Thanksgiving

It has been a fun and busy month!  New activities and adventures daily!!  The newest was our Thanksgiving travels!  I was the room mom at school for the month of November which means a special treat on Thanksgiving.  I just hate giving the kids cookies and cupcakes once a week- its always someones birthday or a holiday.  They are between 12-20 months so they don't need all that sugar.  So I decided to make turkey cups and fill there with fresh fruit!  Teachers said they kids loved it!
We went to my parents this year for Thanksgiving.  We usually do Thanksgiving in Charlotte, but we aren't going to be able to make it to my parents for Christmas so we decided to go and make the most out of our time with my family for Thanksgiving.  The kids had an absolute blast!  They have lots of people to play with and give them attention which is a win-win for all!!  Ellie loves dressing up these days!

Graham wrestled with the big boys all weekend!

On Thursday morning Graham helped me make a Pumpkin Crunch Cake and Ellie watched the Macy's Parade with me.  It is the first time in years I got to watch most of the parade and I loved it!

Then we headed to Wilson where my Bonus Mom's family lives.  They live on a farm with tons of land and TONS of activities!

Linda has a big garden and we ate a lot of food picked that day!  She let me take some collards and mustard greens home!  Nothing like farm-to-table fresh!

Linda and her little helper Graham.

They also have a huge chicken coop!  

Linda has her own labels for her eggs!

Here is Uncle Michael cooking our meal!  He is a chef so we were all real excited about the meal!

And lots of desserts of course.

Kids spent a lot of time in the play room!!!

And they loved the food!  Sweet Potato Casserole was a hit!  My poor kids never get sugar so they were in heaven!

After lunch we went on tractor rides, gator rides and horse rides!

What a fun Thanksgiving.  Memories were made and lots of food was consumed!

On Friday we went out to do a little shopping.  We didn't buy anything, but fun to watch all those crazy people out and about!

Graham tried on some cowboy boots- how cute is he?

We took them out to eat a burger and Ellie insisted on feeding him haha!

During naps Ryan and I took all the younger boys to hit some balls while my parents prepared dinner for another big crowd! 

On Friday night my Dad's sister came to dinner.  My Aunt Kathy and Uncle George are so much fun!

The kids are loving my Dad lately.  Especially Ellie!

Love a big family all gathered around one giant table!

Lots of wrestling after dinner with Papa George!

And a few more snuggles with G Dad before we headed home.

If she isn't being held by him she plays at his feet....so sweet!

On Saturday we jumped right from Thanksgiving to Christmas!  Can't wait to share more soon!

Halloween!

Last week was packed with activities!  Halloween week is such a fun time with little ones!  We started the week off with our annual neighborhood party!  Its hard to think of boy/girl cordinating outfits that aren't a "couple" or "item", but we love this years idea- Little red riding hood and the Big Bad Wolf!  Here is our wolf and his buddy the horse:)

The twinkies were a little overwhelmed by all the activity and costumes!

Ellie has been obsessed with babies lately and she loved this little bee!

I mean seriously how cute are these two!

Next was the Charlotte Country Club party with this cute pumpkin!  Graham was a little warm in his wolf outfit.  Poor guy it was 80 out and he was in head to toe fur!

Thursday was actually my birthday!  I had a great time at lunch with some girl friends and we went to the Panthers game....they lost...but we had fun!

Some sweet friends brought cupcakes to the tailgate for me.

 This is the biggest gf cupcake ever...and don't worry I ate it all:)

Here is my attempt at a Halloween lunch haha!  Its a ghost banana!

The twinkies teacher sent me a pic of them from school.  She said they follow each other around all day...love the bound between twins.

At nights we have been making fires.  We have a real fireplace so we are trying to teach them not to touch, just warm up your hards!

The kids had their last fall music class.....look at these happy faces!

Here is a pic of their teacher Mrs. Amy...or "Ah-me" as Graham says.  They LOVE her!!!!

And then of course Halloween Day! The twins were fussy and trouble makers most of the week, but on Friday night they were all smiles and in the best moods!  We thought we would go to a house or two after another party, but we ended up staying out until 8!

Graham was trying to sneak a drink:)

Ellie loves her God Mother Holly!  She wouldn't let her put her down.

Graham ate about 4 pieces of pizza...growing boy!

I laugh at our attempt to get big group pics of all the littles...doesn't work ever!

Love our sweet neighbors!  Tiff with her bubble bees, Holly and her horse and cowboy!

Love these two boys....I feel like they were making a plan on how to get the most candy trick or treating haha!

And they were off!  Here is G at his first house.

And another...

And another....

They had pumpkins full of treats, which they had none of.  Poor kids have a health nut for a mom and dentist for a dad.  They haven't ever had candy and we figured they have lots of Halloweens ahead of them to partake in the candy eating.  This year they were mostly excited about the flashlight they got.

How sweet is this sleeping baby bee!

Finally home and ready for bed.

As if that wasn't enough going on Saturday night we went to the Charlotte Hornets game.  We split a season with 4 couples and had the best time at our first of many games to come!!!   We have now had a few days to rest up for another few exciting weeks ahead!!!