Taking the Scenic Route

Zora was totally stoked about having a “FEAST” at school and talked about it for more than a week before.  Much to her delight she had both me and Oma as her guests.

We were told she was also very excited about her Oma and Opa and Uncle Steve coming over that night for our family Thanksgiving Feast.  Originally we were going to go to a restaurant (Zach & I were both fighting colds and not sure if we were going to be up to cooking), but as it drew closer, we decided we would rather cook the traditional meal.  As it turned out, Zach (with Zane helping) did all the cooking because I went with Mom and Zora to pick out Christmas outfits for the kids.  We found some awesome sales for her dress, and hit paydirt at the consignment store for his outfit.  The consignment store even yielded a few other items for under the tree/birthdays, so it was a very successful trip.

The meal was extremely excellent, and it was a particular treat to come home from a day of shopping to an already prepared Thanksgiving feast with all the fixings (and a clean kitchen to boot…damn, he is GOOD).   We missed Nora, but had a nice evening.

If you notice, there are no pictures of the evening meal.  The only downside to the day was me accidentally leaving (and not realizing it happened) my camera at school.  So we were without a camera for our family gathering, and the entire thanksgiving weekend.  (which is why the picture for putting up the tree are so weird…they are taken off a huge clunky video camera that we dragged out of storage in desperation).  I can tell you it makes me really twitchy to not have a camera for nearly a week.  Thank goodness the people at the school recognized the camera and kept it safe for me over the weekend.  I was SO relieved to get it back that I cried.  (also why the post is late, I wanted to wait to see if the camera would reappear and get the school pictures off of it before I posted)

[Zane] “Sorry, guy”
[Zora] “I’m not a guy; I’m your sister!”
[Zane] “Sorry, gal”
[Zora] “I’m your SISTER!”
[Zane] “OK. Sorry, Zora.”
[Zora] “Better.”
[Zane] (a little later) “Stop it, Zora”
[Zora] “You’re supposed to say, ‘please stop doing that’”
[Zane] “Stop doing that, Zora…please.”
[Zora] “OK”

In the new “Christmas Pajamas” from Grandma.  Zane surprised us by being totally excited by the slippers.

For the first time the kids didn’t need grown-up help to put the tree together.

Zora put the angel on the top of the tree, but the tree top bent funny and the angel took a nose dive. Luckily, Zane caught her before she hit the ground. Twice.

Dad had to fix the tree so the angel would stay there.

Done! Let the season commence.

Some days I think I gave birth to Punky Brewster. (heading to the store for Thanksgiving Dinner shopping)

I edited this post to add some art she did later in the day.  She drew a picture of her and Zane being kings on our dry erase board.

It’s the time of year when children start bringing home Turkey crafts.

Zora was quite proud of her Turkey sculpture and asked if I could please take a picture of it.

She also had a more recognizable turkey project

And here is our kitchen table. There is a Turkey pumpkin, the projects from today’s Reading Explorers (“H”…for her fancy “hootenanny hat”, and the book she made), and some drawings still there from yesterday of a person riding a horse and a princess.

Our yard seems reluctant to change with the seasons.

Zora is at that stage in learning to read where she writes out a “word” and wants us to read it to her.  Usually, no big deal, but when presented with this word, I hesitated before I “pronounced” it, because the first pronunciation that flit through my brain was not something I want her to repeat.  Like, ever.

“phpp hoor aasso” 

Finally watched this week’s Parenthood (If  This Boat Is A Rockin’). Was ticked that there was a stupid KU game overriding the beginning, and during the program I realized we definitely missed something and went online to find the show. VERY worth the effort. The supermarket scene was awesome…totally see Zane doing something like that, and cheered at the dad’s response. I would have likely just stood there dumbfounded and wished I would have done it.

After a week of the kids being sick and grumpy, missing everything on our schedule from Sunday to some of the Thursday events, by Friday everybody was totally stir crazy and the kids were poking at each other. It had progressed to “witching hour” insanity by 3 in the afternoon and it was looking to get even worse. I knew there was a respite event tonight, but we hadn’t signed up for it. I called them to see if there was any chance of dropping the kids off, and they had space. THANK GOODNESS! Zane was so ready to go he started getting dressed when he overheard me asking, and both kids were totally dressed, on their own, within 10 minutes. Then I made them go outside to kill some time before we went. I don’t know that I have ever seen Zane so ready to get out of the house before.

Zach and I first went to Walmart to get some much needed windshield wipers, and decided we really needed to do something “nice”, needed a break so badly. We ended up going to Il Vicini’s, sitting in the window seat, sipping coffee. As we sat there it started snowing, which added a feeling of otherworldness to the evening. It was so nice and peaceful. Eventually they stopped bringing us coffee refills, so we went home and snuggled on the couch and talked. By the time we picked up the kids we were feeling better and the kids were happy and worn out. Zora went to sleep about half an hour after we got home, and Zane another hour later.

Respite care is such a God-send.

A haircut request.  I like.