A time to reflect and be thankful...

I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving break...which is an entire week for my brood... since Halloween passed.  Well, we've made it and there is so much to look forward to as Thanksgiving approaches.  It will give us time to rest, time to spend time with family and time to truly be thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives.
November, so far, has been filled with helping out at the kids' school, Dave traveling (is he home yet?), celebrating friends' birthdays, Daisy Scouts, golfing with Zach and horseback riding with Olivia.  With my point and shoot camera's death in October, I haven't taken as many photographs.  We'll have to suffer with iPhone pictures.
Zach, Garrett and I took off for the Botanical Gardens on an early release (from school) day.  The trains exhibit was recently opened and Zach was excited to see it.  Honestly, I was too.  It was a gorgeous Atlanta day, especially so at the Botanical Gardens.

I'm 'teaching' Zach golf when the weather is agreeable.  I originally had him in lessons with a golf pro, but the pro told me that Zach had the correct form and I should just bring him and coach him myself.  Sounds good to me because it gives me a chance to hit the driving range and putting green.  I don't think I have touched my clubs since I was pregnant with Olivia over 7 years ago, so guess who is ecstatic with this activity?  Zach and I typically go to the range when Olivia is attending Daisy Scouts (a precursor to Girls Scouts).  Cookies, anyone?!

Daisy Scouts gives Olivia a chance to spend time with her BFF, Skylar, who is also our next door neighbor.  We get so busy with homework and other activities, that the girls do not have time to play all that often.  Olivia doesn't ever want me to sign her up for anything  - her words exactly, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to do something fun together.  So far, Olivia likes it, but she does give me grief every no and again when she's tired.  I get the "why did you sign me up?!" comment on those days.   Oh well, I guess I always will.  The Daisy Scouts are signing at the Smyrna Tree Lighting the week after Thanksgiving, so they have been practicing their holiday songs.  Hey, it gets you in the spirit so much earlier when the song start in early November!

This past week, some of the neighborhood kids were over.  Olivia and Skylar started working and getting things from the kitchen.  I decided to stay out of their way because I could tell there were creative juices flowing.  The girls came up with the idea that they would throw a Thanksgiving feast on the train table in the playroom.  They set the table, found chairs, placed a candle in the middle, served everyone on 'nice' plates, with drinks and name cards - ooh la la, that's fancy.  They built two stands out of Tinkertoys and draped a pink scarf between the stands to create a rope effect.  The invitees, aka Zach, Garrett and Jenna had to state their full names including middle to be granted 'access' to the exclusive Thanksgiving dinner.  VIP access only - funny!  Kobe wasn't invited.  They had small healthy portions of apples, carrots, 2 crackers, cheese and 1 Dorito (I guess that was the guilty pleasure for them).  It was so sweet to see them do this and I'm proud of Skylar and Olivia for thinking of their friends AND being thankful for them.  They went around the table and stated what they were thankful for....of course I had to get a picture of that!

We closed this week off with Olivia's horse riding lesson.  I do not think I have gotten a picture of the new horse she rides, Dorothy.  Dot is a beaut!  Angel, her trainer, promised Olivia she could ride one of the small ponies sometime, so when we arrived Thursday, Angel had Spike saddled and ready to go for Olivia.  All she had to do was get Spike out of the stall and into the ring.  How cute is this picture?  I'll get a photo of Dot (sometimes called Boo, which is short for Peek-a-boo) up soon.  She only answers to Dorothy in the show ring, so... Olivia's ride the previous week looked so easy.  She posted perfectly as Dot trotted, so I think she's really getting into it.  I don't think I would look as graceful.

While we are on Olivia, I am really proud of her for all of her work in first grade.  She has spelling quizzes and math tests each week.  She's had to work at the math, but she eventually gets it.  Ask her to make change for you or count your change/bills.  Heck, ask Zach too, he's got it as well.  Olivia scored 25/25 on her 3 minute subtraction quiz today.  Way to go Olivia!  Her comment (as she secretly smiled) was "I don't have to take the test for the rest of the 9 weeks", which is true.  If you get 25/25, you've proved you got it.  You worked hard for it baby girl, so enjoy!

I attended Zach's Thanksgiving show at school today.  They made outfits out of pillowcases and decorated them.  Zach's Native American name is Chief Whispering Wind...supposedly because he is quiet in class.  Hmpt, not at home....So, what was Zach thankful for?  Bills and his family.  Yep, we have been working on counting money (bills) this week for Olivia's classwork and we donated $2 each for them to wear pj's to school today - fundraiser, so he was grateful for bills.  Believe me, all the parents looked at me funny when he came out with this one, so I had to explain.  Last in, First Out..... of their brains!

I'm looking forward to our coming week of vacation.  My brand new nephew is visiting from Texas and I cannot wait to meet him.  Hurry up baby Heath....oh yeah, and everyone else too :-)  Do you like the Heath bar?  Funny guys!  Oh, and look at Carla with Heath; she looks too well rested to have a newborn.
Happy early Thanksgiving.