Thanksgiving

We were not quite sure if we were going to cook a Thanksgiving meal this year. We leave tomorrow for Australia and it just seemed like too much work to do the day before we leave. Chris suggested a couple of days ago that we should do it on Thanksgiving eve. That way we could finish packing on Thanksgiving and have more time to eat the leftovers.

Chris did everything! I LOVE my husband. He stayed up until 1am on Tuesday night doing all the prep work. The prep work included making home-made bread cubes for the stuffing, salting the turkey and making turkey stock from scratch to baste the turkey in and make gravy from. Chris worked so hard that he got a blister on his finger - mostly from cutting up all those bread cubes! This year we had a "Herb roasted turkey with shallot-dijjon gravey" from the November 2008 Bon Appetit (it's the one on the cover). The turkey was AMAZING! I have never eaten such a moist, flavorful, succulent turkey. Chris also made fresh cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn on the cob, asparagus and broccoli. It was all so DELICIOUS! I wish we had invited some friends to share it with us so I could brag about how great Chris's cooking is!

Sam and Ella have been talking about Thanksgiving at school all month and even had a Thanksgiving meal one day at school. They were very excited about having Thanksgiving this year and tucked into their feast too. I love Thanksgiving! It's such a great holiday. You just can't go wrong with a holiday that's just all about food!

Camping with Dad

Chris has started doing something special with one child each month. This month is was Sam's turn and he got to go camping with Dad. The plan was to have them go camping at a real camp site down near the lake (about 20 mins away). But when we found out that it was $23 a night with a minimum 2 night stay we quickly decided that the back yard was a far better option! Cheaper and nicer! They cooked mac and cheese on the camping stove, read stories in the tent and had a really good time. Owen and Ella were a bit jealous and asked to go camping with Dad when it was their turn to do something special with him.

Pumpkin Patch

I'm a bit behind in my blogging! This entry is about our trip to the Pumpkin Patch on Friday, November 13. We went with some friends from church. Every fall there are several farms in the area that set-up corn mazes, hay rides and lots of other farm activities. We went to the same one we went to last year and I think we enjoyed it even more this year. The weather was just perfect (last year it was super hot!) and there were even more activities this time. The kids had a great time. I was tired at the end of the day. I'm used to 20 minute drives or less around town. And the Pumpkin Patch is about 1 hour and 15 minutes away. A long drive for us!

Sam and Owen listening to a story about a square pumpkin.

Feeding the animals.

Checking out the chickens.
Owen on the tractor see-saw.
Sam pushing Ella on one of the tractor pedal bikes. This was by far Sam's favorite activities!

Ella and Owen watching the pig races.


Going on a hay ride.

Happy Birthday to Princess Ella

Ella turned 4 on November 15th. She had her "1st" birthday party on Saturday, November 7th. It was a Princess Birthday party and she had about 8 friends at her party. There was a lot of pink princesses at the party!

At the party, they decorated cupcakes (my latest party trick - have the kids decorate cupcakes and call it the birthday cake! They enjoy it and there is no cake for me to make!)

Played pass-the-parcel.
Decorated Princess Crowns

Chased bubbles

Opened presents

Sang happy birthday and enjoyed party food.


Ella's "2nd Birthday" was on November 15th (her real birthday). Poor Ella had to wait for Owen to wake up before she could open her presents. He didn't wake up until 8am. He did the same thing last Christmas too! Very frustrating for Sam and Ella.

A picture of Ella with her loot

I made Ella a new dress for her birthday. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of her wearing it last Sunday to church. It's very bright and I had a lot of fun making it. I made it from fabric that I bought in Adelaide 12 years ago!

Ella got to choose what we had for dinner. She decided on Pad Thai with shrimp (she calls it spaghetti and shrimp!) and corn on the cob.

10 things we love about Ella
1. How girly she is. She wears pink almost everyday and loves to wear tights and dresses She dresses herself and can often be seen wearing stripes with florals or wearing pink and red together.
2. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up it's always a princess - she never changes her mind. She has told us several times that she needs to go to the ball to meet a prince and get married (she thinks that Cinderella is a story about her because in our version, Cinderella's real name is "Ella").
3. She is often willing to share objects that her brothers want to make them happy.
4. How she tries to care for Elliott. When he is upset, she will try to entertain him and make sure that he is ok.
5. That she doesn't love chocolate. Because her brothers love chocolate, she will often turn to her Mum and say "girls don't like chocolate right?" For breakfast on Sunday's Chris will make oven puff pancakes and she will often ask for 'lemonade' which is lemon juice straight up and no sugar to flavor the puff pancakes.
6. She will out eat her brothers both in quantity and diversity of food. She loves corn on the cob, parmesan cheese, broccoli ("trees"), raspberries, shrimp, and most fruit.
7. She gives the best hugs and often wants to give several before she goes to sleep each night.
8. How she loves to play dress-up and will often get Owen to wear skirts, dresses and carry a purse.
9. How she keeps asking for a sister.
10. When she writes her name she loves to embellish the "E" with a few extra horizontal strokes.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year felt bigger than Christmas! We started the day by putting the finishing touches on Sam and Owen's costumes. Sam wanted to be a John Deere tractor and Owen wanted to be a fire truck. We got creative and made both their costumes from cardboard boxes and some spray paint. I was pretty pleased with the finished product and the boys looked so cute in them together. Thankfully Ella wanted to wear the same costume as last year, and so that didn't require any effort!

At noon we headed to the annual Ward Chilli cook off. First there were games and activities for the kids to play and then we had lunch. Chris made two pots of chilli and was quite stressed about winning a prize. We've been on a winning streak for the past few years and either Chris or I have won a prize for our soups / chilli. Chris was very pleased when his chocolate chilli won the prize for being the most original!

Later in the afternoon we headed off to our neighborhood Fall Festival. It included more games, candy and pizza. There were prizes for the best costumes. Sam won a prize for being the most original. I guess our family just likes being original! Sam was very pleased with his $10 Walmart gift card and told me how on Monday he wants me to take him to Walmart so that he can use it!

After the Fall Festival we went trick or treating. I LOVE taking the kids trick or treating and missed out last year. Owen was SOOO cute this year saying "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or treat" in his little 2-year old voice. This was Owen's first time going trick or treating and he quickly got the idea. So much so that he would not let us take his Pumpkin bucket (full of Candy!) away from him even when it got really heavy. But he was quite happy to take off his costume, just as long as he could still collect the Candy. Owen was also the last one to come home!

Some random shots from the day showing the kids in their costumes...