Sophie Snippets

Sophie's top tooth has been hanging on by a thread for the past two days.  Today it finally fell out while she was eating her baked potato hot lunch at school.

Guess who will be getting a visit from the tooth fairy tonight?

This past weekend the girls each staged a play that Charles and I had roles in (based on the Richard Scarry show they watch on Netflix).  Grandma and Grandpa attended as guests.  Hannah and Sophie prepared tickets for the attenders, which I found laying on the table earlier this week and finally looked at.  The last one is my favorite.

"Name: little bear, Address: couch (in) library"

Thanksgiving, Part II

Yesterday we drove four hours down and four hours back to spend not quite six hours at my sister's house in Durham, NC to celebrate Thanksgiving.  The drive actually wasn't too bad (especially since I just got to ride the whole way!), and we certainly enjoyed our time there seeing Kelly, Jon, and (of course) Carter.

Kelly made pumpkin hummus as an appetizer since we weren't planning to eat our T-Day meal until mid-afternoon.  Sophie and Hannah helped to set the table and get the decorations in place while the food was being prepared.

Part of the decorations were rocks that the girls had painted with their father on Friday.

Also while waiting to eat there was playing of games,

arranging of foam letters,

and lots of activity from the men.  First, they spent hours trying to figure out some mechanism of the TV, then Jon made his first-ever attempt to carve a turkey, with advice and assistance from the other men of the household from time to time.

Before enjoying delicious desserts of cookies, ice cream, Jon's famous derby pie, and pumpkin chocolate cheesecake, we took some time to take a few family photos.

It's always good to capture the memories!  I especially like Carter's face in the photo on the left. :)

Thanksgiving, Part I

Today we had the Hendricks side of the family over for Thanksgiving dinner, and all went well.  We talked, we ate, we played, we enjoyed each other's company.  Yesterday I prepared the homemade ice cream, rolls, pumpkin pie, and hand-held cherry pies for Papa's birthday. 

Other items in our feast were made today: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni and cheese, green beans, stuffing, and gelled cranberries from a can, which Charles always requires.  We have hosted Thanksgiving dinner a number of times before (never in this house), and I can't remember a time when it's gone so smoothly.  Despite the fact that we were preparing a lot of food, nothing felt rushed and everything fell nicely into place.

The girls began the day by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on Hulu.  Later on we attempted to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but the girls grew bored with that after the first few acts appeared.  Later in the morning they went to Grandma's to help her make chocolate chip cookies and missed the parade finale with Santa Clause.

Our guests (Granny, Papa, Chris, Jared, and Zach) began arriving after noon.  We ate our main course meal around 2pm and had our desserts and birthday cake around 4pm.  In between meals Granny, Charles, and I washed dishes and put away food while Daddy walked to the park with the younger kids.  By 5pm everyone was back on the road and heading home.  Here are some photos from the day:

Granny brought a recorded book with her (and Papa) reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" for the girls

The Thanksgiving table set with fine china and turkey napkin holders

Charles carving the perfectly browned 13lb bird -- it was delicious!

We always celebrate Papa's birthday at Thanksgiving.  Here he's wearing a new hat Chris and the boys gave him and getting ready to have his cake also made by Chris and the boys.

Sophie got her Banky back that she left at Granny's house the other month.  I bet she sleeps well tonight!

The aftermath -- eating candy sticks Granny brought and watching vintage Sesame Street from 1974

Stay tuned for Thanksgiving, Part II . . . we'll be traveling to Durham for Thanksgiving at Kelly and Jon's on Sunday.

Thanksgiving Craft

For the last several weeks, the girls have been working (slowly) at creating cute little turkey napkin holders for the Thanksgiving Day dinner we are hosting this year.

There are two versions: the color-printed version and the black-and-white version.  Hannah wanted to color her own.

They've been working at this project little by little and finally needed to finish today since Thanksgiving Day is upon us tomorrow.  Here's the crew hard at work while listening to songs for their Christmas program this year.

