first main event was to attend the Very Merry Christmas celebration at the Magic Kingdom. This is largely a night event complete with wonderful parade, hot chocolate, cookies and all the merriment that the park provides naturally. We kicked off the night by having dinner in Cinderella's Castle --- great food and the Fairy Godmother was a hit with Oliver, Cole and Avery Jane! Dessert was a hit with all the adults!
Day 2 brought lounging around the house and taking in the pool and spa. The kids enjoyed spending time with Oliver, Grandma and Papa as well as John & Amber. It was a nice relaxing day for the group that was capped off with the ever popular "Polar Express" movie.
Day 3 centered around the Gaylord Palms hotel. The hotel was completely decorated for the holidays --- Christmas trees, wreaths and flora galore. The hotel's large atrium was home to koi fish, alligators and several gnomes that the kids enjoyed finding while the adults took in the other sights of the season.
The main event of the day was the ICE show. On a day that was near 80 degrees outside, we bundled up in parkas that the event provided in order to walk through the 9 degree display of 2 million pounds of ice that had been scuplted into various forms of winter wonderland themes: eskimos, polar bears swimming, a carosel, a life size nativity scene (the pictures don't do it justice) and of course Santa. The kids favorite --- and Grandma's too --- was a series of slides made of ice. Cole, Avery and Mom all ventured down the frozen tundra!
Our final full day was spent at Downtown Disney. There was an art festival, although the majority of what we saw were unbelievable chalk drawings down around the grounds. Thankfully the weather cooperated. We enjoyed going through the World of Disney story and other favorites including the miniture train that apparently is still big enough -- and cool enough -- to transport Avery! We ended the afternoon with lunch at TREX, which is a restaurant complete with animatronic dinasors. Oliver's eyes were as big as saucers.
We had a great time just visiting and sharing a few special outings out with the family.
Our first main event was to attend the Very Merry Christmas celebration at the Magic Kingdom. This is largely a night event complete with wonderful parade, hot chocolate, cookies and all the merriment that the park provides naturally. We kicked off the night by having dinner in Cinderella's Castle --- great food and the Fairy Godmother was a hit with Oliver, Cole and Avery Jane! Dessert was a hit with all the adults!
Day 2 brought lounging around the house and taking in the pool and spa. The kids enjoyed spending time with Oliver, Grandma and Papa as well as John & Amber. It was a nice relaxing day for the group that was capped off with the ever popular "Polar Express" movie.
Day 3 centered around the Gaylord Palms hotel. The hotel was completely decorated for the holidays --- Christmas trees, wreaths and flora galore. The hotel's large atrium was home to koi fish, alligators and several gnomes that the kids enjoyed finding while the adults took in the other sights of the season.
The main event of the day was the ICE show. On a day that was near 80 degrees outside, we bundled up in parkas that the event provided in order to walk through the 9 degree display of 2 million pounds of ice that had been scuplted into various forms of winter wonderland themes: eskimos, polar bears swimming, a carosel, a life size nativity scene (the pictures don't do it justice) and of course Santa. The kids favorite --- and Grandma's too --- was a series of slides made of ice. Cole, Avery and Mom all ventured down the frozen tundra!
Our final full day was spent at Downtown Disney. There was an art festival, although the majority of what we saw were unbelievable chalk drawings down around the grounds. Thankfully the weather cooperated. We enjoyed going through the World of Disney story and other favorites including the miniture train that apparently is still big enough -- and cool enough -- to transport Avery! We ended the afternoon with lunch at TREX, which is a restaurant complete with animatronic dinasors. Oliver's eyes were as big as saucers.
We had a great time just visiting and sharing a few special outings out with the family.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Halloween Night with Candy Delight!!!!!
We had a wonderful Halloween Season this year, despite Papa & Grandma delaying their usual Halloween trip to a family get together at Disney World in a week or so.
I had taken a few pictures of the kids a few weeks before Halloween in order to send to the family. The kids had also worn their old costumes (Raggedy Ann and Peter Pan) to school for their "dress as a literary character" day during Homecoming Week. Too cute.
