Life As I Know It: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a beautiful long and relaxing weekend.

We enjoyed walks, and family, and the outdoors and were so thankful the weather was so beautiful and gave us such a display of colours.

As one set of Grandparents returned from their trip to France, Gammy set off to South Africa. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house, and spent Thanksgiving weekend at Dave's parent's house. All Grandparent's who were not in South Africa were in attendance all each of these dinners.

The first yummy spread!

Walks to new parks with Grandma Judy.

Hey! Can we turn this water on?

The longer days, the fresh air, and later bedtimes took a toll on Kippy Boo. He often fell asleep on the way home and actually allowed us to transfer him into his crib...something that rarely ever happens.

We hit up the old pumpkin patch and farm again with the local Mama/Baby Club. SUCH a fun day and the weather was perfect.

Family shot

Peek-a-boo!

This group of babies are going to make this their album cover one day. Seriously.

Here Max, have some hay.

Pip-squeaks

Kiptyn and Asher got cozy. We didn't even put them like this.

Kiptyn's girl Lily looked on from afar

Daddy took Bug for a ride...

And he had some maintenance to do when they were done

The "guys" hanging out on the tractor

Kiptyn was laughing and screaming from the thrill of the hay bale slides

We took a hayride to the corn maze and the babies enjoyed a wagon ride through the maze.

Kiptyn and Lily looked like a little old couple in their wool hats and cardigans.

Couldn't help it

I adore this little girly

Pumpkin picking!

We actually didn't take any home this day...we just had too many things to carry around.

Kiptyn and Max hung out in the corn box

We all climbed to the top of the hay pile

My heart

Mr. Blue Eyes

It really was a great day

Of course we had to go all out for Thanksgiving at daycare as well. Kiptyn wore his Turkey Shirt.

Speaking of daycare....here goes...

I really do love Kiptyn's daycare. So much so...that I joined the Board of Directors. Yeah...I am an all or nothing type of person. The kids have theme days, crafts and circle time, field trips, guests, daily schedules, meal plans given out a month ahead of time, they celebrate everything (my type of place), and I feel as though they really do love him. I have watched them pick him up and kiss him while dancing around when they didn't know I was still there, I have watched them create a classroom that looks like a kindergarten room, and I have grown to really care about the staff as well as the kids in his class.

One thing that surprised me about daycare....the mess. I will fully admit, I am a shopper. Kiptyn has clothes, lots of clothes. I never thought twice about buying the cutest white polo in the past...until daycare. This child comes home in a different outfit almost every day. Sometimes I will unpack his bag to find three full outfits in a plastic bag. Of course I am sure this is pretty normal for any daycare but I never even thought about it until he came home that first week. They have ten babies to feed. Ten babies to watch, and ten babies to help do their crafts. Of course they will get dirty. At home having only Kiptyn to take care of I would just take off his shirt at mealtime, or roll up his sleeves while playing in sand. When we ventured outdoors I was always right there so he never had the chance to get in the dirt. I now know....daycare clothes are different than weekend clothes. They can still be cute. They can still coordinate and look funky....but they cannot be light in colour, they cannot have sentimental value, and they must be items that won't be missed if for some reason they never return home. Some of his items simply cannot venture to daycare.

Like these for example:

These freakin' adorable leopard shoes stole my heart in the store. I didn't think for a minute about the fact that they had laces. They were cute and Kiptyn loved them....okay, I loved them.

Back to Thanksgiving....here is Dinner Number Two!

The kidlets and Great Grandma Ola.

After dinner chatter with Faith

And Ava

We went to the farm down the road that we go to every year to get our photo taken. If you recall last year's post, this will be our fourth year getting the same photo at the farm.

I love this cute little family-owned farm. They have fantastic corn mid to late summer. They are so trustworthy and leave a little lock-box to put your money in and help yourself. They always have a million pumpkins, haystacks, gourds, and giant pumpkins on display and for sale each year. Did I mention we could actually walk there from our house in the city? Pretty cool.

Kiptyn and I made a couple of Thanksgiving cards for the Grandparents. Do you know how hard it is to get a baby's hand to lay out flat on paper when there is a bunch of colourful paint on it? I do.

I also took my little man on a date to Chapters one night when Daddy was at volleyball. He was obsessed with the cars and toys. I think we found our new playground for when the snow starts to fly and it gets too dark to play outside after 5pm!

He had fun chasing this little girl around. If I didn't know she was six, I would have asked her to come over to babysit. She was amazing with him.

Of course we had our weekly sushi outings. This has got to slow down....I think we are turning into fish.

A few more things that have been going on in the Welbourn World...

Visits to Daddy's school. He was quiet. We looked around, and this is what we found.

Chillin' on Gammy & Gampy's bed.

Warm cozy weekend couch and wine chats with television shows pre-recorded from our busy weeks.

Playtime in Kiptyn's room while putting away laundry and organizing

Colouring without eating the crayons

Trying to zip his own sweaters

Doctor's appointments ending with star noses and running away from Mom and Dad.

Regressing from saying, "Light" to"ight" and now just a click of the tongue...

And some evening walks to the street park with his new cozy coat. This one has made its way to daycare...we are hoping it stays blue.

Finally, big belly-laughs. This little Bug thinks the most random things are funny. You should hear him when I make a funny face in the back seat of the car, or when he walks down the hallway at daycare (his teachers tell me everyday that the hallway is still magic in Kiptyn's eyes). On this occasion, it was simply because Daddy was driving Mama crazy by putting a balloon in her face so when she hit it away Kiptyn was sent into a fit of laughter.

Last weekend we spent a day at Springbank Park to walk in the leaves, and take a ride on the train and carousel. Once again, the weather was gorgeous and the leaves gave off that fresh fallen scent and made that perfect crunch noise as we walked.