Thankfuls

I love this time of year to reflect on all the blessings my family receives. Last Monday night, we made a "Barlow Family Thankful Tree". It was fun to hear all the kids say their favorite blessings.

One of my favorite events from this year's Thanksgiving activities, was going to watch Tim run the "Turkey Trot". Usually, it's me the family is cheering on during a race, but not this year. The kids made big posters and practiced their words of encouragement.

We waited for Tim at mile 1 - the kids cheered for all the runners and held up their posters. The "trotters" cheered for them and their posters! When dad came around the corner, you thought it was the president of the USA coming. They were so excited to see him.

We met Tim at the finish line and we cheered our hearts out for our favorite guy. The kids braved the cold air and did a great job of rooting for their Dad!

After the race, we headed off to the Turkey Bowl, ate monkey bread, then for a feast at Cousin Callie's. What a wonderful, blessed day!

Carter, Annie, and Abby holding their signs:

Tim heading toward the finish:
The best family ever:
Georgia ready for a feast:
My big girls:

A Lunch Line Feast

The kindergartners held their Thanksgiving Feast in the cafeteria this year. Annie, Abby, and Carter were "over the moon" excited about going through the lunch line and eating a cafeteria feast (they have afternoon kindergarten and usually eat lunch at home). After lunch, they put in a 2 minute pilgrim/Indian program.

It was so fun as a parent to spy on them in the cafeteria - sitting by their friends, eating their big kid lunch!

Eating lunch:

Indian Abby:
Georgia, Pilgrim Annie, Indian Abby, Indian Carter:
Program:

A "Leafy" Time

We have LOTS and LOTS of trees in our backyard. A few weekends ago, we somehow tricked all the neighborhood kids into raking them up into a pile. Payment for all the hard work was big jumps into the crunchy pile. I love all our neighborhood friends!

The jumping crew:

Annie's big run:
Successful land in the pile:
Carter's big run:
Carter relaxing in the leaves:

Good Turns

In our house full of 5 year olds, we have been filled with a lot of "me me me me". I've been trying to work on helping the kids focus on the needs of others and just not themselves.

SO, we are doing an experiment - every night over dinner, everyone has to tell a "good turn" that somebody else did. It started out as, "I helped someone pick up toys". This is not what I had in mind! It has taken us awhile to see the good that others do, but they are starting to catch on. I love pointing out during the day when someone does a good turn.

One of my favorite good turns is that Carter LOVES to peel all the carrots from our garden (and there are A LOT of those babies). He is a fantastic peeler. He sits on a stool by me in the kitchen - he peels and I cut. It has given us a good amount of time to talk about our friends, family and the gospel.

(He is still in his pajama's, has bed head and a silly look on his face, but non-the-less a wonderful little peeler).

Halloween

I've been contemplating this Halloween post for some time (not just slacking in the posting area of life). It was a bitter/sweet week. Between the dance/church/school/birthday/friend/work parties (6 parties in a span of three days) my kids had had enough. Oh, they were plenty excited to attend and participate in the parties, but the aftermath was overwhelming by all members of the family.

The sugar highs and crashes, the over exhaustion, the meltdowns - my kids just can't handle that much excitement for that many days. I would never want them to miss out on a fun party, but I still feel like we are recovering a week later. Maybe I'm just a party pooper, but I have a hard time seeing my kids throwing temper-tantrums over things that usually don't rattle them; random outbursts and reverting back to sucking thumbs.

I was able to be a room mom at the school party - I was in charge of treats. All the 50 kindergarteners were disappointed in the pretzel snack, but I'm not going to contribute in the sugar meltdowns! The school parade was marvelous - there are some very creative moms out there!

I'm not sure what my game plan for next year will be, but it definitely won't be the same as this year!

Our favorite chicken, Peachy:

Heading out for tricks or treats:
So happy to be a big kid:
Happy Halloween 2009 (Thumbalina, Star Wars Clone Trooper, Tinkerbell and Chicken):