So much to be Thankful for

Turkey time is here once again.Time for football, pumpkin pie,Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,gravy, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. Yum !Yum ! My goodness where has the year gone... Seems like it goes by faster each year. This year I am most thankful for my health and my family. The kids are getting bigger and now they can help me with many things around the house. I am thankful for all my wonderful friends and family. Believe it or not I am thankful for a great boss. While the unemployment rate is so high in Nevada, I am so grateful to be part of
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Today as we gather around the table for a wonderful meal, we give thanks for many many things. I am so glad that my kids appreciate all that they have because in my opinion they are spoiled. Tomorrow they will work on a few craft projects as the turkey is being basted.

My brother is far far away in South AFrica and I will be thinking of him, like I do every day. We did not celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa but now that I am thankful to be in America and  I try to learn the basics of all these traditions and I feel confident that when my kids are grown and gone I will be visiting them for the holidays and they will know how to throw a feast together.

Most of my friends will be visiting their moms during Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays and spending time with family. I wish them all a safe travel. Some of my friends choose to do this because they do not know how to cook a turkey or a ham :( So sad, if you ask me. So what happens to the tradition when their mama is no longer here... what will the younger kids do? What happens to this tradition in the future? I hope they will at least attempt to show the kids, but maybe grandma will.

So what is the history of Thanksgiving? 

When we sit down to our Thanksgiving dinner, we honor a piece of early American history. The story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans serve as a good reminder for all of us to be thankful for what we have--no matter how much or how little.

George Washington declared a feast of Thanksgiving in 1789, and presidents issued similar yearly proclamations after that during the Civil War.

President Abraham Lincoln saw it as a way to unite the country, and he in 1863 he proclaimed a national Thanksgiving celebration on the last Thursday in November.

 It was changed from the last Thursday to the third Thursday by Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 as a way to lengthen the Christmas shopping holiday. In 1941, Roosevelt finally changed the date to the fourth Thursday in November, proclaiming it a Federal holiday in 1941.

You can find a ton more interesting facts HERE

Anyway I just wanted to share a project we did today in preparation for tomorrow. I made four place cards with the kids and a centerpiece. Tomorrow the kids will write their names and help with table seating. I take no credit, as I have not invented these. I downloaded these cards from www.marthastewart.com  I have added these to my blog for your convenience. These do not require hours in the oven or basting, it does need some pasting. I also lost control with the stickles. I love love love stickles. A great product if you have not tried it.It adds glitter and dimension. Check it out HERE

I hope you try out these awesome turkey templates. Here is how mine turned out. 

One card for each of us and a centerpiece.

This is the place card that the kids will add their names to.

This is the large turkey.Notice the glitter glue.

Sorry the lighting was bad. I will reshoot these in the morning. Well Happy Thanksgiving. There are many many more reasons I am thankful. I am very thankful to be here and share some of my joys with you. More to come tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by. If you make the turkeys, link back to me so I can check out your creations.

Gobble ! Gobble !

Mwah !!!

Snow blankets Reno today

After a long warm fall, we have the first snow fall of the season. Well, I guess it was more of a blizzard. 

Here is the view from my front door. You cannot see the mountains. It is a white out for sure.

My husband works in Truckee, California and most times during the snow chains or four wheel drive is necessary for safety reasons. He will sometimes take my car and I am happy to stay home. Today I had several appointments scheduled and needed my car. He was sweet to make arrangements to car pool. He left home at 6am only to sit in traffic since Highway I80 was shut down. It was not too long before he called me to let me know that he was on his way back home. The roads were terrible and the highway was dotted with many vehicles that went off road  and several car accidents. A few involving 18 wheelers. No matter how careful a driver you are, we have to always watch out for the ones that are not.

Due to the weather I cancelled my appointments for the day. Here is my car armed with studded snow tires. I love that we have studs. It makes driving in the snow a little better. It gives the car a lot more traction.

I checked facebook periodically, watched the news and called the parent hotline to see if there were any delays for school. Nope nothing of that sort, not even a snow stop announcement. If the roads are really bad, (and they were this morning ) the kids are picked up at designated stops so the bus does not have to travel on the smaller roads that are snow ploughed last. 

As a parent I was not comfortable sending him on the bus that does not have seat belts. I am glad I made that choice. On my way we saw cars sliding on the slippery roads, a couple of accidents and drivers spinning their wheels. Not a pretty site on the road today. 

Here is Pravan before he went to school this morning. He was such a good sport to do a mini photo shoot in the snow.

The snow however is pretty soft powder that my kids love to eat, sled on and make snow angels. Snow ball fights and a snowman is always a warm welcome in winter play. Since Friday we have managed to go sledding and eat snow. That is a whole other post as I have too many pictures to post. 

I am looking forward to the long holiday weekend and having some quality time with the kids in the snow. I have a feeling that tomorrow the phone might ring at 6am to announce some sort of delay for school. The high is expected to be 6 degrees Fahrenheit. For my metric friends that will be -14.4 celsius.

Here are some highlights from the news today : 

Mayor Bob Cashell has cancelled the tree lighting ceremony tonight due to the treacherous road conditions. 

