Time to Brine the REST of the Turkeys!

Thanksgiving Day! Love it. We got up and had a French toast and bacon breakfast that couldn't be beat. Pops stuffed Tom Turkey while the kids and I grabbed our swimming gear...

And we had our second annual "Brining of the Turkeys". 

Then it was home again to prep our turkey relish tray. 

This year there were two offerings, Abizella's turkey and Superkid's duck.

We were super happy to have two of the Andrus Ladies join us for our feast! We missed Joe and Holly! We have had many a fabulous holiday feast in their home. But even though we couldn't have them, we were grateful to have their huge kitchen to prepare our feast.

Jessica taught us the secret of her cranberry, orange, ginger and bonus pomegranate sauce.

Miss Abizella recently attended a table etiquette class and learned several fancy napkin folding techniques. Pops charged her with table setting and she took it to new heights. 

The napkins look just like turkey feathers!

THE FEAST!

The tryptophan  nap.

A Thanksgiving day that couldn't be beat. Other than all of the food preparations, we filled our day listening to Alice's Restaurant, tinkering on the piano, sitting by the fire and chatting on the phone with our loved ones. Life is great, we have a lot to be thankful about. As we reflected about the year, we all agreed that Jaws was the biggest blessing of the year. 

Pretty tough to top that one. 

We love them all, we've got the 5 best ones!

8 Sticks of Butter and T Minus 20 hrs. to Thanksgiving Dinner!

Last week Pops texted me the following:

That's right. This year we are brining the turkey. Pops, Little Chief and Jaws went out and got all of the essentials, including an over sized Patriots brining bucket! 

Tonight we are making it all happen! We looped the BEST Thanksgiving movie of all time, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and started turning out the good stuff. In a measly 5 consecutive viewings I cranked out a shell for Grandma Sherrie's banana cream pie, Glama's apple crisp, Todd's Yummy Yummy Yams Yum Yum Yum, and the Lion House pumpkin pie. 

Okay, I may have crashed on the couch occasionally to take in a few laughs. 

This one made Superkid and I laugh our guts out:

"He says we're going the wrong way." 

"Oh, he's drunk. How does he know where we're going?"

"Ya, how does he know where we're going!"

Good times.

Pops has all things Turkey covered. Earlier today he prepared the brine and chilled it. Tonight he made Grandma Rula's stuffing and prepped the bird. He was a little disappointed that he could only find a 20-pounder, but that is bigger than our little butterball who is now tipping the scales at 19 lbs.

Time for splash down!

Mmmmmmmm... turkey brine!

Humble Supplications

One of the best parts of being Tadpole's mom is listening to his prayers each night. For a long time now he has been brief but thorough with, "I'm thankful for everything except the bad guys and the devil.  Amen" But he is back on a poetic streak. Particularly, he has been thanking God for his beautiful mother with her long pretty hair. Last night he delved for the first time into repentance. He said, "Please forgive me for all of the bad things I did today." Then he paused to reflect and said, "And please also forgive me for all of the bad stuff I am going to do tomorrow." Then in defense of his statement he supplicated, "What?! I don't know what I am going to do tomorrow, but it might not be good!"

A Star is Born

Abizella was served a serious blow at piano lessons last week. Her teacher mentioned that she most likely would not be holding a Christmas recital this year becuase she hadn't assinged songs and time was running short. She tossed us a book and said to see if there was anything that looked interesting. Since then Abizella has been campainging hard to get a recital. She went last year to Superkid's recital and thought he was a rock star (he was). Who doesn't want that? She selected "Frosty the Snowman". In about a day she perfected it, and even sings along. She moved on to outfitting her back-up singers for their parts. Here she is decking LC out in toilet paper for his part as Frosty. He's pumped! You can tell he may have a little "star fever" as well.

She has selected the perfect recital froc and is even practicing the perfect curtsey. What do you think? Can you deny this?

The Baby Grows the Fastest

Barely 9 months and walking. Our youngest biped. His first steps were on Veteran's Day. He was standing next to me, holding onto my shoulder, turned and took a few steps over to the chair. Part of me jumped with joy to see my baby hitting a milestone and part of me wanted to push him over and keep him a baby forever. I love this little guy to pieces. He has brought so much joy to our family!

Creative Expression

"Do you lub it Momma? Are you happy?"

Gobble Gobble

I came home to find some gobblers roaming through the house... 

Our Artist in Residence, Miss Abizella, suited Tadpole, Little Chief (not pictured) and Jaws out in feathers. I have a great video of these butterballs strutting through the house, but sadly can't get it uploaded onto Blogger. But you can imagine how cute it is to see these little tail feathers swagger about!

Tadpole is dead set on hunting our Thanksgiving day bird this year. We have a cute little Turkey family living in the backyard that we have been watching all summer. Tad has been licking his chops and talking about our Thanksgiving feast. One afternoon during the homework madness, Pops spied one of our turkeys and pointed it out to the kids. 

Tadpole grabbed a long carving fork from the butchers block and charged into the yard to bag his bird. Pops says that he didn't know turkeys could fly until just then. Our bird made it to the very tippy top of the 3-story high tree next door. Tad was disappointed, but not discouraged. He continues the watch. He has told me on numerous occasions not to buy a turkey. He's got it covered. I told him he better learn how to climb trees!

