Good, old-fashioned celebrating!

Maple Dale's second graders recently dressed up for "Old-Fashioned School Day." Sammy celebrated this last year and the kids had so much fun. Brie and her buddies were no exception.

Isn't this picture hysterical? Beth commented, "Awesome! They look authentically miserable." Haha!

Here are the kids at school...everyone dressed up!

And ate their lunch on the floor (not sure that was necessary...).

This was the "pioneer lunch" that I made for Brie. It was a challenge to come up with ideas!

For fun, Brie's class had an old-school spelling bee...and Brie won! Her winning word was "Exaggerate." !! Sam--who got second place in his class bee last year--was SO excited for Brie...and proud of her, too. :-D (No dunces here!!)

And then...we welcomed Gammy and Granddaddy Rob (and Panda!) for a WONDERFUL week of celebrating Thanksgiving and all the fun things that come with living in Cincinnati.

For starters, Panda finally got to meet her sister dog Maizie!

We also did crafts...

 Built castles...

 Read books...

And cooked up an amazing meal! But first we went for a walk in the park to work up an appetite!

Then we cooked...

And carved (and simmered)...

And baked (and, apparently, sampled)!

Here's Granddaddy Rob all ready for lunchl! Like my flamingo tablecloth and gold plates??

Being silly!

Fingerpainting with sweet potatoes!

Our Thanksgiving meal was outstanding, but we really missed Auntie B who moved in Sydney, Australia, this month! We were happy to hear that she got to eat turkey at work and then celebrated Friendsgiving with other ex-pats!

And then we took a well-earned nap!

 Before making some world-class chocolate-chip-pecan pie!

 And then going for another walk! It was gorgeous out!

The next day, we went to Entertrainment Junction. Granddaddy Rob had never been!

It was all decorated for the holidays!

We also went to the see the zoo lights. It was a warm evening, so we weren't alone!

 Even Fiona and her mommy have their own light display this year!

And we capped off our perfect week with a little family photo shoot on the Ohio River. After living in Cincinnati for a little over five years, we thought it was the perfect time to capture our family with our favorite skyline. Here's a sneak peek!!

Here's to good times, delicious meals and spending the holidays with people you care about...fun the old-fashioned way!