caroline's thanksgiving feast!

making pilgrim hat cookies for her school feast

the indians coming to join the pilgrims for the feast

the 4K indians

the 5K pilgrims

the best treat of all...daddy got to come!

caroline and emma

mrs. kampen and caroline

taylor grace and caroline

caroline had her thanksgiving feast at school last tuesday and had such a blast! she and her 4k classmates were the indians and the 5K class were the pilgrims. each child brough a recipe to school and made their recipe for the feast and it was delicious! we also got to take home a recipe book with all the recipes included. caroline and i had so much fun making pilgrim hat cookies. the best part was that daddy got to come, too! caroline was so surprised and thrilled to have daddy at school :)

girl's night out

staci, christi, faith and suzanne (who is hidden by the artist)

this is my serious painting face :)

the painting in process

the finished product...it was called "kiawah cottage"

my friend leslie showing off her work

me and faith

our whole crew (minus leslie who had to leave)

i had such a fun girls night out this past week...we went to a new place in mt.pleasant called bottles n' brushes and painted our own masterpiece! we brought snacks and munchies and the drinks were provided. the painting we did called "kiawah cottage" was actually really hard and took a long time, but it was a blast! it's funny b/c none of us thought we did very good, but all of our husbands and children loved our paintings :) we can't wait to go back and do an easier one so we can enjoy the process a little more. highly recommend doing this with your girlfriends if you haven't!!

guilt free tomato basil soup

we had this soup tonight and it was so yummy! and healthy, too, if you care about that. john and i love tomato basil soup and this one with some whole wheat french bread and a tossed salad was such a filling and tasty dinner on a very cold night. i did make some changes to the recipe based on the reviews...

*i used canned tomatoes instead - 3 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes, 1 can regular diced tomatoes
*i used 1 cup of V8 reduced sodium
*i used skim milk
*i used 1/2 the cream cheese it called for

as usual, my sous chef caroline helped...makes dinner prep take a little longer and many times challenging, but i love that time with my sweet girl! and she had 2 bowls of soup, too :)

10 reasons you're rich....

Even in times of financial uncertainty, it’s always important to keep things in perspective.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
- Henry David Thoreau

1. You didn’t go to sleep hungry last night.
2. You didn’t go to sleep outside.
3. You had a choice of what clothes to wear this morning.
4. You hardly broke a sweat today.
5. You didn’t spend a minute in fear.
6. You have access to clean drinking water.
7. You have access to medical care.
8. You have access to the Internet.
9. You can read.
10. You have the right to vote.

**found this on the website and link listed below

http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/11/03/10-reasons-you-are-rich/

disney on ice

heading out to the show!

hali, chase, brianna and caroline

mickey, minnie, donald and daisy start the show

the little mermaid

everyone on the last number

chase, caroline and brianna after the show :)

i surprised caroline thursday night with tickets to disney on ice, mickey and minnie's magical journey. she was so excited! we went with some friends and had such a good time...she said her favorite part was tinkerbell! also a cute quote from her this morning before church. i went upstairs with her to brush her teeth and put on her cross necklace (which is a must wear accessory EVERY single sunday), she said out of the blue..."poor daddy, he's the only boy in this whole house...poor, poor dadday." i was cracking up!

the fair, cooking and my computer

getting ready for the first ride

whoo, here we go!

watching caroline on the roller coaster

helping mommy cook

susanna hanging out while we cooked

i went to do laundry and found susanna like this when i came back :)