Fun and Gratitude with Pink Grandma

This morning we headed to Pink Grandma's home to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

Joy thinks Pink Grandma's cane is cool, so she's taken to carrying a "walking stick," too.

I handled most of the food today, and Pink Grandma planned some fun activities.

First, she hid strips of paper with pictures of things we're grateful for (animals, food, Jesus, family, etc.), and every time Joy found one . . .

. . . she brought it to Pink Grandma, who stapled them into a long chain.

Once the chain was done, they made necklaces out of painted penne pasta.

Meanwhile, Barefoot Boy bonded with Daddy on the slide outside.

I am so very grateful for my family, the Gospel, my health . . . and the Alphabet Game!

Portrait

My family had their annual family portrait session today. The only portrait I managed to photograph was . . .

. . . this one of Robbie and Sean. Smiling on cue is exhausting work.

Little Techie

Sometimes when I want to keep Daniel entertained in the car, I hand him my iPod Touch. I figure he doesn't know how to unlock it and access the programs, so he can't mess around with any of my data or settings.

Well, the joke's on me. Today I noticed that Daniel has figured out how to slide his finger across the screen to unlock it. The boy can only say two words, but he can manipulate a small computer. Now some of my icons have been rearranged, and I don't know how to move them back. I feel so twentieth century.

Papa's Leaves

You might be a grandpa if . . .

. . . you rake your leaves into a big pile specifically so someone else can jump into them.

Climbing at the Park

We've been having a minor heat wave lately, but the weather finally cooled down this morning and we decided it would be a lovely day to play at the park.

Joy climbed a tree . . .

. . . and then a slide.

Daniel preferred to hone his stair-climbing skills on the more conventional route.

Random Danielness

Here are a few random Daniel pics for your viewing enjoyment.

For weeks, Daniel has been intrigued by the DVD drive on our computer. He loves pressing the eject button, then pushing the drive back into the tower. I just know he's going to snap it right off one of these days.

Our little stairmaster has mastered the art of descending steps on his own. I'm almost as pleased about it as he is, but it also drives home for me the fact that he isn't a baby anymore. Sigh.

Lastly, I guess some princes really do start out as frogs. :)

Joy-in-a-Box

Hey, has anyone seen Joy?

Oh! There she is!
(How did she even fit in there??)

"H" is for Happy

I hosted H-Day in preschool today.

We wore Hats, sang about Hammers, and talked about Hot stuff like thermometers and . . .

. . . solar ovens. I tried to Heat up apple juice for Hot cider, but the oven didn't get enough sun that early in the morning. Most of the kids preferred it cold, anyway.

While we colored Hats and Houses, one of the boys morphed into a wolf.

One of the girls decided she was Belle, and that the remaining boy should be the Beast and protect her and the other princesses from the wolf.

The Beast preferred to keep coloring instead, so Belle and Ariel took matters into their own hands and wrestled the wolf into submission themselves. Girl Power.

A Happy time was had by all.

Got the Stickers to Prove It

When I went to vote this morning, I took the kids along so they could see how the process works.

To volunteers even had a sample ballot Joy could fill in. She voted for Thomas Jefferson for president. Don't tell my grandma that Joy voted for a Democrat. :)

Joy was very proud of her "I Voted" sticker, and this evening she was delighted when Daddy came home with one, too. She keeps asking when we get to vote again.

Hooray for Democracy!