Thanksgiving

What a fun time Thanksgiving was! We got to have Christina, Hayden & Megan here the whole holiday. In fact because of an upcoming storm Christina even arrived early. Sweet. The only bummer was Hayden & Megan were sick for most of it but they didn't let it slow them down. I put Hayden in charge of making a fort out of the BBQ box for the last hurrah before we through it away. 

He liked doing that as much as I thought he would.

 Notice the binocular style peepholes he included.

 I had lots of help making dinner. But it still took all Wednesday and Thursday of course by the time you make pies. Probably the most fun was decorating and setting my new table!

So we had a small group this year. But the good news is we all fit at the table.

After dinner it was finally time for Rees to open his presents. His birthday was officially on Thanksgiving this year. How special to have a crowd there just for him.

Go Rees Go

We played our own little football game in the backyard after dinner. That was pretty hilarious. Everyone got to play but Ashley. I wish I had some pictures of that fiasco!

After dinner and lots of pie we just enjoyed each others company and watched more football.

We even managed to get the house all decorated for Christmas while everyone was here.

November Birthdays

We have a plethora of birthdays in November in the Cooper Family. Let's see we have: Mendis, Cooper, Christina, Ashley, Rees, Terri, Cymoni, and Stacey! I hope I'm not forgetting one. And Rob & Beth's anniversary. Lots of celebrating in November.

 For Mendis' birthday he picked going to the Winn Buffet the night before. We were pretty pumped for the dinner and then when we looked around the buffet was gone? We forgot they were doing renovations and it was still closed. Well we didn't have a back up plan. He was thinking we should just to In & Out. No way this was his birthday. So we braved the lines and the price tag (gasp) and went to the Caesar's Place buffet. They have really improved the desserts so I was thrilled. It was a yummy meal of course and this time we had lots of time even though it was getting late by then. Highly recommend this experience but save up first!!

 

 

 Cooper's birthday was fun. It's always so fun watching the grandkids rip into their presents. We got him a light saber kit that created quite a stir.

 Here is Rees enjoying the stack of presents before he opened them. His birthday was actually on Thanksgiving day so that meant Hayden & Megan and Christina could be there which made it extra special. We got him Ninjago legos.

The Parade

Happy Birthday to Mendis and Happy Veteran's Day all around town.  This was the first year in forever that Grandpa & Grandma Cooper weren't at the parade with all the Cooper's. They needed to take it easy for Grandpa. So the rest of us trouped on down.

 First we had a gourmet egg on toast breakfast for Mendis' birthday of course.

Ashley & Benjy and the kids came and then I walked with Rees & Cooper to the parade.

 How cute is Dane!

 

 

It was cool outside but really a nice day. 

We enjoy getting together with the Cooper Clan every year for Mendis' parade.

Boys PlayDay

I had the three grandsons over to play one day since I had it off work. It was a staff development day so even Rees could come over. I made some play dough and downloaded some pages to go with that that I thought were alot of fun. They loved the mini cookie cutters and pizza cutters the best I think. We colored and played with pipe cleaners. We did Marble Works and built a fort in the big BBQ box.

 

 We had fun making our very own mini pizzas. Don't be alarmed the pizza cutters were cleaned up first!

 Dessert was my favorite. I made blue jello oceans complete with a fish and orange slice sailboat. So cute. I love how they appreciate when I do something cool like that. Makes is worthwhile.

 The pipe cleaner fun was almost as entertaining as there goes a bulldozer.

 

Those are some busy boys. I had to have alot of tricks up my sleeve to stay a step ahead of them that's for sure. After our play day I had a nice little well deserved nap!