The finished product looks great in the center of the table.

I Am Thankful

A book made my Sophie at school

I am thankful for thanksgiving, by Sophie

I am thankful for many things. Swings.

I am thankful for the chips that I eat.

I am thankful for the dress that I wear.

I am thankful for the house that I live in.

I am thankful for the Hannah that I play with.

I am thankful for the Mommy that I love.

I am thankful for the birds that I see outside.

I am thankful for cats.

Decorating for Christmas (and other random weekend activities)

Today we did this:

Yes, I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but I was ready.  Yesterday the girls spent the day at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa.  While they were gone Charles got out the tree and the decorations.  When Hannah returned home last evening and saw the decorations, she said, "Oh no, you're not one of those people who decorates for Christmas before Thanksgiving, are you??"

We did the decorating today, and as you can see, she was quite happily engaged in the process despite her initial skepticism.  On Thursday we've having the Hendricks side of the family to our house for Thanksgiving dinner, so it will be nice to enjoy our Christmas decorations with them while they're here.

While we were decorating and listening to Christmas music, I developed a strong urge for some cookies.  Charles suggested Monster Cookies, which sounded good to me.

I ate so many of these while they were warm out of the oven that they became my dinner.  Healthy, yes?

Other random photos from the weekend:

My frosty early morning run on Saturday

My first sourdough loaves, delicious!

Attempting to trace patterns for a sewing project

Bolivian cheese pastry for International Lunch at EMES on Tuesday.  Quite tasty!

Finished tree lit up at night

Book Club with Apple Cake

For the last several years now, I've been involved in a book club that meets once a month.  A group of colleagues and I read an education-related book each semester and take turns meeting at each others' houses for dinner and discussion.  It's a wonderful time to connect outside the school day and grow ourselves professionally as well.

Last weekend I hosted.  I served a simple meal of sandwiches and salad, though I had made the sandwich buns from scratch the day before, which was fun to do.  Here's the table waiting for its inhabitants:

I was most excited about dessert though.  I had found a recipe for an apple cake online, only to realize that it actually comes from Simply in Season.  I waited all week long to make this delicious-sounding cake with lots of fresh apple chunks and a caramel glaze drizzled over the top.

Doesn't it look delicious?  It tasted great too.  I also made homemade vanilla ice cream.  The ice cream with the warm cake a cup of fresh decaf coffee was a fantastic combination.  I'll be making this cake again sooner rather than later, probably for my neighbor group this coming week.

Social Studies Conference

I spent the past few days in Williamsburg for the state social studies conference for K-12 educators.  Three colleagues and I attended together and found it to be informative AND a fun time away together.  I chose to attend sessions that focused on assessment, teaching methods that include differentiation strategies, and ways to incorporate the use of technology into the classroom.  I'll need to find time to process the vast amounts of information that came my way during those sessions.

Friday evening we went out to eat at a Thai restaurant near the hotel and conference center.  I chose to have one of their specials for the evening, red curry with pumpkin.  Sounded good to me!  Here's what I got:

An actual pumpkin!

Photo by Susan M.

I was able to eat only about half of this, as we had enjoyed a few appetizers before the huge pumpkin arrived.  It was good though!

But even better was this:

Photo from http://www.berrybody.com/

We wanted some ice cream or frozen yogurt after our Thai dinner, so we drove into downtown Williamsburg and happened upon this locally owned yogurt shop.  The yogurt was delicious, and the owner is passionate about what she does.  I had blackberry yogurt swirled with original tart flavor, topped with strawberries, pineapple, and pomegranate seeds that were extracted from the pomegranate on site.  Delicious, stupendous, out-of-this-world yogurt!  Go there if you're ever in Williamsburg or nearby.

Fall Cleanup

While Mom was out of town we worked hard to cleanup the leaves in the yard.

Sometimes you need to make up a song to stay motivated!