We've Decided to Keep You.

Friday night was Fort Night over at our house. Ben was out of town and since I was running low on creative options to entertain the Charmings ... a fort and a picnic dinner sounded like a good idea. I'm always game for making a low key dinner (pretty sure it was the third meal of PB and J sandwiches ... IN A ROW!!) and snuggling in our sleeping bags.
The boys were super THRILLED to eat somewhere other than the kitchen table ...
What could be better than soy yogurt, gluten free bread and apples ... YUMMY! So yummy, I asked Eli to give me a thumbs up. Wish I could have captured J's expression when he saw Eli. "Eli. That is not your thumb. That is your pointer finger. Mom said, THUMBS UP!"
Is it strange that it appears as though he's never seen his thumb before?
My favorite conversation of the night ....
J: "Remember when Audrey was in your tummy. It really has been quite a journey."
Me: "Yep. She's been in our family for five months. What do you think we should do with her now?"
J: Thinks about it for a minute ..."We should keep her as our baby."
Me: "Did you hear that Audrey?"
J: Walks over to her, "Aren't you happy? We've decided to keep you! We should have a party. A celebration that we're keeping her as our baby!"

So ... you can see where this is going .... Joshua called my mom and asked her to come over ... and bring the donut maker ... and candles! Then Joshua and I made Audrey a "We're Keeping You" surprise ....
And we sang her a "Happy We're Keeping You" song ... (sounds a lot like Happy Birthday) ...
And we let her munch on her surprise! (Joshua painted the A ... ) After the donuts, Joshua said, "See. She's so happy we're keeping her!"
And since Joshua was getting so good at projects ... I convinced him to help me with the decorations for the Thanksgiving table. We made turkeys. Seven of them. And after naps, the boys gave them names. Gobbler. Runaway. Purple Guy. Sundown. Run Fast. Speed and Lasso.
And then it was onto the place mats ... I saw the idea in Parents magazine ... and they used sponges to make the "leaves" ... but I had pom-poms on the table and we dipped those in paint ... and they worked great!
And yes. I'm in charge of the bird this year. That's why I'm so focused on the table decorations. It will give everyone something to look at ... in case they're choking on their dinner :)