November 25, 2015

Pre-Thanksgiving Baking!

(click here for today's pictures)

• Last night before I went to bed, I wrote out chores for each kid.  Their lists were a bit long (10-12 items) but did contain things like brush teeth and put on clothes.  We were not doing school so I had imagined a bit of a leisurely morning but at 7:01 I heard Graham tromping through my room carrying 2 trash bags behind him on his way to start emptying the trash cans.  Anderson could be heard on the other side of the house working on his trash cans.  
• By 8, most of the chores on the kids lists had been accomplished.  The only ones that were left were the ones that they needed me to help with.  I had also written out my list of chores and one of those included taking pictures of the kids with the items that they would take on the Mayflower.  They had given their little report last week with the homeschool buddies but I had neglected to take their pictures so today that was on my list.
• Last night, Reagan and I both went to bed pleased that we had already made her cupcakes but today when we started to make the icing to top them, we looked at the recipe and quickly realized that we did not follow the directions closely enough and the topping was supposed to be baked on the cupcakes.  I tried to think of somehow to add the topping to our already baked cupcakes but finally just decided to start from scratch.  We were able to quickly make those cupcakes and made them correctly.  I do believe that Reagan is very happy with her Thanksgiving contribution.
• Campbell made lunch for us-popcorn, the first batch of Reagan's cupcakes, a cheese stick, fruit, chips and I do believe that there was one semi-nutritious item as well but I do not remember what it was.  I was going to help her add a few more nutritional choices to her "snacky lunch" that she was making but I figured that since we were going to see Beebee and they were going to fill their tummys with candy, there was no reason is eating healthy for lunch.
• We filled the van up with gas and then went to see Beebee.  She was eating lunch but was still happy to see us.  The kids stood around the table and some of them spoke to Beebee's table mates.  Going to see Beebee is not Campbell's thing at all.  Now Reagan, Anderson and Graham try their hardest to talk and listen.  Keaton busys herself with the candy but now, Whitman, he will talk to anyone that comes up to him.  And by talk, I mean jabber about Thomas or Mickey Mouse.  I am sure that my crew helped entertain the lunch crowd today!
• After a quick stop to the library, we went to Grannymom's house.  The kids stayed there while I ran to the doctor so he could add some refills to my prescriptions.  I never have to wait long there and was soon picking up the kiddos. They were not too happy to see me!  
• We then met Robby and picked him up on our way to the Shack.  The church has a ministry place and we took some canned food and crackers for them to hand out.  The kids had spent their money to buy some things for there last week and were pretty proud to drop it off.  
• Next up was a stop at the bank for me to cash in some bonds that I had received when I was little.  It took a while even though I had less than 10 to deposit.  The kids should be happy because that money paid for their new beds!  
• Then we picked up pizza and ate at Nonna and Pops' house (this was the day of grandparents-saw all 5) and also loaded up Pops' wheelbarrow before heading home.  We completely filled up my lacking flower beds with sawdust/wood chips/dirt from the stump removal.  It was dark when we started so we were only able to move one pile of wood chips but we were also able to roll the logs that were near the house to down near the others ones.  After we were done, Reagan asked "did we do all of that because people were coming over tomorrow?"  I told her that yes, we did because we wanted things to look nice but no, we also did it because we needed to move that stuff and we had a bit of time tonight.
• The kids had showers next and then we all had a bit of downtime before bedtime for them.  Robby and I then made/ate cookies for tomorrow's Thanksgiving shindig.