thanksgiving...

this year we celebrated thanksgiving with my family. my parents bought a small piece of land right by their lake house several years ago. in our family we call it the "farm," my dad calls it "mike's meadows" and a few people call it a ranch. whatever you want to call it, it is my dad's newest hobby and where you can find him every weekend. he has 2 miniature cattle (sean and matt), a miniature donkey (rico), a vegetable garden, a fruit tree orchard, an earth oven (my dad and uncle built), and BIG plans for the future of this piece of property. there is also a small house that has had some major renovations and if FINALLY livable, soooo mom and dad decided that this year we should celebrate thanksgiving on the farm. it was so much fun!! the whole family came (we everyone who lives in texas) and we had a weekend packed with quality time, laughter, campfires, and making memories together.

on wednesday night, most of the family had arrived so we had pizza. not just any pizza! pizza that is made by my dad and baked in his earth oven.

chef dad tending to his yummy pizzas.

the oven is the latest addition to the farm and it is pretty neat. it is made out of mud (earth) and completely handmade by dad and his brother, mark. they are both very proud. the pizza was delicious and the rolls on thanksgiving were tasty too!

thursday was filled with more fun. my parents thought it would be fun to have everyone decorate a pumpkin to serve as their placecard at the table for dinner. before we glued, glittered, and glamorized our pumpkins, we hid the pumpkins for olivia and she went on a "pumpkin hunt."

daddy and o with all the pumpkins she found.

then we had a little "craft hour" and all decorated our pumpkins. it was fun to see what everyone decided to do. some of us were more crafty and creative than others, but i know everyone had fun in process.

me, chris, olivia, and grandma millie decorating our pumpkins.

after pumpkin decorating my creative juices were still flowin' so i decided to make candle holders out of all the extra pumpkins and those sitting around my house. i think they turned out really cute, if i do say so myself! :) olivia had the great idea to collect fall colored leaves to complete our "tablescape" so we went out on the farm to look for some pretty leaves. we found some really beautiful red ones. jack had fun picking them too!

our table before food. see the candleholders. ;)

my brother had to work on thanksgiving morning, but was able to make it for dinner. so once he was there we sat down to eat our yummy meal. many thanks to gram lois and sean for all their expert advice in making our tasty meal.

gram lois and sean in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on our meal.

jack about to dig in to all his yummy food.

olivia enjoying her turkey and mashed potatoes.even the dogs were excited about some turkey.

the rest of the weekend we were able to just enjoy each others company.

nana and o with the scarecrows.

uncle mark playing and laughing with o & j.

nana reading to jack on the kitchen floor. we do have chairs but jack loves to read on the floor.

olivia had asked my dad to make a fire one night, so of course he did as she requested.
we roasted marshmallows and sat around the fire and talked. it was the perfect way to end our wonderful weekend at the farm!