Adkison/Miller/Weaver Thanksgiving

We have survived another holiday! This year's Thanksgiving was jam packed with visiting, cooking, crafts, cooking, entertaining children, cooking, shopping and cooking. As always, we prepared enough food to feed an army. We started cooking on Wednesday and finished shortly before the meal was served on Thursday.

We arrived at my parent's house on Saturday afternoon and watched the OU game with them. Sunday was spent at church for the most part. On Monday, we made our first trip to Lawton in order to buy all the craft supplies I needed for the crafts I had planned for all the kids. We also spent the afternoon making Turkey Treats (thanks Debbi for the recipe). Gerry thought it was fun until he got a little messy. Ben really wanted to help so I put him in his booster seat and handed him a cookie- the foundation of the turkey. Just as I was getting his rice krispie turkey body ready, he decided to eat the cookie. So that was that.

On Tuesday, we headed to Walmart to buy groceries. By the end of that shopping trip, I was not in the holiday mood to say the least. They ran out of canned yams and we waited about 30 minutes to check out. I had never seen a Walmart that packed with people! That afternoon, Ethan and Gerry made the turkey centerpiece for our table. They had a great time and were very proud of their art work.

Wednesday, my Mom and I got up and started cooking. We finished at about 4:00 that afternoon. I was exhausted and we hadn't even reached thanksgiving day! That evening, Ethan and Gerry made the place cards. They used their fingerprints to make turkeys on each card. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that the stamp ink was permanent ink. They had some colorful fingers for several days.

Finally, thanksgiving day arrived. We started cooking again. We managed to get the green beans out of the pot and safely into the serving bowl this year- last year was not so good for the green beans. Brad fried up a turkey and Lisa cooked a ham. I think we set a record for the amount of food we prepared! Our cousins Bill, Judy, Nadine and Shawn were able to join us. It was a lot of fun! Enjoy the pictures.

Ben in Music at Preschool

My friend Molly whipped out her cell phone and recorded Ben in his music class at school. He really likes music and here is the evidence. Of course, you can clearly see that he is gifted and talented. Thanks Molly for recording my cutie pie! Be sure to turn off the blog music before you watch the video. The player is on the right- scroll down to the bottom.

MiMa and Playdough

Ben had recently started playing with playdough. He mostly likes to take it out of the container and put it back in the container. He uses the stamps every now and then. Since he is a messy little kid, the playdough and him get along great. He has also started to call me MiMa instead of Mommy. He has reversed the syllables of Mommy. I am not very thrilled with it because I am not a grandmother. My husband thinks it is hilarious and is encouraging MiMa use. In both their cases, I hope this phase will pass soon. I am sure Ben's phase will pass, but I have little hope for my Husband.

Frisco Community Parade

This Saturday, Big Gerry's band marched in the Frisco Community Parade honoring Veterans. The kids (and grandparents) had a lot of fun. It was very reminiscent of our days at Mardi Gras. You could definitely tell that we are seasoned parade goers from the people around us. We staked out a spot on the neutral ground complete with our parade chairs. We came with drinks and snacks. Gerry tied his "schweggmann's" bag to his belt loop. After the first couple of throws, we had to tell him to tone it down a bit. He was diving for the candy with no mercy like it were Mardi Gras day on Veteran's Highway. The only thing we were missing was our mardi gras ladder for the kids and parade costumes. I think if we would have brought those, we would have gotten some strange looks. You can take a New Orleanian out of Mardi Gras, but you can't take the Mardi Gras out of a New Orleanian. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy Halloween

The day started out as crazy hair day at Gerry's school. He went to school with red spiky hair and it actually held up all day. Later that evening, I took Elmo and Darth Vader trick or treating. Ben was not shy about knocking on doors and taking candy. He even said thanks a few times. Darth Vader meet his Nemesis, Anikin Skywalker on the trail and had a light saber battle. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures because I was chasing Elmo. I hope you enjoy the pictures I was able to snap! (Zachary may have slipped in there too!)