Thanksgiving and the middle of our October

Josh flew home late Friday night, just in time for Thanksgiving Long Weekend! Yay!

I had dashed out to run some errands on Saturday, and brought back Timmies for us.

I occasionally ask the attendant for two extra-small cups and lids, so Hope and Joy can either share my tea if I'm getting tea, or so I can make them tea at home and they can have it in cups just like Mommy and Daddy.

Josh was getting ready to BBQ, and the girls were burning off some energy out on the deck. :o)

Reading in the recliner before naps on Sunday afternoon.

So thankful for a hubby who loves on our children and lets them be close to him. :o)

The start of a wee bit of Thanksgiving decor.

More stories on Sunday evening. We all enjoyed having Daddy to ourselves for a whole long weekend after being without him for an entire week.

Finished off the decor with some winter mums from my gardens. And changed up the pinecones a bit. :o)

Holiday Monday was a productive day for Josh and I, and Hope helped that situation greatly by saying she wanted to talk to Uncle Avery on the phone. So I sent a text message down to the farm folks to see if that would be a possibility, and that took care of Hope for a whole hour for us! :o)

Yes, she really did talk that long, cycling through Uncle Avery, Uncle Luke, and Granny I think. I even got to say a few words to Luke before their phone battery was beeping because it was low. :o)

Our simple Thanksgiving dinner. I made fresh buns for Josh and the girls, (and a bunch for the freezer for after the baby comes) and since I actually like Brussels sprouts I bought some and cooked them up for my treat. And of course, turkey and gravy and cranberry sauce, and spinach/fruit salad with feta cheese.

And for dessert - homemade cranberry apple cider and gluten-free pumpkin pie. After only unsuccessful attempts at making gluten free pie crust from scratch, I decided to bit the bullet and buy a couple pre-made shells and see how they were. Best $6 I ever spent! :o)

Hmm. Think she likes the cider?

Guess she's figuring it out. :o) She didn't like the pie, but I wasn't expecting her to either. :o)

Daddy had to go back to work on Tuesday, and so the girls and I resumed our simple routine of days at home. I think I had been cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast when Hopey brought me this tray. "Mommy, I brought you a pretend snack. There's a pan for you to cook eggs, and there's lettuce and tomato for your veggies. And there's a blue teacup for if you want tea, and the pink teapot has a pretend lid on it, so you can pour yourself more tea if you want." I asked her about the toy car also on the tray, "Is that for me to play with if I get bored while I eat my snack?" To which she replied, "Um, yeah!" :o) I did take a video of the whole sequence, but it was too large to upload here. :o) 

Bring on the worship music for my little ones!

It's so cute how Joy follows Hope's lead.

Amazingly, they both shared the same little chair without getting upset at each other. :o)

I have done a bunch of cooking and baking for after the baby comes, but mostly "normal food,"  so I knew I needed to take a day and bake some gluten free stuff for myself. :o) Four things done in one day was great, and I just made an activity out of it, going slow so the girls could do it with me. :o) At one point, Hopey questioned me on why I wasn't sweeping up the mess we were making on the floor! So I just told her that the floor was dirty anyways, and I only wanted to sweep up once, so I was just going to wait till we were done all the baking and sweep up the big mess at the end.
I did make one pan of Rice Krispie squares with puffed rice cereal instead of the Krispies, and the girls had been eyeing the marshmallows ever since we bought them together at the store. :o) So finally, they got their chance to have some marshmallows for a snack!
Hee hee - Joy looks like a little football player because she had a sweater vest with a hood on it on underneath her apron.

The girls always put the muffin papers in the tin for me when I am baking. We decided to let Joy try to do it this time, but that went sideways pretty quickly, and having Hopey come to the rescue was not a peaceful resolve in Joy's mind, so Mommy quickly finished up while they were distracted with their much-desired snack. :o)

I'm thankful for the large windows in our living room that do let in some lovely sunlight in the long months of winter here. :o)

More colouring. :o) She asked me to draw shapes again, and since I had exhausted the list of the usual things like square, heart, star, rectangle etc, I drew her music clefs and music notes. She loved it!!

At lunch one weekday, Hope actually finished her food first (a RARE occurence in our house) and Joy decided she wanted Hopey to finish feeding her instead of Mommy. I knew it was rice, and that it was going to make an even bigger mess than the one that currently decorated the chairs and floors, but I decided it was worth it to add to the mess and let them have at it while I started on the other clean up.

It was a good recipe for laughter, and Joy did eat some more, and I did get it all cleaned up later.

Playtime after bath.

I always give them the stiff cardboard roll when we finish a box of Tinfoil, and it makes a good trumpet or spy glass for a few days until it eventually "disappears". :o)

Josh and I were blessed to be able to take in a weekend parenting course together at our church while a friend babysat Hope and Joy for us. :o) It was their first long time with someone other than family, and I was much relieved to see them and the babysitter still smiling when we got home.
Amanda, the friend who was watching them, brought some books her parents used to read to her, and forgot them at our house, so Hope was quick to request one of them as her bedtime story that night. :o) Amanda told me Hope had been read to for several hours in the day! I believe it too! Great way to learn and fill the imagination. :o)