thanksgiving menu

I'm a Thanksgiving purest.  I like a good classic turkey dinner.  The year my mother announced she was making lasagna for Thanksgiving was the end of my attendance at my family's Thanksgiving (they moved away the next year). 


So here is what will be on our table this holiday.  I'm excited to have all the recipes in one place! 

Martha's delicious herb butter turkey




The bestest mashed potatoes are made with yukon gold potatoes! 

Simple easy stuffing. 





This sweet potato casserole is a new addition for this year.  I already made it, and sampled it, and wow, it's basically cake.  It's sweet and the crunch top is just delicious.  I think it's going to be Oliver's favorite. 





Carrots. yummy roasted carrots with garlic.  



Cranberry sauce, it's so easy, the can isn't necessary. 

Homemade crescent rolls, if you don't burn half of them, like I did, it makes a ton and it's really simple.  



Gravy to top it all off. 




Dessert

Pecan pie bars



Pumpkin pie is not my favorite, but a double layer pumpkin pie with a cheesecake layer on the bottom pumpkin pie on top is pretty awesome. 



































So what's on your Thanksgiving menu?  What MUST be on your table?


Bonus!

We are not having this amazing pumpkin dump cake for thanksgiving, but we usually have it once during this time of the year.  It's so simple and a great mix of flavors and textures. 





Activities

I printed out these silly Thanksgiving photo booth props.  My printer was running low on ink, so the pumpkin pie might not be the right shade or orange, but we will make it work. 

I'm really not into shooting games or activities or really anything shooting related, but this just looked so fun and I found a ball launching toy to make the activity work. 

Of course there will be football and parade watching. 





Hope everyone had a joyful day spent with family and friends. 

Christmas, Oliver edition

I finished Oliver's Christmas shopping by mid November, now I need to use my self control to not purchase anything else.

This is the first year that Oliver has stated something he wants without being prompted or asked.  What he wants is a trash truck.  He described some trash truck he saw at target, I found one on zuiliy for $25 and it seemed to fit his description.  Here it is over at amazon, but ouch that price tag is nuts!

                                          

I also found some pete the cat CD books, which we ordered from scholastic, through his preschool.  He really likes listening to audio books so we continue to build the collection.  


Bongos. Because, why not?  Again, I found them on zuiliy for much less.

Marble run elevator!  We already own and have loved this awesome marble run and we got this elevator to go with it. 

Lastly, he's been really into talking about space and rockets, so when I saw the awesome green toys rocket ship on zuiliy for 9.99, I knew we neeeeded it. 

Now, what does a one year old want for Christmas?  Gift wrap & boxes? 

christmas gifts, a review of last year

Last year I wrote this post sharing the gifts that we purchased for Oliver.  I think the test for a good Christmas gift is that when Christmas roll around again you 1. still own the gift and 2. still play with it

The post in the above link contains links to amazon, to make your shopping even easier.  

So let's grade last years gifts.

ukelele, love
CD player, use it all the time
CD books, he likes them and he likes borrowing others from the library

meh, I think it will be more fun Lydia can play with him





of course he loves train stuff, and it's free since we have
a huge stash in our basement from when Jim was a kid


Oliver also got a Duplo fire station set and two big bases for
his duplos.  We go through lego phases, sometimes we
play with legos all the time and sometimes we take a month
or so off. 

All in all I think last years gifts were a success.  I'm trying to stay clear of  tech gifts.  I like toys, I like building, I like being creative, and I really want to inspire that in Oliver and Lydia.  Also, I spend a lot of time playing with Oliver and Lydia, so I think it's better for my parenting if I buy toys I like to play with!  Tomorrow, I'll share what I got Oliver for Christmas this year.  Yes, I'm already done with his shopping.  Zuiliy had some great deals that I couldn't pass over. 

11 months

Eeeek, I can't believe sweet Lydia is going to be one next month!

Right after snapping this photo, my camera officially died, so I snapped a few more with my phone.

annoyed I keep telling her not to touch the plant

how most of this photo shoot goes

 

This past month was so fun (my favorite, so far) and Lydia has learned so many new tricks.
-claps her hands
-waves
-high fives
-pulls to standing
-crawls around the house, is getting better at navigating, she always finds me in the kitchen
-climbs up the stairs
-we lovingly call her "baby Godzilla" as she can  demolish any project in a matter of seconds
-wiggles out of diaper changes
-still enjoys nursing, but is eating more and more solid food and the occasional drink of whole milk


Now it's time to party plan!

unknown

Oliver's teacher thinks he may have some speech issues, so she passed on a phone number for the early intervention folks and encourage us to give them a call.  Oliver was assessed when he was first home and passes with flying colors, but the standards are much higher now that he is 4 and we want to be sure he is fully ready for kindergarten next year. 

So, the pile or paperwork arrived at the end of last week.  In the past I would have called it a crazy amount of paperwork, but I've got perspective now.  This assessment covers vision, hearing, speech, fine and gross motor skills, and self help skills.  There are a ton of questions about my pregnancy (didn't happen), delivery (wasn't there), and early sickness and milestones (weren't documented well).  Okay, I know these are important questions, I know 99% of moms can answer them confidently.  I just write "unknown" after "unknown."  I'm totally fine with that, I mean I wish I knew, but I know what I've signed up for as an adoptive mom.  The only thing that makes me frustrated is there is not box to check saying he is adopted, he can't be the only one in the history of this assessment that isn't homegrown.  Has no other adoptive mom pointed this out?  Have they pointed it out and the district hasn't changes the questioner?  The doctor's office has an adopted box, even his tiny preschool has an adopted box.  Give me a damn box so I don't have to feel like and idiot writing unknown!

Then they ask what language is spoken at home, I answer English.  However, there is no question about what the child's first language.  Yeah, we speak English, but he didn't show up here until 20 months old.  Blah.

Finally at the end of this annoyingly flawed paperwork there is my question "is there anything else we should know?" and three little lines to answer.  I drew an arrow, flipped the paper over, and wrote the paragraph of answers that they didn't care to ask for, and I know this is just the beginning.....

End rant.

His assessment is on Thursday.  I'm actually pretty excited to hear how he does and get some tips for things we need to work on. 

the easiest baby sensory bin

Oliver loves playing in different sensory bins, rice, moon sand, water beads, and a bunch of other things that Lydia isn't allowed to eat even though she wants to.  So, Lydia gets her own special bin and she can munch it all she wants.  

Cheerios!  

halloween squishy bags, baby fun

Lydia, like most any baby, is an explorer. This week I'm going to post a few fun baby things we've been making for her.

supplies
-Ziploc bags, we used quart size freezer bags
-hair gel
-duct tape
-stuff to put in the bag, we went with
some pumpkin erasers we had, some wiggly spiders
and we found a package of skeletons for $1 at Target
-glitter (totally optional) we skipped it this time
-assistant

upon opening the gel jar my assistant promptly
grabbed the lid and smashed in on her face

quick break for clean up

 

Back to squishy bag, as if instructions are really necessary...

-squeeze or scoop some gel into the bag

-throw in some stuff

-close

-seal with duct tape, we sealed all sides

all Lydia wanted to do was try to chew it
this isn't the best chew project

I used package tape to stick them on
the window.  They are less chewable there

and still very fun.  Oliver enjoys checking

them out also.