Happy Thanksgiving 2012

We had a fun week of playing around, visiting, and eating!

For school this week, we talked about what it means to be thankful and what kind of things we should thank God for giving to us.  Aylin made turkeys for art time.  On Wednesday we went to the zoo with some friends from church.  We caught the sea lion show and rode the ferris wheel on this trip.

 GROUP SHOTS (minus Hilton) :)

On Thursday we went to the in-law's house for Thanksgiving lunch. 

 Aylin helped her Nana put up Amanda's tree.

 All the boys relaxing.

 They dug up plants.

On Friday my parents and Grandmother came over for lunch.  Aylin made Kiki and Aunt Tessa play games with her.

 My grandmother, dad, and my babies:

 Hilton and his only living great grandparent.  I was so glad she was able to come down.  Hilton was such a great baby while they were here.  He just talked and laughed the entire time. I just love this pic; Hilton looks like such a big boy! :)

All in all, it was a great week and we have much to be thankful for...

especially these 2 healthy, happy babies.

And these 2 old fur babies, too.

A F-F-Fantastic Week

F week was easy and laid back :) We played with feathers, fish, and friends and talked about being "Fishers of Men" and the "3 Friends in the Fire."  We did a pinterest craft: toilet paper roll pumpkin and turkey for Thanksgiving using Feathers.  She had so much fun doing this we decided this Thanksgiving week would be all about Thanksgiving crafts! Hope to have a crafty post next week showing everything we do.

F is for FOOD!  

We made our very own pizza :)  Aylin thought making the dough was disgusting - LOL!  Might I say, our FIRST homemade meatball pizza was very good :)

F is for Funny boy.  

Hilton laughs at everything!  In this picture Aylin was pretending he was one of her baby dolls (notice the pink blanket).  He just hams it up for her. :)

During worship on Sunday night, Aylin drew her FIRST picture.  She said it is her, Hilton, and mommy in Dora's backpack. LOL!  This is big for us because all she normally does is scribble a bunch of lines on top of each other as fast as she can!  SO, behold my daughter is an artist! ;)

W Week

W Week Was Wonderful!  

Bible stories were about Worship, The Wise Man, and the Woman at the Well.

Our number was 8.

 We have now been through all the letters in her first and middle name and only have 3 left to complete her last name: F, R, and S.  We taped off the letters and she finger, really HAND, painted with her favorite colors, pink and purple.  Then she added blue and yellow because "2 colors are not enough!"

 We also went on a wagon walk, made a web out of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows, and took a wondrous wash with left over glow sticks from Halloween :) This was fun.  The pics I'm sharing on the internet are dark so you could get the full effect.  We kept the hallway light on throughout the bath so she could see a little more clearly.

Not too long ago I read a blog post by Cindy Colley that mentioned letting your children help and see you cook or make things for other people, but also for them.  So in honor of Aylin turning 3 1/2 we had a special day for her.  She picked out her cake mix, icing, and sprinkles and we had a fun day of baking.  We made confetti cake, with chocolate glaze, and strawberry icing.  Oh, and of course, SPRINKLES!  I love this girl!

Notice the "W" written in chocolate glaze, we counted it towards school ;)

And now for a Hilton story that happened last week.  

Aylin thought Hilton would love to play with her Tiger.  So...  

Top picture: during belly time she introduced him to Tiger. 

Bottom picture (my favorite): Mommy made the Tiger growl, apparently quite convincingly, and moved it closer to him.  Notice HI's eyes.

Top picture: Mommy started talking, saying things like Hi Hilton, I'm the Tiger.  God made me on day six.  Do you like my cool stripes?

Bottom picture (my 2nd fave): He turns and sees me sitting right there and gave me that beautiful grinning face :)  He actually seemed very surprised to see me, almost like he thought the Tiger was really talking to him.  I love this kid.

E is for Excitement!

My baby girl wrote her name for the 1st time!

(3 1/2 years old)

I knew she could do this, but she is very stubborn.  She always says "I can't do this or that" sometimes while she is actually doing it.  I think it may just be away for her to get attention, but thus is our life right now with Aylin Jewel.  :) Anyway, I wanted her to write her name and she wanted to paint a picture of Dora the Explorer.  So I told her if she tried to write her name I would let her paint.  (No, I'm not ashamed of my bribery skills.) 

She looked at me and said, "fine, mommy!" and wrote the A, Y, and L by herself.  Next, she looked at me and said, "I can't do it."  

I said, "Sure you can.  What letter is next? A, Y, L, ?" 

A: I! 

Me: Start at the top...

A: Go straight down and give it a top and bottom! (As she wrote the I) I can't do the N, mommy.

Me: Yes, you can. Start at the top...

A: Okay, but I'm painting after this!  (She wrote the N)

Me: 10 minutes worth of exciting celebrations before we painted! :)

Other school activities included: E is for Elijah and the 7 days of Creation.

We also went to story time, the zoo, and mommy and me free play at a gymnastics center to get some E-E-E-Exercise ;)

 E is for Elephant!  Hilton, Payton, Aylin, and Macey checking out the elephants.

 I LOVE going to the zoo and eating our lunch with the monkeys :)

On Friday, Bobby headed out of town for a youth retreat and I had a Ladies retreat, so my mom drove to Hernando to watch Aylin and the dogs.  Saturday she brought Aylin out to Collierville and we walked around the mall for a while.  She and my dad bought Aylin a Build-a-Bear!