Thanksgiving North Attleboro Parade...

Every year we head to the North Attleboro Parade the Sunday after Thanksgiving. In the past we have gone with the Marders and Jeff and Sue joined us last year, but this year we went alone! The parade takes place just around the corner from our house, so we can walk over to it! It is a good 30+ minutes and tons of candy is thrown at us....This year, we filled up two lunch bags to the top! It has gotten to the point that Tyler and Kelsi know how to get the candy....They smile and wave and repeatedly yell "Hi"! I actually have to get them to lay off on the yelling...they are SO anxious to have everyone throw them more candy!

Santa is the caboose of the parade...

Shoulder rides home were requested...Everyone's legs were "SO tired"....

Our house...

This year Douglas was motivated with our outside decor! He worked on it during the weekend after Thanksgiving. The kids were so excited to go outside and see Dada reveal the display!  The only thing missing from the picture is our blow up Santa! Dada finally found it on December 6th and got that up and out there too! He is a big hit with the kids!

My little painter...

Kelsi is just about to be 3 years and 5 months old and she is settling down a little bit...Well, it could just be my wishful thinking because she is still OH-SO active, but she is STARTING to be able to do some projects!!

 Painting is her favorite art project....she isn't a big crayon girl (that lasts for about 45 seconds), but she is always asking to paint! Usually she makes a big picture with a ton of paint all mixed together but on this day, she was working on her first picture and she was following our directions to make her painting look like the picture on the package! We kept having to take breaks to let it dry before moving on to the next color and that wasn't going over well with her. She was asking to paint again every 5 minutes for the whole day!

Pete has arrived!!

Pete arrived the morning after Thanksgiving, and Kelsi was the first one to notice him! He was sitting on top of the microwave, and she looked up and said, "Who is that little red man?"....Tyler looked up and yelled Pete!  Since that day, Tyler has found him first on all but this day that is pictured below...Pete had hid himself so well that noone could find him! After a couple trips around the house, it was Kelsi that excitedly pointed at him!! 

Pete brings a lot of excitement at our house!

Home decor...

My last post for my thankful November is light and fluffy....I am thankful for decorating my home! I am in a big overhaul mode right now and I want to change so much!! I am thankful that my husband is willing to paint....he is in the midst of it right now....neither of us are sure about the new color, but we will see...it is a little more of a greyish/white than the cream that I was hoping for!

I am also thankful for the day after Thanksgiving sale that I went to at Christine's house...She was a Southern Living at Home consultant and it was bought out. She was a leading sales woman for the company, so she had tons of stuff that she wanted to sell! I grabbed this shower curtain knowing that it was going to be a perfect match...it was only $5...so excited!!! I got to shop at her house and the kids got to play with her kids...it made life so easy!

Douglas's cooking...

I am thankful for Douglas's cooking...He has always been a better cook than me...He is a "natural" and I am a recipe follower. I am SO appreciative that he likes to cook and does it often for us...breakfasts, lunches and dinners...He is a great cook and is always whipping up something new.

After Thanksgiving I was sure that he would want a little break...I was surprised to come home on Saturday evening to find Douglas cooking...Not only was he was making Vodka Sauce for the first time (my favorite), he was also making HOME MADE pasta!! Crazy!!

It was delicious and I even thought that I had a little buzz going on from the Absolute!

Thanksgiving traditions...

I am thankful for Thanksgiving! I am so happy that we have started a tradition for our family...For the past 5 years we have hosted and our families have come. It is the only holiday that Tyler and Kelsi get to have both sets of grandparents with them at the same time. For the first couple years, we ordered a pre-made dinner but for the last few, Douglas has done the cooking....He is great at it!

We usually play a couple of games, eat, play a few more, etc! This year Jorja, Jeff and Sue stopped by too!

This must be where I get my tickling from! My parents are ticklers too!

Before everyone started heading out, we grabbed a quick family picture for Tyler and Kelsi...

Then I jumped in for one and Douglas took it...He of course didn't want to jump in...surprising!

A mother that loves to be a grandmother...

I am thankful for my mother...She is in love with being a grandmother. She turns 60 next month and is FULL of energy. She can have the kids from the morning until the evening and not look tired! She loves to take them places and play with them....games, puzzles, art projects, visiting the mall, feeding the animals, to the movies, Children's Museum, swimming, bowling, and more. I used to do these types of things with her and the kids, but now with my work schedule, she usually does it on her own (or with my Dad if he has a day off). I GREATLY appreciate all of her help and I know that she loves her alone time with the kids too.

The pictures below are from last week...She asked Kelsi if she wanted to paint her nails...It was Kelsi's first time painting someone else's nails and she LOVED it!! Tyler then got in on the act and then I let Kelsi paint mine too!  The whole project probably only lasted 10-15 minutes, but was such a special time...

Thank you mom for all of your help and thank you for being such an involved Noni!

6 more things to be thankful for...

Thanksgiving has come and gone and tomorrow is the first day of December! I want to wrap up my month of thankfulness with my final 6 things that I am thankful for....6 more will make the 30 days of November!

I am thankful that I have a little boy that is enthusiastic about doing homework and a little girl that is always willing to help!

Tyler had his first homework assignement just before Thanksgiving...He had to decorate the tree that Mrs. Sherman sent home. He had to add picture or draw each person in his family and we had to write the one sentence that he said about each person. While Tyler was doing this, Kelsi was a bit jealous...She wanted a tree and needed attention to help draw one on her easel and write her name on it!

Look closely at the tongue....I used to do that when I was coloring/concentrating too!

Although both of them are little helpers, Kelsi always needs something to do, so she is ALWAYS ready to help! On Thanksgiving I wrote everyone's names on cardstock so that they could go in the turkey holders...Kelsi helped me put them in each one. When I turned my back for a minute, she had opened the permanent Sharpie marker and was writing all over her name tag. Although she likes to "help", she isn't quite there yet with actually being productive...she is still a litte work in progress!