We are thankful for...

...toys. (This is one of the things that made both girls' thankful lists.) Evelyn and her Madame Alexander doll.

Right now her name is "McKenna." (When Evelyn read what she wrote in our Thanksgiving book from last year, she noticed she was thankful for her "Madame Alexander Doll, Elizabeth." So glad changing names is easy with dolls.)

...food. The apple pie was quite cavernous, and the kids enjoyed eating out its interior as the evening wore on. Thanksgiving Day itself was lovely--football at Jon & Courtney's w/friends, followed by the meal at Mom and Dad Bisset's house. The kids made up one play and at least three original, choreographed dances.

Mom's table was beautiful, and after dinner a bunch of us went for a long walk in the starlit neighborhood--so great to see Dad walking after all those months of recovery from knee replacement and years of discomfort before that! Mom led the way, and Jon, Shelley, Esther, and I all partook. The walk after the meal is a favorite family tradition.

...family. I took no pictures at Mom and Dad's! I'll have to mooch off Courtney. But here's a sweet pic of Alan and Amelia. We missed him while he was in Canada earlier this month.

...love. And nothing says it like sisters walking to the Farmers' Market with their arms around each other.

There are so many other things for which to be thankful! I was particularly touched by an activity sheet Evelyn did at school this week. It was a picture of a turkey, and in each of its tail feathers students had to write something for which they were thankful. Her list included "Family, Friends, God, Bible, and Love." 

Lunch Break

This was the absolute best thing I could look at while eating a quick bite of lunch. Love these girls.

What a gift. 

Creative Recycling!

The recycling bin doubles as an art resource around here.

I am always amazed at their inspiration and motivation to be creative!

I think these items were created for their Loving Family Dollhouse people.

Voila! A playground!

This morning they spent hours making things for their American Girl and Madame Alexander Dolls using a book Evelyn found at the Book Thing. I need to take a picture of the paper birthday cake, the cafe, the hopscotch, beach balls, and balance beam. Really. :)

Thanks, Art, Backwards Night, & Missing Teeth

Evelyn wrote everyone thank you letters for her birthday gifts. Here is ours. I love that we are "The Family of Love." During our first trip to San Francisco with Grandma & Grandpa Blackman, he dubbed us "The Good Job Family" for how often Alan and I said "Good Job!" to the girls. I like both monikers. :)

I think she liked the last-minute surprise b-day dinner. :) Never sure how one's going to like surprises until one gets surprised for the first time!

One of Amelia's pieces of art from last spring. He spent several months hanging in the dining room. Sadly, he was recently recycled, but he lives on here.

This is from our AWANA club's "Backwards Night." Believe it or not, this is Amelia's BACK. She's wearing her shirt & jacket backwards and she drew a picture of a face that we pinned to a hat. It is freakishly hard to imagine that she is actually facing that door...

So here she is from the front (note jacket is still on backwards.) She lost her front tooth last month during RVR's Maizefest event. She and her friend, Kessler, got into the giant inflatable boxing ring, donned the giant inflatable boxing gloves (you can see where this is going, right?), and ka-bam! 

Personally, I rather like having a good tooth-losing story. As long as it is a baby tooth, of course. :)

Getting around to it

Some rearranging the girls and I are doing required me to fit all my beloved books on ONE bookcase. And I had to adhere to my own rule, "If it doesn't fit, let it go."

So...this one had to go. And I never even got around to reading it.

Speaking of Halloween...

It was the second year in a row we actually made a jack-o-lantern together.

Evelyn was a trooper of a scooper.

Did Amelia like scooping out innards?

 Not so much.                                                  Both, however, enjoyed the result: "George Lightning Bolt."

 

Funny how cutting a zillion triangles can turn a pumpkin into a face. :)

What just happened?

Over the weekend, Evelyn threw away all her Halloween candy. Not just the ones she didn't like. All of it. I confess I had a George Kastanza moment when I wanted to reach into the trash can and yank out the milky ways, M&Ms, and snickers.

She threw it away because "it's not healthy, Mom. I don't need to be eating this stuff."

I'm pretty sure the Blackman genetics get props for this. :)

Confession

I am eating way too many of my daughters' Tootsie Rolls.

It is very easy to see why my mom used to make my brother and me HIDE our Halloween stashes. Since I can't remember entirely, I will have to ask her if she made us hide it right away, or if she let a few days pass...OR..if she ever looked for or FOUND our stashes...

Either way, I'm pretty sure I'm just making excuses. I should not be eating this many Tootsie Rolls. I should not be stealing candy from my own children.

Halloween

The year of the Fairy Princess (thank you, Liv, for the wings & wand!), and the Ballerina. They loved wearing makeup. :)

And Amelia loved her ballerina bun. She wore her hair like this the next day to school.

 We always get an amazing amount of candy in our neighborhood.

Not everyone participates, but the ones who do are very generous and get a kick out of it.

I've always thought Halloween was fun--what's not to like about wearing a costume, greeting and meeting your neighbors, and collecting sweets?

The Fairy's wings became uncomfortable by the end of the evening, but that didn't stop us flying around.

This year I'd hoped we'd all wear the Medieval costumes we were given and loaned from friends at church for our VBS program over the summer. The costumes are AWESOME.

But they preferred digging in the dress up bin and being inspired by the moment.

Since Alan was teaching, Amelia wanted to make sure he saw her pretty makeup.

And her pretty hair.

Now I must go. We're babysitting Evelyn's class hamster for the weekend, and it's creating quite a stir. :)