Turkey and football

Is a whole week after too late to talk about Thanksgiving?

How about if I condense it to pictorial collage form?

As I mentioned last Friday, my sister hosted Thanksgiving for the first time last Wednesday night and we had ourselves a beautiful and scrumptious evening.

You may notice the white TV screen in two of the above pictures... that would be Kelly's slideshow for the evening welcoming us all and listing the dinner and dessert menu.

Yes, she's a firstborn.

Not only that, but she also got all Pinteresty on us and created a popcorn turkey just for the kids table. The kids didn't know what was inside until Papa carved it open... witness the excitement!

In the meantime, I not only vowed to myself to never try and throw Thanksgiving at my house ever, because I can't compete with the likes of popcorn turkeys, but I also managed to burn my berry crisp to an ACTUAL black crisp after deciding that it wasn't quite done enough and sticking it back in the oven. And then promptly forgetting all about it.

You guys, I'm a DELIGHT to have over for special occasions.

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated with Russ's side of the family and some church friends at my sister-in-law's and it was a literal FEAST. 

Such a relaxing and easy day. After eating around 1 pm, the kids (all 17 of them!) played upstairs or outside, and we vegged out watching football, movies, visiting, NAPPING, and looking at the ads, before going in for round two of feasting around 6 pm.

And I'm happy to report I didn't burn anything this time. 

On Saturday we went over to our friends, the Nofs, for the big civil war game between the Ducks and the Beavers. 

This is serious business, people! Notice the TWO television screens set up in the living room. It was another fun day of great food and celebrating with friends (for the win!).

I just love the holiday season (aka party season!). This week I've already attended a Christmas mug exchange party for our church's women's bible study groups, and Russ and I are going to a couples ugly sweater Christmas party this weekend! 

And Ohhh, just you wait until you see the ugliness... The Goodwill did NOT disappoint :) 

My NOT fun morning, by the numbers

The number of minutes I woke up before the kids were supposed to be at school today: 5

The number of days my hair had gone unwashed, causing me to throw on a hat before running out of the house in a mad rush, wearing my pjs & slippers: 3

The number of miles I came short of reaching home again before running out of gas: .25 - so close!

The number of times I smacked my head on my steering wheel, asking God, "Why me?": Only once I'm proud to say.

The number I then called to state my emergency: my sister's

{God bless her perky little self for leaving work to come to my immediate rescue}

The number of trips we took back to my house for gas cans: 2 (the first one had a little gas in it but as it turns out, no nozzle under the lid to pour it in. Of course not.)

The number of school buses filled with laughing children who passed me in my animal print pants: 2 (which we all know is two too many.)

The number of people who thought it was all a fun adventure: 1 small boy (and his dog)

The number of times I've ran out of gas in my life: 6? 7? I think there could be a life lesson there!

The number of chocolate chips I've eaten since finally making it back home: ... ummm... I don't know what you're talking about!

InstaFriday

My week in Instagram... and Oh, what a great week it has been!

Dentist trip #2: waiting for big brother and sister's cleaning. Blake had the waiting room almost to himself and was lost in his own world, acting out pretend scenes with imaginary characters.. out loud. It was the cutest.

Tuesday night I went to the new Breaking Dawn movie, AGAIN ;), this time with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and a couple of girlfriends. We ran to the grocery store afterwards, then stopped for gas, and it wasn't till then that I discovered the giant metal model car that had apparently been sitting in the bottom of my purse all evening.

I had to laugh out loud. How did I miss that thing? And what the heck, Blake?!

 Wednesday night Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's. Didn't she set up her living room so cute?

My place setting. 

 New game we played after dinner - great game for a crowd!

Thursday morning I stayed in bed while Russ went and got me the paper. Then I stayed in bed while I looked at all the ads! Welcome to my happy place ;)

That afternoon we enjoyed Thanksgiving with Russ's family, where I failed to take any pictures on my phone but have regular photos to blog with soon.

And THEN... it was time to SHOP!

For the first time we went to Salem instead of Clackamas and struck GOLD. This was an hour after their Black Friday sales began... Ummmm, Hellooooo?

NOTHING like the craziness of where we've gone in the past. We found all that we wanted and by the time we checked out at 10 pm the check out lines were still only 5 people per line, max. In the mean time we found out that the Clackamas Walmart had reached capacity and we had friends still waiting outside just to get in!

 Mum and I, excited about our success.

And our shopping partners in crime, Tricia and Jana.

After that we went to Target, which was also relatively calm, and had great success there as well. We were done and headed home a little after 1:00 am (as opposed to 6:00 am like last year!)

Which is why I'm enjoying my Friday right here, in front of the fire :)

Happy Friday to you!

Monday Confessional

Embarrassing mom moment #42: Sometimes I forget that every once in a while children actually need new socks. 

