Thanksgiving By the Sea

Thanksgiving By The Sea

Thanksgiving will be here soon. I don't want to skip over Thanksgiving despite what the retail stores say. Seems like the Christmas trees have been up since Halloween. This year, our family is going to do something a little different. We are having Thanksgiving By The Sea.

I will go ahead and be honest with you. Cooking is not my thing! I can follow a recipe but I just don't have the joy of cooking in me. However, I am blessed to have a mother-in-law who does. She loves to cook and everything she makes is yummy. Between my mother and mother-in-law, our Thanksgiving dinner will be taken care of. We will be spending the day cooking together. 3 (I mean 2) cooks in the kitchen! I hope we survive.

I may not have the joy of cooking in me but I have the joy of decorating. I love to decorate. I started thinking about how to decorate our table for Thanksgiving. How about a little sand and shells thrown in with some pumpkins? Bright orange pumpkins don't really go with white sand and shells. So I grabbed some white spray paint and started spraying. I had just enough to paint 8 little pumpkins left from Halloween.

Throw in a table cloth, a few star fish and I am ready to hit the beach for Thanksgiving. I will add white dishes and more shells the day of.

I just hope my pile of decor does not get booted out of these containers. This is what we use to transport things to the beach. I hope the big guy in the house does not see the decorating items as unnecessary!

Come back to see how I use the items to create my Thanksgiving By The Sea.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving however you spend it. There is so much to be thankful for.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day.  For some it means they have a day off from work, there is no mail and their kids are home from school.  For others, it is a big reminder and a time to say thank you to those who have served or who are currently serving our country.

I was leaving a comment in seasoned-sister.blogspot.com/.  Her post today was about Veterans Day.  As I was writing a LONG comment I was reminded by so many things.  I went to a military college so several of my friends from college are military families.  Even though I do not keep up with them on a regular basis I always think of them and their sacrifices. 

 - I remember visiting a special friend in Ft. Hood before her husband was deployed in Desert Storm.  

- I remember several of us hanging a huge American flag over our college apartment banister during Desert Storm.  

- I remember us checking our campus mailboxes hoping to get letters from friends who were deployed.  This was all before email and cell phones.

- I remember stopping whatever I was doing at 5:00 to salute the flag.  We would even get out of our cars to salute the flag. Rain or shine.  

- I remember hearing taps every night before I went to bed.

- I remember waking up to the military guys marching by my dorm.

Many of those friends went on to serve the military after college. Oh I forgot to tell you....I was not in the military program.  Just did not think army green was my color!

I think of my grandfather who served in WWII and did not see my dad until he was 2 years old. I think of my mom's past boss who served as a physician in Vietnam.  

And I think of all who are serving now to keep the bad guys away (as my daughter would say).

So thank you, thank you, thank you for those who have served or who are serving.

Adding a Little Flair

The other night I was playing around with Photoshop Elements.   You can really do some fun things with the software.  I currently have no idea how to do all the fun things.  I see other photos and think "now how did they do that."  

The other night I just started clicking to see what would happen to my pictures.  It's fun to take an ordinary picture and add to it.  I like photos that have a little artistic flair to them.  

I took this photo.......

and added a little spotlight to it.  Not that I wanted to fade out my little guy that melts my heart but thought it was a neat way to put more focus on one subject.  This was my first try of adding a filter so go easy on me.  I am not sure which picture I like best.  What do you think?

Look what I did to this picture.

I added a spotlight to the picture.  Looks like the sun is shining on them.

Just playing around!

A Welcome Home!

I experienced something today that I will never forget. A sweet friend of mine got to welcome home her husband who has been deployed to Iraq. He is home for 2 weeks before he goes back.

This morning when I dropped off Bailey and Keenan at school I saw my friend. She was smiling from ear to ear. Her hubby's flight was to arrive at RDU at 11:00. She was so excited. I thought of the sacrifice her husband makes for our country and I thought of the sacrifice she makes as well. She has held down the fort with a joyful heart. I kept thinking about her all morning.

