One Little, Two Little Indians

Yesterday, Walker and Kathryn celebrated their Thanksgiving Feast at school. The three year olds were Indians. Here you can see Walker (aka Wild Buffalo) performing for the crowd.

Here they are in full performance mode! Once they both saw me, they just froze! Too funny!

Kathryn (aka Pretty Pony) wasn't too happy once she saw me. She started pouting on stage and pretty much had a complete meltdown after that!

Once we returned back to their classroom, we were back in good spirits and willing to let Mommy take a picture!

Here's a picture of my favorite turkey cookies (the ones that I make every year). This year we made them and passed them out to their classmates. Walker and Kathryn loved sharing these with their friends (and everyone really!). It's a good thing I made a few extra because Walker was going around passing them out to everyone, even the parents!

Showering Sweet Baby Addison

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of helping this sweet group of girls shower sweet baby Addison Paige. The shower was wonderful! For a bunch of hostesses who mostly communicated via email, everything from the food to the decorations to the adorable favors (pictured below) came together perfectly!

Here's Makenzi with the hostesses (minus one sweet hostess who had already left!).

I promised several of the guests that I would share my macaroni salad recipe. It's so yummy and so simple! And the best part is it's so versatile. You can throw any ingredient you want in it and it comes out perfect every time!

1 lb. pasta (mini bow tie, mini penne or plain macaroni)

1/2-1 whole jar Marzetti Cole Slaw Dressing

1 container tomatoes (halved) (I usually use grape, cherry or Santa Sweet tomatoes)

2 small cans chopped black olives (drained)

1 pkg. feta cheese (crumbled)

4-5 green onions (chopped)

salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse pasta. Add tomatoes, olives, feta, and green onions to the pasta. Starting out with 1/2 bottle of dressing, pour over ingredients and mix well. Add more dressing if/as needed. Salt and pepper to taste. (You can also sprinkle some Parmesean cheese on top for a little added texture and taste).

Please check out Makenzi's blog for even more pictures of the shower and to see some of the sweet gifts Baby Addison received. She is one loved little girl, and we can't wait to meet her!!

P.S. A little shout out to Anna Kate. Thank you for letting us borrow the pink feather boa wreath! I appreciate it so much!

Got Leaves?

Do you have a lot of leaves around your house? If you are like us, we are up to our eyeballs in leaves. Here's a little project to put those leaves to use.

You'll need leaves, construction paper, cardboard, craft glue, googly eyes and a pair of little hands.

Trace your child's hand on the cardboard, and cut it out. Glue leaves to "fingers." Glue googly eyes to thumb. Cut out an orange beak and a red gobbler from construction paper and glue to the backside of the thumb.

I didn't include feet, although I think you could probably make some cute ones with orange pipe cleaner or maybe even some macaroni??? Let your imagination go to work!

Homecoming War Eagle Style

Today, we went to Auburn's homecoming. This was the first time the kiddos have been to Auburn since they were four months old!

The weather was absolutely fabulous, and the fall leaves were piled high everywhere. The little ones had the most fun playing in the leaves!

Here's our little cheerleader...

We were thrilled to find Aubie and get our picture taken with him. Kathryn and Walker loved him. After taking the pictures, they both had to go back for an Aubie hug!

Cousin Daniel warmed up to Aubie too. Look at that smile!

Of course there was more playing in the leaves after Tiger Walk.

And then for the real reason we went down for the game, Daddy's walk on the field. He's in the middle in the orange and blue stripes!

Nana, Kathryn and I went into the stadium to cheer Daddy and the other past/present Cliff Hare award winners along! Here's the little cheerleader in the stadium...

And here she is with her Daddy!

We had SO MUCH FUN! We can't wait to do it again next year!!!

Coming Off a Candy High!

We had so much fun this past weekend. Nana, Papa, Tula, Uncle Brad and Aunt Mak were all in town for the festivities. And, of course, Spiderman and Buzz Lightyear showed up! Here they are setting out to gather some candy!

Making themselves at home on a neighbor's porch!

To infinity and beyond!

Aunt Mak with Spiderman

Checking out all of her loot!

Costume change mid-evening

We are still coming off of our candy high! With help from Aunt Mak, we visited almost a dozen houses, and the kids loved every minute of it! Especially the candy! Walker even "Trick or Treated" from the bags of some of the kids that came to our house. He would hand out some candy and then attempt to grab candy from the kids' bags! He was successful at least once with a group of teenagers! He's like his momma, he'll do just about anything for a piece of candy!

Picnic with Parents

Thursday, I had the privilege of eating lunch with two of my favorite people. There's nothing that boosts your confidence like walking down the hall having two little people running toward you screaming "Mommy!"

Once I actually got in their room, we had fun sitting on the floor and enjoying lunch together. The kids couldn't wait to pass out the fall goody bags we had brought for their friends. In fact, they didn't do much eating they were so excited!

You can tell Kathryn was very proud of her candy!

I hope everyone is gearing up for a fun weekend. Auburn's playing Ole Miss and, of course, there's costumes and lots of candy consuming on the menu for tonight! This will also be on the menu at our house...

White Chicken Chili
3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 can (4-ounces) chopped green chilies, drained

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 cans (16 ounces) BUSH'S BEST Great Northern Beans

1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth

1 ½ cups finely chopped cooked chicken breast

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

Salsa (optional)

In large skillet, cook onion in oil for 4 minutes or until transparent. Add chilies, flour and cumin; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add beans and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened. Add chicken; cook until hot. Garnish with cheese, sour cream and salsa, if desired.

And corn muffins go great with this too! Using a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, make the mix according to the corn muffin recipe, except add a can of creamed corn and about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. You could also add chopped jalapeno peppers or pepper jack cheese! These are perfect for dunking in the chili!

Fall Fun

Last night, we went to a fall festival at Cousin Daniel's school. We had so much fun. There were all kinds of fun activities for the kids including rides, games, face painting, cake walks. You name it, they had it!

We were even able to take a family picture. The first in many months. I had to scan it, so the quality isn't great. Here ya' go!

Did I mention I love this time of year!