Rowland Ramblings: THANKSGIVING 2014

The whole gang

We had lots to be thankful for this Thankgiving as we got to spend the whole week with the Stahr Clan. (the only thing that would have made it better was if the McQuaid crew had been here too). We hadn't seen them since June so Will, the boys, and I were way over due for some brother-in-law, cousin, and sister time.

the big boys....we dont nap anymore

Aunt Annie, Uncle Steve, Cousins Alex, Eli, Gavin, and Laura all come to our house on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and stayed with us till Wednesday afternoon. At which time we all caravaned to Greenville and stayed there until Saturday.

the little kids....a.k.a-the nappers

The Stahr's arrived Sunday afternoon just in time for hot homemade vegetable soup. (A Catron family favorite). I think the boys may have stayed downstair long enough to say HI then they were up in Rex's room checking out the Legos. Will headed off to soccer and work pretty quickly but the rest of us enjoyed catching up and making plans for the rest of the week.

Lego time!

Monday was a day to stretch out of the van for the Stahr family and pretty much play with every toy that we own. Rex had his last day of preschool before Thanksgiving his big "feast day". So he was gone most of the morning to that. Will was supposed to be off Monday and Tuesday and join in the fun with us. Until Mid afternoon that day we heard the Grand Jury had come to a decision in the Micheal Brown case. Will went to work at 5 that night and we basically didn't see him again until Friday afternoon. Thankfully there was no looting, violence, or even peaceful protests in our area at all. We missed him but we kinda knew the decision was coming anyday and that he would be working extra when it did so it wasn't a big surprise. Mom and Dad came over that night and we all went out to Chick-fil-a for dinner. We all enjoyed our chicken and the kids played and played and played in the play land until it was time to go.

Eli would like everyone to know that he has never done this before until today and that he is really good at it

Tuesday we made plans to go to "flip and Play" and toddler play time at a gym in Belleville. I was hoping they Stahr kids would like it as much as we do but worried maybe the wouldn't think it was the great. They LOVED it! The kids got to run and play for about 2 hours while Annie and I watched and told everyone how awesome they were at the things they were doing.

This foam pit was a favorite of everyones...I played with my phone features and made this short video

I taught Rexie how to do flips on the bars

For dinner on Tuesday night I made Rice and Beans Extravaganza, a recipe from the forks over knives cookbook that we like and happened to be gluten free. Again I was hoping they would like it but had taquitoes in the freezer in case it was a bust. They liked it! (boy they are the best house guests!) They might even start making it as one of their regular meals at home.

dinner selfie

That night the boys were kinda restless and needed something different to do. I pulled out a bunch of paper, crayons, stickers, toilet paper rolls, and coloring books and hoped they might be entertained for 15 minutes. I think they all sat at the table (even Grant) for over an hour and a half working on projects. In fact when it was time to put everything away for bed 1 boy (who I wont name) had a melt down because they were so sad to stop coloring.

drawing time

Wednesday we enjoyed the morning at home and got ready to head to Greenville after "little kids" nap time. During nap time the big boys watched Swiss Family Robinson in the basement while Annie and I cooked up a small gluten free feast to take with us to Greenville for dinner that night with Mom and Dad and long time family friends Kenny and Linda. We kinda had to drive through an unexpected snow storm to get there but we all made it safe and sound.

I love my moms tree!

Thursday Mom hosted Thanksgiving at her house for all of us plus Grandma and Grandpa and the Miller side of the family. We had lots of food and it was DEE-licious.

If we dont have a white Christmas we can remember we had a white Thanksgiving

The kids got along so well all week it really was amazing. They really entertained there selves most of the time and on Thanksgiving day there were 3 more cousins to add into the mix. At one point during the week I was kinda even missing my boys because I had seen them so little. It was so fun to see them all having so much fun with each other.

Everyone getting seated for the Feast

Friday after Thanksgiving we feasted on leftovers for lunch and Will arrived to spend the rest of the weekend with us. That evening we had Marios Pizza (another Catron favoritie) and Christmas with the Stahrs. It was fun to watch all the kids open presents and watch their excitement as they watched each other open gifts.

Eli and Gavin enjoying the snow before they head back to Texas

We were having fun opening presents until the teenage mutant Ninja Turles crashed the party!

Gavin got a double light saber!

On Saturday we said goodbye to the Stahrs and headed to St. Charles, MO (via our house to drop off the dog) to spend the afternoon with the Krous family (Will's sister and family) who were visiting Scott's brother for Thankgiving. As we were driving there I realized in one day the boys were going to see 7 of their 10 cousins in one day. Pretty cool considering they all live in Texas and Kansas. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of our time in St. Charles (what was I thinking!). We had a good lunch at Five Guys burgers and fries. One of our favorite burger places, I hope they liked it too. Then we made the mistake of heading to downtown St. Charles to shop the quaint little shops on the Saturday after Thanksgiving! After about 45 minutes of trying to find a place to park and waiting for a parade to clear we finally made it down town. It was loaded with people and vendors and all kinds of activities. We still enjoyed ourselves and plan to go back sometime when its not so crowded.

decorating the tree!

After all that we came home and decided to go ahead and put up our tree. The boys were both very into it this year and did a fantastic job of loading up the bottom forth of our tree with ornaments.