Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada! Today I am most thankful for my family near and far. You are all loved and thought of today! I'm also very thankful for my nice, warm house because there's been snow on the ground since Thursday morning!

Last night we had our big dinner with Joshua's parents and sister. The food was more than plentiful and very, very yummy! I baked the ham all afternoon at our house, complete with a brown sugar glaze. When it was ready we wrapped it up and drove through the gently falling snow to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I also brought along two of my other favourite traditions - sparkling juice and pumpkin bread! Mom had spent the day baking apple pie and pumpkin pie as well as all the other fixins' to go with the ham. We had a fun evening of eating, playing and laughing. After dinner, Grandpa had a good chance to work off some of the calories he took in! The entertainment included:

Horsey rides...

Double Piggy Back rides (this equals about 105 lbs.!)

And an attempt at the tallest shoulder stack ever!
Success! Well, maybe more of disaster waiting to happen, but they were sure having fun!

The big boys (Daddy and Grandpa) also indulged in a little leg wrestling and arm wrestling, much to the amusement of all of us! I will spare them the embarrassment of pictures. I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful, thankful day, whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving Day today or not!

Valentine's Day Tea Party!

On Friday afternoon we had friends over to celebrate our annual Valentine's Day Tea Party with us. I never do things exactly the same way every year, otherwise I'd get bored! This year I kept things very simple, since the rest of my month has been pretty close to insanity! We had a very lovely time with Dawn, Patricia and Jonathan, some new homeschool friends. Patricia is our official new babysitter and the kids just love her! I was very happy they could come with only a 2 day advance notice!

On the menu for this year: cupcakes with pink and white frosting and Valentine sprinkles, those new Oreo Sippers (unwrapped and placed in a glass - it actually looked fancy!), oatcakes with raspberry jam and vanilla rooibos tea. It was all gobbled up quickly, but as politely as possible! The decorations were compliments of Sara's "stuffie" collection. Sky's contribution was to write everyone's names on little heart-shaped place cards. Oh, and they helped make the cupcakes too. They were both very proud!

Aloha Friday #11

It's Aloha Friday! I missed joining in last week because I was away on vacation (see post below for lots of pics!). As you know by now, Aloha Friday is a blogging tradition that originally started with Kailani over on An Island Life. I ask you a simple question, and you answer! It's a great way to interact with family and friends and to meet new bloggy friends along the way! To participate, just head over to Kailani's blog and follow the instructions.

My question this week:

Do you have any special plans for Valentine's Day this year? Any yearly traditions?

Valentine's Day is probably my most favourite holiday of the year! I love the red, pink and white combination, I love making fancy homemade Valentine's, I love making and baking special treats, and I love giving everything away to my friends and family! Yesterday I baked and decorated Valentine cupcakes with the kids, which you can see below. We had fun!

Today I will celebrate my annual tradition, a Valentine's Tea Party! My new homeschool friend, "D" and her two kids will be joining us this afternoon for tea, cupcakes and other goodies! This tradition started when my little sister, Heather was around 2 or 3 years old. I would have been about 19 and I wanted to do something special and "girlie" with her for Valentine's Day. It was a major hit, so the tradition has continued whenever possible! I wish I could be with my sisters today to have my tea party with them. But, I'll see you girls in April and we'll do something then! :-) Tomorrow I have bunches of little treats for Sara and Sky. Then, Joshua and I have a date at one of our favourite restaurants in the late afternoon. I can hardly wait! I hope all of you have a special weekend with the one's you love most!