Incredibly Low Expectations

We went to Stake Conference a couple of weeks ago in a town about an hour away. Not only is the chapel open for seating but the vast expanse of the gym is also available. I got snagged in the hallway upon arrival and found Pops and company seated clear in the back behind at least 15 rows of vacant seats. Based on previous conference attendance, he had reasonably low expectations of for the meeting. Shockingly, all 7 Toads made it clear through all 2 hours. A family record for sure.

Nothing left but to lean back and cruise home to Sunday afternoon bliss, right?

Wrong! We got stuck in Patriot's stop and go traffic AND GOT REAR ENDED! Squished the bike rack into the back of the van and shattered the back window. No harm done to the safely buckled Toads, in fact some of us barely batted an eye.

With this situation on our hands, we had to get a rental van for a couple of weeks. 

Pain in the neck, right?

Wrong. Turns out to be the best two weeks of our lives. The rental had a DVD player in it. The kids just wanted to drive and drive and drive. We plugged in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and it was our own little piece of heaven. We had to return it this Friday afternoon so we decided to take a farewell tour. We loaded the kids up and took the long drive up to Quincy for a Frosty. 

Just goes to show, sometimes things turn out better than expected.

More of This...

The leaves just keep falling and falling and falling! 

Pops charged Superkid and Abizella with the expansive backyard (small portion shown here), while he and I finished the front and side yards.

Our leaf heap is up to Pops armpits by now. 

After 3 years of massive leaf removal, we feel we are getting better and better at it.

Even Jaws is getting better at his job of sitting there patiently and looking good.

Finally this weekend the treetops were bare and Pops pulled out his leaf blower and his Superman shirt and tackled the rain gutters. 

We are in great shape for the winter and now have an awesome place of refuge. 

Especially grand if you like pretending you are an earthworm, right Superkid?

Wimpy Kid

She ordered it from her Scholastic catalog about a month ago and she counted down the days ever since! How can a child be expected stand the excitement, the new Wimpy Kid book!!!?

Well, it finally came, and she put her nose in it non-stop. She even forgot to get off the bus! She whipped through the book in 2 days! Lightening speed! Here she is reading the gripping conclusion... AFTER BED TIME! BUSTED!

The Leaf Crew

Well, after 2 years of clearing about a bizzillion leaves from a enourmous yard, 

I think we have finally worked out a winning system. 

Immobilize Jaws, distract LC with an endless string of cartoons, and get the able bodied children to work!

First we rake and mow all of the leaves into a giant pile on a tarp...

And then get the crew to drag it to the hinterlands of the property where there is a gigantic composting heap.

I then dump the leaves over their heads and bury them. 

For the record, the pile goes clear over their heads!

We did manage to goof around a little too...

Jaws thought it all was a little strange, but after we do this every weekend for the next month, he'll get into the groove!

We were all feeling really satisfied with our day of labor until we woke up this morning (and couldn't move). Tadpole gloomily looked out on the lawn and said, "Oh Brother! Mom, will you look at that (pointing to the freshly fallen leaves covering the lawn)! We are expected to pick up our clothes from the floor but those trees just throw their leaves wherever they want!" 

I feel your pain Tad!

Nailed It!

It is no secret that I am no Pinterest Wiz.
Last year I wasted an entire day off making these "simple" cake pops that nearly drove me to the looney farm.

None the less, we took a stab at a few creepy crafts and spooky treats. What do you think?

Pinterest Mummies!

Our Mummies!

Pinterest Skeletons!

Our Skeletons!

Pinterest Ghosts!

Our Ghosts!

Pinterest Monster!

Our Baby Eating Monster!

Bats! ...you'll have to take my word, this is our's and we nailed it!

And actually a Missletoes original wreath!

The Toad Family Anthem

We were driving to swimming lessons on Saturday when Superkid and Abizella spontaneously burst into singing, “There’s a Hole In My Bucket”. We sing a lot of songs as we run our Saturday errands, and tend to favor the really long monotonous songs (think, “Ants Go Marching”). Usually the singing goes on until some unhappy camper flips out. This day it was Tadpole. Abz and Sam were about half way through the song when Tadpole burst out, “For crying out loud! How long does it take to fix a bucket!” I snickered in the front seat, the big kids gained a new appreciation for their song as they saw it was creeping under their brother’s skin. They continued with new vigor. As they approached the climax of the song, Tadpole beat them to the punch. In desperation he shouted, “But he can’t use the bucket, it has a hole in it!” Later that night at dinner, seemingly out of nowhere, Tadpole calmly and rashly stated to Pops, “Did you know that you need two buckets to fix a hole in one of them?”

This statement was much to Pops’ delight. He has been pushing this song on the family long before the kiddos were on the scene. He has a deep and abiding appreciation for both the long drawn out affair of the bucket repair and also the irony of the bucket being unfixable. This was probably the earliest clue that Pops should pursue a career in law. Early in our marriage I have to admit the song drove me bananas. And seeing my angst, Pops delighted in persisting with the song. As we added babies to the family Pops added the song to his daddy toolbox. He has walked the floors soothing each of our five babies to sleep with the quiet repetitions of the song. There is no better cure to a bad dream than a hole in the bucket. He will sit and sit stroking a distraught toddler’s forehead as he marches steadily through the verses until the child drifts peacefully to sleep. Over the years the song has gone from being burr to a love for me.

Now we sing it all the time. We rowdily sing it on road trips, we sing it as a lullaby, we watch You Tube renditions of it. When we are thinking of nothing else we are thinking of that hole in that bucket. We sing it to bug each other and we sing it as the deepest expression of love for each other. It is the Toad Family Anthem.