Gingerbread House

Christmas is all over the place around here.

In honor of the season, we attempt a gingerbread house. Two years ago, Wayne, Cole, and Joanie made one and entered it in the annual contest sponsored by the Glover library. If ours is done by Friday, and if it's halfway respectable, maybe we'll enter this year, too.

Wayne combines the ingredients.
Mixes 'em up.

And uses the template we made from cardboard to cut the dough. Heather hates to be left out.

While Wayne was cutting out the house pieces, Cole cut out some gingerbread people, snowmen, and trees.

Cole discovered, with disappointment, that construction gingerbread dough is not as sweet and tasty as regular gingerbread dough.

Here are some of the pieces, ready to go into the oven.

Stay tuned for the next step: constructing and decorating.

By the way, Bing sends his regards to Grammie.

Thanksgiving Day 2008

We had a very nice, easy Thanksgiving Day here at home.

We spent a lot of time outside in the snow.

Our snowman was still standing after the rain the other day, but he's in bad shape. Heather tries to put his ears back on, but on his stomach.
We did some sliding. The snow was fast!
Running back to the top of the hill.

We checked out the pond. No more frogs.

Then, at 5:00 we had a nice dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, cider, soda, and Joanie brought her famous stuffing, squash, cranberry relish, and shrimp. Yum.
We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Here are some of the things I think of:

-We are thankful to Grammie for all of her help and support in our big move into her house, and for doing such a great job at raising 11 children.

-We are thankful that there are ways to stay in touch with distant loved ones when we don't get to see them very often: blogs, e-mails, cards, letters.

-We are thankful to Gramma and Grampa for all of their love and support. We know that they are thinking of us all the time, and they bring a lot of happiness to the kids with packages of toys and goodies.

-We are thankful to Auntie Di also for her packages of fun.

-We are thankful for having recently spent time with Julie, Thomas, and Estelle.

-I am thankful for my 3 healthy, beautiful, smart kids, and for Wes for being such a hard worker and great Dad.

-And last but not least, I am thankful for Joanie's stuffing, which I am having for breakfast right now as I do this blog post!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and have lots of leftovers to enjoy!

Let It Snow!

The kids are happy now that the snow is finally here, probably only temporarily because rain is on its way.

It was fun for an afternoon, though. Cole and I made a snowman.

OK, so our guy isn't as handsom as the Raymond Briggs' character, but Cole seems to love him, so he's just as magical.

The first snowman of the year - winter has officially begun!

The Thanksgiving Tree

Well, here we are in the middle of November - a limbo between seasons, it seems. The green of summer is long gone. The beautiful foliage of autumn is gone. Wayne, Cole, and Heather are waiting impatiently for snow covered grounds for their winter fun to begin. It's not as easy to find reasons to get outside. But after several days of being couped up in the house with some nasty colds and a couple of tummy bugs, we were going a little stir crazy around here. I was trying to think of a fun outdoor activity for the kids on this cold, blustery day when it finally dawned on me that it was time to partake in a tradition we started last year, inspired by Family Fun magazine.

The Thanksgiving Tree.

I bundled the kids up and we headed out in search of the perfect tree (ok, branch really). We walked the perimeter of the hay field, closest to the house (it's deer hunting season here) inspecting small shrubs and branches, looking for the perfect size and shape. We made a game of our walk, trying to identify trees by their bark, now that there are no leaves. Some were easy, like the papery white birch and the gray grooviness of the ash. Some were not so easy. Maple trees are plentiful here, in Vermont, but without their leaves, the trees are rather nondescript. The young maples were smooth and grey, while older maples are more rough, cracked and mossy.

We did find the perfect branch, Wayne cut it off with pruning shears. Then he and Cole filled a plant pot with soil from the garden to support the branch.



We brought the tree inside to the dining room where we decorated it with leaves we had cut from construction paper. The idea is for each of us to write on a leaf, each day leading up to Thanksgiving, something for which we are thankful.
Wayne decorates the high branches. Cole and Heather take care of the low branches.
This was Cole's sentiment for today:

And Wayne's:

Then this was my most recent attempt at a portrait of the three of them together. We might not be able to do a photo Christmas card this year.

By the time Heather is 7, I should be able to get a decent photo of the three of them.

E is for Excellent

I don't have a scanner, so I'm relying on my camera's macro function for these pictures of Wayne's report card. I'll remind some of you (my Mom) that if you click with your left mouse button, the picture will enlarge so perhaps you can see it better.

He's a genius!

