Playing with Aunt Sarah’s old toys alone made the trip worth it to Marion

I’m pretty sure the highlight of the trip though was getting to play in Granny Chris’s jewelry box

Pure joy

Pretty sure she wants to be Mr T when she grows up now

Pity the fool…

Actually, I’m not sure what Marion was more thankful for. The jewelry box or the unrestricted access to the piano

(Cover your ears if you watch this with the sound on! She’s no piano prodigy )

Mar was also very thankful for Titus kitty. Not so sure Titus was as thankful for her though…

What an imp

Belle Mere, why would she want to get a picture with you when there is a cat to be chased?

And mama and daddy were very thankful for a GranMan and his iPad with the Flight Control app that kept Marion occupied and entertained!

The plane lands here, GranMan! (Sorry if she ruined your high score Bob!)

And proof Eliza was there too!

She just did this pretty much the whole time

Our first thanksgiving as a family of four

It was such a great way to spend a morning and to catch up with friends. Marion and Josh and Joseph ran all around while Jen and I took lots of opportunities to sit down and chat while Eliza snoozed in the sling.

Boots and baby wearing! (And too big and baggy maternity jeans that I can’t give up because I love and adore the stretchy waistband.)

We tried to get a family picture!

Life with a toddler, never a dull moment

And a great video of Marion and her Dada.

I love how she can’t even start to focus on just one thing!

Why, you might ask, is Thanksgiving, a one day holiday, divided up into parts? Well, the answer is because we’re crazy.

If we had stuck to our original plans, Thanksgiving would have been just a one day post, a mere blip in the blog. But then we got the crazy out and decided instead of having Atlanta folks come visit us, we’d go visit them. That’s right. Houston to Atlanta with two little kids. And two dogs. And three suitcases. In just once car. Did I mention one of the little kids is a little baby who won’t take a bottle and wants to nurse every two hours?

Anyway, we did it, survived and had a great trip, even if I do think I left my sanity at the Georgia/Alabama border.

First stop, really, just a layover, was at my parents in Mississippi. We left at 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning and pulled in nine hours later. A trip that usually takes just seven hours took nine.

We were pretty wiped out when we got to Papaw and Marme’s house, so there aren’t a lot of pictures, but we did have a great visit with Papaw, Marme, ManMan, Isabella, Aunt Janis and Mamaw.

Visiting

Snuggly little baby girl

Reading with Marme, there’s always time for that!

Sleepy big girl

Sometimes mama gives up the camera

Marion and I flew to Mississippi a few days before Thanksgiving so we could be with my niece at her third birthday party!

And yes, Marion already knows who Elmo is.

Marion enjoys some of the forbidden plastic toys we don’t let her have

Isabella is the grumpiest Care Bear

More forbidden plastic fun

Sunday afternoon, Belle came over for a playdate at Marme’s house

Mmmmmm, popcorn, animal crackers and milk!

And here, Belle is teaching Marion the worst trick ever

How to close her straw cup lid

But not to open it!

We had some gorgeous Mississippi fall weather, so we spent a lot of time outside

She really was happy about it!

Come along little doggy

Marme, Lauren and Marion enjoy some post-Thanksgiving meal reading.

Clark The Toothless Shark is a family favorite

Do you know how hard it is to get four children under four to sit for a picture?

Andrew knows this isn’t going to be any fun!

Just a few outtakes…

Poor Mar gets left out

She’s done with this!

This can lead to no good

Marion knows what’s coming

We now have a new holiday tradition of Marion getting choked down by Belle. Fun for all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I give you

Pumpkin pie in a springform pan

and

Pecan pie in a loaf pan.

Unorthodox perhaps, but it worked and still turned out yummy!

Momma arrived yesterday and in true L. family fashion, we celebrated another holiday not on the actual holiday itself. She flew to her family reunion in Florida today, so we had

last night.

The table turned out beautifully

and everyone knew where to sit, thanks to me.

And in case Martha reads this…

there were pumpkin shaped butter pats.

For our whole Thanksgiving album, click here.

There’s nothing worse than having all your pie stuff ready to go, only to realize, you have no pie pans.

And you refuse to make one more trip to the store, so you decide to “substitute” instead.

Pictures to follow.  Maybe.

Suppplies:

**I imagine you could also glue each strip of paper together instead of using brads, but I had brads and glue is too messy. But glue away my friend if it suits you.

These are brads, in case you’ve forgotten crafting 101.

I used a fancy hole puncher. You can also use a three hole punch or your finger.

Trace your leaf onto green paper. If you want to get all Martha, I’m sure you could use a real leaf if you wanted.

For those of you lazy BOW’s out there, here’s the leaf I used to trace.
Leaf Template

Cut your leaf out and go on and write the name. Do it now even though it seems bassackwards to do this first.

Punch a hole at the end of the leaf, set aside

Time to cut! Slice your paper into two inch strips (slicing paper sounds so much more cool than merely cutting it.) Okay, here’s the truth. All these measurements and crapp are just my suggestions. You are free to do whatever you want. You are free to even do nothing if that pleases you as well. Just be forewarned, if you don’t do what I say, your pumpkins won’t look like mine. And don’t come crying to me when they turn out different. I’ve already told you so.

Shortcut 101 – slice two pieces of paper together at once!

When you are done, you’ll have eight 2 x 11 strips and two scrap strips – throw those away. Recycle those.

Start punching! Put a hole at each end of the strip. Now, here’s where deviating from my instructions have the most life shattering impact. I punched my holes about an inch from the end of the strip and tried to land it roughly in the middle. Should you punch closer to the end of the paper, again, your pumpkin will look differently. Read all the way through for photos of possible variations.

When you are done, you’ll have a tidy stack of strips with two holes in each strip

Line up the leaf hole with the strip hole (boy that sounds dirty.)

Put the brad through, pretty side up.

The dirty underside. (Lord have mercy what is up with this color?)

For ease of reference, we’re going to use the face of a clock to tell you how to lay them out. Strips one and two get laid at positions twelve and six.

Then nine and three.

Then two and seven. (I can tell time, right?)

Then five and ten.

Then bring strips up to form a round shape, overlapping the holes. Insert the brad from the bottom to the top (much easier to hold that way)

Until all the strips are up. Don’t worry if they fall out of perfect alignment, that’s easily fixed.

Fold the brad closed, and presto – a pumpkin bottom!

Now turn the pumpkin over, and you are done! (If you want to be)

You can also add in a vine like thingie. Take a piece of floral wire and wrap it around and kind of under the brad.

Using a pen or pencil or get crafty and use your finger, wrap the wire around and around.

Remove the wrapping instrument – and curlicues!

Now my momma has a place to sit!

So remember what I said about punching the hole an inch from the end of the strip? I got lazy and decided to just use my three hole punch, which of course, doesn’t punch an inch from the end. It punches about a quarter of an inch from the end.

This is the result.

A pumpkin that does look different from the rest of them. It’s a little bit looser and bigger than the others. So if you like the way a tighter pumpkin looks but you only have a three hole punch, cut your strips to be about ten inches instead of eleven.

Pretty little pumpkins all in a row.

Variations on a theme:

They have yet to be tarted up.

Click here for the whole how-to album

Anyone who knows me, would laugh at that statement.

For me, it means crafting.

Todays prep….

Thanksgiving placecards

Click here for the album