We enjoyed our annual trip to the local pumpkin patch. It is always fun and we typically pick out a couple small pumpkins for the kids to take to their teachers. Cole's pumpkin present, however, made it's way back home as he appararently thought it was merely a show-and-tell item. HA!
The day before Halloween was full of Halloween parties at the school. Mike and I both helped with the 3 & 4 year olds halloween carnival (loads of fun). The kids started out with a parade for the older kids and met up with their 5th grade buddies. They then ventured onto their playground, which had been transformed with games that parents had thought of (some very creative people) and some fashion stations complete with orange and black nail polish. I ran the face painting station, which was quite popular as you can imagine. Loads of fun.
We capped off our Pre-Halloween Night by hosting dinner with our friends the Gendusas. We had the kids make their own "BODY PART PIZZAS" complete with blood (sauce) and other assorted toppings appropriately labeled. Our dessert, compliments of Amy's famous triffle bowl, was an eerie dirt-dessert with gummie bugs and chocolate rats. The kids LOVED it all....... especially the mini-sodas that were covered in Frankensteins, Mummies, etc. We always enjoy our time with the Gendusa family!!!!
Halloween night brought a first for us --- WE LEFT THE HOUSE. We typically have a full-time job Halloween night just handing out candy (we buy nearly 70 pounds of it). This year we were invited to a lovely Halloween party hosted by 4 families, two of which have children that attend school with Avery & Cole. They had a blow-up haunted house, a permanent play fort in the shape of a pirate ship and loads of goodies for the kids. After eating, the parents had arranged 3 separate trailers with hay bales to pull the kids around through the VERY quiet neighborhood for trick or treating. It was a beautiful night complete with a full-moon. We are very blessed to have such thoughtful friends.
We hope you had a SPOOKtacular Halloween too!
I had taken a few pictures of the kids a few weeks before Halloween in order to send to the family. The kids had also worn their old costumes (Raggedy Ann and Peter Pan) to school for their "dress as a literary character" day during Homecoming Week. Too cute.
We enjoyed our annual trip to the local pumpkin patch. It is always fun and we typically pick out a couple small pumpkins for the kids to take to their teachers. Cole's pumpkin present, however, made it's way back home as he appararently thought it was merely a show-and-tell item. HA!
The day before Halloween was full of Halloween parties at the school. Mike and I both helped with the 3 & 4 year olds halloween carnival (loads of fun). The kids started out with a parade for the older kids and met up with their 5th grade buddies. They then ventured onto their playground, which had been transformed with games that parents had thought of (some very creative people) and some fashion stations complete with orange and black nail polish. I ran the face painting station, which was quite popular as you can imagine. Loads of fun.
We capped off our Pre-Halloween Night by hosting dinner with our friends the Gendusas. We had the kids make their own "BODY PART PIZZAS" complete with blood (sauce) and other assorted toppings appropriately labeled. Our dessert, compliments of Amy's famous triffle bowl, was an eerie dirt-dessert with gummie bugs and chocolate rats. The kids LOVED it all....... especially the mini-sodas that were covered in Frankensteins, Mummies, etc. We always enjoy our time with the Gendusa family!!!!
Halloween night brought a first for us --- WE LEFT THE HOUSE. We typically have a full-time job Halloween night just handing out candy (we buy nearly 70 pounds of it). This year we were invited to a lovely Halloween party hosted by 4 families, two of which have children that attend school with Avery & Cole. They had a blow-up haunted house, a permanent play fort in the shape of a pirate ship and loads of goodies for the kids. After eating, the parents had arranged 3 separate trailers with hay bales to pull the kids around through the VERY quiet neighborhood for trick or treating. It was a beautiful night complete with a full-moon. We are very blessed to have such thoughtful friends.
We hope you had a SPOOKtacular Halloween too!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Fall! Finally!
