Thanksgiving Day 2010

I'm way behind on posting so many things but I have to start somewhere so we'll begin with Thanksgiving.  It's the Roach girl's year to spend Thanksgiving in Kentucky so off we went.  It was our very first trip out of town since July 4th, right before the first cast.  We put Molly in her new car seat and headed to Grandma Dot's in Knoxville to spend the night before heading on to Georgetown the next morning.  Molly was great in the car and slept most of the way.  Some leftover bubbles from Samara and James' wedding reception were perfect entertainment while she was awake.  The Scardino's were already there when we arrived and the Davis' arrived soon after.  On Thanksgiving day I pulled out the ingredients for my brilliant "fun aunt" craft/snack, turkey cake pops.  They were, in short, a disaster.  Well, not a disaster but certainly not the fun and ease I'd anticipated.  I'll not go into it.  Instead I'll post some pics that seem to say otherwise...

Aunt Kara gives it a go:

Here are our sweaty birds:

Molly was in sweet spirits on Thanksgiving day:

She LOVED rocking in this chair!

The kids table:

It was set up in an entirely different room this year.  I can't believe there are five children that are old enough to sit at their own table in a different room from the adults.  Wow.  Time flies.

And the adult's table.  Marci spent lots of time crafting one-of-a-kind shell placecards for each person...even Molly and Maggi had one.  She picked out special shells that reminded her of each person.  I must say, my favorite Thanksgiving activity has always been (and still is) crafting placecards.  I just love it...and now I love that Marci loves it too:)

And the FOOD:

Sandy joined us for the day.

We tried to talk Mom into chocolate frosting instead of caramel so she settled for half and half.

Here are some super cute mini pumpkin pie bites.  I made some into jackolanterns back at Halloween and Karma made them again for Thanksgiving instead of a big ol' pie.  The idea is from bakerella.com.

Giving thanks:

"You gonna eat that?"

 Molly sitting with Grand"daddy".  She only says the "daddy" part of his name but it's distinctly different than the one she says for Ryan.  She knows what she means anyway.

 There is no denying that Maggi is Mark's child.  See how she's eyeing the food on that plate???  Oh and she's wearing the tornado bib.  I just saw a picture of my second birthday where I have that same bib on.

 Sandy brought over a mechanical Tom Turkey that sang "Turkey in the Straw" for the kids to enjoy.  They enjoyed it alright!  They enjoyed it 138 times or more.

 Playing with Uncle John.  Uncle John sure knows how to wrap little ladies around his finger.  Or perhaps it's the other way around.  Maggi especially was just smitten with him!

Group coloring session:

The after-dinner entertainment was provided by the Scardino Home School Troope and guests and was complete with scene changes and props.

 The Scardino Troope Players (and guest):

And while they're all up there let's add a couple of babies and try a group grandchild picture.  The result:

That's invisible Sophi in the yellow chair by the way.  Mom rounded out the night with a fun interactive story of the old lady who swallowed a fly.  They all took turns feeding her the crazy animals she eats throughout the book.

And then...bed...which I'm ready for right now.  So many more things to show you but I'll save those for another post.  Happy Thanksgiving all!