Thanksgiving Break!! Woot Woot.

Thanksgiving

I hear stories about people hating the holidays because families are always fighting, bickering about whose house to go to, old sibling rivalries carried into adulthood ect. Down here we don't have family (Except Loopy's brother) so we get to choose who we spend the holidays with! AND because I like to cook big meals they all come here. Since we moved to Florida 10yrs ago we have had a rotating group of people on Thanksgiving. Joe, Jon, Corey, Ballge, Pete, Brad, Ian, Jessica, Mark, the list goes on. 

Nom Nom Nom

This year were graced with the presence of Karry and her kids (Luke, Mel, and Natalie), Grubbs, and John (Loopy's brother). I gotta say it went REALLY well. I didn't take many pictures cause some of them are camera shy and I didn't want to make everyone uncomfortable. 

One Cool Turkey

Every year Logan names our Turkey. This year his name was "Wishbone". Previous names were "Butter" "Gobbler" and "Jesus" Gotta love traditions! 

A few more pictures from our awesome family holiday!

Kendal LOVES Grubbs, she told me to take this picture so we can remember him when he leaves.

Luke helped me eat the eggs. Karry makes amazing deviled eggs. They are my favorite and I would have taken on the whole tray by myself! He was also awesome enough to play with Logan most of the day. I might have to have this boy over more often...

These girls are so freakin' sweet. I might keep them too! The little blond one can eat as many Hawaiian rolls as I can and THAT is impressive.

I should say something about this but I really can't think of anything other than the fact he was mad at me because I couldn't draw tiny little faces just the way he wanted them under all the hats. Sometimes I just can't win.

Part of Logan's holiday break assignment was to write down his favorite thing about Thanksgiving Break. (more about this later)

"My favorite thing I did on Thanksgiving was playing football. I played football with Uncle John and Luke. My football was yellow and blue. It sung the Michigan fight song"

Black Friday

I went shopping at Target late Thursday night. I WAS going to shop the night away with Jodi but after 6 hours in line for a tv at Wal*Mart she gave up and went home. Anyway, I was in and out in less than an hour. I mostly went for the people watching because I did my shopping online while Wishbone was cooking in the oven. Loopy chose to go to work on that Friday because we are still getting paid hourly and its easy money. They did close the business at 3pm AGAIN and the bosses told them to go enjoy friends and family (Same thing happened on Wednesday!) I sort of love the real world. 

Friday night Sean came over for a bit. When he was here the other night he wasn't feeling well but luckily he was up and ready to go this time. At one point I was chillin' on the couch and heard some serious commotion from Kendal's room. 

When I got there I discovered that the boys had started a war with Loopy and Kendal involving ray guns, Care Bears, and a Nerf Gun. 

They were REALLY serious about this fight. I am still not sure who won....

But this made me laugh.

Saturday

Adriana told me earlier in the week that she would take the kids for the day so me and Loopy could spend some time together. FOR NO GOOD REASON!! So I thought hell yes! We woke up, packed them up and promptly dumped them off at her house for the day. After we do this we always look at each other and think "wow, its really quiet" Then we listen to vulgar music and crack dirty jokes for a while. 

First stop, coffee on the beach 

at Beach House Beanery

 We did a little shopping at a consignment store, cause I am dutch and the kids won't know the difference.

Then Loopy wanted to go on a woodsy adventure. So we went to Bullow Plantation. We have been hopelessly looking for a hiking trail we took with Logan when he was a year old. This was not it, but ended up being pretty cool anyway.

It is much quieter hiking without kids. So much so that we were able to walk right up to this armadillo and watch him dig in the dirt for about 20 min. I also took some video, but its not that interesting.
You had to be there.

This tree was all sorts of confused on how to grow in a strait line. I was going to sit in the hole down there but it was filled with spiders and other things that we consider "too much nature".

