The {THREE} Thanksgivings 2021

After getting zero extended family Thanksgivings in 2020, we were thrilled at the prospect of getting three in a row in 2021.  

We started with Thanksgiving with the Beelers on Thursday, hosted by Mike's parents.

Getting ready to be gone for three days and two nights....

This was a gamble but it worked and no one messed with the unlocked van or our packages.

Little buddies...

A birthday present for Zayden from the Paredes crew.

I love watching the kids play games.

We spent Thursday night at Papa Curtis and Grandma Cindy's and had Thanksgiving at their house on Friday.

Helping with some prep work...

Mia is always so excited to be involved in the cooking.

So excited to see family!

We don't know why one boy is sitting on another...

A birthday present for Zayden from the Tallman-Smith crew...

Just a few desserts....

Lauren made cocoa balls for the kids and Ev didn't quite understand the concept...

mouth full of cocoa powder

Little boys talking and catching up on each others' lives. 

Zayden brought his birthday Harry Potter book from the Fredericks and Nannie read to him before bed.

It was so nice to have all our people together.

Thankful for this crew!

We spent the night at Grandma and Papa's again and had Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Penny's on Saturday.

The weather was absolutely beautiful.  The Brummer kids got a go-cart for Christmas and everyone took turns riding.

Evie and Mike took a porch nap.  We had a wonderful time but were starting to wear out after three days of fun.

Aunt Penny supervising little drivers.

Grandma Betty dip spoon licker...

We were a bedraggled mess but had a great time! Love the little girls holding hands in the front.

If 2020 taught us anything it's to not take a single family moment for granted in 2021!

Turkey School + Thanksgiving Prep

I kept Evie home from church the Sunday before Thanksgiving out of an over abundance of caution.  I really wanted to have Thanksgiving with our families and needed her to be healthy.  Zayden was having an off morning and stayed home with us also.

Making a handprint tree for her art frame.

Sunday was also tree and house decorating day!

Ev was entranced and I love it.

Our ornaments from Dauphin Island.

Monday was co-op day!  Again, out of caution, Mike took PTO and kept Evie home.  After the breathing flair up the week before we just wanted to be sure she was healthy.

I taught about Edvard Munch in lower elementary art, and then the children and I made pumpkin play-doh.  We worked on forming expressions with the play-doh, based on The Scream painting that Munch did.  

The high school science class had been working for weeks on learning about and making a cave in their classroom.  They completed their project and invited us up for station presentations and a cave tour.  It was amazing.  Hats off to that class and their teacher for their hard work.

Zayden's nap during the big kids' book club.

The kids' poems from literature class.

Ev was happy for play mates when we got back home!

I decided we needed to do some school activities the week of Thanksgiving, since we'd taken off a few days while the floors were being laid.  I did my best to make it fun and turkey themed.  I planned out a few fun things for Evie, too, that I'd done with the other kids a few years back and was humbled at how happy she was to be included.  She loves to be a big girl at the school table.

The front of the cup has a turkey body on it and the pipe cleaners are "feathers."  Evie was able to thread pony beads on and off the feathers.  She did this activity a lot all week.

We read Turkey Trouble and I let the kids choose if they wanted to disguise turkeys.  The three middle kids chose to and then reminded me that we did this activity last year.  Oops.

Mia's unicorn turkey.

Zayden's pizza turkey, complete with a pizza box.

Brief intermission of activities for dentist appointments for Mike, the oldest two, and Evalynn.

So proud of her sticker and new toothbrush!

Mike said she was excellent.  He handled these appointments while I took Mia and Zayden to gymnastics.

A turkey math addition game.

While the younger ones did turkey math, the older two worked on a feed the turkey STEM project.  The farmer had a broken leg and the big kids had to design a system to get the turkey feed from the house (tissue box) to the turkey pen (plate) with only the supplies in their bag.

This project was really frustrating to Natalee and she didn't enjoy it much.  She did come up with a ramp system that worked for getting the food to her turkeys, but I must have forgotten to video it.  Zayden also enjoyed playing with the stem project.

Ev liked putting the ornament finger prints on her Christmas tree!

I was so impressed with how well Evalynn caught on to the color sorting on this project.  Proud mama!!

Handprint turkeys, of course.  See how proud?

Bonus picture of Ev after she accessorized herself.

Our final "hurrah" of Thanksgiving activities was the little play the children did.  Tuesday night they put together their "props."  This meant a "me too" moment for little Ev, so we spread a box out to color on and she worked hard on her backdrop with various older siblings joining in.

Xavier making a Mayflower.

We rounded Tuesday out by watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and doing a scavenger hunt throughout the movie.

Wednesday morning art was "Thanksgiving day parade" and they turned out adorable.

The Snoopy parade balloon...

The baby Jesus parade balloon...

The Olaf parade balloon....

and the Winter dolphin parade balloon...

Then we worked on the play and it's too cute for words.

"Cage the turkeys" for Mia and Zayden...

The rest of Wednesday was spent packing bags, prepping food, and getting ready for *three* days of Thanksgivings!

Xavier was put in charge of oatmeal pies!

big batch of Chex mix...