It was time to go get the kids at school. I was driving down the road and then I realized I was right behind them. We pulled in school at the same time. Their little boy was about to have a surprise. He did not know his Daddy was coming home. My friend asked me if I would take pictures. Oh my goodness, what a blessing it was. I got to go in the classroom with camera in hand and I will never forget the homecoming I saw. It was the sweetest thing. Their little boy ran across the room and jumped up in his daddy's arms and would not let go of him. I was trying to hold back tears so I could actually look through the camera.

Once again, I was reminded of the sacrifices that so many make for our country. Not only the military men and women but also their families. Thank you to all those who serve our country.

The Leaves are Falling

The leaves have covered our backyard.  I love watching them fall like rain.

The colors are beautiful and once again it is wonderful to see the world through the kid's eyes.  They get so excited about the leaves changing colors.  The love to collect them while we are in the backyard.

It has been a busy month for us filled with fun activities.

We started the month off at the pumpkin patch.  The kids had fun picking out pumpkins.  I love the white pumpkins.  They are my favorite.

Another fun activity was the State Fair.  

Bailey's class went on field trip to the fair.  She had so much fun.  It was so cute to see her eyes light up as we walked around and saw lots of the attractions.  She enjoyed a few rides and some cotton candy.

One of the highlights at the fair was milking a cow.  

Then the fun part.  The costumes!  Maw Maw makes the kid's costumes every year.  They are always so cute and extra special because she makes them out of love.

Meet Keenan the Fireman.  Keenan to the rescue! 

The bug guy carved the pumpkin this morning.  Meet our one tooth pumpkin.

Gee visited us this weekend.  Meet Gee, Uniqua and Fireman Keenan.

We all headed to the Fall Festival at our church.  Lots of fun games and candy but no good pictures.  

We love the Backyardigans in our family.  The kids dance to their songs and love their adventures.  So this year Bailey decided to be Uniqua from the Backyardigans.  I realize some fo you reading this may not know who the Backyardigans are.  It is a cartoon show that the characters imagine adventures that they go on.  The show always ends with the Backyardigans having a snack.  

We ended Halloween night with a camp fire and smores with friends.

I hope you are having a great autumn season.  

Learning Things Beyond ABC's and 123

The kids are learning lots at school this year.  They both learn a new Bible verse each week.  The first week of school Keenan learned that God created the heavens and earth.  Gesus (Keenan's version of Genesis) 1:1.  Bailey chimed in and said "Keenan it is "In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth.  Genesis 1:1."  

Then one day, Bailey told me to look.  She was holding up her fingers like this.  She says "Mommy, did you know this means I love you?"  I did not know that and I hope that is what it means.  She loves giving me the "sign" to say she loves me.  Oh, I hope that is what it means and not something else.   

She is learning about friendships and how special her friends are.  Even the boys can be good friends.  

She is also learning new games.  So imagine this little girl saying the following.....(giggling the whole time)

Mommy, after we eat our lunch we can talk at the table.  And like, there is a game that they (they means the boys)play and it is so funny.  Like, they say "Who cut the cheese?  Libby, did you cut the cheese?"  And like, Libby says no.  And then they (meaning the boys again) say "Bailey, did you cut the cheese?" And I say no.  Mommy isn't that funny!  Who cut the cheese game is soooo funny.

Lovely!  The sweet little girl is learning "Who cut the cheese?"

Ok, let me go on record that she has no idea what cut the cheese means.  I did not feel compelled to tell her either.  

There is your laugh for the weekend.

A Rainy Day

We just got back from spending 2 weeks at the beach.  We had beautiful weather except for one day.  Now you have to understand there is NOTHING to do at Bald Head if it rains.  We pretty much stay inside since the only transportation on the island is golf carts.  

So what do we do?  

Potty Train!

I'm just going to leave it up to big sis.

Have a great week.