We were headed to play with Nooks and shop for kid's books at Books a Million when I saw a new music store. It was in this large complex owned by the local Russians. Infact the place was called "Z Music Store" So when you say it with a Russian accent its even better. 

Image shamelessly stolen from their facebook page

ANYWAY, the guys in there were really nice and Loopy got to play a really nice hand wired tube amp that he now wants to buy. It's only $1000 and had a great sound but alas, we need to get our car out of the body shop next week.. which also costs $1000. 

I took a video of that too, but the sound on my phone sucks horribly so I won't subject you all to that. Just know it was fantastic and the Russian was impressed with his playing. 

We also went to Sakura for dinner. Which is amazing and delishous every damn time. It was nice to enjoy the meal without maintaining the kids. I even had a chance to people watch. Which I LOVE. After 12 years its still SO much fun to just hang out with Loopy. He's pretty awesome. It was a great day

Sunday

This day was not fun or awesome. My kids were whiny a-holes. That's right, I said it. I blog all the time about how awesome or funny and hilarious my kids are. Every few months they have a day when they forgot how to listen, or do things for themselves, or do any freakin' thing I ask of them. Even if that thing is sit down and shut your pie hole for 2 seconds instead of beating your sister/brother with toys and yelling in my face. If your kids have never had an A-hole day.. you are lying. 

For instance, Logan had some homework that I didn't bother to look at until about 3pm on the last day of vacation. My bad. He cried on the floor for an HOUR because he didn't want to read the paragraph his teacher wrote about his assignment. It was "Too much words" Mind you he read TWO Diary of a Wimpy Kid books this week. Your argument is invalid child. The assignment was to write a short story about your Thanksgiving (See above) and choose a scene from a book you read recently and make a scene in a box or on cardboard. You would think he had to write a dissertation and animate it.

We WERE going to see a movie at 5:30 but since everyone was screaming like banshees at each other I got in the car and went to Target "for groceries" all by myself. Honestly, I sat in my car for about 20 min before I went inside and just listened to the silence. Aaaah. I am not the only one who does this. I know because there was a woman sitting alone in a mini van across from me. This made me feel better for two reasons 

1) I was not the only mother who lost her schmidt on the last day of vacation.

2) She was drinking a glass of wine while enjoying her silence so her day was worse than mine. 

Normally I would be a little judgey about dinking/ driving/ responsible parenting but I guarantee that woman finished her glass and spent at least an hour drinking coffee at the Starbucks listening to her ipod before pretending to do her shopping and went home happy and sober. Its a mom thing. I get it. 

I made the swingset.

I felt better when I got home and the next assignment was a little less stressful. But keeping him focused on this task was like convincing a moth to sit still on a light bulb. We came up with this scene from his latest Wimpy Kid book. 

That red kid is flying off the swing and about to land on the clothespin seesaw and launch the blue kid. 

Monday

I am still without a car. This comes with pros and cons. 

Pro: I get to sleep in again. (this should get 2 or 3 places on the list of pros) 

Con: I have to ask my friends to help me. I am not good at asking ANYONE for help. EVER.

Pro: I get to wear pj's ALL day!!

Con: Me and Kendal are stuck in the house ALL day!!

So we found some things to keep us amused today. I remembered the bag of pipe cleaners, fuzz balls, and googly eyes I got on sale at Target yesterday. SCORE!! We spent that afternoon making creatures and driving them around in rollerskates. 

Note to self:
Have Logan clean that mirror!

Once that got old, Kendal got into Logan's dress up chest. He has some fun stuff in there!

She was shocked to see what she looked like as Spiderman head/ Jessie hat!

Once that got old I remembered that I know how to make Balloon animals and bought a new pump yesterday! 

And hats....

And swords...

AND hats with balloon animals on top!

Loopy was so confused when he got home. Apparently in our 12+ years together I failed to mention that I could do this. He was really excited to get a hat and sword! I can't spill ALL my secrets.. This is what keeps things interesting.