The artic front will also bring some windy conditions, with gusts to 45 mph in Reno-Sparks.Record lows are likely to be set with this cold blast of Arctic air.

So as I write this I got a connect ed call from the school district informing us that we may have a delayed start in the morning  due to icy road conditions from a drop in temperature. This will be determined in the morning and I am sure we as parents can expect to be woken up by a phone call super early. So what is the point of a delayed start if we cannot sleep in.... arrghhh!!!

Thanks for stopping by... Send some sunshine my way :)

Mwah !!!

 

Glitter and Gold, Fairies and dust, Magical childhood is a must !

Hello World !


This is by far my post popular post. Thanks for stopping by. Please please leave me a comment or a thought. Another tooth is lost and one more loose...stay tuned as I update this post.


Glitter and Gold, 
Fairies and dust, 
Magical childhood is a must !

Being a child is surely a wonderful thing, the laughter and excitement and the glow on their faces when the fairy visits or when Santa comes makes being a MOM truly amazing. So why is loosing a teeth so special... It is a SMILESTONE !!! 


Read on to learn a little about the tooth fairy and some beliefs.... 


( okay not sure why there is so much space above, I cannot see it in the draft but it shows up when I post. Anyone blogger out there can tell me how to fix it. Thanks. ) 


Inflation seems to have crept into the tooth fairy’s economy as the price of a tooth seems to be going up. According to records back in the 40's a kid was paid a dime and in the 1950's that quickly changed to a shiny new quarter.In the 60's the Kennedy half dollar was more common and this quickly changed to a dollar in the in the 70's and 80's. So in the 90's to the 2000's it varies from a dollar to five dollars.

Seems as thought the going rate in 3rd grade is $5. So Pravan was thrilled to redeem 5 gold coins per tooth and bonus coins for setting out 2 teeth and saving the fairy a trip. After all the fairy has to figure out a way to get in the house, bypass the cat, find the right room, bunk beds can be an issue. How does she know a kid lost a tooth anyway ? How does she do the currency conversions ? Carry all those GOLD coins  ?? 


Her only source of light is the fairy dust so she shed a ton of it everywhere. The bookcase, window sill, ladder, pillows, sheets, floors and even Pravan's hair. Boy did she make a mess. A huge mess, no fault of her own... Special fairy dust makes her fly and touching a human child makes her shed.... she has to be cleansed before she returns to tooth heaven.


So after the tooth fairy visited last night I spent hours sucking up the glitter with the vacuum hose.. and still there will be glitter everywhere.... Pravan loved every bit of this....He laughed as I whined and whined and I tried endlessly to vacuum up all the evidence she left behind. He says that I should not blame her as she was bringing him treasures and had no intention of making mommy mad. Princess piped in and told me that she was super excited and needed to shed more glitter to carry two teeth. She is about the size of Thumbelina so two teeth would weight more than she does... LOL !!!


Perhaps it is a reward for a "passing of age." A lost tooth is one of the first signs of growing up. It was not too long ago I was making notes of each tooth and documenting when they came in. Now I find I am doing the opposite.Perhaps a piece of childhood is lost with every lost tooth.

There are many stories available on the internet as to how the tooth fairy came to be. Here are some traditions of other countries:

Centuries ago in Europe it was common practice to bury a tooth in the ground.One reason for this ritual was the superstition, that if a witch got a hold of the tooth, a curse could be placed on the child, (as with fingernail clippings and/or hair). So by burying their children's teeth, this unfortunate curse was prevented from happening.

In some countries there is a mouse instead of a fairy ( I love the idea of the tooth fairy, Oh by the way have you watched the movie... " Tooth Fairy " My kids and I loved it... You should watch it...It is a barrel of laughs and giggles...

Other countries like Taiwan and Greece instruct their children to throw their tooth on the roof for good luck.

In Argentina and Sweden, a child places his or her tooth in a glass of water. Overnight

a Magical Mouse drinks the water, takes the tooth and leaves money.

  

                                                                                    




                                                                                       Two teeth for the fairy to collect ...

Pravan was excited to put his teeth under his pillow... I am so glad that we have a tooth fairy and no longer have a mouse or rat to collect the teeth. Now if she can lay of the glitter on her next trip. I may have to use a night light the night she is expected...heheehehehee....

             






Pravan's teeth are ready to exchange for his treasure....

And here is his treasure...... 5 gold coins for each tooth and one bonus for each tooth since he saved her a trip... that is 12 gold coins but he got 11 and two half dollar coins, she knew he has been collecting special coins....

I got out of bed just in time to freeze this special moment... These are the special moments that make motherhood soooo rewarding.... 

Pravan got a letter from the tooth fairy and a certificate showing when she took the teeth away and his address... I will post at the end of this post for a closer view... Yeah the tooth fairy is up to technology speed and made sure mommy got an emailed copy for the scrapbook.... heheheeee....

         


                                            reading his letter ....
















