Bowles Blog

{It was a} Happy (& funny) Thanksgiving

There was football.  There were appetizers.  There was dinner.  There was a talent show.

Welcome to Thanksgiving 2010 at Bowlesville on the Hill.

First, the cast of characters:

Direct from North Carolina, My Cousin Laura

First to arrive for dinner (and first to make use of the wine glasses at 12:05pm), Pa

Mr. "I don't want to waste my good shirt by wearing it on a holiday" Will

Not as lonely as he looks, Uncle

The Girls

The Boys

Before dinner we posed for a few group shots in our newly created family room picture spot.

Grandparents & grandchildren   

Cousins, Niece & Nephews

The Bowles family (of the Hill)

The boys and Maisy

Whereas the turkey took a bit longer than expected to cook (but I know it was done, I used my oven probe!) and the Patriots game ended a bit earlier than expected, the peeps had some extra time to kill before dinner.

Bobby Law taught Grandpa how to play Angry Birds on his iPhone (and by 'his' I mean Grandpa's iPhone)

Cuyler made a tiny turkey out of yarn, tape and cardstock

Finally, Tom Turkey was roasted to golden perfection.

Let the carving begin!

This year, we decided to have an official (i.e. in a different room) kids table.  Adults ate in the dining room and the kids ate at the family room table.  I tell myself they all ate plenty of veggies and turkey but can't deny the fact that the three of them kept coming into the dining room and raiding the bread basket.  Lalalalala, I see nothing...

Dinner was good, if I do say so myself.  Thanks to the assistance of Laura, Bubbe, Nana and The Pioneer Woman, we had several very tasty side dishes.  So delicious in fact, I didn't take any pictures of the food.  You'll just have to trust me.

After dinner, we all needed a serious rest time.

Ebby had other ideas.

So we had a talent show.

It was our funniest family talent show ever.  It was also our first one ever, but really, it was hilarious.

And I have the video to prove it.  Though I'm not going to post it just yet.

Here's a rundown of the 'acts' in order of performance:

1. Bubbe sang a medley of 40s songs (Never Tell a Lie, A Pretty Girl...)
2. Nana sang and dance (almost like a soft-shoe) Side by Side
3. Bobby Law was accompanied by the 1970s Boston Bruins music on his iPhone, "played" guitar, enthusiastically
4. Cuyler played freestyle clarinet
5. Jen (that's me) & Ebby with a sprinkling of Cuyler performed an energetic, improvised dance to Gwyneth Paltrow's Glee performance of 'Forget You'

The judges' panel included Laura, Grandpa and Pa.  The judges were asked to score each performance on a scale of 1 to 10, with the highest cumulative score the winner (just like Dancing with the Stars...).  Pa, friend to everyone, gave a very dramatic perfect 10 score...to everyone.  When the scores were tallied up, we had our results...

Tied for 4th place: Bubbe & Bobby Law, 3rd place: Cuyler, Runner-up: Nana.  And the winner was....

Me, me, me!!! 

Ahem, I mean Jen (that's me) & Ebby and a sprinkling of Cuyler☺.

After working up an appetite, we adjourned to the dining room for dessert.  Once again, so good I didn't take pictures.  Among the offerings:  Pecan pie, Apple pie, Pumpkin Bread pudding and Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce, Chocolate Chip Cookie pie, ice cream and thin mints.  Oh, and clementines.

After dessert we played a highly amusing game of Taboo--we didn't have the game cards so we used a white board, an iPhone and Uncle with a dry erase marker.  Again, hilarious.

Before we knew it, it was 9pm and time to wrap up another enjoyable, bountiful Thanksgiving  feast for the ages.

Thanks to all of you for reading!

 

Lunch Date

Yesterday, I went out for lunch.

