Korenak Family Thanksgiving 2014

Today I was scheduled to work, but one of the perks/downfalls of my job, depending on the day, is that since I get paid the most, I am the first to get cancelled. On holidays this comes in really handy. I got called off at five am and struggled falling back to sleep. Zane was up by six fifteen and then our day of family fun at home began.

Zane asked me multiple times if we eat all day today, since it's Thanksgiving. Sure son, that pretty much sums it up. He didn't eat anymore than any other day, which is pretty much all day long. In the morning we started to try to watch the parade, but opted to DVR it and come back later when we could fast forward through commercials. We played with trains, made turkey crafts, worked on some laundry, then sat down to enjoy the parade. Of course we didn't make it to far through this, but Rowan loved seeing the huge Thomas balloon which was the first float up today.

 My boys, enjoying Thanksgiving morning.

Choo Choos!!!!

We all took lovely naps followed by watching some of the dog show, which we had previously DVRed as well. There might be nothing quite as hysterical as watching Rowan watching a dog show. Rowan loves dogs, that aren't real or near him, so a dog show as like hitting the jack pot to him. "Mamma, woof woof, woof woof, ooohhh woof woof." He would go play for a minute and forget, then be delightedly surprised when he realized there were more woof woofs on TV. Zane on the other hand thought we were going to go buy a one of the many dogs I said I wanted. Sadly that was not the case. Nathan the Bloodhound was the best in show for everyone who missed the big event today.

There were more crafts after the dog show then we spent the rest of the afternoon outside. We had a little fire in our new fire pit, complete with smores. This was a small warm up to what is sure to be an epic bon fire Saturday night at Grandmas. Rowan nearly foundered on marshmallows. And everyone ended up covered in marshmallows and chocolate. Zane got to fight a small grass fire, leading him to go get is fireman's hat, just in case there were any other fires that needed fighting. It was a real possibility since it was pretty windy outside today. After our fire we went and did some tinkering with our Christmas lights, taking down the ones that got broken by the wind, and put up a few new things in their place. We now have blinky lights around our door and big front window. It's pretty amazing. I am beyond thankful to be in this lovely house for the holidays!

 Only a small grass fire under our fire pit.

Sometime while Zach and I were hanging lights Zane decided that he was going to collect things in his nature backpack ( the clear back pack that came with his fishing pole) and teach a nature class. So of course we had to go on a nature walk after that. He did give me a short nature class that consisted of teaching Rowan and I where sticks come from (trees, in case you were wondering). We found pine cones, acorns, pansies, sticks, pine needles, rocks, and lots of leaves. All these things went into a lovely nature collage once we got home.

 Refilling our big bird feeder. The little one has yet to be touched by a bird.

 Rowan wore the nature back pack, which was adorable.

 We spotted this bird's nest, a nature walk gem.

 Turns out this one, who is getting over an ear infection, probably could have used a coat.

Our results, plus we have lots of pine cones for Christmas crafting!

Our real Thanksgiving celebrations will be this weekend at mom's house so we didn't cook a big dinner. But you can't, not eat turkey, on Thanksgiving. So we had just the right fix, turkey pizza's. The kids helped make them, doing a wonderful job. This idea of course was right up Zane's alley, since putting pepperoni on a regular pizza requires zero imagination, and this way we could "pretend we're making a turkey pizza." Lots of Zane's pretend scenarios are actually happening, such as "Mom, Dad, let's play Thanksgiving. I'll be the kid, Ro's the baby, you are mom and dad." "Yes, son that is called reality." But I don't break that to him or it no longer is fun. Anyway, our turkey pizza's turned out amazing and were very tasty. Yes, those are Savory Spice Shop peppercorns for eyes.
-Side note Savory Spice Shop OKC is having a buy three get your fourth gift set free sale all weekend. Gift sets make wonderful presents so put them on your holiday shopping list this weekend.

Hot Mess!

 Rowan's face in the picture below kills me. He can give some of the dirties looks, ever.

 Yep, these are my boys, love them.

 We in no way needed this much pizza, but it was oh so fun to make and we'll get to eat turkey again tomorrow.

We used a large piece of salami for the body, and red/yellow peppers for the tails if anyone was wanting to make your very own turkey pizza.

Here is our treasure trove of Thanksgiving crafts from this year. This is all of them, except one large turkey Zane made at school, with is impeccable cutting skills, which I couldn't round up for this photo shoot. But he did say he was thankful for his mom and dad on it, which was so sweet.

Ro's turkey

 Zach came up with this pilgrim craft, which seems way to labor intensive for my taste, but it turned out lovely. All done while I was at the gym last weekend as a surprise when I got home. Zane added the water later, perfect.

 Zane made both turkey's above and below.

 Today we used beans (a la my childhood) and colored pasta to make an owl and yet another turkey.

 

Now that I have blogged all our crafts I won't feel bad when I through them away shortly. They have been documented forever! Does that make me a bad mother?? Oh well.

Anyway I loved our quite, family Thanksgiving at home. We had lots of fun, with no real to do list, and no option to go anywhere since everything was closed. However, I am very excited about our upcoming Thanksgiving feast this weekend!!! I hope everyone had wonderful celebrations today as well.