On the back of the report card, where Mrs. Dunlavey writes her comments, she said, "Wayne is off to a wonderful start in the first grade. Wayne is reading at grade level. He does very well in math and all other subjects. Wayne is a superb listener and works very carefully on all his assignments. He is a very kind and courteous young boy. I've enjoyed getting to know Wayne."

Sometimes I feel like my heart will explode.

Halloween

Halloween was a big day. It started off with making cupcakes, because we didn't feel like leftover birthday cake from the night before was enough. Cole coaches Estelle and Heather on cleaning the beaters.

Then, before going out trick or treating, Julie made and early supper of "hotdog mummies." Cute aren't they? Yummy mummies.

After their early supper, the gang headed out. We stopped at Elaine and Bernard's house first. Cole is Spiderman, Wayne is Batman, Heather is a pumpkin (costume made by Lisa years ago for her girls), Wes shows some Halloween spirit with a spooky tie, Julie is a graduate, Thomas is a Frenchman, and Estelle is a bumble bee.

Elaine had baked a cake! We visited for a bit and then she sent us off with Trick or treat candy, raspberries, and popcorn.

Next we stopped at Joanie's house.

Here's the gang on her porch. Can't seem to get a decent picture of Cole anymore.

After Joanie's house, we headed up and down Perron Hill. Halloween is not really celebrated in France, so this was Thomas and Estelle's first time trick or treating. They really enjoyed it. We were home by 8:00, but it took a while for the kids to wind down. They had to inventory their loot, and sample one piece each and finally we managed to get them into pj's and off to bed. It was a fun night.

Happy Halloween Birthday

Last night we had a hearty birthday dinner, thanks to Thomas and Julie, in honor of Wes's Halloween birthday. You can see Julie and Thomas in the background peeling potatoes while Wayne decorates the cake completely by himself.
Here is the finished product. He did a great job.

Thomas, slaving away.

The dinner was delicious. Julie and Thomas prepared a pot roast with carrots and potatoes. It was amazing - the roast was flavorful and perfectly moist. Julie also made stuffing and we had corn and rolls.

Then of course, there was cake!

Estelle savors every bite.

Meanwhile, Heather - we just have to strip her down when she dives into cake.

And Cole, well just don't even get me started.

Cole helps with presents.

The little girls had gone to bed by this time.

Wayne demonstrates his Halloween spirit.

Julie had gotten out this big sing for decoration.

Wes thanks everyone for all the terrific gifts and cards. Thanks everyone. It was a fun birthday.

Painting Party Weekend

It was a whirlwind weekend around here when all of Wes's sisters came to help paint our old Drew Place house.

But first, on Thursday, Sandy and Elijah came to visit Julie, Thomas, and Estelle. He can walk all over the lawn with this little push toy, and any day now he's going to let go and toddle off on his own!

Friday morning we started getting ready for Grammie and Lisa's arrival. Heather and Estelle started the day off with a little excercise by running back and forth from Grammie's bedroom door and through the kitchen.

After their excercise was done, Estelle helped me vaccuum Grammie's bedroom.


Then they both tested out Grammie's bed to make sure it was suitable for her.

Mary arrived and read a book.


Saturday morning, the painting began. Wes and Thomas were in charge of rolling the walls and ceiling.

Mary, aka "Drippy" did a lot of the edge work.

Laura arrived from Massachussettes and got right to work taping and edging.

Lisa will probably need to see her chiropractor after this.

Martha cleaned and painted.

Wayne and Joanie cleaned all the windows.

Later, after the painting was done, we all came back for a big dinner that Joanie had prepared - pulled pork sandwiches, pumpkin soup, cole slaw, all kind of breads, and oodles of desserts. This picture shows Martha wearing her spiderman costume.

Laura belatedly celebrates her 50th birthday with all of her sisters and her Mom. She brought her own cake and party hats.

Here is Laura with the kids who can hardly be distracted from their cake.

Sunday was such a nice day, we had lunch on the porch. Estelle and Heather in their high chairs,


Cole with Lauren and Chelsea. He was so excited to see them.

Later in the afternoon, Susan and Cedric came by and we all went for a nice walk up Perron Hill. Cole with his Godmother Susan, Heather, and cousin Lillian.

Cedric pushed the girls in the stroller.

Then had to give Cole a ride on his shoulders. Cedric is Cole's godfather. Don't you think they look alike?

Wayne, seeing that Cole ws getting a ride, coerced Thomas into giving him a ride.

Then it was time for supper, each boy flanking Estelle's side, eating a hearty meal of leftovers from the weekend meals.

Thank you so much everyone, for all your painting work. It's such a load off of our minds to have that job done! We really appreciate it more than we can tell you.