Thanksgiving Feasts

Both kids had their Thanksgiving programs and feasts at school today.  Charlotte's this morning, and she had a full crowd to watch her (me, James, Mom, Dad, Aunt Kate, Grandee, Poppy, Nanny and Grandad all came!).  It was packed and even though we got there about 15 minutes early, we still didn't get great seats.  We wouldn't even have gotten to sit in these if it weren't for Nanny and Grandad getting there early!  So, all except for one of my pictures were out of focus (my camera kept focusing on the heads in front of me and the children on stage were all blurry).  This is the best I got of her on stage...

She was super cute (as always!) up there singing and dancing and reciting her scripture memory verse (Galatians 5:22-23...the fruits of the spirit verses).  There was also a little video before the kids got up to sing that had several different children from the school saying what their favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving was.  Char had a close up and she said, "mac and cheese!!"

After the program Grandee, Poppy, Nanny, Grandad, me, James and Charlotte all went to have a little feast together.  I love this picture of N, G and Char...

After a short rest at home, Charlotte and I headed over to Hunter's school to help set up the food for his Kindergarten program and feast.  I am one of the room moms so we were there early, but for some reason I didn't learn from earlier in the day and sat on the second row.  So, again, I didn't get great pictures of Hunter because of where I was seated.  He's in the grey and white striped shirt...

They sang lots of cute songs and then each stood up to say what they were thankful for into the microphone...

Hunter said he was thankful for his family:)  He's so sweet.

Both kids have had so much fun singing their songs at home and dancing around in their festive Thanksgiving hats this afternoon.  We're looking forward to turkey on Thursday!

The Cabin

We had a little family getaway this weekend thanks to the generosity of our friends, the Roberts.  Hunter had been sick most of the week, but he was so excited to go to the cabin that he tried his best to cover it up when we picked him up from school a little early on Friday.  We gave him some Motrin for the ride down and he was fine by the time we got there.  Both kids were engrossed with Tangled and then Ice Age on the way down...

Hunter was really excited to see His name on this welcome sign in the cabin when we got there...

After we unloaded the car, we made a quick, healthy dinner of Bagel Bites...

The next morning, the kids did some coloring while we waited for our friends, the Papes, to join us for the day...

 

After coloring, we went and checked out the tree swing...

Hunter loved it!  Char, on the other hand, was a little more timid.  She would let us put her on for a second, but never wanted to swing.  She jumped off so quickly each time...

 

After a while, we went to the back of the house to the other swing that Char liked much better...

Then we went to the front to check out the rocking chairs and our friends pulled up right as I was taking this picture (that's what Hunter's looking at)...

We gave them a shot at the tree swing and then went to the back again to slide down the big hill...

I'm not gonna lie...this totally freaked me out.  All I could think was - this is a head injury waiting to happen.  You know if they'd had a helmet handy, my kid would've had it on his head...

Luckily we made it through the weekend without any injuries. 

 

Once again, Hunter loved this, but Char was a little timid.  I was surprised she was so eager to go at first...

 

And she actually did really well...

 Until she didn't...

She didn't want to ride again until she rode one time with daddy at the end of the day.

Hunter, on the other hand, rode it over and over...

 

And Pape and his girls took several turns, too...

After lunch, we decided to walk down to the lake.  The girls were so cute together...

Charlotte kept bending over and picking up piles of leaves and throwing them over her head...

 

Once we got to the lake, I was again completely stressed out that someone was going to fall in and hit their head on a rock or at the very least be covered in oogy lake goo.  We survived without any falls, though.

Here Charlotte is saying, "Look at those cute dolphins!"

 

She's talking about those rubber things that are attached to the deck.  They have eyes painted on them and really do look like dolphins, so we walked over to pet them:)

Sweet girls...

 

We slid down the hill some more once we got back and McKellee and Charlotte were so giggly trying to pull the sled? sleigh? raft? (what is that thing?) back up the hill...

 

 

 

We had a great time visiting with the Papes...we love them and wish we could see them more! 

This is our third time to stay at the cabin, but the first time to stay at the "new" cabin.  In June 2011, the old cabin burned to the ground after a lightning bolt struck a tree and then traveled through the ground and into the cabin where it started to set off electical explosions until the entire cabin was in flames.  The Roberts lost everything, except for this sign...

They mounted it on that piece of wood and hung it in the new cabin after they rebuilt.  What a great reminder of God's sovereignty and faithfulness.  We are so thankful for the generous, giving hearts of our friends for letting so many stay in their home to make new memories.  We can't wait for our next trip!