Happy Thanksgiving!
Academically, we prepped for the holiday this year by reading a chapter book that followed the Hopkins family's journey from England through to the first Thanksgiving. We also read a great little book about how Thanksgiving came to be a federal holiday through the efforts of Sarah Hale.

For the holiday itself, we were thrilled to be living close enough to go to Grandma and Granddad's house this year! We were able to join in on some family traditions and create a new one or two. The feast itself was delicious, of course, and thoroughly enjoyed by all. We went on our usual walk through the woods afterwards (to make room for the pie), and the girls even got to stay up a bit late to play board games after their little cousin was safely tucked away in bed. This year Grandma decided we needed a new tradition: a thankful tree. I'll confess we were all a little skeptical of the bare stick in a bucket, but once we added leaves for things we were thankful for, it looked great!

Board game with Granddad!

The final Thanksgiving tradition is actually the first taste of Christmas. Everyone got involved in making and decorating gingerbread cookies. I even got to open an early Christmas present: a set of ninja-bread men cookie cutters! They're awesome!

Making cookies!

Decorating cookies!

Other highlights from the weekend: cousin playtime in the basement (it's a huge, mostly finished space full of toys), going for a run on a rec trail along the river (Lion plus her personal entourage of four grown ups), playing at a great local playground, shooting air rifles in the backyard (Bug in particular proved herself a good little marksman), and picking through Mommy's stacks of old books to find ones at Monkey and Bug's reading to take home with us. Good times!

Standardized Testing
The week after Thanksgiving involved an event for which the girls are not so thankful: standardized testing. Since our state doesn't specify when during the year they have to take them, we decided to test midway through. Now if they pass with flying colors, we're done, and we no longer have this hanging over our heads. If they don't do so well, then we have tons of time to work on our weak areas and retest later. This year at least they knew what they were in for, and I'm feeling pretty good about how they did. Now we await results!