Happy Thanksgiving to you all

Thanksgiving family meal. Turkey, trimmings and the full works. The morning was spend at CVS for the Thanksgiving early Black Friday sale (that was Tracy and the girls). We ended up with a ton of stuff and a $35 profit. Daddy was working late into Thanksgiving eve so he got to sleep in.

The afternoon was spent outside playing and enjoying the 60 degree pleasant weather. God it is good to live in the south.

I did go to bed with the intention of getting up very early (5am) and heading to the stores to get the Black Friday shopping deals but I had a second glass of wine and was going to have the girls with me - somehow a lie in seemed more appealing! Daddy had to head to work but he managed to get in some Black Friday shopping before work!!

Mama's halo is a shinning

The food pantry at the Loaves and Fishes charity that I volunteered at on Monday. It was all very last minute, I offered to help deliver the food that the preschool had collected and helped to stay and weight the donated food. For tax reasons they weight the donations so that people can claim the tax back on it. Orders from social services are faxed in and there is a set number of items and type of items that are put into the orders for the families, it all depends on the number of people in the family etc. Very well organized and very busy. Everyone is doing food drives and delivering the donations for Thanksgiving feasts. This year there is an even greater demand because of the economy. From what I saw, some very kind people have stepped up to the plate so that others have something on their plate.

Boxes and boxes of sorted items that have been delivered from a central warehouse.

One room of donated stuff that is yet to be sorted out - a mammoth task and all done by an army of volunteers.

Soybean's Thanksgiving school party

Praying!!!

The whole class performed two songs that were very cute. One was "My God is so big, so big and so mighty" and the other was "Eleven fat turkeys are we". Sawyer was very er, um loud and animated in her performance.

Woodland walk

Ian, Freya, Drum and I during "snack break" on our family walk last weekend. The new section of McAlpine Creek opened a few weeks ago so we thought we would give it a go. Lovely. Only did a mile or so out and then back. It starts and ends at the Rea Road Trader Joes, Starbucks, CVS shops - great for toilet access and some coffee at the end of a long trek. We also visited the new bread store / bakery that open - delicious and our new personal favorite. The Cinnamon chip bread is to die for.

The team.

Snack break - the most important time of the day!

Harris Teeter and Bloom triple coupon shopping spree

$13 total, more than it used to cost but Harris Teeter have changed their computer systems so that we can't make money "buying" their products. It is still fun though and you still get a ton of great stuff for very little money. The picture doesn't show all the fresh and frozen items like milk, veggies, yogurt etc that were included in the total. All the (50!!) or so cans of soup and tomatoes are organic. I cleaned out my pantry before this shop and was happy to donate 4 huge boxes of food to the Food drive at school. The rest of it? , we will amazingly work our way through in no time at all. (Darn those children are developing hollow legs and are eating me out of house and home). Although, even we will not be able to work our way through 45 boxes of cake mix.

The Never-ending tinfoil nearly ended

Oh Maren!! Can you see her screaming because I caught her in the process of pulling all the tinfoil off the never ending roll? We might only have a couple of years supply left. What were you thinking girl?

Flyball Demo at the Scottish Farm Sheepdog Trials

Tracy got to spend the day at the farm with her flyball bunch. Drum, Freya and Tracy are still flyball wanna bees (still learning!), but at least I got the chance to boxload (picture above) and start the races. Drum came along for the socializing and got to see his foster daddy Michael and some of the other border collie rescue people.

For those of you who know Freya, you might think that that is her in the picture - it's not! That is Molly - "her twin" lookalike, who is 2 years old and fast, fast, fast. We can only aspire to a turn like hers - sigh. Someday.

Sexy Sadie the Spider and some of her friends - in daylight

These are our Halloween spiders that invade the outside of our house every year. Darn pests. This year they even left marks on the house where I made the mistake of painting their eyes in-situ - oops. Hopefully I'll find some chemical that will take it off.

Sexy Sadie and her friend Romay.

The Amazing Maize Maze

The Girls at the start of the Amazing Maize Maze at Rural Hill Scottish farm (a couple of weeks ago). We did this last year and it was hot and the corn was only about 6 foot high - way higher this year so we couldn't cheat and look over the top. The idea is you are timed, in teams, are given individual flags, enter the maize and try to negotiate your way through it as quickly as possible while collecting puzzle pieces and clues. Great day out with kids.

I can't get this picture showing the correct way up - glitch in the system but ...... It is us at the end of 1 and a half hours of negotiating our way through the corn maze. We even got most of the clues, puzzle pieces and had a snack, all in that time. We are at the top of a bridge leading out of the maze and behind us is the field with lots of flags (teams) wondering around getting lost.

The girls after completing the children's "No left turn" maze.

Romay aka Little Bear the Native American

Romay and MacKenzie (one of our neighborhood kids) at school during the Thanksgiving lunch. Amazing what you can make out of a Harris Teeter paper bag.

Mum and Romay - check out the macaroni necklace.

Romay and her class dressed up in the school cafeteria

Fall Farm Day Trip

Sawyer and Maren selecting a pumpkin - Do you know how long it takes for a 2 and 3 year old to find "the perfect" pumpkin? About 20 minutes, then they grow bored and want a snack.

It looks a bit like the old Wild West but that is the hayride wagon in the background. This farm is only about 5 minutes from our house and we go strawberry picking there in the summer. A sweet little spot.

Us in the wagon, going to visit to animals. Man, those hay bales are prickly to sit on but they do help cushion the bumps.

This was me trying to get a good picture of the girls - I gave up after a few minutes. It was just not going to happen!