Thanksgiving and onward!

After all the little boys left and the cleanup was done, we were ready to host Thanksgiving with our friends who live up the street. Liam got a monster bird-a whopping 24 pounder!-which he smoked on the Big Green Egg. Our friends brought about half the dishes and we had a very nice Thanksgiving evening with them. Check out the pictures:

Getting the holiday table ready

Liam carving The Beast

Liam and Harrison getting in touch with their inner and outer wolves

Graham and Alden playing a game. 

Thanksgiving is over and now its full on Christmas, people. Are you ready? I am slightly ahead of schedule since I bought many presents already through a fundraiser at Graham’s school. I’m participating at a pop-up shop here in Beacon that features all locally made goods so I will be looking there first to fill the rest of my needs. I am selling a few of the tables I’ve been making. Click the above link and scroll down the page to see some examples of my work.

One of my biggest challenges of winter is keeping a very active boy busy indoors during the long winter months. The novelty of all the Legos  he got for his birthday has worn off a bit, I’m sad to say. Our house is full up with Legos, we don’t need any more so if you were contemplating getting Graham some Legos for Christmas please don’t! He really likes board games, especially ones that are challenging. He has a game called SMART by Brainquest that is like a kid version of Trivial Pursuit that he is crazy about. He also LOVES math and is doing very well in science so anything that is an activity involving math and science that he can play at home, like this for example, is something he would love. Of course, baseball is still #1 with him. We just shelled out for a membership to a place called Extra Innings, where he can go during the winter for indoor batting practice.

     

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving will be having a wonderful holiday season!

They said I was crazy....

They said I was crazy to have 8 first grade boys at my house yesterday. And it was a little crazy for a while. Graham and I decided it would be fun to have a few of his school friends over the day before Thanksgiving. We would decorate cookies, play some games and watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

There was a lot of screaming, a lot of tearing around the house and o by the way it was pouring rain all day so i couldn't send them outside at any point. But everyone had a great time. Nothing broke, no one cried and most kids did not want to go home when their parents came. These cookies you see here? NOT decorated by the boys, this is my work. When the boys sat down at the table to fix up their cookies there were blank cookies shaped like maple leaves, stars, snowflakes and Christmas trees. There were bowls of colored icing and 5 or 6 types of sprinkles. I am still trying to sweep up all the colored sprinkles on the kitchen floor. One boy who Graham was on the fence about inviting due to his acting up in school, poured a huge mound of icing on one cookie then dumped a mountain of sprinkles over and buried his face in the whole concoction. Even this kid's mom questioned whether he should come but despite that I like this kid. 

Pin the Feathers on the Turkey game made by me & G

After everyone left I picked up the Legos and other stray toys from the floor and once I vacuumed most order was restored. And those parents who said I was crazy? I noticed that they dropped their boys at the door and disappeared in a flash. Graham was sad to see everyone go but today is Thanksgiving and there will be a new crew of visitors in the house in a few hours. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Lately

Here are some things we've been up to lately...

playing board games on a rainy Sunday afternoon

leaves have been falling in our yard

our cat Pedro thinks he's hiding in the leaves

we went hiking on a trail called The Trapps last weekend in an area west of New Paltz known as the Gunks

you can see a view of the Hudson Valley from where we hiked

rock-ing out

this is a collaborative drawing of the sun i help Graham's 1st grade class do.  

Air guitar

Just another evening in our kitchen with Queen

Fear the ManWolf

and a Happy Halloween to you!

Fear the beard!

As you well know, Red Sox took game 1 of the World Series last night. The bearded excitement is high around our house. Graham has his whole class rooting for the Red Sox including his teacher who is a Yankees fan. Graham has a really wonderful teacher this year who has told her whole family of Yankees fans to root for the Sox because she has a little boy in her class who is a big fan.

Today is picture day at school but we made him leave the beard at home. 

6 years old

There was cake, there was baseball...