Jack the Elf has arrived

Our Elf on the Shelf elf's name is Jack.  Kate & Will received Jack when Kate was 2 yrs old and Will was 2 months old. It's hard to believe he's been around that long.  He always arrives at our house the day after Thanksgiving.  This yr. the doorbell rang at 7:15am with Jack on our doorstep.  The kids were SO excited to see him again!  Our elf has gotten a little crazy in his old age.  Here the kids discovered him in a bathtub of marshmallows one morning.

 

Another morning, that crazy elf got all of Kate & Will's underwear and hung them on the Christmas tree!  They didn't have any underwear when they went to get dressed that morning.  Then they discovered where they were and boy did they giggle and giggle with this one!  (Good thing that Elf didn't get a hold of mommy's underwear & bras too!  That would have been really bad!)

And the craziest stunt so far was when Jack got ahold of 2 of Kate's markers.  He decided to get a little color happy!

Kate & Will woke up with marker ALL OVER THEIR FACES!!!  They were absolutely Dumbfounded by this one!  Yet, so excited about it.  They would let me wipe it off their faces so they could show their friends at school.   WOW is our elf crazy this year!

Opa flew in for a visit the 1st weekend in December.  Kate has a fun little game called Headbands, and she talked Opa into playing it with her.

The object of the game is to ask as few questions as possible to guess and figure out what is on the picture card you have on your forehead.

Will loved playing too.  Although many times he would get impatient and shout out the name of the object he saw on the other players cards before they could figure it out.  Bless his little heart!

Opa really liked playing the game.  I think there is an adult version of the game.  Possible xmas gift idea?

That afternoon we decided to head to the bowling alley.  Kate & Will love to go bowling. 

Will did much better this time.  He actually stayed focused on the game for quite some time.  Every 10 minutes he would ask when we were going to get a snack, but he did seem to have a lot of fun when it was his turn to bowl.   Here's a little video of them bowling. 

On another note, Will was the Star of the Week at Preschool a few weeks ago.  We gathered many of his favorite things and pictures to share with the class.  He was so excited that it was his special week.  On the last day he got his special crown and certificate.   He was so proud!

Here's a picture of his Star Board at school.   His friends loved the picture of him buried in the sand during our trip to Florida last year.   Way to Go Will!

Thanksgiving Prep & Fun.

So sorry, you have to turn your head for this photo.  I could not get it to rotate for the life of me!   November Thanks started out with a salute to Veterans at Kate's school.   "Give a hand to Veterans." was the theme.  Kate called her Great Grandpa Harvey and asked him what his favorite colors were to decorate her Thank You Hand in honor of him.  She worked very hard on this project.  Her hand was displayed on a huge quilt at the school. 

We started out our Thanksgiving celebrating with Great Grandma Van Zee in Pella.  I volunteered to bring an apple crisp for the dessert.  I got a fancy dancy apple peeler last yr and the kids loved it!  The spiral apples were so much fun to make.

Will was determined to help with the project as well.

Ta Da!

On Thanksgiving we went to W'burg and celebrated with Brett's Mom and the rest of the family.  Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera.  But like always we had a ton of great food, chatting and exchange of xmas lists for the kiddos.
On Saturday Brett & I hosted our 1st Thanksgiving at our house.  My mom was determined to teach me how to cook a turkey.  With her guidance and a great recipe from a friend we accomplished the task!  We were so proud!

I found out halfway through the day that my parents had a little bit of anxiety with my cooking plan.  When I told them I didn't put the turkey in the oven until 7:30 that morning and the plan was to eat at noon they got a bit nervous.   However we really weren't off by much.  We had to cook the bird about 30 min. longer than what we had planned for, but it worked out fine.  My dad is the gravy pro (with mom's guidance) in the family.  I gave them the reigns on the gravy. 

My Mom did a great job as Supervisor of the chefs.  She is such an AMAZING cook.  I have learned everything I know about cooking from her. 

We broke out our chargers and table cloths for dinner.  I don't think I have used them since before we had kids!  A little dusting was in order before setting the table.

After the turkey coma went away we played a few family games.  Fibber was the game of choice this year.  The funny glasses and nose pieces made it pretty fun. 

No a week of working out to burn off all those extra calories before we head to Iowa City next weekend for our final Thanksgiving Dinner with our Iowa City family!!!