Thanks Welch's.  We spent some time with a mad lib like activity on the back of a carton of juice.  Here are the three different versions:
Dad:
Harvesting fruit at just the right time is sweet.  One way to tell if a cup is ripe is to look at it in your candle.  Bright colored, yellow and a little cold means it's probabgly ready.  Another way to see if it's ready is to eat it.  Lots of farmers like to taste their crops.  That's why their snowmen are so full.

Mowg:

Harvesting fruit at just the right time is tasty. One way to tell if a house is ripe is to look at it in your evanston. Bright colored, blue and a little pretty means it's probabgly ready. Another way to see if it's ready is to run it. Lots of farmers like to taste their crops. That's why their penguins are so full.

Tiny:

Harvesting fruit at just the right time is orange. One way to tell if a dog is ripe is to look at it in your Grandpa.   Bright colored, yellow and a little cold means it's probably ready. Another way to see if it's ready is to dance and sing it. Lots of farmers like to taste their crops. That's why their catfish are so full.

You can see a little bit of each of them in it and what was around us.  Granpa is definitely on Tiny's mind.  Last night she burst into to tears.  When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I'm sad because my Grandpa isn't coming."   She's missing you Grandpa, just so you know. 

Today I'm especially thankful for my husband.  I've watched him work so hard he can barely move and still find time to help with domestic chores and spend time with our kids.  I've followed him around with papers in hand asking for writing advice and he always takes the time to give it.  He teases me about my fabric obsession/illness, but kindly supports it.  He discusses ideas with me and exposes me to things I'd never really paid attention to before.  He's cute.  He's funny.  He's smart and dang it I like him!

Last but not least we traveled to my sister's for Thanksgiving for the first time in 7 years.

Lots of playing, eating, laughing and generally just being together

Not many pictures (that's a good sign)

Can you tell who is being thrown off balance?

The whole gang

I look my best and do you know why?  Wet hair that gets slept on, just never quite recovers.

Here we are Mom:  The "big" kids. :)

That's it for today.  Promise.

Sledding is not my thing, but it is definitely Mowg's thing.

I couldn't get my feet back in the sled

And it took me a minute to realize if I couldn't breathe, Tiny probably couldn't either.

Mowg had a blast

So did Dad (he's about to come over the hill)

After getting "sprinkles" in her eyes Tiny wasn't very interested.

"I don't like sprinkles in my eyes."

She did have a lot of fun posing.

"Take this one Mom."

 We visited our friends the Elk (only one of them shown here)

thanks to the visit of one of our favorite people!

We did a little sledding

(which always includes walking, walking and walking--uphill both ways I'm certain!)

Some signing

and some reading

I hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving!  We certainly did--the best in my memory.  When I mentioned this to my husband he was astounded.  I looked at him, puzzled by his reaction and then he reminded me that I'd been sick for a good portion of it.  Really sick.  So sick I couldn't really visit that much.  Anyway, it was still delightful and I'm even more grateful for good health than I was before.  I'll be back with pictures for you soon, Mom.  We didn't take many,we were having too much fun.

I'm thankful for a sister who drove extra when meeting "half-way".  Can't wait to see you TODAY!

I'm thankful for Granddad's who send cool e-cards so Tiny can say: "I want to watch my thingy from Grandpa on the computer.  Now Mowg's thingy and then mine."

A little girl who went on a long car ride and was content just looking at books.

Brothers!

I'm thankful today for time to look at fabric charm squares with my kids.   It was so fun to see what they liked.  Mowg even told me WHY he liked something without any prompting from me.  I love that.

Let me tell you a joke
"How did ya know a frog was in your house?"
(You should say you don't know)
"Because he hid in your bed!"

I'm thankful for cold weather that has us scurrying about to beat and then inside to hunker down and snuggle in.  It's too windy and cold with a threat of snow to be enjoyable outside.  I love days like these.

Today I'm thankful for friends who share things like this with me.  

Today I'm thankful for the sound of happy voices in the morning.  When does that happen?!

I'm extremely thankful today for family and friends that are willing to help me!  Writing is a difficult process made better by feedback.

