Thanksgiving Weekend

For some reason, I am terrible at remembering to take pictures of Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm not sure why, but I just always forget.  Usually someone else comes to the rescue and remembers to take one for me, but this year, no one stepped up to the plate.  So I have no picture of our actual Thanksgiving dinner which was quite the spread, although the kids obviously only ate bread and sweet potatoes.  But I am thankful (see what I did there?) that I did get some pictures of the rest of the weekend.  So that will have to do.

The Thanksgiving weekend started out with Jill's classroom "harvest party."  I had to work, so Chris attended in my stead.

Next, and perhaps slightly more exciting, was a cousin-sleepover with Nate and Alyssa!

The inaugural viewing of Captain Underpants.  Despite Alyssa's smile, she was quite underwhelmed.

Cousins at the zoo!

Now it's Aaron's turn to be underwhelmed.

The day before Thanksgiving, we drove to Oma and Opa's house, where we got to see lots of friends and family, including our other cousin -- baby Eliza.  She was a big hit!

Eliza's not so sure...

Girl power!

Trying on their matching Christmas outfits that Oma sewed.

Sweet.

Pretty girls.

Oma's happy place is all decorated for Christmas!

Re-purposing the bowtie.

While I have no pictures of our meal, I did whip out my camera during our post-dinner walk.  We had a beautiful day with blue skies and lots of pretty leaves.

Leaves are great for rolling around in!

And they make for a soft landing when you're wrestling with Aunt Bobbie.

The kids also love to do projects with Opa in his workshop.  This time, Opa helped them make a bird feeder and birdhouse.  And on every single woodworking project that Aaron makes with Opa, they add a tiny little carved giraffe, to show that it's Aaron's work; sort of like his signature.  Because giraffes are his favorite animal!

Drill baby drill!

And of course, no trip to Oma and Opa's is complete without a visit to the lake.

Hanging up his newly made bird house.  See the little giraffe on there?

At the lake, we break the rules.  So Jill got to drive.

Checking out the foundation for the new treehouse Opa is building.

Idyll.

All bundled up.

Cracking the hickory nuts he collected.

Lunch in the gnome home.

More leaves to roll around in.

Peeing in the woods never looked so cute.

Mini Paul Bunyan.

In the end, I think the dinner probably wasn't the most important part of Thanksgiving after all.  There were so many other things to do and people to cherish this weekend.  And for that, we are thankful.