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.

Ten on Tuesday

1. This Sunday was our first Thanksgiving activity. We attended Maggie's Five Year Old Feast at church. Feast might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a fun time and I was so happy to be invited. This also marked the first mass in a long time in which we made it through the whole thing with all of us in the pew. Don't get me wrong it was still a circus in our pew, but at least one of us didn't have to leave with a child in the middle of it.

2. In preparation for the feast Grandma came over and helped us make pies. Grandma makes pies in no time, where as when I attempt to make pies it seems to take all day and they never turn out nearly as pretty. This was probably Rowan's first real experience with pie baking and he literally got in on all the action. He seemed to enjoy how the flour felt in his hair the most.

3. Also this weekend we went ahead and put our Christmas lights up, earlier than I usually support. However, this weekend is Blakley Thanksgiving, I work the following weekend, then it would be halfway through Dec. before we both had a weekend off to do it. We have them hung, with mixed results. Initially they looked great then that wind Oklahoma is famous for swept down the planes, rendering half of the light broken. I tried to fix it some today and added sparkly bows which I'm sure helped. 

 Can you tell who was more excited about hanging Christmas lights while it was drizzling and cold outside??? Caption Christmas below loved it!

4. Our other preparations for Christmas this week including writing Gary a letter, informing him that we had moved and giving him our new address. Zane also, so thoughtfully, drew a picture of our house and the lake that is across the street so Gary won't get lost. In other exciting news Gary has been located, which I was quite concerned about what with all the packing and moving this past year.

5. I've been working on getting into a new routine that includes going to the gym first thing in the morning. Last week I had four days off in a row, which always makes this easier since I have more days to spread out my errands. So far so good, minus the week we were all vomiting, and today when we had to get our errands done early so we could have a funtivity in the afternoon. The boys are getting more use to going to child watch there and I keep trying persevere even though I miss days and obviously am not loosing any weight. 

 My first trip this week was a disaster but we pulled it together for the other days. These are my green jacket boys who love holding hands and walking together on the way to and from the gym.

6. I'm guessing a reason why the weight loss isn't going so well could be because sometimes our afternoons include trips to places like Yogurtland for frozen yogurt. Friday was our first trip there after months of waiting for it to open. Yogurtlands crack marketing team sent us coupons two months ago, that expired before it opened, and Zane has been asking to go ever since. I am usually not a huge fan of frozen yogurt, but the salted caramel pecan frozen yogurt was amazing!!! 

 

7. Saturday evening Anna hosted a girls craft night, which turned into a college roommate reunion. We had a great time, made adorable crafts, laughed, drank wine, caught up with old friends, and made some new ones as well. It was a wonderfully fun evening and I'm so glad Anna pulled it all together for us. However, Anna and I did get our trees swapped at the end of the night, so I didn't come home with my craft, but and equally cute tree. Hopefully we'll get to see each again soon to switch them out.

 Have I mentioned that both my college roommates were six feet tall. I usually am in the middle of these roommate shots, but since we are all equally OCD we couldn't have the two white trees beside each other, hence the tippy toes. Love these girls!!

8. My niece Maggie is in the middle of her extra year at home with her mom. I'm so excited that they decided to give her this extra time, because it means Zane has his favorite playmate available pretty much any day I am off. I have been trying to plan things for Tuesday and Thursday, Maggie's days at home, so she can be part of our family fun this year. Today I took them to Bounce and Craze for bouncing fun, followed by Sonic Snack time! A great time was had by all. I'm sure we will have to do this a few more times before this year is up!

Here they are trying to figure out air hockey.

 Rowan pretty well stayed on this slide the whole time, but had a blast.

 Little E was home in time for snacks.

And we had two batmen today, which Everett thought was pretty awesome, since he currently loves all things Batman.

9. Bird watching continues religiously here, with mixed results. We have seen a pair of blue jays, a pair of cardinals, a lot of chickadees, and today a hole gaggle of geese. Geese cannot be trusted and I am sure they scared off all our other little birdies while they were eating our bird seed off the ground.

Zane looks at his Birds of Oklahoma book all the time and it was his book of choice for church this week. We learn random facts about different birds as well, such as the fact that the horned owls nickname is "the tiger in the sky." Pretty fun stuff.

 There are a lot of ducks that swim on our pond now as well, which of course is Rowan's favorite kind of bird to watch.

 Don't worry Zane quickly went and chased them off.

10. Lastly, in this holiday week, I just want to take a minute to send a shout out to my beloved St. Louis and all the wonderful people there that are hurting so much right now. I lived in that community for seven years and grew to love everything about it. I am quite literally heart broken as I watch the terrible images from there pour in. It's a terrible situation all around. So as I pause to give thanks for all my unbelievable blessing and I am sending lots of prayers to all those who are suffering in the community that I love and I ask that you all would do the same. 

 STL love!!

Have a Happy, Safe, Thanksgiving!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Well after my finger crossing, hoping, and praying last week I ended up getting sick anyway, Wednesday morning. Miserable. Rowan came out of the week of illness just fine, though both boys now have developed a lovely winter cough, runny nose, and gubbery eyes leading to very little sleep at our house. This time of year is rough for little ones.  

 Here is pathetic little Rowan, who spent most of his day yesterday lounging, whining, and needing lots of cuddles. Poor baby.

2. This week I have started to try to get in the holiday spirit. I have successfully ordered Christmas cards, rushed a little by the fifty percent off sale. Spoiler alert they aren't that exciting this year. I have ordered the boys matching jammies before they are all gone, updated everyone's wish lists on amazon, and ordered an advent calendar for Zane. I think we are all set now. Still no idea what to actually get as far as presents go.

3. We have started Thanksgiving crafts this week as well. Sadly there aren't nearly as many options for Thanksgiving as for Halloween. We've made a paper plate turkey and worked on the cup creature craft set we got at Michaels. We've made feather turkeys and painted bird houses. And I'm out of ideas! 

 4. Thanks to Grandma we now have two beautiful bird feeders hanging in the tree in the front yard. The boys helped Grandma fill and hang them, now we are spending lots of time looking out the front window waiting for birds. No sightings yet. 

5. This weekend, while I was working, the boys were home enjoying a cold, snowy weekend at home.  It snowed all day Sunday and they braved the elements for some time to play in the snow. 

 Rowan is now obsessed with this sippy cup. It is basically a bottle, but adores it and can't be separated from it. He runs around saying "amunga, amunga, amunga!!" Translation, milk!

6. Part of the snowed in fun included an epic fort, courtesy of our dryer being terribly loud and Zane's blanket/sheets needing to be dried in the living room. The fort fun continued yesterday with lunch and movie time taking place in the fort. I'm not sure how I am going to convince Zane that we have to take it down at some point. 

7. Here is little Ro, hamming it up, singing into a head of broccoli! I'm still unclear on how he got the broccoli, but it kept him entertained for quite some time. Very cute stuff!

8. Rowan is working hard on learning how to dress himself. So far he has figured out how to put shirts on as pants. He gets really excited and proud of himself when he does this. 

9. In other cute Rowan news, he has started to love taking care of his baby. He shares his milk, gives her his binki, and pats her back while rocking her. He is an adorable little daddy. 

10. Zane's reading is coming along nicely. He has learned quite a few words and is working his way through some little books, his current favorite is "Bug on a Rug." I think he is enjoying working on his cutting skills more than anything.