Come Ye Thankful People

Our Thanksgiving preparations began on Wednesday.  For one thing, I made 160 rolls in the morning for Lucy's school potluck party.  (So nice to have all the help to entertain the kiddos.)  We also prepped one of our turkeys.  The Boy Scouts at church have a fundraiser where people can bring their Thanksgiving meat all wrapped up and seasoned and the scouts will cook it overnight in an imu (those underground polynesian ovens).  I love the kalua pork done this way.  So we decided to give it a shot with a turkey.  But we had to have something to compare it to, so we cooked one in the traditional way too.  We tried to do all the seasoning/brining the same so we'd have a true scientific experiment.  :)  Also Wednesday night Liz and I made the desserts and yams.  Whew!  We were ready for bed Wednesday night for sure.

Thursday morning, George picked up the imu turkey at 8am.  And it was really yummy.  I thought it had a nice smokey flavor.  Apparently the traditional Hawaiian style is to get all the meat off, chill it, and then heat it later.  Onolicious!

Jake and the kids writing "Thankful lists".
I bought a big paper turkey to put on the wall.  Originally I was thinking we'd write something we were thankful for on a turkey feather every day in November, but by Thanksgiving, we'd only done 9 feathers.  ha!  So there were lots left over for everyone to write on Thanksgiving.  I really enjoyed reading these later.

Since we didn't really have a deadline for dinner time, everyone decided to go kayaking around 10:30ish.  I came about 45 minutes later with Cole.  When I arrived, Elise was bawling her head off.  Austin was crying too, but not quite as crazily.  George, grandpa Tom and the "twins" were in the green kayak.  They turned around to check on the yellow kayak crew and tipped over.  It was a little more windy than in times past.  I arrived just as they were getting back to shore.  No one was hurt or anything, just a little wet and freaked.  After some hugs and kisses, George and I went out together and had a good time.  When we came back, the children were obviously healed and sang the "I'm H-A-P-P-Y" song about a hundred times.

We came back to the smells of turkey cooking in the oven.  Yum!  Not trying to kiss-up or anything, but I must admit, I thought Geo's oven turkey was more moist and delicious than the imu kind.  (However I still want to try a pig if they do the imu fundraiser for Christmas.)

We had the traditional yumminess for Thanksgiving dinner.  George told me long ago that he read the secret to good cooking is lots of butter and salt.  I used 9 sticks of butter in two days... which must mean everything was delicious.  :)  I was surprised (but happy) at how much everyone liked the yams.  

For dessert, I made a pumpkin pie (kind of cheesecakey), a double layer pumpkin pie, and a lemon guava cheesecake.  I think the guava cheesecake was the best of the three.  I was so happy because this was the first time the cheesecake actually looked yummy - usually I've overbaked and its all cracked.

Afterwards Lucy initiated artwork in the playroom.  She helped Austin make stuff too, but he wasn't too interested in modeling.

Cole slept through Thanksgiving dinner.  But he still got to wear a pilgrim hat.

Tom and Liz did a mountain of dishes.  The minute we had any room in our stomachs, we had pie (w/ candles for Austin's birthday).  By the end of the day, the tryptophan did its job. We were beat.  But very grateful to have family to spend the day with.

Austin's 3rd Birthday Parties

Since Grandma and Grandpa and Jake were in town (more on their visit in a future post), we had an early birthday party for Austin.  We stuck three candles in a pie and sang... nice and easy.

Elise showing him how its done

Lots and lots of fun presents - THANK YOU!!!

Saturday morning, we had "A" and "3" shaped pancakes for breakfast.  George had to ask him over and over before Austin finally answered that he was 3 instead of 2.  I'm still not sure he understands...

... but he did finally learn to hold up the right number of fingers.

Its a little tricky having a birthday around Thanksgiving... somehow I can't seem to plan two celebrations at once or something.  Anyway, we threw together a birthday party Saturday evening and invited a few families we know.  They were nice enough to come over without much prior notice... that's kinda how we roll around here.

The donut cake was supposed to be a rocket.  We thought it would be a cinch since its so similar to the Rapunzel tower but we put the thing together a little too early and the bottom third of the donuts were pretty smashed.  Oh well.  He was thrilled anyway.

After the sugar high, the kids went outside and ran around like crazies.  Shocking isn't it?  :)  Here's Austin and Kaweka after running in the rain.  What a party!

Austin at 3

Big Lemon Muscles

Very interested in the Frog Habitat at the Botanical Garden

For "mommy school", we made a Thanksgiving book.  This is the "pilgrim house" page.  Austin was pretty interested in gluing sticks and straw and arranging them where he wanted them to go.  He also liked using the scissors... until he clipped his finger.  Luckily, he had Elise to nurse him.

