Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day, everyone! I hope everyone has plans for wonderful, filling, and delicious Thanksgiving dinners later today. I know I do, and I plan to wear my stretchy pants. Don’t act like you’re not going to do the same.

Riley is off all this week, but they did all kinds of activities and projects in school last week in honor of Thanksgiving. They colored pictures, made a “T” turkey, wrote some wacky words, and practiced their “smartie spelling.” And I was happy to discover that he is thankful for his brother, his mom, his toys, and his dad. And something else, but he lost the fifth feather and can’t remember what he wrote on it. At least the important ones stayed intact!

Riley also brought home something very special on Friday. Mrs. Allison and Mrs. Ceci put together a Secret Family Recipe booklet: “The following secret recipes have been unknowingly handed down from parent to child through the watchfulness of little eyes. They have been told to Mrs. Allison just before Thanksgiving, November 26, 2015. We are hoping that our Thanksgiving gift of culinary hints will assist you in preparing your own Thanksgiving feast. Happy Thanksgiving!”

So freaking cute. The booklet includes all 18 kids’ “recipes,” and, as you can imagine, their answers are priceless. Such wonderful insight from Riley’s perspective!

Riley and Kate both came home from school last Friday wearing fun hats, and Kate had an adorable shirt on. They had a great time playing outside at Nola and Nopsi’s after school. I am so thankful the three cousins get along so well. I’m also thankful there will soon be a fourth to join in the fun; Nugget will be here in less than one month!

 

I am so thankful for my family, especially for Kenny and for these two turkeys.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. Now go eat!

Crescent Park

For last week’s TWQP, Rory and I went on a field trip. The city of New Orleans recently opened a new park along the river right by QP and James’s apartment, and she has been wanting us to come down there when the weather turned nice. So we did just that last Thursday morning. Nola came too.

Crescent Park doesn’t have a lot of grass or trees, but it’s really cool. Two impressive bridges, lots of pathways winding through incredible landscaped gardens, an old wharf converted to a large open space with lots of benches, and great views of the city. Rory loved pushing his dump truck all over the park.

 

 

Oh, and the park is right along a set of train tracks, and we were lucky enough to be there when a train passed by. Rory loved watching it pass underneath the bridge we were on.

We had lunch at QP’s and then went home so Rory could nap. It was a great morning!

We actually found ourselves back out at Crescent Park again on Saturday, but I’ll save that story for another day. Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone!

Video Tuesday: A Second Fair Dance Performance

We went over to Nola and Nopsi’s for Sunday dinner on the last day of the SCR fair. After the kids took a bath, they decided they wanted to have a dance party. Riley requested his fair dance song, and this is what happened when I played it.

Happy Tuesday!

Video Monday: Riley’s K Fair Dance

Here’s Riley’s official kindergarten fair dance to “Proud Mary.” All of the classes did such a great job.

Riley sure did come a long way since their first week of practice, when he goofed off the whole time. He also lost 4 points in PE and got on yellow another week for not doing the dance correctly.

At least he did it right when it counted.

Happy Monday!

2015 SCR Oyster Festival, Part Two

Once all of the fair dances were over (video coming up on Monday!), the kids ran from ride to ride the rest of the afternoon. They also suckered a few games out of their parents; Riley and Alcee are now the proud owners of two huge inflatable bats. Which they promptly hit each other with 10 seconds after receiving them.

Rory discovered that he loves the Ferris wheel. He rode it with Nopsi earlier and kept pointing to it the rest of the day. So the four of us rode it together right before we left on Saturday. The sun was starting to go down; in fact, it was a gorgeous sunset that night.

 

 

We decided not to eat dinner at the fair and treated the kids to burgers, fries, and milkshakes at Mooyah instead. It was a great way to end our night!

 

 

We took it easy on Sunday, staying home and letting the boys nap before heading back out for the fair’s last day. We didn’t see a whole lot of Claire, but Riley loved playing with Alcee and Jack.

After about an hour on the rides, we took a break and walked over to hear Groovy 7 play (they were great!). On the way, we saw Mrs. Jean, the kids’ PE teacher, and Shuckey, the fair mascot.

  

We found a spot in front of the stage and plopped down to listen to the band and enjoy our funnel cake treat. The kids had a great time dancing and getting sprayed with silly string, until Riley decided to construct something out of a broken zip tie and the silly string remnants on the ground. I know he’s 5, but does he HAVE to pick up trash everywhere we go and insist on keeping it??? Lord.

 

 

Alcee eventually abandoned Riley in favor of dancing, but he kept on. He’s a determined little wonk potatoes. And yes, that zip tie is still in my car.

The Ferris wheel was the very last ride we did, and then we walked over to see Mrs. Allison, who was working the last shift at the food tickets booth. Riley insisted on introducing Alcee to her; it was really sweet. Allison also had her little boy Hayes out there with her; he is SO cute.

After that, we bid Mrs. Allison, Alcee, Diana, and Jamey goodbye. Our time at the 2015 SCR Oyster Festival had come to an end. We went over to Nola and Nopsi’s for Sunday dinner (which we hadn’t done the normal way since the beginning of October) and had a nice, relaxing, wine-filled evening.

Next year: two megabands will be purchased for my two school-aged boys, who are both sure to be over the moon ecstatic about attending their fair once again. I’m so happy we chose SCR.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!