Turkey Day

Yesterday, we made our annual pilgrimage to the Martels for Thanksgiving dinner. Great company and food as always- thanks Brian and Meghan!

Everyone was really tired by the end of the day, but the fun doesn't stop here.

Today we are going to take in a performance of "The Nutcracker" at the new Dallas opera house, and tomorrow we are going on a day trip to a still yet undetermined location (maybe the pine cone forest in Tyler?).

Whew!

Before and After

Lennon before and after his haircut. He did awesome today, holding pretty still so I could chop off his hair which was starting to grow into a bazillion directions.

In science we made a pretty fish today.

Jackets are overrated

The kids went outside after lunch for some fun. Lukas and Lennon quickly threw off their jackets and shoes. They would love to go barefoot and not wear jackets no matter what the temperature.

Katharine had a great time getting the swing all twisted, Keira enjoyed clombing the lawn furniture and Lukas showed off some of his dance moves.

Makin' Waffles

Katharine and Iria made everyone waffles for lunch today... or would that be considered a brunch?

As preparations began,

the customers were hungry, cranky and impatient.

Except for Keira, who was quite happy with her banana and pretzel appetizer.

The homemade fruit syrup was prepared first. Katharine had picked out the recipe herself.

But before starting, Katharine would need the all-important foot stool. Iria's elevation was built into her footwear as usual :)

Here is Katharine stirring the syrup in a stylish manner.

And the final result!

The boys couldn't wait for the waffles, and they dove in right away.

Keira's fruit quickly got lost in the banana and pretzel mush, but she always enjoys the hunt.

The waffles came next. Katharine helped with the mixing, and Iria handled the part where your fingertips get burned.

While Iria plated, the kids had a spontaneous Louis Armstrong interlude when a song of his came on.

Everybody loved the waffles...

even the cat!

The CUMC Turkey Dinner

Our church held its annual turkey dinner at Southfork Ranch tonight; home of the ole' "Dallas" TV series.

Keira was -31 years old when that TV show debuted, so everything is all new to her.

Inside, the kids sat down to their deserts (!). Apparently, it is custom to rush up and grab the good deserts before the main course is laid out- otherwise you might not get anything later on. We kept them from eating a few of the pies, but just try and put mouth watering deserts down in front of hungry kids and see what happens.

Oh yeah, I already tried that once already:

http://the-doeschers.blogspot.com/2009/05/chocolate-cake-experiment.html

Katharine played with Gabby, Mathew and Katie while I waited in the chow line for the dinner to be served.

Here it is. A pretty decent spread...

But of course, Katharine just picks out dinner rolls. She doesn't do meat or mushy.

Luckily, I have some up and coming carnivores which will allow me to go out and grill more often in the future.

Mark (front right) told me that all of his co-workers are playing Borderlands. Go Gearbox!

The dinner ended with a rousing choir performance, but I need to preface it with a picture from earlier on today:

This was Lukas's very own (debut) choir performance. I thought I saw him mouth one or two of the words, but for the most part he was silent and stayed seated. He can be pretty shy sometimes (he told us that he was just tired), so we gave him a lot of props for getting up there and trying... but this is not the boy that we know 95 percent of the rest of the time.

Now fast forward 8 hours later...

The youth choir performed at the end of the dinner, and Katharine could no longer contain herself just sitting in her chair. She rushed up next to the stage, started dancing, and soon just about every other kid in our section had joined her. And who is that dancing around like a spaz in front of about 1000 people to start the video off? Our little guy!

What a great way to end the day. Fun times!