In trying to cut the school budget, our district has lengthened the school day which allows the kids to have more days off during the school year. So, Ben and Sarah had the entire week of Thanksgiving off this year. It was so nice to have them home. Even though things are a little crazy around our house, I'm always glad when all my kids are at home.
I wanted to take some time to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I'm not huge fan of Thanksgiving. It seems over the years its become a holiday known as 'the day people celebrate having food by eating way to much of it' as Garfield says. It's lost that family, thankful feel for me. So, I decided to bring it back. No matter what's going on around us I've decided to remind my kids why we celebrate Thanksgiving and to give it the recognition it deserves.
It turned out to be a good thing I planned some fun indoor activities because the snow began to fall on Saturday. The snow fell and fell and fell and then the wind blew and blew and blew. Most of the other school districts in the area cancelled school, business' shut down early and we stayed in our warm little house enjoying some family time. It was nice to be snowed in with the kids. Kenny went out and worked, went grocery shopping for me because our tire is really bald and I didn't dare drive the car (not that he dared let me drive the car,) and took Hannah to speech. We missed him when he was gone, but we're grateful he was willing to work and go out in the blizzard for us.
Anyway, back to our activities. Monday night for FHE we had a night about Thanksgiving. I let Sarah Kate give the lesson on the first Thanksgiving. She loves to help out and give the lesson and she does a good job with it. I'm working with her on not talking so much, limiting her information, and basically keeping it short and simple. She could go on and on, but the others have very little attention spans. After our lesson we went to the table to make our Thankful Turkey. Each kid, who's old enough to talk, got 2 turkey feathers that they could color and label with something they're thankful for. I glued them all on a turkey body and our family Thankful Turkey was born and took his rightful place on our fridge.
Coloring our turkey feathers.
Things to be thankful for
Sarah: Indians and Pilgrims (can you tell she gave the lesson)
Ben: America and Life
Hannah: Drinks and My House
Gracie (with a little help from Ben): Food and Painting
Mom and Dad: Family
Hannah displaying her purple and pink colored feathers.
After the Thankful Turkey was made, we had some fun making some yummy cookie turkeys. Hannah brought one home from speech the week before and I thought it would be so fun to make as a family. They turned out real good and the kids had a lot of fun making them. After making a few of turkeys I let the kids go crazy making whatever they wanted while I fed the baby. They had a blast and came up with some very creative things.
Gracie's turkey cookie. She did a great job and I love her chocolaty hands.
Sarah Kate gluing her second turkey together with frosting.
Hannah proudly displaying her turkey with its wings backwards.
Ben's turkey with it's rather high wings.
Dan had fun eating chocolate cookies. He loves the flash on the camera and I snapped this after the flash went off. Then . . .
I played peek-a-boo behind the camera and this is what I got. Man I love this kid.
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