Wonderful Thanksgiving with Family and Friends

I am so thankful for the family and friends in our lives.  I am especially thankful this year for the support of these people during my breast cancer diagnosis and the support that everyone gave my family. 

Instead of bringing the pies, desserts or sides, I made most of the Thanksgiving meal this year including the intimidating turkey.  After pulling the recipes together, I shopped at three different grocery stores to get all of the ingredients two nights before.  The night before, I made all of the desserts which were pumpkin banana bread (Collin's favorite and a request), Buttermilk Glazed Fig Cakes (a hit with almost everyone), and Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins.  This took almost 3 hours mainly because I had a helper.  I was not in any hurry but just wanted to make sure these were made so that I could make everything else on the list the next morning.

Collin stirring while I prepare the ingredients for the fig cakes

Mixing the pumpkin banana bread ingredients together

The next morning, I woke up early to start preparing the rest of the meal...including the daunting task of the turkey.  Thanks to Grandma H, I had a proven recipe and roasting pan.  She said it was easy so I thought I would try it.  Stuffing the turkey was easy.  While the turkey was cooking, I made the following from scratch:

Cheesy Corn Casserole
Sweet Potato Spoonbread
Pumpkin-Carrot Soup
Kale and Collards Salad
Fruit Crumble
Queso

I was doing well and had a system down.  Then, people started to arrive and the time just flew by.  Aunt Lisa had to help make the Bodacious Broccoli Salad and Grandma H helped with the table and make sure the casseroles in the oven were cooked while I was finishing the salad. 

Everything ready to go for the mid-day meal

Look at that turkey.  Looks yummy....for those people that aren't vegetarians like me. 

For the mid-day meal, Grandma H, the Harrises and the Holmes were ready to eat.  Timmy loved the broccoli salad and had four helpings of it.  Leah ate pretty good too.  Collin only ate a few bites of turkey and then was not hungry.  That was because he did not want to eat anything else on his plate.  We did make him have one bite of everything before he excused himself from the table while the rest of us had seconds...and maybe thirds.  Some of us then went right for the desserts.

Not too long after we finished eating and cleaned up the table and kitchen, Mimi, Papi and Dustin arrived.  The kids were excited to see Mimi and then went back to playing or doing what they were doing.  I loved hearing all of the sounds in the house including the guys watching football and the kids running up and down the stairs playing in Collin's costumes or with his toys.  They did get tired and played with electronic games which was fine because they needed to rest. 

 

Here are the kids playing with the different electronics.  They really played well together all day.  Most of the time when kids are over, someone gets their feelings hurt or there is fighting over a certain toy.  I did not hear much of that during the day which was really nice.

Must be a relaxing position for her because she was like this for at least 20 minutes

Boys and their electronics

Instead of an evening meal, people ate when they were hungry.  Some snacked throughout the day especially as I pulled more stuff out of the frig.  I was fine with that because I was not interested in too many leftovers. 

Mimi and her grand kids

Daddy took the opportunity to pull the Christmas decorations up outside.  Paul was out there too so the kids wanted to play outside.  I don't blame there because it was a really nice day outside.

Leah riding around outside

Maybe taking a break?

Collin loved having his cousins to play with and I loved having my family hanging around at the house all day long.  What a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Turkey Trot #4

Despite it being 45 degrees and a little rain, Collin and I got up this morning and did the neighborhood Turkey Trot.  This was our 4th time to do it and a Holmes tradition. The last year was Collin's first year to run the 1K so I was looking forward to see how fast he would be this year.

All week, he asked when it was the day to race.  This morning, he was not interested in getting up though.  Probably because he stayed up late watching movies.  I did eventually get him moving and dressed in really warm clothes.  I explained that it was cold and probably would rain on us during the race.  He said that he wanted to race anyway.  "Your hair will not get messed up if it gets wet".  Well, he does have a point there. 

I let him pick breakfast so we went to get bagels.  He also picked out a chocolate chip coffee cake which is what Daddy usually gets.  I knew he would not eat both but bought it anyway since he was hungry last night (he at a sandwich and a half which is a lot for him especially at night). He ate fairly quickly.  While there, it started to rain.  He still did not change his mind so we headed to where the Turkey Trot was going to be.

On the way there, we talked about who would be there.  I said that Ethan would and Collin asked how old he was.  I explained that he was 5 years old but would be 6 next month for his birthday.  I then asked who else would have a birthday while raising my hand as high as I could in the car.  He said, "You Mommy".  I then asked a question that I did not know would lead to a huge laugh at the end.

Mommy:  "How old will Mommy be?"

Collin: "24"

Mommy:  "Well, thank you, Collin, but I am older than that.  Guess higher."

