Our turkey chef tonight! #infraredfryer #17pounds #50degreesinmichigan #thanksgiving
I thoroughly enjoyed drinking my first wine in two weeks tonight with Dee (Rob’s girlfriend)… But it gave me a headache. Maybe we should have stopped after the first bottle! 😂
And all the leftovers!!
Gramma wanted Katie to check with me if we had enough potatoes for our Thanksgiving Dinner. I said no. I mean really, you can never have too many mashed potatoes.
I had bought Katie some light pink shampoo at the same time I bought my dark blue shampoo, and I had Tom bring it back with him so we could do Katie’s hair. And boy was she excited!
Grayling has a beauty school where my mom gets her hair permed and cut so I went earlier this week for a blow out (it’s a treat for me since I suck at it—plus it was the first wash post-color and I thought why not let someone else deal with it?). Then I decided since everything was so cheap, I’d take Katie for her first basic manicure to see how she did (before I drop $$$ on a real manicure or pedicure). She was all about it. 🙂
Owen needed a haircut, too. He had decided to get the same cut as Brian Lewerke, an MSU Spartan player.
Last night:
This morning:
There’s a stump in the back yard that we joke is the perfect time-out spot. Of course we’ve never had to use it, but that’s still what we call it. Katie is finally big enough to get up there by herself so this happened.
They’re a bit behind—I started at age 3! They were both excited to sit down and do it. Gramma gave them a quick lesson on how to hold the egg and kistka, but unfortunately both of them forgot and ended up grabbing the hot metal end…which is why you see tears on some of Katie’s close up pics. They both had fun and enjoyed doing two eggs—I was only going to watch but then couldn’t help myself and had to jump in and “do a quick egg” which of course turned into more time than I planned and I ended up sitting there finishing mine while the kids were done and outside playing. 🙂 (Note: The eggs are done but are still at Gramma’s house being varnished so the finished product photo will come later.)
Lots of good stuff to choose from!
It’s deer season and 25° so he had to bundle up in orange.
Apparently shoveling is fun if you’re doing it with cousins and not because a parent asked you to do it.
We didn’t bring snow pants so jammies have to suffice. She didn’t care one bit.
Attack on the living room window!
Cousins Gabby and Robert!
The kids love to dab an this is one Katie came up with tonight.
Then, my neighbor and high school classmate. Now, my cousin (well, since 1998).
Everyone was gathered for Aunt Florence’s memorial—and it was the first time our kids met the Hough side of the Schwalm clan. They are lined up by age, with Katie being the youngest at 5 and Gabrielle the oldest at 14.
Then we took a selfie because we haven’t done so in awhile.
This doll used to be Gramma Jean’s when she was little, and then I played with her, and now she belongs to Katie.
This was about 20 minutes from home.
Shopping before the store opens…the benefits of being related to the owner. We brought home 18 packs of brats!!
Nick and Gracie making Christmas M&Ms (the rest went into Lisa’s monster cookies).
Just a few brats to cook…
All the kids like to fish but they say Aubrey is the one who loves it the most and is the best at it. She apparently gives lessons to other kids at their house!
Katie caught a fish!
Someone took an unplanned jump into the river (learning you can’t walk on lily pads):
Drying off…
I think this picture is a tradition.
And the mandatory annual family Christmas photo! Every year they give us grief about taking it… And this year with the craziness of the move I didn’t post it immediately and they were all asking about it!! So there. :p
And the annual kid comparison—Katie is getting closer to Aubrey but Aubrey is still ahead (which should be the case, as she’s almost 9). And as usual, Owen is definitely taller than Gracie…
But I think he beats Nick this year!!
Last year:
More fishing!
After a campfire and s’mores it was time for bed. The kids decided to all sleep in the living room… Poor Timmy. 🙂
We made plans to pick up some of our favorite sausage before the Len Summer Christmas started. My family has been getting the amazing smoked and fresh sausage here for 60 years! It’s the smell and taste of my childhood! 💕
Owen was bummed that Katie got a small present from Gramma at the art fair but there weren’t any “boy things” for him to get so Gramma promised to take him out to buy something at the store. I jumped in to suggest an experience instead of a thing and they were both good with that. We ended up getting ice cream at a shop downtown and eating it in the gazebo. And he told Gramma he wanted a day with her for his birthday like Katie had!!
Own patiently waiting at the wine store.
It was another late night for the kids (they got a bath at 9:50 to clean their dirty feet) and Tom was tired from working on Gramma’s new computer all evening (where Owen sleeps) so Tom just jokingly collapsed on top of Owen and said he was just going to sleep there. Owen was adamant that Tom leave. 🙂
Gramma to the rescue… Giving them both a quick bath. There was a lot of laughing and shrieking. 🙂
The crazy ladybug!
I told Gramma that for Katie’s birthday, instead of giving her stuff, to take her on an adventure. So she did.
In Gramma’s words:
For Katie’s 5th birthday this year, we went on an adventure! (Yes, in Grayling.) We played at three parks, went wading in the river (along some of the racers practicing), went to the grocery store for picnic lunch supplies [where Katie could pick anything she wanted—she got a Lunchable, strawberry yogurt covered pretzels, strawberries, cashews, and chocolate milk], threw stones in the river for a half hour, went for a 3-mile bike ride (yes, I fell), and had an ice cream cone at Wimpy’s. We were gone 7 hours and mom and dad were starting to worry! What great fun we had! Happy birthday Katie Bug!
Gramma says Katie could have pedaled for hours!
Gramma says: I am so glad Katie didn’t fall. We were too close to each other and her back wheel caught my front wheel.
Owen was so excited to go shooting! He’s doing pretty well with remembering the three rules (generally speaking he knows them but had trouble repeating them) so we’ll keep working on that. (If he can remember 632 things about Pokémon, he can remember the three rules about gun safety.)
His shots were all in the black!
We brought cupcakes and frosting for Gramma to do with the kids… Grauntie Marge ended up helping as well, and then I got stuck frosting them and Katie did the sprinkles.
We had them as birthday dessert for Katie after the Wednesday night group dinner when everyone came back to the house to visit. We even sang Happy Birthday to Katie and she loved it!
