Thanksgiving 2016 and Tree Decorating

We had our "first" "Thanksgiving meal" the weekend before Thanksgiving with the Kirkwood side.  We all had busy weekends with different wedding/baby showers planned but we did all get together for dinner!  Grandma and Grandpa K brought a Famous Dave's Feast to our house and it was DELICIOUS!  It was fun to have everyone together and fascinating to hear about my dad's recent business trip to China.

We spent Thanksgiving Day and weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl up in Fergus Falls.   We drove up Wednesday after school/work and enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving Day playing with Grandma's fun toys, watching the Thanksgiving Day parade, sledding, playing games, and chatting.  On Friday, extended family came over for the big turkey and ham meal.  It was SO delicious and fun to connect with people we don't see very often.  On Saturday, the kids got the fun first-time experience of going to a Christmas tree farm and chopping down a real tree!  They helped Grandma and Grandpa pick out the perfect one, and then VERY EXCITEDLY helped them decorate it!  After church on Sunday, we drove home and decorated our own tree.  What a fun weekend!

It has been quite a whirlwind since then, as Paul's Grandma's husband, Ed, passed away Sunday morning.  We drove back up north today for the kids' first funeral experience and I was quite impressed - they were well behaved and quiet the whole service despite the 3 hour car drive and hour visitation preceeding.  (Our Bible study was praying for us and I could tell!).  While the reason for a funeral is not fun, we all did enjoy seeing family and learning more about the childhood life of Ed through pictures and story.

Here are some Thanksgiving Weekend Pictures (thanks Grandpa T!):

Chopping Down the Christmas Tree Pictures:

This is the one!

Daddy is SO strong!

Warming up!

Decorating Our Christmas Tree:

Summer's Picture of Daddy and Mommy hanging up our wedding ornament

Lots of "low hanging" ornaments this year... Larkyn did a great job for her first year hanging ornaments!

Family Pictures

Everlasting Love Photography did a fantastic job capturing some pictures of our family at this stage of life - kids aged 6, 4, and 2. Here are a few of my favorites:

Mother-Son Construction Date

The same group that puts on the Daddy Daughter Dance around here (S.O.R.R.) put on a mother son Construction morning of fun!  There was a mini dance but the focus was not on dancing :)  I loved bringing my favorite son!

From the moment we walked in the place was decked out with themed construction stuff!

First we got our picture taken...

And Colton decorated it with stickers.

We played knock over the cone...

mini golf...

Bean bag toss...

Sticker Construction Scene

Building a tool box (I loved seeing him put this together and watch his concentration and perseverance even when it was tricky!)

Hammering nails (golf tees) into Styrofoam blocks

Because construction workers always have a tattoo of a tool on their arm ;)

Colton has been very interested in gears so we had fun making the gears "work" on his tool box

Demolition time

Snack time

Pin the load on the Dump Truck

Make a suncatcher

As if THAT wasn't enough cool stuff, there were take home bags with a mini digger and chocolate rock candy, which Colton so sweetly shared with both his siblings by using his digger to scoop them each rock candy across the dinner table :)

To say I had a blast with my buddy would be an understatement!  I love one-on-one time with each of my kiddos and this was such a fun way to do it!