Of course it doesn’t end there. Children often ask  "what happens to my teeth after the tooth fairy takes it away ? " Parents have had many different answers to this question. For example: The Tooth Fairy 

- Gives them to newborn babies who don’t have any teeth as yet.
- Gives the teeth to Santa to give to dolls in his workshop or turn into jewellery.
- Turns them into seashells for fish to live in
- Plants them in her garden and grows children
- Grinds them into fairy dust that she uses to enable her to fly.
- Makes tooth castles in the sky.
- Turns the teeth into the stars of the night sky. 

The tooth fairy certificate

Whatever the answer, the story of the Tooth Fairy has endured for hundreds of years and will surely endure for hundreds more to come.

The traditions mentioned in here about the witch and tooth mouse was information I read on various sites. I do not take credit for it nor did I make it up.


And that's the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.


Thanks for stopping by... Please leave me your comments or share with me your tooth fairy story. It will be published in the comment section for other moms to read... 


Mwah !!!!!

xoxoxoxo !!!!!!

Freedom is not Free

 Grab a cup of coffee. This is a long post. I know I am a few days late but here is my Veteran's Day post.

Many seem to confuse Memorial Day with Veteran's Day. Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor America's war dead. Veterans Day honors both the living and the dead. Veteran's Day is mainly to thank the LIVING Veterans for their dedication, sacrifices and loyalty to their country. November 11th is the day Veteran's know that we deeply appreciate the Heroes we have amongst us and all the sacrifices they have made for us and the freedom we know today.

There is a very high price we pay for freedom. American soldiers sacrifice so much for all of us. All for the freedom of our country. Leaving their families and heading off to war , unaware of what the future holds. I took a moment today to think of the great sacrifices made by these brave heroes.

                We should never forget all the men that have died        

                                          We should never forget the battles they have fought.

                                      We should never forget all the tears the families have cried. 

We should never forget every child that has to grow up and experience life's milestones without a dad, not because they chose not to be there, but because they chose to fight for our country.

It is an unimaginable debt, and a tremendous amount of gratitude that can never bring back the unknown identities lost to the cold hard bullets.


Today I am a proud mom to know that I have shared with my kids what the true meaning of Veteran's Day is. Pravan very proudly marched in the parade in down town Reno as Priyasha, dad and I waited along the side of the road for him to make his way down Virginia Street.

Here are all the wolf cubs that marched together.

Pravan and his buddy Alan since Kindergarten.

      A close look at this awesome plane.

                             I love that he has his hands in the pocket..is that the new style ???

                                                 Missy had to give it a try too..

     Patiently waiting for brother to come by in the parade.

Here he comes. He turns and waves to daddy's voice... and he tries to find us in the crowd.

This was a happy click moment. One min she was next to me and the next she was hugging uncle Sam in the middle of the road... It was so cute...

                                  This was the marching band practicing before the parade.

            There were many dogs in the parade. This one definitely rode in with style and very patriotic...

This was paparazi mom running along in the parade to get this shot. 

Have you explained to your children the true meaning of Veteran's Day ?? It is up to us to share the knowledge we have with the future... OUR KIDS ....

We owe veterans our gratitude

For they are the reason we are free !!!

Thank you for stopping by. Any feedback, comments are always welcome. I wish you a happy week.

Mwah !!!!

Last , First Day of Pre-school

Hello World !

Last month my little Girly has her last first day of pre-school. You may not know that she graduated from pre-school last year as she met all the academic requirements for kindergarten.Unfortunately for her she is still not five and needs to be in pre-school one more year.

Fabulous for me as I want do not really want her to grow up so fast. Well since she is my last baby this is the last time I have a first day of

pre-school moment.

Since Pravan ( Lollipop ) was in pre-school we have been doing the kissing hand tradition. We read the book and I love that we have done this since his first day.Off course he is not in third grade and I could not get away with doing this in front of the school. He says he it is too embarassing :( **sigh ** They grow up so fast.

The Kissing Hand~A perfect first day story. This is a story about a little raccoon ready to start school. He talks about his

fears to his mother, fears that most children have before beginning school. His mother comes up with a wonderful solution to help her little raccoon remember that she loves him and is thinking about him, even whenshe isn't with him. A wonderful and heart-warming story to share with little ones.

Girly on the other hand still loves being with her mama. She was not shy giving me my kissing hand as her friends waited for her.Some kids cried and refused to let go of their mom. Priyasha was happy to be in school but she also lets me know that she missed me, whenI pick her up. That is what makes being a mommy so worthwhile.

Now we continue this with Priyasha (Girly) and she makes sure that Pravan never leaves the house without giving her a kissing hand.

Daddy had the day off today and I love that he is such a great dad and always makes time for the kids. He is a positive influence in their lives and helps maintain the balance of our discipline in this house when I over re-act.He certainly helps keep the peace with me and the kids.

Girly was most excited today. She picked out this cute outfit at the store and was thrilled to wear it to school. I took her on a date with mommy and shopping was a huge part of our special day together.

Well it seems as though I am slowly aging and I have passed the milestones many young mothers look forward to. I am moving on to a new chapter in motherhood and the this was my last First day of pre-school. One of my absolute joys in life is freezing the moment and here are some of mine that I can proudly share with the world.

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry this has taken me so long to post. Life is crazy right now..

Mwah !!!