(I do want to point out that the socks didn't go on their feet looking like this. And also, isn't it just like boys to keep on playing even when their socks rip all the way across their toes and not be a tiny bit bothered by it?!)

InstaFRIDAY!

Hurrah for another weekend!

My past week in cell phone pics...

 Kendall at Little Ladies Night Inn last weekend.
I think the look she was going for here was off-to-the-ball-angel?

Blake is a PRO at the dentist. Watching Mom and big brother and sister get their teeth cleaned twice a year ever since he was a baby made him itch for his own turn in the big chair by the time he was two and a half. He's been a regular ever since!

The old fogies headed off to school for "retirement day".
(I know I shared this earlier in the week, but c'mon, it's funny enough for a 2nd go-round, right? :)

 A little Dutch Bros. to warm me up on my 40-something degree grocery shopping morning.

 And here's where the real fun began... stocking up on favorite treats for Thursday night's adventure...(peach rings, wedding mints, dry roasted peanuts, and peppermint crunch Junior Mints for Jana, which I hid in my purse before entering the theater and then forgot all about and never gave to her! I only remembered now seeing the picture of them again! *face palm*)

 Twilight marathon and Breaking Dawn Part II premiere!

Kelly, Jana, Me, Sairaina, Mum, Melody, and Angie (not pictured: Jill, Keri & Deanna)

 Sisters!

 

 With Jana, aka the girl who never got her Junior Mints. 

Our lanyards were our credentials to get in and out of the theater whenever we wanted (Starbucks run, KFC run, popcorn run, twenty two potty break runs...)

Such a fun night. LOVED the final movie!!! 

 Blake's alien. I asked him if his alien had a name... "yeah, Mom! Alien!"

Finally, an Oreo I can get behind!
No coconut flavored food product is left untried and this one was a winner :)

I'm linking up here! Happy weekend!

A little nothing about nothing

I tried really hard to think of something to blog about all day yesterday, but really, when the highlight of your 3-day holiday weekend is browsing the black Friday ads online and watching Arthur Christmas with your children, twice, there isn't that much to say.

...Except what is up with stores opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving DAY instead of waiting until 5 am Friday morning like the good ol' shopping days of yore? I Object!

(That being said, I still started my Christmas shopping list with detailed store notes, just in case, and I'm not promising I won't be out by midnight with the crazies when all is said and done.)

But back to our uneventful weekend. We rented a couple of movies, hung out with family, watched the Ducks game, played Qwirkle with the kids, caught up on odd jobs around the house, and zzzzzzz.... oh sorry, dozed off there just writing about how boring we were!

The bottom line is, it was quite lovely :)

A belated thank you to all the veterans out there who have served our country - thank you!

InstaFriday - Leavenworth edition

And you thought I was done blogging about our trip to Leavenworth, oh ho ha ho!

NOPE. 

Here's the cell phone edition of our trip!

It's sariejune!

Russ and Doug chatting about basketball and hoops and practices and basketball. It was a long drive (5.5 hours) and the ball talk never got old!

Starbucks played a big part in our trip. Sometimes more than once a day!

We stopped for lunch at Red Robin on the way up and Sarah and I spotted this trendy looking consignment store across the parking lot. Well who says you have to get to your vacation spot before you can start shopping?!!

There were racks and racks of designer jeans - mostly all for $35.00 or less. Sarah and I both got a pair :)

Ahhh... no kids... no schedule... bliss.

The picturesque view from our condo balcony.

One of the many cute stores in town.

We dined here for lunch one day. Great reubens. (Or so I hear from husband. I got a very authentic avocado BLT ;)

Playing qwirkle - a fun and easy game that is kinda addicting. We also played a few rounds of Settlers of Catan - which, as we all know, is WAY addicting.

We're home now and enjoying our kids who are off school till next Tuesday!

 Have a happy weekend!!

Leavenworth

So Leavenworth is this adorable little Bavarian town in Northern Washington. And I mean ADORABLE. It's like stepping into a quaint little German village. In Disneyland. Without the mass crowds but with all the yummy treats. With the benefit of everyone speaking English.

Russ and I came up with our friends Doug and Sarah on a little couple's getaway because Doug & Russ are both high school basketball coaches and season begins next week and once it starts all form of normal home life will be on pause for the next 4 months. A little calm before the storm, if you will.

Oh has it been wonderful.

We have been having so much fun with our friends, just relaxing, watching movies, playing games, talking about everything and anything, sleeping in, eating out, and exploring the town, one cute little boutique at a time :)

Can I just say that the food has been amazing? Apparently good food is a very important key in what makes my vacations successful.

We're heading home today... refreshed and excited to see our kids again after being away from them for 4 days. Funny how that works :) But until we pull into our driveway I'm still in vacation mode so I'm off to enjoy our last couple of hours with our friends... and a Starbucks coffee :)