Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving today- lots of food, family, and gratitude!

The day started with the girls playing really nicely together. Audra and Claire were so excited for Thanksgiving- it was pretty cute.

 Audra insisted on dressing up like an Indian. She makes a pretty cute one!

 Ben's mom prepared a delicious feast- really, it was one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I have ever had- absolutely delicious! Thank you, Ann, for a wonderful meal!

 We asked the girls what they were grateful for, and they both said "Family." I couldn't agree more!

 Camille slept through the meal (thank goodness), but she woke up CRAZY. All she wanted to do was run around, grunt for more food, and get into things she shouldn't. For a few minutes we were able to stall her when she decided she wanted pillows stacked on top of her. The respite didn't last long, but it was sure cute.

Growing up, we always did a puzzle on Thanksgiving (or maybe it was Christmas? Or both?). I decided to continue the tradition and got a couple of puzzles for the girls to do. They are both very good at puzzles, so I think this will be a great tradition for us.

A couple of weeks ago we put together a "Thankful Tree." We had the girls draw pictures of what they are grateful for. The list included family, hair, water, turkey, and such.

 This one turned out to be the family favorite:

Ben drew a picture of being grateful for running. When I saw the picture I said, "Oh, you're grateful for big feet?" And from then on the girls continually teased him (in a nice way, of course) about being grateful for big feet.

We certainly do have a million and one things of which to be grateful. Health, a good job, family, love, Christ. Obviously, I could go on forever- and it was nice to remember to be grateful today!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Casa Bonita

Last night we took the girls to Casa Bonita. We haven't been here in a few years (since Claire was younger than Camille is now), so we thought it would be fun.

We were right.

The girls loved it.

Casa Bonita is a restaurant that is sort-of like a theme park. The food is not great, but the entertainment is. They have cliff divers, puppet shows, an arcade, a pinata, and much, much more. If you ever come visit us in  Denver, we will be sure and take you to this tourist paradise!

 And this is just for fun- the girls got dressed up today as fairies (I will really miss these days!):

No Turkey For Perkey!

Audra had a Thanksgiving play today. Her class worked super hard, and I think her teacher was more nervous than the kids. He went all out, and he had the kids prepped! All three first grade classes did the same play, and the other classes had to use a recording of the music and sing along, but not Audra's class. All the kids knew the songs perfectly. They all knew exactly what to do and where to go- it all flowed perfectly. One mom who has one kid in Audra's class, and another in another class said, "this was the shortest play because the kids knew exactly what to do!" Audra's teacher definitely runs a tight ship, and it worked out well today.

 Audra was an onion.

 She was so excited for the play. She has been singing the songs for 2 weeks straight. Last night she brought a pair of pants downstairs and asked Ben to iron them for her because they were a little too wrinkly for the play. She forgot that she wasn't even going to be wearing pants because she was going to be wearing white tights and a skirt.

 Afterwards there was a feast for the kids. It really is fun to have these "party days" once in awhile.

 Here she is with her teacher- he did a great job of pulling this together! It turned out incredibly well!

Shoes!

Camille LOVES putting on shoes. Oftentimes I can't find my shoes because she has put them on and abandoned them in unknown areas.

She also LOVES necklaces. She finds them everywhere and often has 3-4 around her neck. I don't really like it because I am worried that she will choke herself, so I try and watch her carefully. We have about a million necklaces in our house with two older sisters, so I'm not quite sure what to do.

Spotted Owl

We came home from school today, and Audra said, "Mom! There's an owl outside!"

What???

This was definitely a first. I have never seen an owl in our backyard, but today a good hour was spent watching every movement of the owl perched on our back fence:

I guess you just never know what you will find in the suburbs!

Emancipation Day

Today was a glorious day. And, I do mean GLORIOUS!!!!

Camille started nursery!

In our church, kids can't go to nursery until they are 18 months old. The period between when kids start walking and when they can attend nursery is torture. How do you get a toddler to stay quiet during Sunday School? You don't. So you mostly end up walking the halls for 6 months straight, constantly asking yourself, "Why do I even bother coming to church?"

I told Ben to enjoy the torture. As moms, we constantly get told to "Carpe Diem"- no matter what, we should enjoy every minute of poopy diapers, late night feedings, and cleaning up throw-up. So I told Ben he should just enjoy the torture of roaming the halls with Camille while he could. For all three kids, I have had a Sunday calling and couldn't be the one in charge of the toddlers. Ben had to deal with all the torture. I lucked out!

But today it ended.

Like our other two kiddos, Camille just walked right in and never looked back. It helped that the nursery leaders had put out lots of toys so she really did walk into a toy paradise. She sure looked cute!

 This was Camille after her- and our- favorite day of church!

 Audra and Claire wanted to get in on the action!

Claire's Art

Claire continues to LOVE coloring and all things art. It is something very calming for her, and she will work on one coloring page for over an hour. It is really quite impressive. Art classes will definitely be in her future!

Here's some pages she did this last week:

 Above she wrote her name. She is really big into making letters and "spelling."

For a 4-year-old she does a pretty good job of staying in the lines. Art is her happy place. Unless you try to make her stop coloring before she has finished. Then it is anything BUT happy! Just ask her primary teachers.