In Everything Give Thanks

I literally can not even believe that tomorrow is the first day of the last month of this year!  Like for real!  Where did this year go???  I figured that since today is the last day of November, I better get a Thanksgiving recap up before we're barreling into December and Christmas.  :)

Jane is always on board for helping me to make some decorations.  :)

Better late than never, right?  Hahaha.  This leaf bunting was put up on Thanksgiving morning and taken down to make room for Christmas decorations just a few days later.

This year, we stayed home, but Scott's sister and her family drove over to join in some family fun for a few days while the kids were on break.  My kids were super stoked for a visit from the cousins, and many memories were made as they hung out together, made music videos, and watched lots of movies.

 Jane cracks me up.

 Daddy Leaf

name: Eli "I'm blowing away"

He's really crazy!

He's not actually blowing away.

Mommy Leaf

name: Mya "Yay! It's Thanksgiving!"

The best leaf mom ever!

She's really nice!

Big Sister

name: Amanda "I hope we have good food."

She's always excited!

She's mean sometimes to her baby brother.

Baby Boy

name: Baby Leaf "Goo goo ga ga"

Sometimes he's annoying when he cries!

He's really funny!

The only downfall was that the week felt like it was over almost as soon as it started. But at least Christmas -- and more vacation time -- is only a few weeks away!

 Before...

 ...and After.

 And the after After -- Dessert!!!  Pumpkin cake, French Apple pie, and Lemon Meringue pie hit the spot after a giant meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole!

 The French Apple is hands down the favorite pie in this household!  It's SOOOOOO good.

Ice cream sounds like the perfect treat when it's freezing outside!  Hahaha.

 Meet Grace's new "uniform."

 {Isaac was LOVING the peppermint stick ice cream.}

  There's nothing funner than cousin fun! :)

And that's a wrap!  I feel like this is a pathetic attempt at a recap, but I'm too tired and there's already been too much time that's gone by, and I just need to get a move on.  Hopefully I'll be able to blog about all the fun of our Christmas festivities before the season is over.  

Grace -- Making Life Interesting Since 2004

That Grace -- she's a character.  This past Saturday was the long-awaited "friend party" to celebrate her 12 years on Earth.  And as she frequently reminded us all week long, we were only half a month late in making the party happen.

I've been asking for WEEKS now what she wanted me to do for her cake, and after shooting down all of my suggestions, she finally gave a ringing endorsement of "Go ahead I don't really care" after I sent her one final Pinterest screenshot of a unicorn cake.  Hahahaha.  Flippant or not, that was all the endorsement I needed to take the ball and run with it.

Her big requests for the party were that 1.)  the other kids wouldn't stick around, and 2.)  she could have a sleepover.  One for two isn't bad, right?  Hahaha.  She knows we don't do sleepovers in our family, so she didn't press the issue, and was happy with making plans for a "late-over" instead.  A pizza/popcorn/movie night was the order of the evening, and from 6-10 PM, she and her friends hung out and had a grand {and LOUD} ol' time.  :)

 {My ingenious solution for the unicorn's horn was to wrap one of those noise maker things with some white and gold string I found lying around.}

 The execution of this cake was NOT awesome.  Hahaha.  I don't know what was going on with the layers, but they were all collapsing in on themselves in places, and it wasn't nearly as tall as the Pinterest inspiration cake, and the "ears" I tried to fashion for it looked like mouse ears when I stuck them on, so I just scrapped them altogether.  But the gist of it was there, and I think Grace was happy enough, so that was all that mattered.

 Shoo Shoo was SOOOO tired by the time the party was getting started.

Our solution for getting the rest of the kids out of the house was to have Scott take them to the movies.  Alex was ready to go see "Trolls" around 9 o'clock in the morning, so it was a pretty rough several hours for him to have to wait.  Hahaha.  My compromise with Grace was that I'd make the kids skedaddle for the bulk of the party, but she had to let them be there for the cake and singing and ice cream if she wanted them to get her any presents.  She happily acquiesced.  

 {Cake batter popcorn.  Another Pinterest find.}

Once her friends arrived and everyone chowed down on some pizza, we gathered in the dining room to sing to our birthday girl and then watched her rip into her presents.  Once pictures were taken, and cake was eaten, I put Isaac to bed and Scott took the younger ones to the movies, Ethan ensconced himself in the TV room to watch the Harry Potter marathon on Freeform, and Grace and her cute friends ran up to her room to hang out and do 12 year old girl stuff.  :)

 Sammi, Kamryn, Grace, and Cameron

 The whole crew!

 Having the party at night made for some terrible lighting situations, but I tried to capture the magic as best I could.  ;)

 Unfortunately, the lights out situation wasn't working so well...

 So lights back on it was!

I attempted to get a movie started around 8:30, but couldn't get a decisive vote, so instead they decided to watch a few episodes of Sofia the First {hahahahahahaha} while munching on the specialty popcorn we made for the night -- cake batter popcorn, chocolate drizzled popcorn, and your standard buttered popcorn.  Their evening was finished off with some Musical.ly and makeovers, and I'm hopeful that everyone went home happy!  I know Grace had a blast.  :)

It was a fun night.  :)  I am so grateful for Grace's group of friends.  They are all such good, fun, funny, and nice girls.  And it's always entertaining to see Grace in her element with her peeps.

{When your friends do your makeup.  Hahaha.}