Bree's latest self-portrait

Bree loves drawing and coloring.  She is usually the subject of her own masterpieces.  Today's rendition features Bree jumping on a trampoline, which is an artistic revelation.  She said to me, "My hair is coming up because I'm jumping."  And the triangle shaped dress is a new component (she asked me to outline the dress for her), because she was tired of dresses that are "just shaped like a body."

"Do you know what I'm gonna be when I grow up?  A doctor and an artist.  Both."

Two Big Helpers

I let the kids put all the ornaments on the tree this year.  As usual, the bottom two rows of branches were sagging under the weight of 90% of the ornaments.  When I told them to spread them out, Bree caught on, and stood on the arm of the couch so she could put some up higher.  Then I brought out the step stool and told them both to move some of the ornaments up, so they wouldn't all be clustered at the bottom.  Now 90% of the ornaments are in the middle section of the tree, a few are at the bottom, and there is a clearly delineated void at the top where Bree's reach ended.

Besh Ba Gowah Field Trip

 For this month's preschool field trip we took the kids to the nearby Besh Ba Gowah (pronounced besh' buh gah'-wuh) ruins.  Globe may not have a lot to offer in the cultural arena, but this place is actually really cool.  The kids watched an informative video about the history of the Salado Indians who built Besh Ba Gowah (okay, so they sort of watched).  Then we toured the museum and looked at a diagram of what the ruins look like today compared to what they probably looked like in the 1200-1400s.  The museum has a really impressive collection of ancient pottery, as well as some baskets, sandals, and tools.  Then we toured the ruins themselves, which the kids absolutely loved.  They got to walk through reconstructed rooms, and climb up and down the wooden ladder in the two-story building.  This was only my second time coming here, but the grounds were as pristine as I remember them.  We finished off our fun day with a picnic lunch and some time playing at the community park across the street.  I have been having a lot of fun with our preschool.  I love seeing the kids make learning progress.  Bree learns at an incredible rate.  I admit, I'm not as proactive with teaching Mason his letters, colors, etc. as I was with Bree.  But when he's given the opportunity (and Bree isn't around to answer for him), he quickly proves that he's pretty darn smart.  Most of the time he's just acting too crazy for you to believe it.

11.18.2010

A Thanksgiving just like the first

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving early, since Chad is scheduled to work for the next ten days straight, including the entire Thanksgiving weekend.  Thankfully, my parents were flexible, and invited us out for a big meal yesterday.  We decided to go traditional, and made a few menu choices to emulate our country's first Thanksgiving feast.  We roasted our turkey outdoors on the grill, and okay, so the pilgrims probably didn't have top-of-the-line gas grills built into an outdoor kitchen like my parents, but we did put some mesquite wood chips in there to pretend we were smoking the food over a wood fire.  And though I couldn't find any historical proof that there were any potatoes or breads served in that first Thanksgiving, we carb-lovers couldn't survive without our mashed potatoes, stuffing, and homemade rolls.

Chad, my dad, and the kids went over to my grandpa's pond that morning, and caught some bass to add authenticity to our feast (Mason has a fish in his shirt in the picture...Chad said he wouldn't hold it with his hands...oh, and at some point Mason ended up with a hook in the back of his head, which is all he remembers of the fishing experience).  Chad put the fish on the grill, and we also grilled up some green beans and butternut squash.  The only thing our traditional meal was missing was some venison (we should have taken our friend Tyler's offer to share the spoils of his last hunt...).  We know that the first Thanksgiving dinner included fruit and berries, so my mom made her cranberry sauce from scratch, and we had a selection of fruit pies.  Oh, there were nuts too...in the pecan pie.  And we had pumpkin pie of course.  We like our pie, okay?  Six pies for 6 adults.  I think that was sufficient.  We enjoyed our meal outdoors, as I'm sure the Pilgrims and Indians did, and our 70-degree and sunny weather was most likely much more comfortable than theirs was.  If only our feast hadn't attracted all the neighboring honey bees.  At least the day only yielded one bee sting.

I don't think I've ever really taken the time before to think about what that first Thanksgiving meal was like.  I just thought we ate turkey because it's a cheap and easy way to serve a big crowd.  But we're actually keeping up a tradition that started hundreds of years ago with turkey, fish, fruit, berries, pumpkin and squash.  And I really enjoyed celebrating the holiday just with our family, my parents, and my grandparents.  I wish I had taken more pictures, as always.  But even so, I think we made some lasting memories.

Oops...

I just realized, thanks to Tina's comment on my previous post, that I never officially announced that I'm pregnant!  I really did intend to write a clever pregnancy-reveal post, but due to the actual nature of pregnancy, and me being alternately busy, tired, and lazy, I never got around to it.  So there you have it.  I'm due May 12th.  How lame was that?

Halloween stuff

• Trunk or Treat as a cat and bat (inspiration was taken from the cute treat buckets from my visiting teacher).  I ate a luke-warm hot dog, which was probably not that smart...I think that's on the pregnancy "don't" list.  But I ate two bowls of nachos with delectable oozy cheese to balance it all out.
• Fall Festival and Globe Christian Halloween Carnival.  At the festival, we ate bean burros from a local woman's booth, cupcakes from my booth, and candy from the Krazy Kone's stash for trick-or-treaters.  At the church, the kids played in the bouncy house and giant slide, and won some more candy tossing ping pong balls into floating bowls.  It's a little hard to see in the picture, but Mason's pants are soaked because he tripped and collapsed the side of the snap-up pool.  The free cotton candy was awesome too.  I gave some to Mason, and he just held it and looked at me like I had tricked him...this couldn't possible be "candy" of any kind.
• It was really cool taking part in some of the events the community offers.  There were quite a few different things going on the two nights before Halloween.  One of these years I'd love to go through the haunted house in the old historic jail house, and take the Ghosts of Globe tour, where people stand on the corners downtown, dressed in old-fashioned clothes, and tell you old ghost stories about the area.  The best thing: it's all free.
• On the actual night of Halloween, we put on our costumes to go to dinner at a friend's house.  Chad as an angel, and me as a devil.  Then as we were backing out of the driveway, Mason threw up all over himself, his bat costume, and his treat bucket.  So, I took Bree to the party, and Chad stayed home with the sick boy, who was running a fever.  I felt terrible, because Mason was standing there with puke all over him, saying, "I not throw up anymore.  Go to Levi's house?"  Poor guys.