I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to be able to travel to WV this year during Thanksgiving.  We were able to spend almost a whole week and got to see lots of family!

The kids did great overall during the 5+ hour drive and thankfully I remembered to bring some books to keep them occupied!

Fun at Grandma’s

Thankfully one thing we do not need to pack when we head to Grandma’s house is toys!!  My mom had bought this little pool during the summer and it has never seen water! The kids love to lay in it while watching TV, reading, or playing with their toys. 

Aaron bought a bag of 100 plastic balls from Wal-Mart and this made a nice addition to the pool. :)

Yes, Isaac is somewhere underneath the balls.  Needless to say the kids LOVED playing in the pool.  It got brought out EVERY DAY!

My dad had a little doll house ready for Miriam when she arrived.  She loved sitting up on Grandpa’s lap and playing with her FIRST dollhouse!

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving morning started off restful as we watched part of the Macy’s  parade.  As you can tell, Isaac was very much into it!

My mom made this cute turkey to take to my Grandma’s house as an appetizer.  The body was an especially yummy cheese ball and the feathers were vegetables.

My Uncle Ed is the official turkey carver at Grandma’s

Shortly after we arrived, Miriam went over to the doll cradle and draped her little body over it.  We sat there watching her and she did not budge for several minutes.  The longer she stayed frozen like that, the harder we laughed.  Here is my cousin Nate kneeling beside her.  She eventually kicked him.  We put her down for a nap very shortly after this ;-)

My cousin Nate’s wife, Leah, on the left and my sister, Hollie, on the right.

Aaron reading to Isaac and Nate’s oldest daughter, Emma.

Isaac decided Nate’s hair needed a little brushing. ;-)

Isaac spending some time with my cousin Ben’s little puppy dog.

Isaac and Emma watching a Thomas the Train movie.  Isaac LOVES his cousin Emma!  And talked about her the whole trip.

Here he is giving Emma a hug and kiss goodbye.

Isaac with his backpack (that he wore all. week.) and my Grandma.

Time with Family

We were so blessed that Aaron’s mom and Grandma were able to make the trip down to see us overnight.  (Although we missed Papaw!) 

Miriam getting some night time snuggles in with Mamie.

I am so glad we were able to visit with my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bev while we were in.  We went out to breakfast with Uncle Charlie earlier in the week and then they came over for a visit one evening.

A family pic before we headed back home. In case you can’t tell, Miriam is NOT very happy at this moment, in fact her face is beet red from screaming crying.

Other Fun Pics of My Cuties

Miriam’s first time eating her Great Gram’s Texas sheet cake.  I think she liked it ;-)

Miriam is such a snuggler! Especially when she’s tired!

Wearing Daddy’s hat with the lights.

I have a couple of cute video clips of the kids from this week too.  Hopefully I can get them uploaded this week.  (They take forever!)

This past Saturday we attended our town’s Christmas Parade!  This year was (thankfully!) a little warmer than last year, but still pleasantly crisp :)  The kids absolutely LOVED IT!  They were busy clapping and moving their feet to the bands.  Isaac would point and shout “tractor” . . ." truck”.  This kid is all boy!

This picture is right side up, my little girl is just hanging upside down.  She was strapped it, although she was hanging so far over I was beginning to wonder if it would hold.  Every time Aaron would set her right side up again, she would happily turn herself up side again and munch away at her chicken nuggets.  (We strategically placed ourselves across from McDonald’s ;-)

Me and my little girl :-)

Isaac is 32 months

Miriam is 17 months

This week was full of complete randomness ;-) I just pulled stuff out and we had fun playing ~ no planning whatsoever.  We will pick back up with our Letter of the Week after Thanksgiving.  I am so excited to work on “G” is for Gumball.  The other fun thing is the J for Jesus will land right around Christmas. 

Sensory Tub Fun

I brought out the sensory tub and they played for over an hour!  They loved it! They were much more into it this time than the last time they played with it! Of course, I had a mess to clean up when it was all over with, but it was worth it!

Miriam really had fun digging around in the bin this time. :)

And Isaac decided it was fun to stuff his pocket with rice and pom-poms.  He had fun stuffing it and I had fun cleaning it all out ;-)

He then decided all the flowers from our sensory bin needed to go in the schoolhouse.

I love this little boy.  He is sunshine on a cloudy day.

He now talks to “Larry Boy” on the school telephone.  The first time (and every time since!) that I saw him do this, it absolutely cracked me up.  He says “Hi Larry Boy!”

Miriam’s Independent Play

Most mornings after breakfast I let the kids play in separate areas of the house with a few toys.  They really seem to enjoy this and it lets me get my morning routine done (clean-up after breakfast, switch over laundry, make my bed, etc)

Foam Alphabet Tiles: Big and Small

The kids always love playing with their foam tiles.  We picked up 2 sets of these mini ones at Wal-Mart for a dollar a piece.  (My local Wal-Mart still had them in the toy section last week!)

We worked on matching them up to these fun printables from Carisa at 1+1+1=1.

We then made a puzzle out of it and he put the letters back in their squares.

We then got out the big squares and he was mostly interested in taking them apart.  So we called out what letter it was while he was separating letter from tile ;-)  

Then he thought it was great fun to insert the letter in his toybox.  

Other Fun Activities

We worked on color matching.  These fish printables are from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

We then played with a box, some pasta, and a hammer :)  The kids love this and it is so easy.  Take any kind of box, poke some holes in the top, insert pasta, and let them pound away.  Great for hand-eye coordination!

Miriam loves to just play with the pasta.  She will put her hand in the box, shake the pasta up and pull some out.  After she has studied it, she drops it back in the box and does it all over again!

We brought out the pom-pom Magnets and ended up sorting by color. (Isaac and I both were working on this one together ;-)

My kiddos LOVE watching Baby Einstin and Baby Genius videos! These are the only ones that Miriam will actually sit down and watch.

To see what other moms are doing in Tot School this week, check out the official Tot School site!