We was carefully laying down sticks and then all of a sudden, he grabs a pile of materials and throws it on his paper and yells out, "I'm done." and gets down.  So funny.

Playing at the playground at Lucy's school - always a favorite activity

Austin has a good memory.  He's also very animated and LOUD.  It is a regular thing for me to hear him quoting lines from books.  This one is from "Big Pumpkin" by Erica Silverman.  "Its big and its mine.  AND ITS STUCK ON THE VINE."

One of Austin's favorite activities is riding his bike outside.  Usually Elise accompanies him.  One day, they came running in the house saying they needed helmets.  We only own one, so I prepared myself to be the referee to a big fight.  Nope.  They found a "helmet."  I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but this has been Austin's helmet the last couple months - a popped dodge ball.  He loves the thing.  Even washes it off when it gets dirty.

We sure love our Austin.  He's generally a happy child.  He's still snuggly and I love that.  He loves to point out letters and numbers when he sees them random places.  But he shows no desire to use the potty.  At all.  He loves to be read to, hit big balls with a bat, drive little cars and has a great imagination.

At the end of his birthday day, I walked in the door from the garage to find Austin cleaning up a lake of water on the kitchen floor.  Me:  "What in the world is going on?!?"  Lucy:  (very nonchalant) "Oh, Austin's just cleaning up a big spill.... ... ... He's so responsible."  Ha!  Well, I don't think we can quite go that far.  But he is a good kid.   Love you buddy!

Lucy the Gardener

The first graders put on a play every year around Thanksgiving time.  This time, Mrs. Olson decided to do a "gardening" play rather than the traditional Thanksgiving play because the 1st grade garden has been a big focus of their curriculum/fieldtrips this year.  Lucy was thrilled she was one of the gardeners and went right to work memorizing her lines.  She was lucky to have grandma Liz, grandpa Tom and uncle Jake in the audience.  Great job Lucy!

Meeting the aliens

Afterwards we had a potluck dinner for everyone.  At the first of the year, I signed up to help with the Thanksgiving party so I really had an easy job.... just organize the dishes.  As part of the meal, I decided to have the kids make gratitude rolls and it turned out to be a big hit.  The Friday before the party, grandma Liz and I went into the classroom and read "Thanks for Thanksgiving" (great book!).  Then the kids filled out 5 slips of paper with things they were thankful for.  I baked the slips into rolls on Wednesday morning.  I had to snap a pic when I found Kalanikapu's paper.  :)

Peek at Cole: 6 months

One of my favorite things about Cole right now is that he snuggles up to me, rubbing his face into my shoulder and clinging on my arm.  He also grins when I call his name.  Melts my heart every time.

Cole is a good sport as we drag him from place to place

He likes to eat sand (excuse the girly hat)

That pincher grasp is improving every day.

Cole rolls all over the room to get what he wants.  He can rock back and forth on his knees too.

Cole grew a first tooth right after the 5 month mark and the second is just pushing through.  This is the best picture I could get.  ha!  Everyone thinks this new tooth is the coolest thing ever.  Except the nursing mother.  Oh and Cole doesn't like it so much either.  Of all the kids, he seems to be the fussiest w/ stuff like this - shots and new teeth really bug him.  George mentioned the other night that Cole still eats like a newborn - if he's up he wants food every 2-3 hours.  In the evening time, he wants it more often than that.  He's still a great sleeper through the night... no complaints there.

A big highlight of the month was having grandma and grandpa and Uncle Jake visit.
Don't you want to come right back over and squeeze this kid some more?

Family Picture by Elise

 Notice that everyone has teeth and belly buttons.  :)  

And she had to add in "her friend" which today she said was Maddox.

34

It was a great day to turn 34!

After Cole went down for a nap, I treated myself to a nice, relaxing bubble bath.  All those bubbles were too tempting for toddlers to resist.

  The relaxing went out the window, but it was replaced with lots of laughter.

 Elise and Austin made me a rock birthday cake

Lucy made me a basket.

 I told George that I really wanted a birthday cake and candles this year.  And a plumeria tree.  They smell heavenly.  He delivered on both (pic of plumeria tree is behind the rock cake bakers).  Plus he brought home some beautiful flowers.  What a guy!  He also encouraged the kids to be on their best behavior since it was my birthday.  This never really works, but I always appreciate the thought.

This is what I looked like at the end of the day... its now the "Pebbles" look after 8pm.  Sometimes earlier.  But I'm pretty sure it beats the Shaun White look I was sporting last year.

Its great to be alive.  I feel very blessed and happy.