Well we've been wanting Fall to arrive and boy did she this weekend. We went from temps in the upper 80s last week to not even in the 60s today. While I realize our family up North may still find this nothing to cause alarm, our kids were "chilled to the boney" as Cole noted.
Despite the cooler temps and a strong wind, we headed out to enjoy one of the many fall festivals in the small, quaint towns around us. The Pumpkin Festival is one of our favorites as there is so many different things to do and all the merchants decorate their stories with some fun fall & Halloween decor.
This year had all the traditional fair items: fair food, face painting, kiddie rides, an International Fire Truck and of course pumpkin painting. The committee also added a costume pet for your pet ---- 3 dogs dressed as Wizard of Oz characters won --- and a stage for children to dance upon for free entertainment. There was even a fortune teller --- Avery is apparently very smart, going to be a cheerleader in high-school and invent a smear-free lipstick that makes millions. We shall see!
It was fun to do all the activities, eat some "healthy food" (note deep fried oreos were being offered as well as homemade potato chips from a guy that rigged up the potato-corer to a drill) and see the very unique merchanise offered in this quaint little town. We capped off the afternoon with a hay ride pulled by an old tractor and an even older gentleman.
We hope you too are enjoying fall!
Despite the cooler temps and a strong wind, we headed out to enjoy one of the many fall festivals in the small, quaint towns around us. The Pumpkin Festival is one of our favorites as there is so many different things to do and all the merchants decorate their stories with some fun fall & Halloween decor.
This year had all the traditional fair items: fair food, face painting, kiddie rides, an International Fire Truck and of course pumpkin painting. The committee also added a costume pet for your pet ---- 3 dogs dressed as Wizard of Oz characters won --- and a stage for children to dance upon for free entertainment. There was even a fortune teller --- Avery is apparently very smart, going to be a cheerleader in high-school and invent a smear-free lipstick that makes millions. We shall see!
It was fun to do all the activities, eat some "healthy food" (note deep fried oreos were being offered as well as homemade potato chips from a guy that rigged up the potato-corer to a drill) and see the very unique merchanise offered in this quaint little town. We capped off the afternoon with a hay ride pulled by an old tractor and an even older gentleman.
We hope you too are enjoying fall!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Yee Haw Ya'll...
Fall is definitely upon us, despite the mid 80 degree temperatures. You know it is fall when the nightly topic swirls around school --- the homework, the report of the day, the who-did-what-to-whom on the playground and of course the "EVENTS"! Last Friday was Grandparent's Day --- a nice Hallmark Holiday that has made it's way into our school's fall line up of activities. I volunteered to assist with Cole's room and attended Avery's program as well.
Both were very nice, with Western adornment on the children and classrooms alike. There were many smiles and all-and-all it was a nice event....
This week is 'HOMECOMING' week, which Avery quickly pointed out made no sense as they were not going home but rather going to school --- too smart for her own good. That puzzle quickly fled her mind when she found out that she could wear her PJs to school (Monday) and her Purdue cheerleading outfit (Tuesday) and Western wear today. I broke out my glue gun, fabric paint, and special printer paper that allows you to create custom iron-on transfers to create some Western day gear --- capped off (literally) with some hats that my cousin Joe and his wife Heidi had sent our kids a few years ago!
Ah, to be a kid again...... although I don't think my PJs are in any shape to wear to work ;)
Both were very nice, with Western adornment on the children and classrooms alike. There were many smiles and all-and-all it was a nice event....
This week is 'HOMECOMING' week, which Avery quickly pointed out made no sense as they were not going home but rather going to school --- too smart for her own good. That puzzle quickly fled her mind when she found out that she could wear her PJs to school (Monday) and her Purdue cheerleading outfit (Tuesday) and Western wear today. I broke out my glue gun, fabric paint, and special printer paper that allows you to create custom iron-on transfers to create some Western day gear --- capped off (literally) with some hats that my cousin Joe and his wife Heidi had sent our kids a few years ago!
Ah, to be a kid again...... although I don't think my PJs are in any shape to wear to work ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
