Macy's Parade, Memories and Delicacies

I was so excited this Thanksgiving morning. Why? Excited about a wonderful meal? Gathering together with family? A day to sleep in? Well, while those are all true, I was most excited because my boys, ALL three of them, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with me! I absolutely love this parade and I've never been able to pass along the excitement of it to Joel, Evan and Drew, but this year they actually watched it and liked it. (I don't think they quite loved it, but there's always next year.)

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday but it really doesn't stir up a lot of emotion for me. I told my mom this and she agreed. We think it's because for many of my Thanksgivings as a child my dad had to work so we just celebrated with a meal whenever Dad was off (maybe the day before or after). There is one childhood year for which I do have a distinct memory: right after school let out on Wednesday at 3:10 p.m., instead of getting on the school bus all three of us kids were picked up at school by Mom and Dad (in the big blue van) and we drove straight from school to Grandma's house in Columbus two hours away. For some reason that was so much fun to go straight from school to Grandma's.

One Thanksgiving tradition my mom started that we still do is to take turns telling what we are most thankful this year. I asked the kids what they are most thankful for this year and they responded:
Joel: "My family, friends, God & Jesus, and food & water."
Evan: "God, Mom and my family."
Drew: "Candy."

This year I am most thankful for my dad and mom, for a wonderful husband and three smart and loving boys, and an amazing extended family. With the death of my dad this year it really hit home what a wonderful family God has blessed me with. I love them with all of my heart!

One final thought: I cannot blog about Thanksgiving without mentioning my favorite Thanksgiving delicacies:
my mom's stuffing, Grandma Heibel's pecan pie and my mother-in-law's corn casserole. Oh. my. gosh. They are the BEST! Gotta run and go put on my bigger jeans.

Hillbilly, Ninja and Hawaiian Tourist

Two days before Halloween Ben took Joel shopping for a costume. Two phone calls to me later, still no costume. Every costume came with a mask and Joel did NOT want to wear one. Joel finally decided on a costume -- one that I really did not approve of, but I kept my mouth shut because I was trying to not control the situation -- yeah, a first for me, but it was not a hill to die on. Anyway...the next night as Joel was getting into bed, he decided he hated the costume (it was uncomfortable) and he wasn't going to wear it to the school Halloween party the next day. I suggested I pick him up from school before the party, "NO." I finally came up with a "Hawaiian tourist" idea from things we had around the house. It worked; he liked the costume. For the school parade he even carried a surf board he had made months earlier out of cardboard. So it ended up being a cute, homemade costume. Yeah for Mom!

Then there was Evan's costume. About a month ago he came up to me and announced that he wanted to be a hillbilly for Halloween. I told him I didn't know what a hillbilly looked like and he simply looked at me and said, "Google 'What does a hillbilly wear?'"

He was right! I'm not exactly sure why, but there are several websites that answer this question. (Why in the world???).

So when Evan first dressed in his costume and went to school, he came home and told me the kids in his class thought he was a farmer.

He then gave me instructions that he needed patches on his overalls and he wasn't going to wear the hat. Here is attempt #2 at dressing like a hillbilly. I think Evan was right, this is a little better.

Drew: He wanted to be a pirate until the night before Halloween when he decided to be a Ninja. Thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa White who have given the boys TONS of costumes in the past. Drew had SO many choices!

The only problem was that Drew had a 104 degree temperature yesterday and now he's trick-or-treating. H1N1 alert: Drew is running the neighborhood and looks like this:After trick-or-treating for 70 minutes, Joel came home and proclaimed that he was done. When I asked him why he didn't want to keep getting candy he responded, "I'm happy."

Good answer.

Meanwhile, the hillbilly and the ninja stayed out with Dad for two hours (apparently they weren't happy until they had enough candy to choke a snake!).

Evan came home and weighed himself after eating lots of candy. He was amazed to discover that he'd actually LOST a pound! I told him it was from all the walking he'd done. ??? Sounded good to me. :-)

Drew's On Two Wheels!

I am so proud of Drew -- he learned to ride a two-wheeler and he's only 4 years old! Yahoo for Drew!

Drew had been riding his bike with training wheels to school almost every day to drop off Evan and Joel, and then we would make the return trip in the afternoon to pick-up Joel. The total for each day is 3 miles! When he got really good at pedaling, I moved the training wheels up a little so that he had to balance a little more. Then one day I took the training wheels off completely. After chasing Drew through the house (he took off RUNNING when he saw me take them off), I grabbed him, put him on the bike, gave him a push and OFF he went down the street! I couldn't believe how well he did! As soon as he got back to where I was standing he said, "Can I show Kristen?" (our neighbor) and then "Can I tell Kaitlin and Whitney and Joshua?" (church friends). He wanted the world to know that he was on two wheels!

As Drew was riding around, Evan asked, "How many (old) was Joel when he learned to ride a bike?" Then, "How many is Drew?" Then came, "I should be able to do it too." So Evan got on the bike, grabbed the handle-bars and immediatly jumped back OFF the back. "Instead I'm not." haha! I guess peer-pressure doesn't affect Evan too much.

Here is Drew showing his "V" for victory sign