Thanksgiving.

I love hosting Thanksgiving every year for my family.  It's the cooking mixed with the family togetherness that makes me happy.  My kids may not love the fact that we host Thanksgiving though because I make them help clean and turn into a mad woman about two days before...  This year was smaller than the past few have been, we only had my sister Kristin and her family, mom and Jeff and Jeff's parents here at the house.  You might notice the new addition to our kitchen which will get some better pics to follow, our new table which was made with my own to hands from start to finish!  Please indulge my gloating as I am pretty proud of it for my first carpentry project.  I worked like crazy to get it done for Thanksgiving.  I love that it fit all of the cousins without any folding chairs- just the two benches!  Our day was simple and quiet and cut a bit short by an illness with one of Kris' kids, but still memorable and fun.  We didn't even get to our thankful tree but we did talk about what we are so very thankful for, our family being number one.

Cameron has played chess since first grade.  He's been in chess club and begs anyone who is willing to play him.  I have been amazed at how good he has become.  This weekend he took part in his first chess tournament.  It was a long morning (from 9 until 2!) That first picture shows all of the chess sets ready to go, and the kids filed in to their different sections.  Parents had to wait in a separate room to avoid any coaching but they did let us in during the first round for a picture and you could have heard a pin drop.  In the end, he won two and lost two matches, not enough for a trophy, but a great first effort and he had so much fun.  I;m sure we'll be doing more in the future.

Mason has been taking swimming lessons the last several weeks and has made great strides.  He is doing so much better through the Freedom Center than he did this summer on the developmental swim team so we signed him up for more after these are through.  He really trusts his instructor and she has been able to get him to do things his other teachers couldn't.  We are very proud of his improvement.

Gavin turns Seven!

Early in the morning on November 9th, Gavin woke up to a wall of balloons that fell in on him when he opened his door.  He had chocolate chip muffins and milk for breakfast, and opened his gifts with his family.  He got a new Green Lantern game for the wii which was his favorite gift and he couldn't wait to play.  I brought him McDonalds for lunch at school and he gave out mint Oreo Pops to his classmates with sprinkles.  He was so excited for his name to be on the morning announcements and to go to the office and pick out a special pencil.  He wanted his party the same day as his birthday this year.  Gavin had everything planned and he started talking about it the day after his birthday last year.  He likes to have butcher paper on the table for his party so everyone can draw, like we have done almost every year.  He wants the small cans of soda so everyone can have their own.  And he likes to watch a movie with his friends, either at the theater or at home like he has done for four of his birthdays.  This year he invited four friends from school to come over and have pizza and cookies and creme cake and to go see Wreck it Ralph.  He was in his glory when his friends arrived and just loved being the center of attention. Jeremy took the kids to the show and he says they were wired the whole time.  When Gavin got home he said he had the best time of his life.  That's a win in my book!   Happy Birthday to my little super hero!

Election 2012

Voted today!  Election party with the kids tonight!