Thanksgiving Details

The Kid's Table

On Monday I got a wild hair and decided to make some fun kid's place mats. I had seen similar ones at Pottery Barn, but never could justify ordering them...On Tuesday as I was cutting them out, I realized I was crazy...then by Wednesday I was wishing I just ordered them from Pottery Barn. They turned out better than I anticipated...you can see a more detailed photo on my Paper Capers craft blog.

The Grown-up's Table
No cute place mats here, but lots of fun pumpkins.

The Thanksgiving Spread
Our Dinner
Warm Jalapeno-Artichoke Dip served with Whole Grain Mini Bread Rounds
Rolls with my yummy homemade Pumpkin Spread
Veggies and Dip
Green Salad
Green Bean Casserole
Andrea's homemade Cranberry Sauce
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Turkey Gravy
Mom's homemade Stuffing with Cranberries and Apples
I tried Pioneer Woman's recipe for Sweet Potatoes (*highly recommended!)
Andrea's amazing Turkey
and what Roush holiday would be complete without Aaron and Tami's Pink Stuff!
Andrea also made a Pumpkin Pie and a Lemon Meringue Pie, but we were too stuffed to eat dessert.

Here is the yummy cranberry sauce.

Sweet Potatoes (photo from Pioneer Woman Cooks)

Andrea made a really good turkey...mmmm!

The Roush Family Thanksgiving
When we all get together, there are 10 adults to squeeze around the table. Sadly, we don't own a very large dining table (and there is always about 3 different pairs of mismatched chairs), but it makes for a very cozy get together.
Mom and Dad (with his broken arm!)

Alyssa and Dan

Chucky, Tami and Aaron
John and Andrea
and their baby, Brandon's first Thanksgiving:
mmm...celery!

Toni and Chucky...oh, I mean Dan and Chucky. (Toni couldn't make it because she had to be to work at 3:45 am for the Black Friday Sales)

Ernst Corral: Setting the scene

What cowboy party would be complete without a wanted poster?

Here is the saloon entrance.

Woody and Bullseye are the center of attention around here, so the centerpiece for this table was easy.

The Dining room was transformed once again into a cowboy room complete with old blue tin plates, lanterns, and burlap sack chair covers. I draped a faux barbed wire around the light fixture for another rustic touch. The kiddos all got cowboy boot cups to drink out of and later they would be washed out and taken home as a favor.

Lunch is served. I like to use containers that fit the theme, like putting my "happy trail" mix inside a cowboy hat with a bandana to protect the hat. I also used various pails and old tin camping dishes for serving containers. Zander wanted "pupcakes" so I found this cupcake stand that worked perfectly. I baked the cupcakes in those new star shaped muffin tins by Reynolds Wrap. Each of the cupcakes was topped with a small plastic horse. Some of the other snacks included chocolate candy that look just like rocks, peanuts, homemade cowboy crackers and rattlesnake eggs (spotted jelly beans).

When I was looking for food for the party, I came acrossed these. I called them Wagon wheels for the party, but I don't have any idea what they are really called. I think they are a hispanic food. They were in the bulk food section at WINCO near the pasta and rice and they were orange in color and about 1/4 this size. I fried them in oil for about a minute and then drained them and coated with a sugar/cinnamon mix. They were tasty whatever they are.

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree...

Tonight was the night. After dinner the kids finally got to decorate the Christmas tree. They were such good helpers, even Hayden pitched in and gave his decorative touches!

Here are my helpers in front of a masterfully decorated Christmas Tree!

Making progress

This afternoon, Zander and I went to Home Depot to pick up paint. Shortly after we got home, I patched the holes and started to prime the walls. The girl at Home Depot suggested using an oil based primer because the walls had wall paper paste on them which is not easy to remove. Besides the fact that oil based paint stinks like crazy, it is also a bit messier to paint with. I have a fine mist of paint splatter all over my hands and fore arms.

After dinner Dan went to a Blazer game with our neighbor (who is the Blazer's dentist). After I read a few stories and brushed their teeth, I tucked the kids in and went back downstairs to start painting. Here is my progress for tonight. Those of you who have been into the house we had in Troutdale may recognize the paint colors and technique. I liked it so much I decided to try it again. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the top half is actually tone on tone, kind of blended together. I painted the darker of the two colors on the bottom and when all is said and done we will put the chair rail back up in the area that is white. So what do you think so far?

Get er' Done!

So here I am tearing the final pieces off the last wall in the dining room. Dan was gone again, so I had to document my progress using the timer on my camera. (Pretty good, no?) Tomorrow I hope to clean the remaining wallpaper paste off the walls, patch a few holes and maybe, just maybe I will get to start painting. Not bad for a weekend!

I finally started!

Bye-bye wall paper,
Hello paint...

After months of pondering what to do, it finally occurred to me to just go for it. The wallpaper must go. I remember when my MIL put the wallpaper up in the dining room years ago. At that time it was very popular to wallpaper. I really don't think it is ugly or anything, but it is a bit dated and too busy for my tastes now. It actually really reminds me of one of my favorite shirts from Jr. High that my mom made for me. At any rate, when my sister was over the other day we were talking about how I wanted to tear the wall paper off and she said it looks like wallpaper you would find in a church bathroom. It's funny cause as soon as she said it, I had to agree.

With all the upcoming birthday celebrations and Christmas coming up, I thought no time like the present. At first I tried to talk my self out of it by telling myself that I could wait until after January to start...but I am too "anal" and in the back of my weird brain was this nagging voice that kept saying it would be nice if the photos from all the get-togethers had a more neutral/calm background. See...I'm a total freak, I know. Control freak, sometimes, yes. Knowing that Natalie's birthday is only 2 weeks away, you may think I am a glutton for punishment, but there's nothing like a tight deadline to light a fire under this girl! Heck, if those guys at Extreme Home Make-over can build an entire house, furnished and decorated in one week, surely I can remove wallpaper and paint in 2 weeks, right?

So tonight, Dan left early to play games with his friends and would be gone all night. I put the kids to bed and was totally bored. I could have done the week's worth of laundry that was piling up in the laundry bin, or even the dishes, but no, that would be too practical. The compulsive urge was too strong. So I searched the house for a spray bottle to wet down the wallpaper...no luck. I did find an almost empty spray bottle of Windex, so I went around and washed all the mirrors, a few dirty windows, the microwave and the oven until the bottle was empty. I filled it with hot water and began to spray the walls and rip the paper off. What fun. My MIL did such a great job of hanging the wall paper that taking it down was a snap...at least the top half of the wall came off easy, the bottom is a bit more stubborn. After about 2 hours, I decided to call it a night. Now that I have updated my blog, I guess there is only one thing left to do...the dishes! Ugggh!