Slowing Down or Reving Up?

What a whirlwind Thanksgiving we had this year. I am thoroughly drained from all the fun and wouldn't have changed a thing about it. We started in Sacramento. My kids were pent up from the rain and holiday bustle so we let them run in Old Town Sacramento on Black Friday. Here we are blowing off some steam:


Blake was upset he couldn't ride on the trains:


Grammie and Papa Tom showing them the river:


My smartphone is dead so I feel super cut off from the blogging world. These were the few pictures I had on my camera so my goal for tomorrow is to download the pictures from Andrew's camera, phone, and tablet.

I love that I have three more days of November to revel in the fall leaves before winter sneaks on in. Can I find calm before the brouhaha? I hope so.

Grams

My mother has started preparing her time honored Cranberry Salad.  It is a mixture of sugar, cranberries, and marshmallows.  She used to cut large marshmallows in quarters with scissors until she realized that my grandmother didn't have the option of using mini marshmallows.  We were giving my mom a hard time about counting out hundreds of mini marshmallows one by one so we decided to get out scales and do some math.  One Economics major,  one Computer Science major, one English major, and one Psychology major later and our problems were solved.

How many mini marshmallows equal one, large marshmallow?

Guess now...

The answer is eleven.

I can't believe Jet-Puffed makes flattened marshmallows for s'mores. 

A Year Ago

This picture is from last year's Thanksgiving trip. I had so many plans for Thanksgiving crafts and foods, but I think they will end up being thoughts of the past.



I wanted to make a wreath for our gate out of our neighbor's large leaves. I wanted to make oodles of pumpkin muffins to distribute around the neighborhood. I wanted to make that simple banner saying "Happy Thanksgiving" to hang below our compilation of preschool made leaves.

Maybe next year.

This crisp weather is my favorite and walking the kids to the mailbox made me warm and fuzzy inside. Family gatherings have already begun and I can't wait to see faces so familiar at this time of year.

Out

This is what I think is looking back at me when I look toward our front gate. Germs:


The flu has taken out this family one member at a time:

Here was our timeline...
Sunday - Andrew felt nauseous
Monday - Blake threw up during the night
Tuesday - Blake threw up during the day
Wednesday - I got a sore throat at night
Thursday - I threw up in the morning and couldn't get out of bed all day
Friday - Reade threw up in the morning (thank goodness it was in the kitchen)
Saturday - There isn't anyone left right?

Does this really mean we won't be infecting our whole family with a contagious disease at Thanksgiving? What a concept. How nice of us to get it out of our systems before the big day.

Transformer

Someone was water coloring. Someone wanted to be Optimus Prime. Why stop him?

Still Time

My house, once again, has turned into an infirmary. One was throwing up all night (guess that wasn't one of the strains in the flu shot) and the other was crying off and on with green goo oozing out of his nose. Today is a wash. Actually, today I have to do tons of wash with all those icky bed sheets. I thought I would peruse Etsy for a few minutes before starting in on my chores. Act now and you can have these by Thanksgiving:


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More Yet

Mommy crafted a few days ago, but Daddy took the cake with this one! Blake wanted Buzz Lightyear wings so Blake got Buzz Lightyear wings. Reade wanted Baby Buzz Lightyear wings so Reade got Baby Buzz Lightyear wings.

Daddy constructed, kids decorated:


Double fisted drawing:


I printed out pictures for Blake's wings, but he corrected me saying that Buzz Lightyear has a pack on the top of his wings. He ran to his room and got his backpack to put over his wings. Got to love those three-year-old technicalities. Reade was fine with my product placement: