We had lunch here as usual on Thanksgiving day.  I cooked the turkey, dressing, gravy, and apple crisp; everyone else made all the delicious side dishes & other desserts.  I’m pretty sure we all ate way too much – I know I did!  Here are Boo & Lesley listening to Elise read the book that June wrote for her to celebrate the day

The traditional group shot, after we are all so stuffed we can hardly get up and down the steps:  Bottom row:  Mason, Adam, Charlie, Little Hope, June, Lesley; Second row:  Boo, Allison, Derek, Elise, Jenny; Third row:  Shea, Meg, Mike, Cinnamon, Addie; Back row: Jeff, Dennis, Lee.  Andrew was home sick with strep throat; Lindee had to work & her family celebrated with Jackson’s folks.  We missed them, but had an awesome day.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving the kids were out of school, and four of the six grand ones spent the day here.  Charlie & Adam got to come & hang out with Mallory & Clara, which was fun, because normally Char & Adam aren’t here that often.  We spent the day making crepes.  It was literally a day long affair, by the time we made the chicken and mushroom filling in the morning, then after lunch made the batter, & then after nap actually did the cooking.  Here is Charlie adding the water to the blender for the batter.

After we finally finished the crepes, before the kids went outside to play with Jeff, we did a science experiment – making Cartesian Divers, just like we’d done with June & Mason earlier.  And just like with those two, the kids loved it – once we got them all to work :-).  It was such a good day having the four of them here together.

Tuesday, the last day of school before the kids had Thanksgiving break, was their incentive celebration for Bethany Elementary School – they all wore their Clemson or Carolina gear, & had a big tailgate party outside to celebrate the big game coming up.  Our girls are Gamecocks through and through

Last Sunday I kept the early nursery at our church, but had gotten Sunday school and the second service covered, so we – Charlie & Adam had spent the night after Parents Night Out the evening before – headed to Rock Hill to Woodland UMC, where Elise was singing a duet with her good, good buddy Sarah.  Amazing Grace.  They did a beautiful job.

Last Saturday night my friend Sherry Adams & I, as part of the Kingdom Investment Project at church, hosted a Parents Night Out to raise money.  We had twelve kids, & it went really well.  They played for a good while in the gym, with all the balls & other fun things there, and then we had a craft time, where we made Pilgrim Hat Crayon Holders.  My sister-in-law Amy had sent me the instructions, and it was a huge hit.

A little more gym play, and then we had snack before movie time.  The evening really did turn out good.

What a good time last Friday was.  We tried making peanut brittle with June and Mason that afternoon.  It had turned out so yummy with Mallory & Clara a couple of weeks before that I thought we’d try it again.  We were going to try making some pretzel brittle though, since June is allergic to peanuts, and I thought we’d give the microwave recipe a try.  I’d heard so much about how good and easy it was.  That did NOT turn out to be the case for us.  We burned up two batches before we gave up!  Here is June, though, when we thought it still might be a success

That evening, Jeff & I went with Joe – the guy I work for – and his wife Sandy to see their son Slade perform with his band, Amigo, in Charlotte.  He & Andrew grew up together, & were very good friends when they were little.  Joe & Sandy had asked us several times to go with us to see him, but it just had never worked out, so I was glad we finally got the chance to go.  There were three bands, & it was Slade’s birthday, so he got to pick out which bands he wanted to play with his.  They were all very good, & we had a fun, very late :-), night.  Here is Slade afterwards with Joe & Sandy.  It was such a fun evening.

Still catching up on old pictures – these are from Tuesday a week ago.  Instead of coming here after I picked the girls up at school, we went to their house.  Lindee got off work early, & brought them a Thanksgiving surprise – a blow up Snoopy dressed up as a pilgrim.  There they are out in the yard setting it up.

That evening I took Mallory & her BFF Lacy Emma to the Sock Hop at the library in Clover.  Here she is all dressed up & ready to head out the door.  She was so cute!

Since I was out of town the weekend before, when we normally would’ve celebrated Lindee’s birthday, we combined hers with Jeff’s on the 15th.  She & her girls were here, & Addie & Lee – June & Mason were out of town with Lee’s mom, & Meg & her family.  Here they are getting ready to jointly blow out the candles.  Happy birthday to them!

These kids do love doing a science experiment.  I wish I knew enough about science to explain some of the principles behind the things we do.  A week or so ago we made the divers out of straws and clay.  Then we put them in a two liter bottle filled with warm water.  When you squeeze the bottle, the diver sinks to the bottom.  Huge hit.

Decorating their bottles when we were finished – all kinds of fish and seaweed and mermaids appeared :-).