13 - A Birthday Girl

I am a bit behind on my posts and I would like to get you all caught up with where we are at, but it may take me some time to do so.

First things first though. On December 1st, our sweet, sweet Sarah turned 13. 13! I cannot believe that I officially have 3 teenagers in my home. I knew this day would come, but the fact that it is actually here is just proof that time stops for no one or no thing - even when we sometimes wish it would.

We like all birthdays in our home to be special, but 13 is a big deal so it had to be planned just right. And it was. When asked at the end of the evening to rate her birthday on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being terrible and 10 being perfect Sarah said her birthday was a 9.

One of Sarah's wishes for a while has been that all of the kids wear blindfolds for a set amount of time so that they would know what it is like to live a day in her shoes. Bob and I made this wish come true as we planned and implemented what we called the Blind Olympics. There were 4 activities planned out : 3 individual, 1 in pairs, and one group event. All of them had the 3 sighted children wearing blindfolds. Sarah, for obvious reasons, did not need to wear one. After that we surprised Sarah and took her down to the ranch to hang out with Hannah, the owner of the horse therapy place she goes to weekly. Hannah is Sarah's most favorite person right now and we knew she would love to spend time with her outside of her normal therapy time. We then took Sarah to a popular restaurant here in town that has a sister location in Cleveland called Fatheads Brewery. This is Sarah's favorite restaurant. Finally, we came back to the house where we played family games, sang Happy Birthday to our beloved girl, and ate ice cream cake.

Every year Bob makes a shirt for the girls on their birthday's. This one reads "Today is my 13th birthday". 

Elizabeth, ever the thoughtful heart, wanted Sarah to have something tactile she could use for her birthday. She made this sign out of Legos. 

Andy wanted to get Sarah something that reminded her of Sammy. We  called Sammy our little lion because the hair around his face and chest was like a lion's mane. Thus the lion as a gift. Can you guess what Sarah named him?

Reading her birthday shirt. 

Reading Josh's card to her. 

My goof balls. I have no idea what they were doing...

Getting ready for the blind Olympics to begin. 

The 1st Annual Gregg Blind Olympics:

1st challenge: Get dressed and race back downstairs.
2nd challenge: Put an unboiled egg on a spoon and race across the floor without it dropping. Fastest time wins.
3rd challenge: Guess how many candies were in a bag. 10 seconds to feel bag. Closest to actual number won.
4th challenge: Make lemonade and serve it in a glass to Bob and I. Best tasting won.
5th challenge: Go to the mail box, get the mail, and bring it back to the house.

Racing upstairs.

Realizing that layers was a bad idea. 

Rushing back downstairs with clothes inside out - realizing how hard it is to get dressed property without vision. 

Getting ready for the pairs challenge. Andy and Elizabeth were teamed up and Josh and Sarah were teamed up. 

Making sure no seeds get into the lemonade.

Trying to clean up their mess and throw away their lemon peels. 

Josh and Sarah had the advantage during this challenge and decided to show off by putting ice in their cups when they served it to Bob and I. Elizabeth and Andy were just lucky they got their lemonade into the cup never mind fancy things like ice and such. 

The boys are laughing in these two pictures because I am howling hysterically behind them because some guy was watching the kids during this challenge and was looking at all of us like we were crazy.

On their way back to the house. 

Josh was leading the group back for part of the way and ran into a trash can. 

Josh had it. 

Flowers from Aunt Emily and family...

Our Thanksgiving

Holidays can be a bit tricky when living far away from loved ones. I have always tried to make sure that the holidays were well thought out because I know that being away from family can be hardest on my kids when they know that everyone else is together except for them.

We have definitely learned a thing or two in our four Thanksgivings away from family and friends, and so I set out to take what I have found to be successful and implement those things into our day. 

It was a laid back and calm day.  I did as much food prep the day before, so there was minimal cooking to do for me. Each of the kids were responsible for their own part of the meal.

I had crafts on hand in case anyone wanted to do them and we watched some football as well. 

We ate early because Andy had to be at work at 6:30 to make sure that all of those people who insist on shopping on a holiday could get their deals! Yeah!!!! Here's to materialism at its finest!!!! 

It was a nice day overall. Despite Andy having to work we made the best of it. And I am thankful for our day together.

I found a recipe on Pinterest for these Pilgrim hat cupcakes. For some reason my cupcake and buttercream frosting did not turn out very good, but the kids had fun making them regardless of their success. 

My homemade pies turned out pretty well. Andy loved the pumpkin pie and ate the whole thing by himself. 

My mom sent this flower arrangement to us. It was an unexpected surprise and it completely made my day. 

Miss Lily getting ready to eat some goodies.

Getting the turkey ready for baking!

I found a pretty decent dip recipe on Pinterest and have been making my own veggie dip. 

Making sure he has all of his ingredients to make his antipasto!

Add caption

Watching football and pretty his anitpasto. 

My dad makes homemade stuffing. We buy Stove Top. 

I don't know why she is doing this, but lately Lily has been laying half on and half off of her bed. It cracks me up. 

Blue skies. Even if only for a few moments were a nice gift on Thanksgiving. 

Our sleeping beauty. 

It had been raining the whole morning, so our porch chairs were pretty wet. The weather was warm though, so Bob spent the morning reading on the porch. 

I totally understand that this looks completely unsanitary. But the trash bag was just taken out of the box and  used only for the potato peels at that point and the potatoes were going right into that pot to be cut up on the counter in the kitchen.  

Something is rolling in and it doesn't look pretty.

Making crescent rolls. 

Viola!

Take one.

Take 2