Thanksgiving 2015

Leading up to Thanksgiving, we spent some time making crafts and treats.

Kate drew this turkey:

I made pumpkin pie scented play dough and helped Kate turn it into a turkey.

Kate helped me test out a turkey dinner craft before we put together fifty craft bags for the children of homeless families to create their own turkey dinners at the Thanksgiving dinner held at North.

 We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and had a feast.

These pictures were taken on Thanksgiving.  I meant to take more.  It was a nice day.  We are very fond of the games that have been added the last few years.  The turkey gobble & strut and name the turkey are both a blast!  We laugh a lot!

We were all VERY excited to spend time with Karen, Mark & Hannah over the holiday weekend. Hannah is so cute; Kate talks about her often.  I wish they lived closer!

I am very thankful for this crew, love them!

We should have cleaned up a bit for that picture, maybe fixed the girls' hair and had Collin change his shirt!!!

Cousins

We were all SO VERY EXCITED to spend time with Karen, Mark, and Hannah over the last few days.  My children are so in love with their baby cousin.  Kate was funny; she was so excited to see Hannah and she set up all of her toys for them to play together.  She will be thrilled when Hannah is a little older and can actually play with her.

Hannah is so adorable, and maybe the happiest baby I have ever seen.  I wish they lived closer.

Tom's cousin, Ryan, was also in town over the holiday weekend, and we spent a few hours visiting with him, Narcy, Logan, and Elaina.

Kate and Reagan both enjoyed playing with Logan and Elaina.  Kate and Logan are only three days apart; it's always fun to see them together.

Reagan was quite the entertainer for this crew.

My kids don't get much cousin time, but they love the time they do get!

Hannah!!!

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in December, and while pictures and videos are lots of fun, there is nothing better than the real thing.  Well, they live about eight hours away by car, so we weren't able to be there to meet Hannah.  Reagan, Kate and I were fortunate to have the opportunity to meet up with Karen, Mark, and Hannah in Stockbridge last weekend.  We all stayed at the Red Lion Inn.  The Inn was very nice.

This was the view from our hotel room:

We had this cool light fixture above our bed.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the hotel.  There was a very cool gift shop with fun, unique things like:

We found a rocking horse to ride.

An old fashioned elevator was a big highlight for these beautiful girls.  We rode in it five times.  I thought it was funny to see people walking up the stairs faster than the elevator could make the trip.

Each hallway in the Inn had areas with different themes, like the Santa section.

Simon (the cat) is a permanent resident at the Inn.  We saw him twice while we were there, but he wasn't interested in hanging out with us.  Once when Karen and Mark stayed at the Inn, Simon spent the whole night in their room.

Reagan was SUPER excited about the pool.  We arrived around dinner time on Friday, and Reagan asked many times when we could go to the pool.  Well, as you can see, the pool is OUTSIDE!  It is heated, but still, it's OUTSIDE!  The temperature was definitely in the single digits, but I promised to brave the pool.  On Saturday afternoon, we got all ready and headed to the pool.  Reagan went in first and I could tell she was cold.  Mark followed her in, and he said the water was cool.  They were in there for all of three minutes, maybe.  Kate and I never made it into the pool.  

We all decided that the hot tub was a better idea.

Can you believe that I have written this much already without a single picture of Hannah?  Well, I decided to save the best part of our trip for last.  She was definitely the highlight of our trip.  Reagan and Kate are over the moon excited to have a cousin, and they are even more excited that she is a girl. The boys are excited to have a baby cousin too, but this was a girls weekend.  Hopefully, they will meet her this summer.

Reagan did a great job holding Hannah, reading to her, playing with her, and just marveling in the wonder that is "baby Hannah".  The girls call her "baby Hannah" all the time; I assume that will change someday.

It was very sweet to see Kate interacting with Hannah.  She was gentle and loving and totally in love. When Kate finally had a chance to hold her, Hannah started to cry and Kate opened her arms rolling Hannah right out.  Luckily, Karen and I were right there.  It was kind of funny.  Poor Kate; she didn't want any part of the crying.

 

I was amazed by Hannah.  She is beautiful and perfect in every way.  What a good baby too!  She was so content most of the time, and she really seemed to enjoy having the girls entertain her.  Even though we were only with them for a few short days, I loved seeing my sister as a mom.  I knew she would be great, so I wasn't surprised, but seeing her in that role was better than I ever imagined.

Karen's Baby Shower

Last weekend, Dad (Papa) and I traveled to New York to visit Karen and Mark.  Their baby shower was Friday night, and it was great to be there.  That's right, I am going to be an aunt in just a few weeks!!!  I'm so very excited and can't wait to meet my first niece or nephew!

 Ha ha!!!!!!  I had to double check that this was indeed a gag gift; you never know today!

We also went to the George Eastman house and stopped at this farm to buy a pie.  After we bought the pie, we went through these tee pees to check out the jack o' lanterns.

 The kids would have liked walking through here!

This was the first time since I've had children that I visited Karen and Mark without kids in tow!

It was a fun weekend.

Around Here

Reagan performed in her year end gymnastics show last Friday night.

She did a great job.  All of her hard work has really paid off, especially on bars.  Her favorite event is floor, and that seems to be her strength right now.  She struggled with bars for a while, but she worked and worked and worked at it, and now she is doing really well!  I am SO impressed with her determination and dedication to this sport.  Here is a video of her on the bars:

On Saturday morning, Collin, Reagan, Kate and I woke up early and drove to Mystic, Connecticut to meet up with Auntie Karen and Uncle Mark at the Mystic Aquarium.

We all enjoyed the aquarium.  Kate squealed with excitement when she saw the Beluga whales.

It was very cute.

The girls both enjoyed the touch tanks, and Reagan fed a stingray.

Just like last year, we spent some time in the bird house feeding the birds.

We had our first trip to Grandpa's pool this week.  I'm hoping to go at least once a week.  Kate held on to me most of the time; I'm hoping that she will be a bit more independent in the pool by the end of the summer!