Thursday, December 04, 2008

Thanksgiving in N.C.

We went to North Carolina last week to spend Thanksgiving with Ted's family. As you can see, Madigan was quite excited to see her Grandi! (Gramps too, but he was taking the pictures...)
We had a wonderful time and since we had 3 cameras going at all times, I have lots of pictures to share! I'm going to try to divide it up into sections and minimize the writing since all you really want to see is the picture anyway.

Thanksgiving
Since we did go for Thanksgiving, I'll start with that! Grandi had everything looking very festive, even the outside. Here's Madigan posing with the Pilgrim, Indian, turkey, and pumpkins...
Madigan got to help prepare our Thanksgiving meal. I figure since we're starting her out at the age of 2, she should be able to prepare a full meal independently at least by the age of 10. At least, that's my hope...
Of course, as any good cook knows, the best part of cooking is making sure the food tastes okay.Madigan was really good at this...One of the Bowsman Thanksgiving traditions is the wearing of "hats" for lunch. Actually, we put them on, take pictures and then gradually lose the hats as we sit down to eat. Not sure why Madigan and I ended up being the turkeys. Make sure you note the chief standing in the background. (Not pictured - Ted and Grandi, both pilgrims) Not all of the Bowsmans really like this tradition, but Madigan thought it was pretty fun!Lunch was fantastic (Grandi is a great cook!) and the naps afterward were even better!

Family Pictures
We took a few family pictures for Christmas cards while we were there. Here's one with the whole family (including Kate's dog, Zoey, with the cool colored eyes!)
Madigan with Grandi and Gramps...and a really cheesy smile.
Spoiler alert - if you typically get a Christmas card from us and want to be surprised by the picture on it, skip this next one :)
Fun at Grandi and Gramps

As always, Grandi and Gramps had plenty of fun stuff for Madigan to do. The new additions to the toys this year was a fancy kitchen and a Cinderella vanity set. Madigan spent many hours cooking food and staring at herself in the mirror while putting on "make up". I tried to encourage the cooking...
Gramps had also raked some of their leaves into a big pile and introduced Madigan to the fun of jumping in leaves.
As you can see, she wasn't the only kid that had fun playing the leaves :)Here's Madigan riding on Gramp's rocking horse. Giddy up!
Of course, Aunt Kate made time for toe nail painting...Rocking on the front porch...Showing Gramps how to do puzzles...
For some reason, Madigan got very into playing with the angels Grandi had on the piano. Aunt Kate captured this picture while they were playing with the angels. And, of course, there was plenty of time allotted for bonding with everyone. Madigan cuddling with Aunt Kate...Watching TV with Gramps...
and reading with Grandi...

Tea Party
In addition to all of the other fun, the girls all got to have a REAL tea party!
What fun!Drinking tea takes a lot of concentration...Even Mommy and Aunt Kate worked on their tea drinking style (note the pinky fingers properly positioned!)
Christmas
Yes, I did just move from one holiday to another. Because we won't be able to go back to N.C. for Christmas, we celebrated while we were there. Here's Madigan standing with the tree and all of the presents. I think she was a bit overwhelmed!
She's definitely perfected her present opening technique since last year. She could rip through a package pretty quickly and was so excited about every gift!
I love this picture - she's cuddling with a baby Aunt Kate bought her. There was reason to be overwhelmed - she got all kinds of new things! Clothes, babies with car seats and diaper bags, kitchen accessories, purses with makeup, etc. However, I think the biggest hit was her new luggage. Funny story - while we were in the airport on the way to N.C., Madigan saw an older girl pulling a pink suitcase behind her. Madigan said she wanted a suitcase like the girl and so I told her (knowing Grandi had bought her a suitcase) that she'd have to wait and see. Turns out, Grandi had bought her the EXACT suitcase that the other little girl had. Ask and you shall receive...Madigan pulled the suitcase around with her everywhere and loved seeing how many toys she could stuff in it at a time. She actually did great with it at the airport on the way home too. Ted and I also received some fantastic gifts, but I didn't think you probably cared about those pictures :)

Good Bye!

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time and were very sad to leave. But we were grateful for the time we got to spend with everyone. Thanks to Grandi, Gramps and Aunt Kate for making it a wonderful trip. We can't wait to see you again!

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