Thanksgiving Break

W/ nine days off school, we had time for friends, fun and family. The kids were sad to leave home this morning, but I cheered w/ relief to return home to an empty house.

Finley had his expander checked at the orthodontist and got it taken out. We had no idea that would happen! He has an empty mouth...

...for about two weeks and then he'll receive a retainer. They took digital impressions to have his retainer made. Who knew retainers are no longer just pink, he had a whole catalog to choose what color/pattern will adorn the roof of his mouth. I'm sure a baseball will look great ;)

My kids were off school all week, so we surprised Spencer & Easton at school w/ lunch. Easton was so surprised/excited to see us, even I got two hugs - that's rare so I enjoyed all two seconds! Fortunately their lunch shifts overlap so we were able to eat w/ both kids.

After lunch we headed to the Mall of America to check out the Crayola Experience.

It's essentially a children's museum full of interactive activities that are crayon-based. We made personalized crayons.

They designed trucks by coloring them on paper, scanning them into a computer and they appeared on a screen.

We did spin art w/ melted crayons.

The kids made drawings on ipads that blew up onto a screen.

There was a child-size light bright.

Each kid made a personalized coloring sheet - look closely and you can see them in the picture.

There was a cool "spilled paint" wall, the paint was spilling down the wall and would go around us somehow - even I liked it. That's a bonus kid on the far left.

Hadley's favorite was painting w/ melted crayons.

Finley liked making this crayon dance...actually he really loved the entire place. When we got home he told me the Crayola Experience was as fun as Disney World (wow!). And I was worried he'd be too old for this, guess not.

Finley's gross "salad"...a few shreds of lettuce, hard boiled eggs, cheese, and mucho croutons.

The Wolf Cubs made care packages for the homeless - we tied fleece blankets and stuffed boxes full of water, snacks, hats/mittens and toiletries.

Finley really liked making the blankets, so he made one more to be delivered to someone in need.

We had a movie date w/ friends - Trolls!

Before the hustle of Thanksgiving celebrations, the kids got their rooms ready for Christmas. 

The rest of the house will catch up next weekend.

Auntie Shawna flew up Wednesday and spent the night w/ us, the kids can never get enough of her - they are literally all over her. 

 

On Thanksgiving morning, I had Shawna to myself for 5 miles - we ran the Turkey Trot w/ friends.

For our Thanksgiving Feast at Grandpa & Grandma's, Finley wanted everyone to receive credit for their contributions to our feast. On his own, he came up w/ an idea to place a menu and a list of people we're thankful for. 

His contribution was Turkey Cupcakes.

We feasted w/ a group of family and friends.

Afterwards we scoured the Black Friday ads for things nobody is crazy enough to go shopping for, but it's still fun to look at the deals.

Spencer & Finley broke the wishbone...

...it took a side-by-side comparison to determine that Finley lucked out w/ the bigger piece.

On Friday, the craziness picked up when a crew of Sullivans made their way to our house for the weekend. The kids tore up our yard on the four-wheelers and thankfully no one was injured.

How many guys does it take to blow pine needles off the playhouse roof? 4.

 

The little girls played w/ our teeny snow.

Cute little cousins. 

Hot chocolate for the warm-up and Little Sister didn't want her picture taken. 

A few dollars were exchanged playing 31.

W/ the five kids running loose, there was some serious playing...

...some giant messes...

....and some major love happening.

Things were a little wild at times (poor Jake), but everyone got along so well all weekend. 

We won't be together at Christmas, so there was a little of that too.

Twelve of us for two nights = people sleeping everywhere.

Before we knew it, it was time for everyone to head home. We are thankful for a fun weekend and that we'll all be together again in January for our skiing weekend.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we have 3.5 weeks until Christmas is here! UPS should be stopping by most days this week, Santa needs to get her workshop organized to see where I'm at. And later this week...Chippy will be here! I look forward the all of the holiday craziness and I do enjoy Chippy, but this made me laugh.