Thanksgiving 2012!

This year, Thanksgiving was once again at our house. Our central location makes it easy for our relatives to the North, South and West of us to arrive in just over an hour. Todd began cooking last Saturday! On Wednesday, since I had the day off and the weather was sunny and warm, Emma and I decorated the driveway. An hour later, we had a giant turkey, cornucopia, and "Happy Thanksgiving" sign to welcome our visitors! Thanksgiving morning, Emma and I watched the Macy's Parade. In previous years, she's lost interest in it pretty quickly, but this year she wanted to watch the entire thing (thank goodness for DVR commercial-skipping)...and dance along with all of the performers! I finally convinced her to get dressed in her Thanksgiving attire right before our guests arrived. After Dad (Papa) carved the turkey and found the wishbone, Emma and Kristen's boyfriend Eric (the second-youngest guest) broke the wishbone. Eric "won," but graciously gave Emma the bigger piece so she could have the wish! We had 10 for dinner,and actually could have fed about twice that many with the amount of food we had. Thank goodness Todd likes to cook, and everybody chipped in with some tasty side dishes! Several of us took a long walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the nice weather and work off some of our meal! The rest of the evening we played games, including Emma's new favorite, Cranium Balloon Lagoon. We were so thankful to have a beautiful day together!

Cinderella: The Grimm Tale

On Saturday November 17, the Columbus Children's Theater visited our local library to present the story of Cinderella. We go to the library for all sorts of activities, but a live (free!) performance is a rare treat. We'd recently checked out the DVD of Disney's Cinderella at the library, so Emma's really into the story right now. However, the Children's Theater version was a bit different than the movie. In fact, at one point they added a little comic relief by stopping the play and saying, "Hey, where are pumpkin, mice, and fairy godmother?!" and went on to explain that this was based on the Brothers Grimm Tale. Of course, Grimm Tales can be violent, and Emma didn't like the part where the stepsisters cut off their toe and heel to try to make the shoe fit(!) even though they again made a joke of it ("You wouldn't really cut off someone's toe in a library, would you?!"). Either way, Emma gave it a thumbs up overall, but she wouldn't let me tell Todd about the violent part when we got home!

Fallin' in the Leaves!

We've been so busy this fall, we reached November without ever jumping in the leaves! Last weekend, November 11, we finally had a chance! Taking advantage of beautiful sunshine, temperatures close to 70 degrees, and a whole backyard full of leaves, we enjoyed raking, jumping, and, of course, burying!

Kings Island: One More Time!

After a trip to Kings Island on an unseasonably warm, sunny day October 21, you'd think we'd call it a year. But we couldn't resist just one more visit on the last day of the season, October 28th! It was chilly-about 50 degrees-but at least it was dry; back home, it rained all day! Interestingly enough, the weather was almost exactly as it had been when we went on opening day at the end of April, 6 months before. In between, we'd endured rain, extreme heat, and crowds, but it seemed as if we'd come full circle. Emma enjoyed the kids' Halloween area again, as well as her favorite rides. Todd and I both took turns riding some of our favorite roller coasters, too, with short lines. Finally, we took the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower and looked down on the whole park, reminiscing about some of our favorite moments. It's probably not that surprising that we also went ahead and bought season passes for next year. It's hard to believe that it will be 6 months before we can go back, but I'm sure we'll spend plenty of dreary winter days looking back on these pictures with a smile!

Trick or Treat 2012

Trick or Treat came extra early this year, nearly a full week before the 31st! Usually, it doesn't make sense to have it so early. This year, however, it made all the difference...the weather was beautiful at 75 degrees, which of course is unheard of in Central Ohio at this time of year. Emma was able to wear her fairy princess costume by itself, without having the layers underneath. Mom, Dad, Aunt Linda, Kristen and I all enjoyed the weather with Emma as she loaded up on candy from almost our entire neighborhood! Todd stayed home as usual to hand out treats, and Grandma stayed in Aunt Linda's minivan parked on our street and watched the kids go by. Afterwards, we munched on candy, pumpkin donuts, cookies, and whoopie pies while we watched Cinderella (Emma's current favorite). Grandma said that was the first time she'd watched the movie start-to-finish!