Turkey for me and turkey for you.....

.....so let's eat the turkey in a big brown shoe. Do y'all remember that song? Every time Thanksgiving rolls around and I hear the word turkey I immediately think of this song and then I smile. If you've not heard it recently, do yourself a favor and refresh your memory by clicking here. You're welcome!

Last year I saw this recipe somewhere and I'm not sure where because it was before The Pinterest. So...instead of pinning it, I actually printed it....on real computer paper (gasp, shock and awe...I know). Anyhow, when I got ready to make it prior to Thanksgiving last year there were no candy corns to be found - ANYWHERE in Lexington!! Fast forward to this year when we moved and my printed copy of the recipe came falling out of my horribly disorganized stack of recipes and I decided I would definitely make them this year. I made sure to nab a discounted bag of candy corn a few days after Halloween. I mean, honestly - how cute are these:

picture from Pillsbury.com

 

I figured the more the merrier for the turkey cookie making, so we invited some friends. Fun it was and the cookies were not only cute, but yummy too!

 

 We had 6 kids participating and Greyson just hanging out in the kitchen in his swing. It was crazy, but a super fun kind of crazy. The key was being uber prepared - cookies cooked and cooled ahead of time, icing in piping bags (multiple bags of each color) and several "stations" set  up so that each child had their own turkey makin' equipment. They all did great and put their own individual spin on their turkeys.

 All the kids enjoyed the fruits of their labor after lunch time together and Avery thoroughly enjoyed hers:

 THOROUGHLY

 Next year, I think I'll try my hand at these cuties:



 Aren't they adorable? Now that I'm a believer in The Pinterest (it's just fun to say it that way), I'm sure I could find a tutorial...not only on how to make above Oreo turkeys but maybe even how to make my own oreos, candy corns and peanut butter cups too. I kid, I kid...

Play, Play, Play all day!

 

There's not going to be a lot to this posting. This is just a big ole group of photos that I want to remember...mostly of the kids playing. There are a lot of things about staying home with them that I adore, but one of the things I adore most is getting to watch them play with each other and getting to be a part of their play too.

 

Here are some pics I snapped when my Mom and Jim were here several weekends ago. My girls LOVE their "Honey"

I swear Greyson already knows these girls are his big sisters and when they are around I'm chopped liver. This boy knows and loves these girls!

Avery has gotten really in to playing with her babies. She sleeps with her babies, she eats with her babies and she carries a baby at all times - even if we're outside playing or if we're going somewhere.

Big sister is in to her scooter, and more accurately doing "tricks" like this one:

"C'mon Avery - Mom said to say cheese!"

I feel like I'm constantly doing laundry around here and the laundry basket just moves from the laundry room to the landing upstairs...it pretty much ALWAYS has laundry in it (sometimes dirty, but mostly with clean and folded laundry that needs to be put away). Rarely is the basket empty, but when it is empty - it is apparently inviting.

One minute they were pretending the laundry basket was Avery's baby bed and then they were pretending it was a boat and they were going on a journey.

 I love how their imaginations work.

I can't wrap up the post without some pictures of this sweet little guy. He's such a smiley and happy little Jack. I can just glance at him and he grins and then I melt into a mushy baby talking mess of a Mommy.

My girls spend most afternoons in dress up clothes dancing to whatever Pandora selection we have going on at the moment. Greyson is content in his bouncy seat to watch them flutter and dance all across our living room. Usually Avery has her baby in hand and the room is filled with laughter and there is no place I'd rather be than listening to them laugh and being thankful that they are mine...regardless of the always full laundry basket :).

Riverbanks Zoo

At the rate I'm posting lately - I'm going to be posting about Thanksgiving during Christmas and Christmas during Valentine's Day and so on and so forth. Such is my life right now - crazy days with three kiddos. Although I like to blog and document our lives for not only myself, but friends and family that aren't near, I'm happy that being outside or in the floor with my wee ones is taking center stage.

