Gobble Gobble!

We had such a fabulous and chill Thanksgiving Day today! I am so grateful for the whole Smith/Caffee clan who trekked to California to spend the holidays with us!

We started off with an early wake up from Andrew and a Buskirk boys basketball game :) Andrew can actually hit an occasional shot. Kevin & I were both impressed.

Andrew got to learn how to make Grandma Julie's special "visitor rolls" and was so proud of himself.

Andrew also says "I saved Thanksgiving!" because yesterday he was the one who reminded us that we forgot to add the eggs to the roll dough... just in the nick of time.

Jessie & I were in charge of protecting the "visitor rolls" from Grandpa... who kept trying to swipe them all morning.

At first I thought something had gone terribly wrong with my mom's rolls... but then she reminded me that Andrew had been her helper. I think he did a pretty good job for his first batch. :)

Later in the morning we did a Smith girls Turkey Trot around our neighborhood. We ran between 5-7 K... I ran the lower end (5K) and the rest of the ladies ran a bit longer (7K +). Yesterday I ran the whole 45 minute hilly run with my mom and sisters and my sore legs were still recovering today! I figured if I didn't want to go into labor before dinner, I should probably run a little bit less this morning. The weather was crisp and beautiful! Such a great way to start off Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for incredible California Fall weather!

Dinner was slated for 3pm... so we spent the rest of the day warming up food and getting the table set (we did most of the baking/cooking yesterday... so today was pretty low key). Kevin and Grandpa Kim took Andrew took the park for almost two hours and ran him around so that he napped for over 2 hours this afternoon (he almost missed dinner!)!

The kids table

(covered with drawing paper and set up with turkey treats, crayons, and Thanksgiving stickers)

Awesome Aunt Jessie made everyone a cute turkey cookie treat to put at their plate.

We moved our kitchen table into the dining room and expanded it out to use the leaves... and then we used our wedding china and fancier silverware at dinner! We definitely don't use them enough... and need to remedy that! The best part of dinner was that the table was right next to our living room (aka playroom right now)... so the kids played and the adults got to sit and chat for a long time.

While the final preparations were made, some of the fam caught up on the football games.

Maddie woke up super happy from her nap and was sooooo excited for turkey!

Andrew finally woke up after the Warners arrived and we'd already started dinner. He was SOOOO happy to have his buddy Izzie over! We were bummed that the Balenas couldn't join us for dinner after all... and we were so sad that George got sick on Thanksgiving!

The kids had a blast coloring and decorating the table with stickers... and Andrew & Maddie especially loved it when Grandma would come sit and play with them!

Maddie was quite the little artist and loved having all the crayons to herself when the bigger kids would head off to play with the toys.

Playtime on the stairs was another highlight! We're just glad that no one stuck their head all the way through the banisters (although everyone tried) :)

More playtime with Grandma!

Thanksgiving masterpiece

The beautiful kitchen helpers

These ladies made sure that my china and silverware were handwashed and all the leftovers were packed away and stuffed into our two fridges.

Meanwhile these two glued themselves to the TV and watched a few Super Why? episodes. I thought it was hysterical that they both stood up right by the TV instead of lounging on the couch.

DESSERT TIME!

The little guys were mostly excited about the ice cream. Andrew ate three bowls of vanilla ice cream and wouldn't touch any cake or pie (definitely not my child ;)).

The rest of us lounged around in the dining room eating pie and chatting while the little people were occupied with their ice cream.

Dessert this year included: chocolate pudding pie, cherry pie, razzleberry pie, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and red velvet cake! Kevin also made us homemade whipped cream.

Maddie LOVED the red velvet cake... so much so that she was wearing it all over her whole body by the time she was done.

The rest of the evening was spent cleaning and playing with the little guys. Scott & Cat stopped by after their dinner with the Peers family and the kiddos loved goofing around with them!

Andrew & Izzie had a blast playing together and being silly.

This is their new favorite activity

Andrew loved running around saying, "We kissed each other on the mouth!"

Izzie's favorite line was "AGAIN!"

Sarah and I couldn't stop laughing... which of course encouraged them to smooch again and again.

Today I am thankful for...

- cute little kids who crack me up

- good friends and family to share Thanksgiving with

- my health (not everyone was as lucky today)

- tons and tons of good food (and even more leftovers)

- making it through Thanksgiving and my birthday without going into labor!

- many many more blessings than I can name tonight!!

- a cozy bed that I am really excited to get into in a few minutes!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!