Thankfulness Tree

Thanksgiving is coming! Well, not for most people over here (did you know that the Pilgrims didn’t land in Portugal???) but it is for us!

I got this idea from someone from last year but not until the end of the month so it was too late to give it a try. I’m so glad that I remembered it before the month of November started so that the girls and I could work on it all month. It’s been a lot of fun!

Every morning we’re writing down things that we’re thankful for on leaves and adding them to the tree. I just saw another friend on FB doing this with her kids’ hands for the leaves– so cute! The idea was one per kid per day but we’ve ended up doing several a day. I think the tree looks better with more leaves so hey, let’s go for it!

It’s interesting what an almost 4 year old thinks of when asked what she’s thankful for. She has said her blanket on her bed, her piggy bank toy that was given to us at the conference this summer, and her bed. No, “Mommy” did not come up without some prompting. :-) We’re working on being thankful for people, not just things!

Today we were thankful for cousins! My girls have 4 cousins, 2 on each side. One they haven’t gotten to meet yet but hopefully will sometime soon! That doesn’t matter, though! We’re thankful for them all and their names are now up on our tree!

Hope you’re having a good day and that you have many things to be thankful for too!

By the way, oh my, it's hard to take a good picture of these two at the same time these days!!!  One won't sit still and the other holds everything up RIGHT in front of her face! Also, she'll smile but then look away from the camera RIGHT as I take the picture.  Oh well, you get the idea! 

Pumpkin Carving Time!

Even though it was pretty hard to find good pumpkins for carving we found some small ones and the girls got to carve a pumpkin for the first time!  Don't worry, they're pumpkin carving knives - quite safe!  :-)

Getting ready!



What is he doing???

 Getting ready to light it up!



 All done!



So cute!

Up in the Sky!

Katie filled up her marble jar and got to pick a prize out of the treasure box! This time she chose to go for a ride on the sky buckets nearby! It was a fun family Saturday afternoon celebrating Katie and enjoying a great view.

You can see the sky buckets in the background here.  They run along the river.

Yeah Katie! 

This little one didn't enjoy the day as much as the rest of us.  She had a pretty bad cold complete with a fever.  No fun!  Now all four of us have or had the same lovely cold.  Oh the family togetherness!

One Month and One Day

Today Carly is one day and one month away from 2 years old.  When Katie was one month and one day away from 2 years old Carly was born!  Katie seemed older than Caly does right now... maybe because she had a lot more hair than Carly does! 

Sweet Carly girl has about 4 more months before she becomes a big sister.  It'll be a big change but she'll be a great big sister, I'm sure!



First Day of School!

Well, this post is over a month late but my little lady started back at her preschool at the begining of September! 

She was very excited to get back to school since she hadn't been there since December.  I don't think it was quite what she was expecting though, because in the last several months being away from the language and mostly speaking English she has forgotten most of what she knew before we left.  Poor little thing cried, not when I dropped her off, but when I picked her up the first day of school!  I felt so sad for her.  She said, "It was harder than I thought it would be..."  And I think it was.  She didn't realize how hard it would be to not understand most of what was going on around her.  On top of that there were several new kids who have come since she was there last so it wasn't as familiar as she remembered. 

It has gotten better but I think it's still very tiring and draining for her - but fun too!  You can be praying for our little one that she'd remember the language quickly and make friends again.  Thanks! 

At the Park

Just a few cute pictures from an outing to the park this week.  I told you that this blog was mostly to keep the grandparents happy!  :-)

Have a great day!

A Fun Day Out

Last week we got to spend some fun time with some good friends.  They have a little girl the same age as Katie so it was great to see them get to play together.  The park we went to had a canoe "ride" and the older girls got to"row" around a couple of times.  They didn't have to do much work - which was good because on the 2nd or 3rd time around Katie said, "My arms are tired!" and gave us the paddle as they rode past. 

It's fun to discover new things that are so close to where we live. There's a lot to do if we just know about it!

Carly REALLY wanted to jump in on the fun but I was afraid that she'd just jump in the water.  Since the sign said they had to be 2 to ride we kept her out.  She kept saying "My turn, my turn" as the canoes went past.  Thankfully she contented herself pretty well just splashing in the water.

Later we went to a large street fair and all of the girls got to ride on a merry-go round.  The picture is fuzzy but Carly got to have the whole boat to herself and she was super happy getting to hold BOTH steering wheels the whole time.  It was pretty cute!

So, today I'm thankful for sweet friends and sweet kiddos!