I hope everyone had an awesome Pie Making Wednesday, and Pie Eating Thursday! I know we sure did. I've been super busy the last few days. I didn't realize how little time I had between Thanksgiving and my next trip, and then I'll get back- and it'll practically be Christmas! So, I'm running around trying to get 80,000 things done.
But, lets rewind back to Wednesday, to the Fifth Annual Pie Making Wednesday! Pie Making Wednesday is basically a holiday I invented to enjoy Thanksgiving a little more (it's not one of my favorite holidays). Each year we get together with friends, and we make our pies for Thanksgiving. Tracy brought us a cake-pie this year!
We all chipped in and ordered some pizza.. lots of pizza! (Because who want's to cook the day before Thanksgiving?)
This year we had a record 16 attendees!
We had to document Baby Kevin's first Pie Making Wednesday.
So, the pies can really be anything you want. I'm not a baker, but I've made lots of very yummy no-bake pies over the year. Asa skips the crust and makes more of a pumpkin soup.
Angela made a no-bake oreo pie, and it apparently takes like 7 adults to open a package of oreos these days.
But her pie was awesome, and kudos to her for making one!
There was some filling left over, though.
Which resulted in some shenanigans.
The Davis's brought some light sabers. Which is always a big hit.
Baby Kevin even got in on the light saber fight.
This year, I went out of my no-bake pie comfort zone, and I actually BAKED one! But, I took a little help from store bought mixes to make my brownie pie. (Yes, I put brownie mix in a pie shell and cooked it. Then I topped it with peanut butter, chocolate, and peanut butter cups- and it was as good as it sounds)
There was a round of One Night- which was hilarious to watch.
But, since I wasn't playing I got stuck with the baby for a minute, and that's not something I'm too comfortable with.
Calib on the other hand, is totally fine with it.
One of Asa's co-workers, Doris, and her family came over too. Doris and Mandy have a son, Jason, who is Hayden's age, so that worked out well.
Calib made an ice cream pie.
And Tracy contributed a sweet potato pie.
Plus of course the piecake she made for all of us to enjoy.
It's a piecake, because there was a pie IN the cake.
Asa had to work at 4 am on Thanksgiving for the overtime, everyone left about 10:30 or so.
Baby Kevin took home some pizza for his midnight snack.
Apparently Jack Sparrow and Elsa are Native Americans. They're living in the Chickee now.
Justin stayed a little later than everyone else to finish his pie.
He made banana cream pie, and pecan pie.
Asa was up at 4 for work, and by the time I got up at 9 he had the turkey in the oven, and the mashed potatoes in the slow cooker. (I married a keeper!) Calib, meanwhile, was on green bean casserole duty.
I pulled out our 'tablecloth' that we write on every year, and set the table with the 'special occasion plates' (one's we all painted and designed)
Around 3 it was time to open the oven and finally see how the turkey had cooked.
It was awesome.
Everything was awesome, actually.
After dinner, I made sure everyone drew on the tablecloth for 2014.
Calib used a 1-2-3 Not it to get out dishes, of course. We offered 20 points to Peyton to do them, and he bought an investor card for 5 points to double his payday to 40. I didn't care, I was happy not to do the dishes!
Kevin and Katie came over after dinner too for Pie Eating Thursday- where we all get together on Thanksgiving Night to eat our pies.
My brownie pie was my favorite, and Asa's too. I think he liked it more than the pumpkin.
I mean who doesn't want brownies in a graham cracker crust, topped with peanut butter and chocolate?
Baby Kevin got a taste of the banana cream pie.
Thanks to everyone for coming back out for pie eating!
Kevin and Katie don't eat Thanksgiving dinner with us, but they always contribute to the tablecloth.
Some of this years contributions are below...
Calib cut his finger on the cream of mushroom soup can and noted his injury.
I wanted to commemorate the first (of many) Favretastic Brownie Pie.
"Best Oreo Pie" everyone says-- from Angela.
Asa noting how much he ate.
Justin noting how much Asa ate.
Baby Kevin wasn't thrilled we traced his hand, but we HAD to!
Hayden's 2014 Turkey.
Black Friday came and went without a whole lot of shopping in the stores from me. I mostly ordered online this year. But, we did brave the crowds for a few items at Target, and I couldn't miss the 75% off fabric at Joannes.
Friday we had a light school day- and learned about the Far West/California Native Americans. (Maybel has been a pain with pipe cleaners- I can't get her to stay away from them!!)
We did our books, and had more of a lecture day- but we did have one activity for the day- basket weaving. Hayden did the easier project using a bowl and some yarn.
Calib and Peyton were a little more advanced.
They did some really cool weavings with yarn and a paper plate.
They turned out really cool, but took forever to do.
We're running out of space on the board, but making do.
Realizing how little time I have to get Christmas stuff done, I decided I should use my free time Friday evening to wrap all the Christmas presents. For the first time ever I had help. Not from Asa, it's just not his thing-- but Calib helped! (after I had wrapped all of his, of course)
He's maybe not the best at wrapping, but I don't think anyone cares, and I was happy to have the help.
Today some of our online orders arrived. My spot cleaner, which I'm super excited about arrived first.
Later my ONE DOLLAR panini press, griddle, and waffle iron arrived. To be fair, they're $1 after rebates and kohls cash, but still... SUPER inexpensive. Yay!
We also studied the Southwest Native Americans today. After our worksheets, we started on making our pueblos. They're an adobe dwelling used by the Hopi tribes.
We wrapped various boxes (dog treats, juice boxes, that sort of thing) in light brown paper and used different colors of brown paint and sponges to give it more of an adobe appearance, like it was actually made out of mud/clay and stone.
While we let those dry, we moved on to making our pottery. It's an air dry clay, so they will dry overnight, and we will paint them tomorrow after the game.
(I know I'm not giving you as much info as usual, but I'm trying to get through the blog quickly so I can catch up on some TV with my favorite grown up) Here's the pottery, pre-drying.
The Southwest Native Americans were also good farmers. They used irrigation, and even raised sheep. We decided we were going to grind corn down off the cob like they would have done.
So we took our Indian corn out to the backyard and used some rocks to strip it off the cob.
It took a lot of work, but Hayden was pretty good at it.
It took awhile, but they got it all off the cobs. I know some big sand hill cranes who are going to be a fan of my patio the next few days.
As I mentioned, the Navajo were sheep herders. (The Spanish actually taught them this) Using the wool from the sheep, the Navajo made elaborate blankets and rugs. We did a take on them using sandpaper to give us the illusion of having the same texture.
Some crayon on the sandpaper, and a little construction paper fringe on the sides...
and ta da...
Navajo blankets!
They're hanging up in the kitchen.
Southwest Native Americans also made elaborate sand art. Often the art was made and destroyed in a day (for ceremonies), but we wanted ours to be a little more permanent. This was a super easy, but super fun project.
We just used some double sided tape and made our designs.
Then we covered the tape in sand, and shook it off (one color at a time)- and that was it. Pretty cool.
The boys added to their books, they only have one more area to cover before we can bind them.
Then we checked on our pueblos, and since it was dry we put it all together. We painted some doors and windows, added the wood at the top, and put on some ladders.
It turned out pretty cool.
That's it for today!
Room for one more- the Pacific Northwest (We'll cover it Monday)
Next Up: Another (likely) Bucs loss at Raymond James, and finishing up Native American week so we can move from Thanksgiving to Christmas!!