Thanksgiving wrap up

We actually took no pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner. I KNOW. But Cooper was HORRIBLE, and we had to leave like 2 hours after we got to my grandma's, which is a 5-hour drive away. Believe me when I tell you the table looked lovely and the food was delicious. And that we totally trashed the place and literally ate an ran. Because we are classy like that.

 We took the kids swimming at the hotel pool, which they all loved-- except Cooper really wanted us to let go of him, so he could swim like the big kids. Obviously, we couldn't do that, and he could NOT understand why. They were all snugly in bed at 7 pm, and Ben and I were installed in the little living room eating a bag of purloined desserts.

Then, he convinced me to go to the Wal Mart down the street from our hotel at 8 to gawk at Black Friday, which was LUDICROUS. A 2 hour line to check out! And no carts left, so people were hauling boxes around. NOTHING in this world could possibly be worth being crushed in a line for 2 hours to buy it.

At 9:30, we moved the big boys from the plush king-sized bed in the bedroom to the shitty fold-out couch in the outer room because we are selfish like that. We sneaked into the bedroom where Cooper was asleep in his pack n play and slept soundly until 2:13 am when Harry woke everyone the hell up by turning on the TV and coming in to tell us good morning. HE AND JACK DID NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP UNTIL 5. I know this because I went to the shitty pull out couch to sleep with them in the hopes that they would go the f to sleep. No dice. And I spent the whole night on a crappy couch with 80 pounds of kid, while Ben had a huge bed (and a partially awake baby).

We hung out for a little while the next morning and went to a fun park with my aunt. Then we jumped in the car and were home in time for dinner. I went to the grocery store after Cooper went down, and Ben and I spent the next few hours cooking a Thanksgiving redux for tonight.

Phew! An exhausting weekend. With delicious leftovers.

About the hats: When I volunteered in Jack's class on Wednesday, we made his.  Harry was captivated and kept talking about the one he made in kindergarten that I am sure is crammed in the important art projects box basement.  He asked me so wistfully where his might be on Thanksgiving morning that I immediately felt terrible for not doing it sooner, and we whipped up 2 more hats.

We broke our trip in Cedar Rapids to have a quick picnic at this cute little park that we always drive by.  Except for the ungodly terrible smell coming off the nearby cornfield when the wind blew a certain way, it was delightful.

Harry stopped to play air guitar.

Cooper was entranced by the large this (swingset).

Harry and Jack will eat anything outside.

Ben doled out the organic bear snacks.

I got to be Cooper's human high chair.

I wish my kids played baseball at this field.  Check out the drink menu at the snack bar.

2 windows worth of drink menus.

Ben and the kids ran the bases.

Ben kicked their asses.

Cooper enjoyed dessert on the this.

We might need a swingset, come to think of it.

You can almost make out my face under the pile of fat surrounding it.

And then we celebrated a family holiday so fast before our baby lost his shit. He ALWAYS loses his shit from like 4:20 until bedtime, but usually we're not around, you know, people.

 Here's a line wrapping around the store to check out at WalMart black Friday at like 8:45 pm.

We rallied for a next-day turkey hat shot.

Cooper freaking loves this samovar.  He remembered it from his last visit and could not wait to throw it on the floor and reassemble it.

Harry took this, admired the shot, and said, "I took a great picture."

Poor Harry.  He gets to be a this, too, when Cooper request pony rides.

Park!  It was so damn cold.

Baby park!  Cooper was thrilled to have age-appropriate playground equipment.

My aunt was wearing 2 coats.  That's how cold it was.

Harry displayed admirable commitment to his turkey hat.

 

Today, Harry wrote a Santa letter and took dictation for Jack's.

Jack got to put the letter in the box

 

And Harry got to raise the flag.  They took this division of labor very seriously.

 

We actually set the table for dinner tonight

And ate in the dim because Harry wanted to enjoy the candles.

Jack is also nothing if not committed to the turkey hat.  He also loved the pumpkin pie bars the most (so did I).

Cooper loved the dessert so much that he mastered fork use for it.  He searches out the bite:

Carefully shovels it in his face.

Gives himself a round of applause.

And throws in a Little-Gym-style ta-da!