So many reasons to be grateful.

I try to live a life that is full of gratitude.  Some days I am better at it than others but I especially love November because everyone around me is being grateful too!  It seems silly but facebook is full of gratitude, the news, people are a little nicer in general, it seems anyway.   Only if we could be grateful all the months of the year, it would be awesome for everyone's quality of life! :)  Okay, sorry for the tangent but it is so true!  I will just do my best to be grateful and hope it spreads to someone else! We had so much fun this Thanksgiving and the week leading up to it.  Hope you enjoy our adventures!

Crème Cupcake is a little dessert place on Ingersoll in Des Moines.  I met the owner last month at a Des Moines Moms Blog event and she told me about her cupcake decorating date.  It was a blast!  You get a super yummy cupcake, all the things you need to decorate your cupcake and a juice box for $5.  You go and make a mess at her shop and then leave!  You might even leave with a cupcake, unless your name is Finnean and Hutchinson and you eat it right there on the spot!  Chelsie and her boys met us there, it was fun to visit with them and just a really fun event!  The boys LOVED it.  We will definitely be back when she does it again! PS-Crème turns into a dessert lounge in the evenings, you can grab a sweet treat and a drink.  Perfect for date night or a girls night out!

Oh I love, love, love this picture!  It just captured the fun they were having! 

First of all, Finnean's teacher is awesome.  I just had to say it again.  She is so nice and friendly and amazing with the kids.  We just love Ms. Margaret!  Finnean had a Thankful Feast at school before he went on break.  I luckily got to help with it!  YES! I seriously LOVE volunteering in his class.  It is so fun to see him interact with his little friends and to see how things go down when you are not around!  It is kind of like peeking into his other life :)  All of the kids brought a food.  We are talking snacks galore, a few fruits and one little girl brought mac and cheese!  Hutchinson and I were in charge of setting up the buffet.  I told Ms. Margaret that our fee was some snacks for Hutchinson :) He loved "helping" set up! They had their little feast and then got ready for the First Annual Preschool Parade.  The teachers said that the kids got really excited when they were talkinga bout the Macy's parade and so they decided to throw together a parade.  It might be the cutest thing I have ever seen.  The had a police car (which Finnean painted the letters on-check it out!!), a marching band...which Finnean was a VERY proud member of, cheerleaders and they even had balloon "floats!"  It was so cute to see them all working together and I know they put a lot of work into all the details.  IT was so fun and such a great day!  I am so thankful that I get to be a part of this little man's life!

{Wagler Thanksgiving}
We offered to host Thanksgiving this year and it was so fun!  We kept it simple and dished out the responsibilities and it was pretty successful!  We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and a little bit of football.  We ate and played Heads Up to get moving after lunch.  It was so fun and the house was full of laughter!  We even squeezed in a couple hands of dominoes while the big boys played Wii!  I made my first ever pumpkin pie and I made them mini!  A little too mini is what the feedback was, I will do a whole pie next year, Richard!!  We snapped some pictures and just overall had a really great day! 

 

 

The group photo was much more successful than the Ankeny Wagler's attempt at a family picture.  :) 
I love this picture and the people in it.  I am thankful that I get to be a part of this family!



This is one of my new favorite pictures!  Adam always captures the best moments and I just love the real smiles in it and the angle! And the little boy! What's not to love!  PS-this was during the failed family photo attempt :)

I knew it before but I LOVE hosting! It was so fun to make the house festive and put some time into little details.  I am so thankful I learned to make pie this year and was able to make a French silk pie for the dinner.  I also got in some snuggles with the little guy, you can't pass that up!  There are just so many reasons to be grateful!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!