Thanksgiving in Maryland

Just a quick update on Thanksgiving.

This was our first Thanksgiving not in the Detroit area. Although we missed having multiple turkey dinners with our parents and family back in Michigan, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with Kelly and Andy and Andy's side of the family. We haven't celebrated Thanksgiving with them since they moved out to MD!

Kelly made a perfectly browned and juicy turkey, gravy to go with it, and soft, buttery pumpkin rolls. Other relatives brought tasty dishes to share and some desserts too. Mmm everything was really good. I contributed by making 2 or actually 3 pies/tarts. I found these recipes in the Food Network magazine. Both recipes were like a twist off of the tradition apple pie and pecan pie. I made an apple-walnut galette and a chocolate-toffee pecan tart. Yes, those are two pies but I ended up making 3 because I burned the chocolate crust on the pecan tart! I followed the exact steps on the recipe but the bake time was just too long! If anyone tries the recipe, I advise you to bake the crust in 1/2 the time that it says and cook the tart with the filling in the tart tin. Also line the edge of the crust with foil. It saves those thin edges from burning!

The apple galette was good, not too sweet, which I like. The pecan tart was a little more rich. In addition to shortening the bake time on the crust, I also put in 1/4 cup of granulated white sugar + 1/4 cup confectioners sugar instead of 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar. This pecan tart was definitely a hit. Andy's dad said it was his favorite and brought some home with him (the good tart and the burnt tart too)! Here are the recipes if anyone cares to check them out or try them sometime:

Apple-walnut galette




Chocolate-toffee pecan tart





This year, Kelly and I did a turkey craft with the kids. We cut out feathers from construction paper and the kids each had to tell us 6 things they were thankful for. Here were Lilly's 6 things she's thankful for:

1. Mommy, Daddy, and Mia
2. All my ... friends in Michigan and Maryland
3. Mama Tio (I love her so much and God loves you!)
4. My bed with hearts on it.
5. God
6. God has given us himself! AND raspberries, blueberries, flowers, milk, and toys.



We have so much to be thankful this year. Thank God for his faithfulness to us in providing for all of our needs and so much more! We have a warm house to live in (thank you Kelly and Andy!) and a church we can learn and grow with. Our hearts are full of thankfulness for our girls and our little family. Thank you God for your kindness to us. We are so blessed!

'N Stink

Dave was reading the Bible with Lilly this morning. They were reading about the birth of Jesus. Dave asked Lilly if she thought baby Jesus was going to be born in a big home or a clean hotel? Dave said that Jesus was born in the stable where animals live and reminded Lilly that sometimes when we go see animals at a farm or zoo it's kind of stinky. Then Lilly said, "Like 'n stink." Then Dave asked, "Lilly did mommy tell you that?" Dave thought Lilly was talking about the boyband 'N Sync, whose nickname is 'N Stink according to loyal Backstreet Boys fans. Haha After a hard laugh I realized Lilly must have been thinking of the word "extinct." Although I'm a BSB fan, I haven't trained my children to dislike the group 'N Sync.

First 2 Weeks of School Completed!

Lilly completed her first 2 weeks of school. I'm so glad she enjoys school and she's the one asking to do school each day. Most mornings, when we haven't even gone downstairs to eat breakfast, she'll ask if we can do school. She motivates me to be consistent with doing school during the week. Lilly calls me "teacher" during our school time. That's all her! I didn't tell her to call me teacher! I don't mind. I suppose it makes it our school time more official.

The schedule now is to have school Monday-Thursday. I've been trying to do it in the morning but this week was also Mia's first week of dropping her morning nap. Mia in the room during school time does not work very well. She grabs at everything and tends to get fussy between 9-11am if she's not engaged in doing something. So school time will probably change to after lunch, when Mia naps, and before Lilly naps. That's probably only a 30 minute window there. 30 minutes is enough time for our Bible time and preschool activities.

I'm planning our school curriculum around the alphabet. We go through 1-2 letters per week and I base the lesson and activities around the letter of the day. Last week we did letters A and B, and we learned about ants, airplanes, bananas, and the Bible. We learned ants have 6 legs and observed them with a magnifying glass on the sidewalk. We also flew paper airplanes off the front porch. This week was dedicated to the letter C. We learned the hard c sound like cake, clouds, and castle and the ch- sound like Cheng, Chinese, cheese, and chicken. We counted from 1-10 in Chinese (I hope to keep this up so she'll be learning a little bit of Chinese). We also ate string cheese as a snack and did the Chicken Dance. My goal was to get to the soft c sound like circus, circle, and Cinderella but we didn't get to that this week.

Here's a video of Lilly sharing about what we did at school that day:



And another video showing how proud I am of Lilly writing letters: I was completely surprised by Lilly writing those letters. She told me she wanted to write Evangeline's name "Nange" on her "Favorite Things" collage because Nange likes piggies, princesses, and the color pink. I was expecting her to write some scribbled lines, like she usually does when she pretends to write, but I was totally blown away. I hadn't worked with her very much on writing letters. A while ago, sometime in the winter, I tried pushing her to write the letter A, but she couldn't do it. I thought she just wasn't ready then and didn't want to push anymore. I didn't practice writing any letters with her other than her name L-I-L-L-Y. Now here she is, simply writing letters as I say them! She's writing the letters from right to left instead of left to right, but I'm still very impressed! Yes, I'm a proud mama.



And lastly, a video of Lilly reciting the Bible verses she's memorized (with some help):



Sweet Lilly is all grown up. She's become school-aged! Well preschool-aged at least.