Thanksgiving

Isn't this the MOST GORGEOUS turkey you've ever seen???? and this one was just for decoration. Turkey was yummy as usual. O made many of us tear up with his Thanksgiving toast to Nancy sharing with us how thankful he felt to be included in her large wonderful family. I feel exactly the same way. I love being part of Nancy and O's large extended family, and I love that the kids have so many cousins to play with too.

Here's a cute pic of me and Ryan that I took on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving at Nancy and O's is always a festive experience. Lots of family gathers, and we spend most of the day gabbing, eating, and laughing. Here is part of the table assembled to eat dinner. See our festive hats?

Nancy always decorates the outside for every holiday. Love the scarecrow.

My poor attempt at a fancy angle picture of the table...

O's sisters had this neat idea for a table decoration. They brought lots of beautifully colored leaves, and all of us picked a leaf and wrote what we were thankful for on it. Then, the table was decorated with all of our thanks! (Mine was my old standy- modern medicine.)

Ryan's field trip to Publix

Ryan's preschool class took a field trip to the local grocery store in November. It was soooooo cute. First, the kids were all given their mesh hats so they could look just like the employees. Here they are watching someone chop up a pineapple. That was hard work, so they all received a banana to eat while watching.


This was a favorite station - watching this woman decorate a cake. It was pretty neat to watch her put dozens of icing roses on this cake in a matter of seconds.

The other favorite station was getting to pet a lobster. Ryan was NOT interested in doing that, and quickly retreated to the outside of the group.

Becca at the Art Fair

Becca loves all things involving using her creative imagination. Every year, Gainesville sponsors a Downtown Art Festival. There is a special FREE area set up just for kids that is staffed by the UF art students. There are about a dozen tables set up, each with their own craft project. I took Becca and her best friend, Kaitlyn, while Kaitlyn's grandmother watched Ryan and Kaitlyn's brother Jeffery.

In addition to the craft projects, there is also a little theater area where various performers put on their childrens shows throughout the day. Here is Becca actingt he part of the flamingo in the puppet theatre performance.


And here she is writing a book. Notice the fancy headpiece she had just created at the previous table. She sat at this table for a loooong time, writing her story and drawing the pictures to go with it. It was a fairy tale involving a princess and some animals.