Thanksgiving 2010

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Nathan's pre-school held their annual Sharing Feast. Each child brings in 1 or 2 foods to share, so it makes it for a pretty big feast! Nathan is in the bottom left corner (sitting with Virginia, of course!).

Nathan and Virginia

Noah had that week off from school, so we both got to go!

The next day we left for Madison, Maryland. We spent Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family who we hadn't seen in 4 years! WAY too long between visits! One of my cousins lives in Connecticut and halfway between there and NC is Madison. We rented a huge 4 level home and got to spend 5 wonderful days together!

Nathan playing ping-pong

Noah and Addison reacting to Nathan's last ping pong shot

Katharine loved watching Nathan play Noah's DS and was thrilled when he showed her how to play it, too! She spent A LOT of time playing!

LOTS of games were played! This is my mom (blue), Aunt Lynne (her sister), and Noah.

Naps were taken! That is my cousin, Julie, and in the bottom of the picture is my other cousin, Karen, holding her sweet little Madalynne.

Friday the girls went shopping for Black Friday and the guys stayed home with all of the kids! On Saturday, some adults and all of the kids went on a nature walk. It was SO cold and windy! I made all of them hot chocolate when they got back!

Katharine and Nathan

Megan was playing an intense game of Tetris - she had all of us watching!

Noah and Nathan take a turn playing

That night we had a family sing along! My aunt brought musical instruments for the kids to play and my uncle and cousin's hubby brought an electric piano and guitar!

The kids LOVED the instruments!

THIS is my Aunt Lynne! She is super fun and I just love her!

NOW, for what I think was the highlight of the trip...

My mom and aunt acting out the 12 Days of Christmas!! Above is "Five Golden Rings".

Here is "A Partridge in a Pear Tree"

"Six geese a laying"

I did videotape it, too, and will post soon. I'm sure I can make some decent blackmail money...

We exchanged gifts among the kids. Above is Elizabeth. The pink vest she is wearing was made by my grandmother for my cousin, Karen. How wonderful that Karen's girls have been able to wear it!

Nathan REALLY, REALLY wanted Connect 4 for Christmas! He was SO excited!

Noah got some Harry Potter Legos. Life is good.

Nathan weighs a little less!

Last week we went to the doctor hoping Nathan would get his cast off. Here is he with fingers crossed!

No can do. X-rays looked good, but the doctor wanted the cast to stay on 1 more week.

Back at the doctor's office - Take 2! Again, we crossed our fingers.
It's coming off!





The nurse told him that after his cast comes off his arm may be sore and feel really different.
He held up his arm and it went limp - he said it really hurt.
This brave kid sat in silence and cried huge crocodile tears. I almost cried along with him.
He got his arm x-rayed and started moving it around a little more. I think the sticker and lollipop helped! We grabbed some lunch and headed home. Nathan took a nice, loooooooong bubble bath and soaked that arm!
We go back in a month to be sure things are still good. No scooter riding, though!

Noah's class took a field trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. I love this place!
In science they've been learning about the marshlands and were able to experience what they've been learning.


The instructor gathered water from the marsh and gave the kids a microscope to view stuff in the water.

Afterwards, we had the rest of the day to ourselves! Noah wanted to do stuff "just you and me mom" and I wasn't about to ask him twice! We stopped at one of our favorite areas - Kapla Blocks! The tower on the right was already there when we got there and Noah wanted to build one just like
it - only taller!

He did it!
Then he asked if he could knock it down. I told him to go for it!
Noah's in the clouds!
Then we came to Noah's favorite room - Contraptions. He spent a lot of time putting his contraption together. I barely helped at all!
He ended up having a ball roll down a chute and then down 2 tubes (one was through a traffic cone)! The ball then landed on another chute that lead to a tube that knocked over several dominoes! When he was done he had a little crowd gathered around him watching and cheering for him!


In the math exhibit was a station on origami. Using a computer to follow a pattern Noah chose, we were able to create bats! This is a pic of various origami animals. Can you spot the bunny? turtle?


Another exhibit had 3 sizes of chairs and Noah thought this was hilarious!Love this picture of him and I LOVED spending the day with my Noah!