Mom's turn: Thankful for...

Well – this year I must say I’m thankful for life and health! The past few holidays have been riddled with death, funerals, and surgeries. I’m definitely ready for a change! So this year I was excited to cook for my sister-in-law and her family; although serving her husband, who is a fabulous gourmet chef, was a bit intimidating!!! SOOOOOO – where are the pictures and recipes for this fantastic dinner????? Good question. I got so wrapped up in preparing for it that I forgot to take pictures of the final thing :-/ To top it off, most of my recipes seemed to have disappeared, presumably into the garbage. I was a little aggressive on the “clean-up” part afterwards. I did capture a few things, however:

our new scarecrow for a whimsical greeting

several pinecones for various projects...this required some lovely family walks around the neighborhood. That's why I enjoy crafts!

Hmmm - not the holiday polish I had in mind

beading...I thought this was Teeny's craft!?!?!?! She was kind enough to share all of her beads and ideas, though. LOTS of coffee is necessary for this venture.
two down - several more to go

what exactly did I get myself into??

the finished product - how beautiful, and oh so worth the effort! It was surrounded by all of the desserts on the buffet when things were set up.

a game - that required more family walks. This time around the LSU campus and lakes. What a beautiful time of year for it, too.

a jar full of different sized acorns

the game was to guess how many were in there, 182...the reward was a highly prized iTunes card.

the winner - my nephew. No picture, but he looks like the squirrel on top of the jar ;-)

OKAY - let's see what else we can do!!!

Teeny and I had a blast with these...and the kids, both family and nieghborhood, loved them!

and for the adults...TRYING to be healthy. I made a fruit turkey - he was quite photogenic with his bright red snood. He was very yummy and went fast, too. Hopefully he helped make up for my HH's delicious blackberry breadpudding...you can see the ingredients next to him: butter, blackberries, butter, bread, sugar, and did I mention butter?????
here is where the AHHH factor comes in for me...the finished table is set with China that I received from Great-Great, who passed away this year. It was a wonderful way for her memory to carry on with us during this holiday season.

TOOOO MUCH TURKEY - Samson said it was nap time!

After all of the festivities, my DD still found the energy to go to the movies with friends. Ahhh - to be young again.

Fantasy sushi!

Sushi is my ALL TIME favorite food! I LOVE sushi! Also, my favorite fruit is mango. So when we went to get sushi the other day at Kamado's, and they had the fantasy roll which had mango in it, we just had to try it! It was awesome and very nicely displayed! Kamado's is located 2 places: one is on Sherwood Forest and the other is on Bennington right off of College Dr. If you enjoy sushi I would highly recommend going and trying this roll! Enjoy!

Mom's turn: Henna happiness

It must be love…I’m not sure many daddies would lie still while their daughter painted a henna tattoo on their back!!! Travis, however, was a perfect sport. Teeny has long since had a passion for culture and henna tattoos are just a piece of them. As you can see, she has them all over herself in the picture and has actually gotten quite good at making them almost as detailed as a professional. For her daddy she decided to combine the cultures she loves most by placing a Japanese Koi fish in Indian henna on his back. It came out beautifully but not quite dark enough. Perhaps he needs something a bit more permanent :-D

Mom's turn: Serious stuff

Santa Maria golf course

Travis has enjoyed playing golf since he treated himself to a new set of clubs several months ago. He’s been in a few tournaments, scrambles, and has been taking lessons to improve his game….so now he decided that we all needed golf lessons! Can you see the enthusiasm!?!?!?! We enjoyed our time with our instructor, Chris, and learned to at least appreciate the game a bit more. That will make it more enjoyable to ride in the cart with Travis and open another door of opportunity for Teeny.

ahhh Mom...not a picture!!!

Chris said she was a natural :-D

Fool’s Festival

We went to the Renaissance Festival for a school field-trip with a few of our friends, Ginger and her family and some other home schooled families.

Teeny & Brooke

I have wanted to go for years, but this has been my first opportunity. I was excited to share it with Teeny, although she was unimpressed having this to say about it:

I was not overly impressed with the renaissance festival. I did not like the fact that you had to pay to get in and then there was nothing free to do... or nothing that was very educational.

the minstel was nice

It was all much too commercialized.

a public flogging, surely you jest

...or jestor

They did pretty well on getting things realistic though. They had the jousting which was ok

...or would that be joust?!?!?!

and some birds of prey.

do NOT let their little size fool you

They also had many things that were very out of place like henna tattoos, and princess head pieces

plastic beads...uh, I think not!

and fairy wings everywhere.

I did enjoy looking at all the pretty corsets that are now made with steel ribbing instead of whale bones of course. They were mostly all handmade and I couldn’t get one, even if I could afford it, because the law says they can’t fit you until you’re 18 years old due to growing bones. There was also some pretty jewelry, though it was all incredibly expensive. I did find a fabulous earring cuff set and head piece that were “must haves.”

The food was not very good either, extremely plain and, again, pricey.

Overall we had a wonderful time being with friends, looking at the costumes, and experiencing another unique day to blog about! We managed to talk the girls, some more reluctantly than others, into getting some period photos taken.

ladies' in waiting

cheers to you...thanks mom.

Beading Jackpot!

Well I think everyone knows I love to bead! I am bragging though because I got a AMAZING deal at hobby lobby. I got over a hundred dollars worth of beads for about $52. I have made a few pretty pieces already! I am trying to talk my mom into signing us up for the farmers market so we can sell some of our stuff! I think I have just about got her convinced. It will take a lot of work to get enough inventory to sell by then though!
:-)