August Fields

thanksgiving. so much to be thankful for.

i’m posting a little backwards…..christmas and now thanksgiving…but i wanted to share thanksgiving!  ðŸ™‚
the girls were super helpful preparing the feast….some people snap their beans.  we cut.  you can also see the ingredients for grandma great’s famous creamed corn, which i will be sharing at the end of this post.

wisking…..

mashing……

 checking PW’s amazing sweet potato recipe…making sure i’ve got it right.

dubs.  he’s just cute. 🙂

oh glory.  look at that tom.  perfectly glazed and stuffed.  mmmmmm.  my mom and dad prepared this bird and brought it over.

really.  this is what its all about.  always.

oh let the carving begin…. i think my dad has worn that same apron for every thanksgiving i can remember!

ah…the table is set!  we added one fold away table to the end of our main table.

hank and his little cousin sat at this little table.  they are such best little friends 🙂

almost ready!

nana and dancy led devotions before we ate.

moving right along and skipping over the cleaning of dishes…. game time!  one of many rounds of blokus.

after dinner wine and games as we move on through the day…..

round two!  you know…pull out all the leftovers.  make turkey buns.  the other side of the family came over to join us and catch phrase followed…. with speed scrabble to round out the evening..

it was so fun to laugh with family.  meet new friends.  share traditions.  
give thanks to the Lord for He is good.  His love endures forever.  Psalm 136:1
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grandma great’s famous creamed corn
2 cans creamed corn
1 can regular corn (drained)
2 eggs
1/4 C. milk
1 1/4 sleeves Ritz crackers, crushed
mix all ingredients, reserving 1/4 sleeve of crackers.  bake, covered at 275 (yes 275) for 2 hours in a round casserole dish.  add a mixture of 1/4 sleeve crushed crackers and melted butter to the top the last 15 minutes.
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some of our favorite toys

here are some of our favorite toys!  maybe they will find their way to your christmas lists this year 🙂
foam saddle scooter from timberdoodle   this is technically for dubs, but hank is always scooting around on it!  works better on hard surfaces.
thinking putty from timberdoodle

smencils.   these are available several places.  timberdoodle, barnes and noble, specialty toy stores.

blokus. 
perplexus. we ALL love to play this 🙂
haba ball track. dubs (just turned 2) can’t get enough of this!
heart club dolls.  MUCH preferred over barbie.  soft, flexible, modest shape.
chess.   we have this particular board by melissa and doug but really any set is fine.  just get playing!

the mudroom. for a large family.

when we were working on the design of the house one element remained constant:  a large mudroom.
for real too.  we would go through homes that, according to their description, ‘boasted a large mudroom’ or had a ‘very spacious mudroom’ ….blah blah….and they were NOT overly large.
we go places as a family. everywhere. a lot.  that’s 7 bodies, 14 feet, 14 arms.
that means we’re all getting our shoes, coats, hats, purses etc. at the same time in the same
room.  which, whatever, i mean we did that in our old house, i just had to be really organized and patient.  and its all good.  but since we were building a home this was an area that we wanted to do differently than most homes.  

the floor is a very forgiving dark gray slate.

 the window seat lifts up and currently we have beach towels and beach bags in there from the summer.

we still wanted to incorporate a closet for my tablecloths and more coats with room for guests to hang theirs if necessary. so instead of ALL individual lockers we made a double door closet.  

 this is what the inside looks like.  this one is mine. 🙂  we have 5 double hooks in each locker.

 this is the view from the other end.

i had to add this picture. 🙂  we just came back from a family vacation and i found this little metal “7” in a shop in beaufort, SC.  it’s hanging on our be kind picture above the drinking fountain.