Thanksgiving Week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Wednesday we hung out at the pool the whole day as everyone was now here. We had a few visitors during the day but mostly just chilled.

The grandpas...



The two year olds...



All the little guys together...except Chase.  Next year.



Wednesday night we celebrated Brittany's 30th birthday with Chipotle! After the all kids were in bed I cut out to pick up the food. For some reason they comped me the food, $140 worth. I asked why but he just said it was on him. Crazy!  And nice! We had a nice adult dinner!



Thursday morning we all got dressed for a family picture!

Waiting to take the picture...which we always do barefoot.



I am truly amazed with one take of ten rapid fire pictures we got one where no one is crying and everyone is looking somewhat towards the camera. As we did the last time, we just set the camera on a ladder with the timer.



Paige with the dog Grandpa bought for her birth. We picked it because it looked so much like their dog, Alfred.

I asked everyone to do something a little different this year. Instead of ordering our Thanksgiving dinner, everyone made something for the dinner. It was fun and at times resembled one of those races against the clock in the cooking contests on TV.  We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes (vegan and regular), cranberry sauce, and green beans with bacon. We also had Polish potato salad, roasted Brussel sprouts, homemade rolls, stuffed mushrooms, and broccoli salad. 

Becky making the potato salad...

Brittany making the broccoli salad...

Beth made the rolls which were a huge hit with the kids.

We had the obligatory kids Thanksgiving table. The ate almost none of our food. That's okay! More for us!

Friday was a lazy day. Brittany and Joey went hone in the afternoon and the rest of us went home on Saturday. We swam and played. 

The older kids set up their own stores under Mia's direction.

The shoe store. Mia went to her friend's house down the street so she put a closed sign up. Yes, she makes friends wherever we go.

The toy store.

He wasn't getting many customers so Arek made this...

Avery set up a fruit store. The two year olds shoplifted most of her stash..

And as you can probably guess, Anna set up a hair salon.

We may have been a little liberal with screen time towards the end of this last day.

It was total chaos almost the whole time but so much fun!

Thanksgiving Week Monday and Tuesday

On Sunday Joey and Brittany left in the morning to spend a night in Temecula for Brittany's 30th birthday.  While they were gone we made this gingerbread turkey with all the kids. It didn't look quite like the picture.

We took the Anna, Mia, Avery and Ben to The Living Desert while Beth and Greg went to visit Cathy and Ken.

Feeding the lorikeets is always fun!

Avery would not get too close to them but she did let me take this picture.

We also fed the giraffes! I said no to the camel rides. This place does nickel and dime you to death.

Tuesday night every one was at the house!

It was total chaos for the next five days!

We have six blow up mattresses, two cribs, three queen beds and one king!

Thanksgiving Week Has Begun!

After two flights, by myself with the girls, Dan picked me up at Ontario airport. We then drove an hour and a half to Costco in La Quinta. Lucky for us, we were just in time for the Saturday-before-Thanksgiving crowds. The aisles were packed crazy with carts and traffic jams and it was so loud it didn't matter that we had two wild and crazy cabin-fevered kids. Once out to the car, we laughed as we tried to get two carts worth of stuff into a rental car packed with suitcases. Let's just say Mia loved playing bongo drums on the turkey that sat on her lap the whole way home. But we made it to La Quinta for Thanksgiving 2017!

Joey and Brittany got there that night and left the next morning for a 30th birthday trip for Brittany. We will be watching Ben and Avery until Tuesday. And then Beth and Greg arrived this afternoon.

This microphone has seen more playtime than just about any other toy we have ever had. They are planning a show for 6:30 on Tuesday.

By Tuesday everyone will be here! Its going to be crazy but so much fun!

Our Last Week

After five years in the same room (except for a short time when we were having some issues), Anna requested she have her own room. Mia didn't want to have her own room, but it has been about three weeks since we made the change and she is doing fine. One of the first things Anna did was make a to-do list for every morning to post on her closet door. The top half is for school days and the bottom is for weekends (lazy day)! She cracks me up.

Last weekend we had the boys while Becky and Arek went to California for work. Sometimes it feels like we have five children still living at home!

The girls went to a holiday baking class yesterday. It wasn't gluten free but you have to have fun once in awhile!

After the class, we headed over to Stel's book launch and signing at Tattered Cover Book Store!

Michelle went all out. Publishers don't promote books any more unless you are a big name author so she has been working hard arranging book signings, school visits, and interviews. We all hope the book does well!

Bunny ears!

Mia has a project due tomorrow, cut out and disguise Tom the turkey so he doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving. And then write a story about it.

Mia disguised him as a snow leopard! If I don't say so, he no longer looks anything like a turkey!

She wrote the story without any help. There are a few punctuation errors but I thought she did pretty well!

Tonight Anna made her First Confession. I was so pleased they got to do it with their Faith Formation class during class time this year. Last year, we spent three hours at church for Mia's. We did not get out until 10:00 on a school night because Mia was third to last out of 150 kids! And I had Anna with me because Dan was out of town. Anna fell asleep, of course.