Collin:  "27"  (good thing we had 10 more minutes until we were at the race)

Mommy:  "No, I am much older than that"

Collin: "35...that's old!"

Mommy:  "No, I will be 44"  At this point, I heard the loudest laugh from the back seat. 

Collin:  "That is SOOO old Mommy that you are almost dead"  What?!?!?!  My child even thinks I am old.  He is still laughing, by the way.

I quickly change the subject and let him know that we are almost there.  "Will people be watching me at the race?"  He really does not like it when people watch him.  We learned that while he played football.  He is great at catching and running with the ball during practice.  However, he does not want to do this during a game because people will be watching.  He does not want them to laugh if he drops it.  I let him know that some people will be watching but probably not a lot because it's really cold out.  He liked that answer.

We arrived and he saw some friends so he was happy. Then it was time to warm up as a group.  He did great with the jumping jacks, lunges and other warm up exercises.  Next, the 5K started and he waiting patiently as long as he could until it was time for us to line up.  Here he is dancing to the music.....until he noticed that people were watching:

Then, it was finally time for us to line up for the race.  While waiting, he found friends Maddy and Ethan so he waited for them to line up so he could race with them.  When it was time to go, he took off!!!!  At least this year, I was ready for him.  I think he was at a 6:30 min/mi pace when he started.  He did stop after 3 minutes or so to let his friends catch up....and this is how the rest of the race went.  It reminded me of a rubber band.  Fortunately, I am quick on my toes and could stop abruptly when he did without crashing into him.

After the race was over, he asked if we could do that again.  I asked if he had fun and he said he did, especially when the people were cheering for him at the end. Well, make up your mind kid.  Do you want people watching or not?

New Family Member

On Wednesday night, our new family member came home....Burke, a 1 1/2 year old boxer rescue puppy.  The prior Sunday, we went to PetSmart to look at a few of the rescue dogs and fell in love with Burke. 

We could not take him home that day because he still needed to be neutered which happened Tuesday.  After meeting Burke, Collin wanted to get ready for him. He wanted us to rearrange his room so that Burke's cage could fit in his room in the corner.  He was so excited to have the dog sleep in there.  Then, during dinner one night, we went through a list of possible dog names and kept coming back to liking Burke.....so we kept it. 

Collin came home from school the next day with a drawing of a dog and Dad.  He wrote "I am Thankful" on the picture.  Guess he was thinking about Burke coming home.  What do you think?

Collin was so excited for Burke to finally be home but a little disappointed because Burke did not want to play.  First, he was shy and second, he was on meds from surgery the day before.  Both of these things were hard for Collin to understand.  He thought Burke did not like him.

Burke is house-broken and sleeps in his cage really well.  He is fine on a leash but still very shy and skittish when walking outside.  I can tell that he is going to be really playful once he gets to know us and be more comfortable around us. 

Art Class

Collin has been taking art class after school on Wednesdays for an hour.  He was not sure about the first class but has really looked forward to the classes after that.  "Mommy, we learned to use pastels today!" and then asked where his pastels were to work on another project at home.  Luckily, I have lots of art supplies including pastels.  They used all sorts of medium including paint, clay, tissue paper, etc. 

He is a sample of what he brought home in addition to his sketch book that included sketches of whatever he wanted to draw. There were mainly two story houses in there with lots of windows.  He likes to draw five-point stars too.

Notice the plants on each side of the house. Not sure where he got this idea from because we don't have this at our house.

He said this was him doing tricks on the bike

I love the window at the top

Thanksgiving Program and Feast

Collin was a turkey in the class Thanksgiving program.  They sang at least 6 songs which I was surprised by because I asked Collin was he was going to do in the program and he kept saying "gobble, gobble, gobble".  In reality, he did that 3 times during one song.  He looked like he knew the words to all of the other songs but I did not hear him practice these songs at home like I have when he has had other programs at school.

The Turkey at the top is surrounded by Pilgrims

The Turkey is finished and ready to go back to class

Evy, Collin and Ford

Collin and Evy singing

All four of the classes together

After the program, we went back to his class for a Thanksgiving feast.  I was interested to see which kids would eat what because there was a lot of food on their plate plus it was only 11am and then are used to eating lunch at 12:30.  They had chicken nuggets (the favorite), bread, corn-on-the-cob, banana, grapes and string cheese.  Collin does not even eat half of this during any meal.  He did eat the nuggets, corn and grapes plus one bite of the cheese.

Zoo Visit

Ever since summer camp at the zoo, Collin has wanted to go back.  He talked about it a little at the end of the summer and then dropped it until about two weeks ago.  He regularly asked when we could go back because he wanted to see the snakes and the meerkats.  Finally, last weekend, we did not have football games anymore and not much schedule that Saturday morning. 