A few weeks ago I met two of my high school girl friends in Columbia at the zoo. I'm so thankful that Casey, Jennifer, and I have maintained our friendships because I treasure them so very much. We made plans to meet earlier in the summer but it didn't work out and then we were planning on early fall and again it didn't work out, so we finally picked a date and although the forecast wasn't looking great we kept our plan anyways and I'm so glad we did. The kids had so much fun!

~Kennedy, Addie, Luke, Jake, and Avery~

One of our first stops: the lions!

Practicing their cow-milking skills. You know...in case they ever need to know how. ha!

Addie (having big sister experience with Luke) was so sweet to Avery.

Jake and Addie see each other often and are best buds, but they took Kennedy right in obviously:

One of my favorite parts of the entire day was the giraffe feeding station. We didn't buy giraffe food (aka - lettuce), but the kids quickly realized they could pick up the lettuce that others had dropped and the giraffes would come to them too. It was really neat to be that close to them and to see the kids excitement over being so close to them too.

Here's my brave Avery:

Seriously!?!? How cool is that:

I love giraffe eyes - they are so dark and dramatic.

I don't think I realized until this little adventure how long their tongues are....they are crazy long!

The zoo is pretty small but I found the giraffe activity to be super awesome as well as the kangaroo walkabout. There is a gated area where you can walk through and be amongst the kangaroos. The kangaroos were kind of like "whatever - we see you people all the time" but it was still cool.

We ended our fun zoo day with a picnic and play time in the park area. It was so good to visit and let our kiddos play with each other for part of the day. I'm bummed that we failed to get a big group picture! I wish we were closer so we could make getting together a regular occurrence, but I'm so very thankful I'm close enough now to even have the opportunity to do stuff like this with them. I'm really hoping to make a trip to Charleston soon and we'll for sure get together again.

Make new friends, but keep the old!

One is silver but the other's gold.

Y'all know that song? Well, it comes to mind a lot when I think about how blessed I am to have held on to some of my friends as long as I have, but God is continually blessing me with new friendships too. More on that in just a sec!

First, I wanted to share a few of our fall photos:

Seasons first cup of hot chocolate

My girls and I making pumpkin bread - they LOVE to help me in the kitchen!

They especially love the taste testing part ;)

It's always a fun time when we cook together!

Okay, so back to the old friend thing - this is Becca and she is the daughter of a high school friend of mine named Jennifer. The friendship that's been re-kindled (so to speak) between Jen and I has been such an unexpected but great blessing. When we purchased our new home, it put us about 10 minutes apart and when I moved to NC I didn't even realize she lived here! Since moving, we've seen each other at least once a week every week and our kiddos love each other. Not long after these two started hanging out, they began asking us to allow them to have a sleepover. Jennifer was the first to volunteer to host and here the girls are before their first sleepover (it was each of their first times staying with a friend). So special and cute! 

Jennifer sent me this cell pic about an hour after they left here and she said they were so excited they wanted to put their PJ's on right away even though bedtime was a ways off. Too funny!

Our families have gotten together a couple times too and a few weekends ago we checked out a local place called AW Shucks that was so.much.fun!

We started our fun on the Grain Bin slide -

Her daughter Katelyn loves Greyson and is always saying "baby, baby" when he's around. She loves to touch him, hold him and help care for him in anyway possible...it's really sweet. 

Every good corn maze/pumpkin patch has a petting zoo (why? I cannot understand, but alas my kids (and I'm sure others) love a good ole' petting zoo so I suppose that's got something to do with it).

~sweet big girls~

~sweet little girls~

Our crew - so cute! 

 We checked out the corn maze

 

hopped on a hayride

climbed on some hay bales - LOVE this picture: so fun!

and the kids played until their little hearts content - they all had a really good time and this place was like a child's wonderland there was so much to do

 

 

We capped the night off with some $1 cones at a nearby ice cream place. I'm so thankful that she and I have re-connected and that our kids enjoy each other as much as they do. I look forward to many more play dates and weekend family get togethers!