It wasn't much of a date in the traditional sense seeing as I went out with my dad, my aunt and my uncle.  But Cuyler (who's home sick today and has already been to the doctor and been diagnosed as croupy but not bacterial tracheitis-y.  For now.) and I heard an ad for LunchDates this morning during SportsCenter and he remarked to me, 'that's a dumb name'.  So of course it's the title of my post.

I may be a bit tired and rambly...

Anyway, while it wasn't a date, we had a fun lunch with Uncle Mike and Auntie Dolly who are visiting from Florida.  Of course we almost didn't make it.  Fortunately I won the arguement with my dad over whether a Honda minivan could make it 50 miles to B'rica with the fuel light on.  He was holding out for the cheap gas...in Billerica.  We ended up stopping at the not-at-all cheap gas on Morrissey Blvd.  Not to worry, I slipped him the $2 he would've saved had we made it to the cheap gas.

Lunch was at Bertucci's.  Salad, rolls, and assorted tortas to eat accompanied by  lots of catching up, joking  and storytelling.  When we got back to my cousin Mike's house, I had the 'grown ups' pose for pictures.    

What a crew!

Luckily the next generation is much more used to the camera ☺.    

Overall, it was a good lunch, a great visit and a fun day.

And yes, Dennis paid for lunch.  I did happen to have a $5 coupon that I contributed...

What can I say, I'm his daughter.

Cuyler & the Swap Pile, 2nd pick

You may recall back in June I took the boys to the swap pile at the dump.  Cuyler scored a framed frog print that now {proudly} hangs on the wall in their room.  Right over the turtle tank. 

Last week I brought them back again.  Will didn't find anything of interest.  Cuyler found a new best friend.

Yep, against one of my unwritten swap pile rules (no stuffed animals), I let him bring home Pikachu.  After a thorough cleaning and disinfecting by Lysol, Febreze and yours truly, we set about changing Pikachu's batteries.

That's right, this Pikachu speaks.  Albeit randomly and apparently only when he wants to.  I keep telling Cuyler that could be part of the reason he was at the swap pile...

When he {finally} speaks, his cheeks light up and his nose moves.  Cuyler finds it utterly adorable.  I find it a wee bit creepy.

But hey, the price was right.

Leaf Warriors

Will & Cuyler have a new hobby:  yardwork.

This new hobby has been quite profitable for them {hello grandparents with leaves to be raked}.  Yesterday they brought their work ethic to our backyard.

Around 3:30 Cuyler decided to start raking leaves in the backyard.  Without prompting from any adults. Or any promise of compensation. Using an iron rake.

Will came in about 15 minutes later wanting to know where the leaf rakes were.  Armed with that knowledge, the two of them outfitted themselves with proper rakes and started raking leaves into piles. 

We have a lot of leaves.

When they heard it was lasagna for dinner, they worked even harder.  Not because they love lasagna, rather the longer they worked, the longer they could delay coming in for dinner.  What kind of parents would we be if we disrupted their work ethic?

{They don't like lasagna.  At least not the cheese part.  And isn't that the whole point of lasagna?}

We finally had to call them in sometime after 5pm.  It was pitch black and we only have so many outdoor lights that illuminate the backyard.

After school today, they were back at it.  They had raked up about 50 small piles of leaves yesterday.  Today I got out a tarp, gave them some direction on where to drag the leaves to, and went to get my camera.  After taking several photos, I retreated to the warmth of the house.

It gets dark way too early these days.  Will came in for a flashlight around 4:45.  I checked on them around 5pm.  They told me they could see 'perfectly fine' in the pitch black with the flashlight. 

Hey, who am I to argue?

Maybe by the weekend, I'll be the woman with a leaf-free backyard.

Multi Purpose Room

Decorating advice from Jen...

Q:  Why should I put a twin size mattress in my dining room?

A:  So your kids will have a comfortable place to do their homework, of course. 

{Cuyler, last night}

Ok fine, are you wondering the real reason we have a mattress in the living room?

