Thanksgiving

While going through pictures for Thanksgiving, I came across this shot from Halloween. Felix was showing me his lame "olympian" costume, and there is Emma in the background sneaking in her "scary face" pose!

 We took the kids to the zoo a week ago, and it was perfect. The weather was great, it was not crowded at all, Levi hitched a ride on Felix and Emma was eager to run from exhibit to exhibit. Typically, I hate zoos. Just being honest. But- this trip was so fun! We followed our own timeline, it was relaxing, and it is hard not to enjoy the experience when the kids are getting so excited and asking questions about all the cool things they are seeing.

 We thought this crazy bird sported the same hairstyle as little Levi......

WATER POLO.
What a season!!!!! The end of the season was crazy intense. I do not like competition. My favorite games to watch are the ones where Brown is crushing their opponent. I'm talking, 6+ goal lead, no chance of turning it around. I can just sit back and enjoy the show. But the games where they are trading goals, I hate. I can hear my heartbeat. And forget about games that go into overtime! So, when we realized the team had a real shot at making it to the NCAA's, things were getting exciting. I stayed home with the kids during the tournament. They won their first game and had two to go. The night of the 2nd game, I was waiting for Felix's phone call and after an hour I finally logged onto twitter to see if I could find live updates. They were up by 1 goal in the 3rd quarter. I couldn't believe how nervous I was, waiting for the final score!!!! Unfortunately, they lost the game in the end which meant they were done for the season. But the good news was that we got Felix back all to ourselves :)
I brought the kids out to support the team for their final game on the 3rd day. Unfortunately, I went to MIT instead of Harvard (where they were playing) and missed all but the last 5 minutes. But, the smile we got from Felix when he looked up in the stands and saw little Emma waving "Hi Daddy!!! Daddy! I picked a flower for you!!".........was priceless!

Watching the Navy/Princeton game with the Schwartz family.

 Our little monster. Guess what! On Thanksgiving day, he said "turkey"!!!

 We are officially done nursing. It has been about a week, and he is doing great. If he sees me in my bed, which is where he used to nurse in the morning, he cries and begs for it, but other than that- he is a whole new man!!

THANKFUL!

 When asked in school what she is most thankful for, she said "my daddy". And when prompted at home to expand on that, she confirmed she was in fact, just thankful for her daddy. And to drive home the point a bit more, when I took her on a special "mommy/Emma" day out for some shopping and dinner, I asked her what she wants to do on her next "mommy/Emma" day. Her response? Bring Levi & Daddy so we can have an "everybody" day!

We were really enjoying our Thanksgiving festivities. I was excited about all the decorating projects we had planned to do, and the special Thanksgiving themed food I was going to make. And the fact that Felix was relaxed and home with us made everything even more special. The kids were sitting on the couch with Felix, and Emma told me to come sit so we could be a family. LOVE HER!

Meanwhile, as the kids and Felix were having a dance party in the living room, I was using a cheap plastic vase from the dollar store to cut out circles in my rice krispy treats in order to make little turkey cookies. The treats got stuck, and as I tried to wiggle them out, the vase shattered in my hand, and sliced my finger. I got a quick look at it and freaked out. My finger was gushing blood with a gash that was so wide you could see deep inside. I panicked, yelled "oh my G-d" about 5 times until Felix came running over, I threw it under freezing cold water in the sink, but it wouldnt stop bleeding. Felix called the neighbors to come over incase we had to go to the doctor, and I called mom demanding to talk to dad! Clearly, I don't do well in these types of situations. And my mother told me exactly what to do, but I could barely even focus to listen. We wrapped it in a cloth, and finally gauze and tape. It kept bleeding for 2 hours.

***Gross Pictures Below****



This is 2 hours after the incident. The bandage fell off and it was still bleeding!



1st gross bandage.

 Meanwhile, this stupid cut was seriously painful! I had to take advil! After 24 hours, my skin was still not closed, so I simply taped it together so it can try to heal. I know its a bit much to write about my "giant paper cut" as Felix calls it, but it was pretty gross. First of all, I can't believe how stupid I was to crush a vase in my hand, but also, I could not believe what a huge gash I was staring at on my finger!

 Levi wrapped his fist around my finger and gave it a nice squeeze. It reminded me of those movies where they are in the torture room and rubbing salt in wounds. Levi now points to my finger and says "ouch, ouch" and sometimes "yuck".


NOW, on to our Thanksgiving dinner!
Gobble, Gobble.........

 We had a lot of fun decorating our fruit turkey, our bread basket turkey, and pilgrim hat utensil holders! I really liked the googly eyes we put on. In fact, I did a lot of this project myself and was a little embarrassed when I realized my children were sound asleep in bed, Felix was watching TV on the couch, and I was hard at working gluing feathers on a shoe box! Emma decorated all the paper feathers and loved the glitter glue pens. Levi's favorite part was ripping the red balloon off the turkey's face. We even dusted off the fine china for our feast!

 Our good friends came to celebrate with us, and it was very nice to have great company to enjoy Thanksgiving. The girls did a great job playing together, for the most part! Emma LOVES her friend Brooklyn's daddy. He was reading the little princesses a pre-dinner story in their princess tent.

 After our guests left, the kids were a little wound up and wanted to play a bit more before bedtime. They were playing "horsey" with Felix. Emma had a few rides by herself, but once Levi climbed on, Felix just slithered across the floor. When Emma asked him to get up and trot around, Felix said he couldn't because of Levi.......

 So she threw him off!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I just so happened to snap the shot! Caught on camera kid!!!

Friday morning, instead of risking our lives shopping for some great deal in an overcrowded store, we opted to have fun at the Providence Children's Museum with our friends and give Felix some time to clean out the basement relax.

 Look at my little stud! He was great. My big boy- played on his own, interested in the toys instead of just throwing random items across the room, climbed and crawled around, and pretty much did good listening! It was all fun & games.... until a certain toddler peed in their pants and mommy got a little annoyed : {

Lexi & Levi racing to the top as Emma cheers them on!

 After changing Emma's pants, and washing Levi's hands he dipped in the "still filled with a stranger's urine toilet", we decided to call it quits. It was a nice feeling to know that when I got home, Felix would be there. We put the kids down for naptime and I went out to run a few errands. Then, the neighbors came over to help us polish off the leftovers from Thanksgiving.

After Emma performed her show for our guests, she graciously offered to read them a book while Brayden had an after dinner drink.

And Levi chose to read a novel of his own :)