Yay! Friends!

Some friends were in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and we were lucky enough to spend some time with them! We met at a park we all frequented when we were younger and had a great time playing soccer, walking a trail and following Paige and Owen on the playground. We went out to eat afterwards and made a waiter take our picture:) Paige fell asleep in about 5 minutes during our drive home (pretty rare for her!) and Owen thought it was hilarious.



Me, Pat, Owen, Alex, Brian, Zandra and Paige




Paige fell asleep! Owen was laughing so hard (as quietly as he could!)



Our Happy Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving. Ours was really great, helped along by the wonderful weather and the fact that Pat and I got to spend it with both of our families! First, everybody spent a lot of time watching the parade while I recleaned what we had already cleaned and then messed up again. Then we got the turkey in the oven and I went out for my Turkey Trot (I missed the 5 mile run downtown so I did my own!). When I got back I checked on the turkey and realized the oven wasn't hot! The turkey hadn't been cooking! Ahhh! Pat had locked the oven thinking he was keeping the kids safe but it really it turned the heat off...we fixed it and *spoiler alert* the turkey cooked just fine and was delicious. Meanwhile, we  heard from my parents who locked themselves out of their house after coming back from the race downtown! They still made it to our house in a timely manner though. We played outside with Pat's family while we waited and then we hurriedly made the rest of the food and ate a ton. So. Fun. So much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of us watched the parade in mismatched pajamas, clutching a waffle. All morning.



I remember taking this picture because Pat was super pleased with himself for finding this casserole dish.
Good job Pat!




My favorite Owen smile of the day!




Group picture!




Proof that I was there too!



Thanksgiving Crafts!

Owen does many, many crafts at preschool but I still wanted to do a couple at home this week. The whole family was able to participate in the first one we did and then Owen and I worked on the second one.

I think it's pretty obvious how this one was put together...but in case it's hard to see...we traced all of our hands and then layered them to make turkey feathers. Saw this idea here.

Owen and I put together some napkin rings for the big meal tomorrow. We used his thumbprint for the body of the turkey, then I drew the face and Owen took care of the feathers. Then we glued them to strips we cut from a paper towel roll. They're all very...unique:)

Yum!

I know people that can make amazing homemade ravioli and sauce like it's no big deal (ok, everything they make is amazing...). I'm talking about you guys, Lisa and Alex. They invited us over to eat and then threw in some football and soccer to round out the evening.  

Pat helped





Paige was very excited too



Nature

I'm so dreading having to hide in the house when the snow comes that we are fully embracing every nice moment outside. Yesterday we ran outside before dinner even though it was about to storm because the temperature was nice. These pictures are from last week when we picked up Owen from preschool and went straight to the park. It was a part of the park that we've been to before but don't go to very often and I ended up carrying Paige up and down 135 stairs. Totally worth it.


This is a classic Paige face.




Run!






Chillin' in the nature center

Owen was trying to hug Paige for a picture but I think she thought she was being tackled:)

Visitors!

Pat and I have a lot of the same friends since we went to high school and college together but most of them don't live near us so we were really excited to have a small group of friends from college all visit at the same time! There were some kids that had been born since the last time we were together and it was fun to see how all seven kids interacted. Anytime we get the chance to see friends I wish we could do it more often and promise myself we will. Hopefully this time it happens!  

Paige gets up close and personal with Abram

Owen and Julianna were fast friends

I can't believe we got a picture this good with 15 people!

Silly picture!

Let's Revisit...

...Halloween! Sure, Halloween was 10 days ago but we never really "talked" about it. Paige was very protective of her bag and wouldn't let anyone help her hold it even though that meant dragging it through the leaves. Owen did not get sick this year (yay!) and was on a mission to get to every house as quickly as he could. The kids never got tired of trick-or-treating but we led them home anyway because they had plenty of candy.    

The family. Pat and I aren't dressed up so you can save your jokes about how scary we look :)



We had pancakes in Halloween shapes. That's Owen's crazy Halloween face.
Or he thought he was smiling normally. You decide. 





See? A bat.




Hugs.




Aww! Paige is cute! You can see Owen sporting this shirt back in 2008 by clicking here.




Another cute one! I messed with this one using the Instagram app.



Muffins!

I made these pineapple-pumpkin muffins awhile back and never put them on the blog. I highly recommend them but I like most things made with pumpkin. Especially when it's Fall. And it's for breakfast.

Happy Halloween!

Preschool Party!

Owen doesn't have preschool on Monday so he got to celebrate the holiday last week! Parents were invited to come and the kids sang us a couple songs, then they were treated to snacks! I'm already feeling sad about Owen going to Kindergarten next year and seeing what he does at preschool reminds me that he has a little piece of his life that I don't really know that much about (since he won't tell me!). That makes these glimpses extra special and it was really cute to see how he interacts with his friends.

Pear Pancakes

I put these on my other blog but I wanted to share them again mostly so you don't think we only eat oatmeal for breakfast! Sometimes we even have cereal! Shocking! These are different though, I originally saw the idea for this on The Chew using slices of apple but I used pear slices with much success. Here's the deal - make some pancake batter, slice some pears, dip them in batter and put them on a griddle, cooking them just like you would a pancake. So good! We had a small amount of leftovers but the kids liked them so much they requested to finish them off a couple of hours after breakfast.

Whooloween!

We went to another Halloween event over the weekend! I don't have any action shots but we did ride a train, make a craft, and the kids were in a costume parade! Paige was a little confused when it came to that last part but she was all about eating doughnuts. We've kept her away from candy so far but I'm not sure we're going to be able to say no on Halloween, she's going to have to really lay on the charm though...

The Pie!

We made our pies when we got back from Patterson's and they were delicious! Maybe the best ever! But we say that every year...

Before pie...

After pie...

The pie...

There were other things happening too. It was mostly pie though.

Patterson's!

We headed out on our annual Patterson's trip over the weekend, despite the bad weather, and managed to get everything we needed without getting too muddy/wet/gross. Luckily the stuff we really needed was inside! We always get an apple fritter to enjoy on the car ride home and Pat and I realized one doesn't go as far as it used to since we now share with Owen and Paige. I doled out pieces and Owen finished his quickly so he could ask for more. Paige jammed her piece between her leg and carseat and shouted, "MORE!" too! I guess she was worried it would all be gone by the time she finished her first piece!



There's a creepy Johnny Appleseed mannequin behind them.

  

See that face? Paige gets serious about apple fritters.



Sigh...

Paige is getting so big and looks so grown up in this picture! She's at the point now where she surprises me every day by saying a word I didn't think she knew or impressing me with another new skill that must have developed in her sleep. It's mostly fun but sometimes I see a picture like this and I remember how fast it all goes!

It's Oatmeal Season!

There's been a lot of oatmeal eating happening around here and I can't even remember the last time I put oatmeal on the blog. You've been missing it, right? I used the recipe for Apricot Slow Cooker Oatmeal and adapted it to make Pumpkin Cranberry Oatmeal. It's really good! It's hard to go wrong with pumpkin though.

A Walk

I'm trying to make the most of the nice weather we've been having by playing outside as much as possible. Luckily, it's not very hard to convince the kids!