We waited for Grandma H and then headed to the zoo.  As soon as we arrived and Collin got a map, he took off.  He stopped at the birds first, looked around and then said "next" before Grandma H or I had time to look at everything in the cage.  The sea lions were next....Yep, he looked and then quickly said "next" as he walked away headed to the Meerkats.  We finally got him to slow down...only because it started to rain when we were looking at the meerkats.

Looking for the Elephants

Showing me where we need to go next

He loved looking at the elephants and especially watching one of them poop.  That made his day to point that out.  He wanted the elephant to get in the water and was disappointed when he did not.  We continued to walk around at a tiny bit slower pace checking the animals out.  He stayed a long time watching the monkeys swing around in there habitats.  Oh, that was the other really cute thing was he would walk up to the animals and say, "this is the bird habitat" or "there is the monkey in his habitat".  He must have learned about this in zoo camp. 

Having fun with Grandma H's cane in the rain while we rested

The cutest monkey

Monkeys!!

In front of the flamingos showing off my short hair

Character Parade

Every year, the Kindergartners and Pre-K get to dress up as a character from a book and then parade around the school for the other classes to see.  This year, Collin chose to be Spider Man and carry one of his Spider Man books.  Thank you SOOO much Collin for not picking something else that we had to buy or figure out what to make.  Recycling a costume is great!

There were so many cute costumes that morning.  I was surprised that there were not more Spider Man's out there. It made it easier to find Collin.  He was at the back of his class just like he was when he was in the Pre-K parade. And...just as last year, he walked so fast and did not look my way when I called his name for a picture.  I did the best I could and here is what I got:

Ms Mitchell as a pink crayon

Spider Man is behind Iron Man

What a cute group of kids

Sam, the Bully

While we were traveling in Philadelphia for the bike shop, Collin stayed with Mimi and Grandma H.  While at Mimi's house, Collin mentioned that he had a bully.  Mimi asked him who was his bully and he named the first and last name and then told her that he was mean.  When she pressed further, he would not give details. 

Mimi told us about this conversation.  When we got home, I talked to Collin about this more.  When he said Sam is mean to him on the playground, I knew who he was talking about.  Sam is not in his class this year but was last year in Pre-K.  He was trouble then and apparently is still trouble.  I told Collin to tell the teacher the next time Sam was mean to him.  He did and the teacher on the playground did not do anything. I wrote a note to Ms Mitchell and she said she would watch for Sam when it was her time to be the playground teacher.  When it was her turn, she saw what Sam was doing and sat him out from playing that afternoon.  Since then, we have not heard anything about Sam.  That does not mean that Sam is not bothering Collin but maybe Collin is staying out of his way.

Teacher Conference

We had our first teacher conference and I was really interested in what Ms Mitchell had to say.  So far, Collin came home regularly with a sticker in his folder for the day meaning that he was good that day.  I honestly was surprised to see this because I know he loves to talk and distract others.

She said that Collin is a pleasure to have in class.  His sweet smile brings her joy. 

Strengths:

• Responsible
• Good friend to others
• Kind, caring
• Participates in group discussions
• Does his personal best on assignments
• Reading and writing are coming along nicely 
• Helpful
• Cute Sense of Humor

Areas of Concern:  (here is what I was waiting for)

• Collin can "push the limits" and be a bit disrespectful at times.  I am trying hard to find a happy balance with him
• Collin is working on controlling his talking during learning time

We asked why Collin was getting stickers if she had these comments. Maybe he only did this once or twice a week?  She said it was fairly regular.  She gives him three chances to behave.  If he needs more, then that's when he does not get a sticker.  We asked her to not give him a chance and take away his sticker if he is doing these things, especially talking back to her and being disrespectful. 

We talked this later when we got home with Collin and he was not happy.  He knew that we were not either.  We explained that he could not play when he got home if he di dnot get a sticker for the day. 

The next two days were good.  However, he did not get a sticker the next day for pushing.  We kept our promise and did not let him play when he got home.  He was better the rest of th ewe

Soccer!!!

Collin still LOVES soccer.  He cannot wait to go to practice and play in the games.....and he is getting really good too. 

• He has more control of the ball now so much so that he passes it fairly regularly to other team members. 
• He scores a goal at least once during every game. 
• He runs FAST!
• He is not the only blonde out on the field. 
• He is a little jealous of Brody and does not want to play when he is on the field.  Brody is really good and dominates the field.  Collin does not like having to step back to Brody.
• He has blocked a few goals.
• He does not like it if he does not hear Grandma H or I yell out for him that he is doing good or if we are not paying attention. 

Coming off the field for water

In action trying to get the ball down the field

What a kick!