You see, Pa recently 'came into' a nearly new Premium twin size mattress.  Let's just say this situation presents itself sometimes when you work with the elderly... Oh stop.  It was in the guest room.  Anyway, Ebby's existing mattress came out of Bubbe's barnlet in 1999--where it had been retired after doing time as a trundle bed.  In other words, Ebby's mattress was old. And none too plush.

On Saturday, Pa came by with the new-to-us mattress.  Unfortunately, our curbside pick up trash day is Friday.  So in theory we could put it out this Friday to be hauled away.

I'm thinking though, wouldn't a mattress right in the dining room be awfully convenient following Thanksgiving dinner??

Halloween 2010: Behind the Costumes

For the first time in a while (ever?) we didn't get a family Halloween picture.  Sniff, sniff.  Ebby went out early to a party and I never really got into the spirit, i.e. I didn't don a costume.  Luckily, we did have 4 of 5 Bowles family members dressed up and photographed. 

Just not together.

Hey,  I'll take what I can get.  And here's what I got:

Exhibit A:  Bobby Law as Why did the chicken ride the lawn tractor?  To mow over the the ornamental dwarf Japanese maple tree!

At this point, Bobby Law could open his own costume company.  Seriously, we could use a walk in closet just to store his costume wardrobe.  Goofy, Easter Bunny, Gorilla and now, Chicken. 

Not only did he drive the tractor in the chicken suit, he also greeted all of the 10 trick or treaters we had.  I heard they got a real 'cluck' out of him!

Exhibit B:  Ebby as Left leg 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and Right leg 1 and 2 and 3 and 4...

Ebby dressed up as an 80s workout person. In fact, the yellow top with the gray squiggles is from the 80s.  I bought it in Europe (France, I believe) in the summer of 1985.  Why did I save it all these years?  In case we needed it for dress up of course.

Exhibit C:  Cuyler as Graduating from Princeton, so easy a gorilla can do it!

Cuyler went straight to the dress up bin to come up with this costume.  He found an old cap and gown of mine and decided he wanted to go as a college graduate.  Which college, we asked?  What's a good one?, he inquired.  We mentioned Harvard and Yale, he chose Princeton.  Whose colors just happen to be orange and black--nice.  For the costume parade at school on Friday he was Cuyler the Princeton grad.  Sunday afternoon he had an inspiration.  The gorilla costume was out and he went up and took the mask and hands and added them to his costume himself.  Nana made the first comment about a gorilla graduate which reminded me of the Geico commercials.  Thus the title of his costume ;-).  He was a big hit with the candy givers.

Exhibit D:  Will as Reluctant sushi chef at a restaurant where they use chicken instead of fish

Oh Mr. Will.  It was his idea to be a sushi chef.  His inspiration came from the Leader of the Fun headband.  I told him I'd make him a jacket and an apron to complete the look.  I'm the one that bought him a knife.  Of course the only one I could find had fake blood inside it.  Ok, fine.  From the start, Will and I had different ideas about his costume.  He didn't want to wear the apron.  I made a deal with him that he just had to wear it for pictures then he could take it off.  During the week leading up to Halloween, more disagreements.  He came up with the name 'Fish Chops' but didn't care for the badge I made.  I thought he should wear a red t-shirt underneath, he insisted on black.  In fact, he started saying he was going to be a Ninja Assassin.  Fast forward to Halloween afternoon, a stand-off.  Will saying his costume was going to be the headband, dark clothes and the fake knife tucked into the back of the collar of his shirt--assassin style.  Me telling him a headband and a concealed weapon are not an acceptable Halloween costume.  When he retreated to his bed at 4:30, I was fully expecting him to stay home.  Finally, he rallied and put on his full costume for pictures.   He was thrilled--as you can plainly see.  Our neighbor was kind enough to take both our boys (and her two and one other) trick or treating on our street while we watched the Patriots game.  By the time we saw Will an hour later, he was all smiles.  Of course.

So that's the story.  Behind the costumes.

Hope your Halloween was happy!