A Table of Thanks

Welcome to my Thanksgiving Table!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to do a table for. I won at the local fair with a Thanksgiving table this year, but oh! how I wish it could have looked like this one! They have very strict rules about centerpieces and what is on the table and spacing, etc...so I could never do it like this.

I'm really happy.

When I won, I won $25, so I took that to Marshall's and purchased the turkey plates. I only got four and four salad plates, and hope next year to add to the collection. The leaf placemats I use every year. I made the napkin rings last year. They say either Thank You or Family. The wicker chargers are new this year. The pumpkin bowls are from Walmart. The pumpkin mugs were either Kohls or Ross a few years ago...can't rember.

Usually my son Liam has a place setting just like everyone else, but he made a placemat and hat in preschool, so they're there. Also, my two year old niece won't be coming and I love the kids Thanksgiving dish that I have, so Liam gets that, too.

He also made some Indians in class, which go really well with the turkey my husband made in preschool that his mother gave me!

And my favorite tradition is that every year after dinner, we write what we are thankful for on the tablecloth. It is such a sweet tradition. My mom and I are going to spend the next year emroidering over the writing. It will take a long time to catch up--this is year five. But after that it won't be so hard to do. We've traced the hands of the littles, too. And one big. I saw my sister in law's outline of her hand that says "Age 30" on it as I was ironing last night.

For more awesome tables, click here

So the fun begins

As I said a few pathetic posts ago, Liam has started preschool. We were so excited to discover that one of the most highly recommended preschools from friends was at a church not a half a mile down the road from our new house. We checked it out and liked it a lot. We planned for Liam to go last year, but potty training wasn't to be, so we looked forward to this fall when he would start. I was so excited for him. We had a trial run with Vacation Bible School, which mostly went ok. I mean, he did have a full-on melt-down on day two. And day three they said he didn't listen to the Bible stories at all, but simply ran around in circles.
I asked him why he didn't listen. "I did, mama!" and he proceeded to tell me the stories in their entirety, and sing the songs to boot. "But were you sitting down to listen? on your bummy?"
"No, mama! I thought it was running time. I can do two things at once, you know..."
In retrospect six hours a day for a solid week might not have been a good way to try things out...
still he survived it, and appeared to like it...
so we thought that three days a week, three hours a day would be a good foray into school.
I was worried when we dropped him off that day. Worried and sad. I mean, he was going to belong to someone else for part of the day. No longer would he be entirely ours. I saw those cubbies with their names on them....and the flag where they would say the pledge of allegiance.... it was all too much for me. I was now the mom of a school-aged kid.
HE wasn't worried in the least. HE tripped off away from us, barely lifting his cheek for a kiss. School was great.
In those first few weeks, we heard such praise from his teacher "He's so creative. He's so smart. He's always the first one to use his manners. You're doing such a good job with him."

and then one day we picked him up and she said "Uhm... I need to talk to you."

My sweet, creative, smart boy hit a girl at school.

We talked a lot about how he should choose other things to do when he's upset. We let him choose. "What else could you do with your hands instead of hitting when you're mad?"
"I know! I could clap my hands!"
so the next day when he got angry with her he reached his arms out and clapped vigorously in her face.
That's my child. King of the loophole.
Anyway, we worked hard and thinking up things like walk away, think of Disneyland... etc. and the most important of all: Let Miss T handle it. She's the teacher.

So the girl threw his ice cream toy the next day, but he came home proudly saying "I let Miss T handle it."

When his class pictures arrived the other day, I was curious... which of these adorable girls is the one my boy can't manage to get along with? Which girl is the one you got angry with Liam? "I wasn't angry mama" "ok... which one played with the barn in a way that you didn't want her to?" "I wonder, Mama" "ok...which one is the one you hit?" "I don't know Mama"
I turned to el husbando and said, "I wonder if at another house somewhere in the Valley some mother is saying "Which of these boys is the one that hit you?"
anyway, I let it go, but this morning he said "I'll ask Miss T which girl I hit"

I panicked. No no no no no THere's no need for that-- I just wanted to see which girl it was because everyone has good inside them and I want you to practice being her friend and finding the good in her.

"Ok. I'll ask Miss T what the good in that girl is."

ugh.

Halloween

Liam has been practicing for Halloween for days now. Our pirate skeleton, Jack, has been knocking on the door to Liam's "house" (ie. the downstairs bathroom) and trick or treating. Liam fills his pumpkin with candy and tells him to go to the "next house" (this game goes on forever... just so you know).

On Halloween morning Liam got up bright and early and ran to the front upstairs window. He came back, climbed in bed with us (I looked at the clock then and saw that it was six am) and said "I'm afraid to report that there is no one out there trick or treating!"

I had to laugh. Boy that child knows the calendar...and he is very literal. If it is Halloween, then we'd better hit the streets!

First we made some Halloween themed foods... Bonies, jack o'lantern pie, and snake sandwiches. The family came over and we carved pumpkins, had story time and played. Then we headed off to Trunk or Treat where Liam and Io bounced in the bounce house, bowled and played some other games before Liam put on his washing machine costume and we hit the trunks for Trunk or Treat.

Afterward, we trick or treated at a few houses on our street, and then for the rest of the night Liam stood at our front door yelling trick or treat every time someone knocked. He'd run to the door so excited as if he were the one getting the candy.We had SO many trick or treaters. There was a line to the door for awhile there...I don't even know why...

Today we put Halloween to bed. Collected all the Halloween decorations and put them in the bin. I went upstairs to facebook for a bit and I heard a rustling in the fireplace and then "Santa Claus won't be able to fit in this chim-eh-ny!"

I guess we've moved on to Christmas...

Halloween Table

I love, love, love my Halloween table things so much that I usually use glass plates so that you can see everything. I love how it turned out this year. I didn't buy anything new this year--no decor at all--except for some Halloween juice glasses at Disney, which I don't know if you can see in these pictures. I'm trying to get through the holiday seasons without buying too many new decorations. We'll see how that goes!
I especially love my napkin rings. They're Mary Englebreit and I only have four. Someday I'm going to be on the hunt for more. Oh! I just remembered last year I bought ghostie ones on clearance... wonder where they are??
The napkins are from Khols several years ago. I had thought I purchased six. When I got home , there were only five. When I got back to Khols, there were no more. We usually have more than five anyway, so I just mix and match. The Trick or Treat pumpkin and witch's shoes candle sticks are from Target in years passed. I think the jack o lantern runner is as well. I can't remember where I got the three ghosties... maybe Tenderheart??
And, of course, the paper lanterns are from Disney world. I love love love them!

And if you're wondering what we usually eat at our Halloween Table... Here is our traditional feast. Snake sandwich, bonies (brownies shapes like bones), jack o lantern pie...

and of course side dishes, but they were boring!