No matter how much I prepare ahead November always kicks my behind.  Three of our girls have birthdays, plus Thanksgiving, plus beginning the holiday season and well that is really just a new level of insanity…..or blessings…..or both ;).

On top of the regularly scheduled Bokros November Insanity, this year my husband was in the midst of interviewing and accepting a new position, which required lots of travel for him and multiple trips to my knees.  He really had me honing my longsuffering prayer skills there for a bit :).

But we made it through and we are so ridiculously blessed.

Our baby girl turned eight and we celebrated her with a sweet friend, some crafting and a fancy ballet.

Our middle turned eleven and has finally made it to “tween” hood.  I am sure of it because she has reminded us many, many, many times.  She has not ever had her very own birthday party, which she also reminded us of many, many, many times……SOO…..we celebrated her with her very own unicorn party, complete with a unicorn cake made by her daddy.  I am pretty sure he felt on top of the world listening to all of her friends “oohh” and “ahhh” saying, “your Dad made that?!?”

And for the grand finale, our oldest turned sixteen.  I am seriously stumped about how this happened since she was just born last week.  We celebrated her with Ugly Christmas Sweater Cookies and a day of Christmas fun!

Thanksgiving Eve we celebrated our finishing of THE FIRST Harry Potter book (I know…I know…we are so behind) by watching the movie.  We have been reading the book aloud together in the evenings.  I have no words for how fun it was to watch my kids see all of the characters on the screen comparing them to how they had imagined them, while we were reading.  So.so.fun.

Sandwiched in between all of the birthdays, we opted for a quiet Thanksgiving at home, just us.  Just the way we wanted it.

While the Turkey baked, we crafted Harry Potter Wands and cast spells on each other.  We cooked, ate, played at the park, napped on the couch and ate some more.  It was perfect.

By the end of Thanksgiving night, our eight-foot chalkboard literally could not hold another “I’m Grateful For”…..it was filled to capacity with all of the blessings in our lives, much like our hearts.

Grateful.  Thankful.  Blessed.

I truly hope your November was the same.

XO,

Maggie