I'm thankful for things to love: 
Lemons: how they look, what they smell like, how they taste.
Pumpkin Pie Icecream
Vanilla Icecream
The feel, look, and color of fabric
How books feel in my hands.
The perfectly captured picture of people that I love.
Snuggles, kisses and kids with books.
Cheese!
Color
Lovely letters
The fancy in miniscule
Those goblets and cups and glasses that rest so perfectly in your hand.
Being close to the man I love--even when we're doing other things.

I'm thankful for those constantly repeated phrases that sometimes make me crazy until I stop to think about what they might mean (out of context of course).

Like EVERY time Tiny cries anymore and we ask why she says, "Because I didn't get a butterfly."

or, "Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  That's the way it works."

11/11/11

Today I'm thankful for all those who have risked their lives and lost them in defense of my home, my family and my country.  I'm thankful for those that continue to serve in that capacity.  Thank you. What you do and have done is a precious gift.   I treasure it.

I'm thankful for a little girl that gets as excited about looking at fabric as her mother does.  "Let's look at some more!"  Even if it's just going through the fabric we have right here.  Yippee!

Today I'm thankful for the return of the deer on our back hill in the early morning.  It gave a rather miserable morning a pleasant moment or two.

I'm thankful that for the moment everyone is my family is relatively healthy.  We have no hospital stays in our foreseeable future.  There is something magical about breathing air that hasn't been recirculated.  Something especially fine about having choices that don't have to include others' opinions.  Something wonderful about jumping on the bed (and off of it for that matter), snuggling together, reading stories, eating Halloween candy with reckless abandon, getting mad and just living.  I do miss someone else cleaning up, but you can't have everything.  Since I get to choose, I choose this.

Today I'm thankful for books.  The kind with pictures and the kind without.  They take me to places I could never go.  The give me snuggle time with wiggly kids.  They open up conversations with my dearest at the exhausted end of day.  They give me a peek into the minds of kids as I listen to them "read".  I also love watching Mowg in his discovery of reading.  The magic of those moments when he realizes  that he can read a word.

I'm thankful my family doesn't mind extending celebrations when we can't do everything that day.

A little "on their own" time with the dress-up makeup

(and of course a bit of something to eat with "made up" hands)

We also carved pumpkins

Tiny likes cats

 Mowg likes smiles (not too scary)

I think they did a great job (with some help)

My favorite pumpkins with their pumkins

We also had fun experimenting with numbers and color combinations of glow sticks.

Which colors lit up the pumpkin the best?

Did more sticks help "beef-up" the lighter colors?

The answers we discovered were "Red" and "Yes"

As one final note we listened to King Island Christmas as we carved.

I'm thankful for that little juxtaposition.  It makes me smile.

I'm thankful for teachers, Mowg's teacher in particular, who take time to talk to parents who are seeing completely different things from their child than they are.  Then they also try and come up with a solution.

I'm thankful for the songs of my Tiny girl.  She loves to sing.  One of my favorite songs currently is "Little Miss Moffet"  who is "eating her curdsy whey."

I'm thankful for kid logic and their oft-times eloquence in expressing it.
Things like:  "Dad, I don't like peas.  I'm just not a big fan of things with bad taste in them."

Gratitude and Halloween

I love November.  Winter is still new.   Thanksgiving is coming.  So I want to write one thing each day that I thankful for.  Something that really matters to me.

I'm thankful that my kids only need little bits of events in order to particpate in them.  We went trick-or-treating last night to 3 houses.  That was enough.  (We'd also been to a trunk or treat and part of the a downtown business association "trick-or-treat" madhouse.  So they had plenty of candy.  Just for the record)  I love that about them.

We went the wrong way downtown and came up the street.  Then we skirted the slow moving mass of humanity and ghouls to go back.  The whole walk back Mowg kept asking, "Can we go home now?"  We were on our way.  We got to see old friends at the trunk-or-treat.  It was fun to see some of the kids I'd worked with and have them remember me and Mowg.  Mowg did not like it when people said things to him like, "Sir Knight" or "My Lord".  He got quite upset infact.  I'm not sure why except that he said he didn't like it.  So next year no Knightness for him.  I am pleased with his costume 100% Thrifted and Made.

My Princess and Knight

"Oh when will she stop taking pictures and let us go in?!"

Tiny has a cape similar to Mowg, but it mostly hung back.

I have CHOCOLATE!

We're getting a pile of snow this morning.  Whew we made it to November with only 1 snow storm.

PS Mom, click on the pictures for a closer look. :)