Monday, December 12, 2011

Thanksgiving

I can't say it emphatically enough... I LOVE HOLIDAYS!  I absolutely love having Casey home and everyone relaxing together (if you can call frenzied rocket building relaxing).  The Elmer's have a tradition of setting off rockets on Thanksgiving day and the Porters have happily adopted the same tradition.  This year was fun because we finally had a few kids old enough to dabble in the art of Rocket Science!

While the men folk construct the rockets we women toil away in the kitchen and whip up some fine vittles.  I think my mom caught Casey sneaking a pre dinner taste.  Hanny looks like she probably told on him and Sarah and Jessica just though the whole situation was hilarious. (ok, not really this picture was staged).
The launch went well this year.  The weather was great.  Usually it seems like we are all sitting around freezing our buns off and counting down over and over and over, but this year the temperature was pleasant the repetitive counting down was just as annoying as ever:)

Such a good looking crew.  Not only were the kids involved in the building of the rockets this year, but they also made themselves useful by chasing down the rockets.  We make a game of trying to catch the rockets before the touch the ground.  Typically Grampy is the only one who catches rockets but this year was a little different.  Grampy was still hurting from too much turkey bowl so he failed to catch a single rocket.  The closest was Landon who scooped his rocket off the ground just as it touched.  Wow the kids are really growing up!
The ever competitive Sarah shoved Grant out of the way and snagged his rocket causing toddler tears and Landon and Addie to question their moms kindness. 
Bennett had a great time playing with Unkey James who, despite being sick, got all kinds of smiles and giggles from Mr. Serious.
Casey built his rocket from scratch this year.  You can see how excited he was.  Unfortunately his rocket broke as soon as we got there so he quickly repaired it and let it dry until the last launch of the day.  It didn't go well.  It shot off at an odd angle and stuck in the ground nose first.  The kids grabbed it before he got there and left the nose cone in the ground.  We never did find it. 

The day after Thanksgiving my parents rented out the local Rollerskating rink and we burned off out turkey 80's style.  It was so fun for everyone to cruise around the rink.  As soon as we got home Porter scarfed down several pickles in order to wash out the pickle jar as a "Rollerskating Fund".


Doesn't my dad look like he's having fun?
This picture of Casey is totally priceless.
I guess rollerskating is kind of like fireworks.  You just can't help smiling.  My friend from Philadelphia, Elaine and her family came also and it was so fun to see them again.  She told me that when her mom was our age she tried out for a roller derby team.  After a day of skating I think I might take up roller derby.  It'd be a great way to exercise!
I love these pictures of James and Jessica helping the boys out.  Miles actually really liked having his skates on but I think the action on the floor was a bit daunting for him.  Bennett on the other hand preferred hitching rides on James.
Yes, I also rock at rollerskating, but I don't hold a candle to Mr. Joe Cool himself (Brad).  And we wonder why rollerskating isn't cool anymore...
Oh, and I had to clean gum out of Bennett's hair.  This picture looks pretty creepy but I swear I wasn't cutting him and he didn't bleed at all (but he did whine a lot).
 
One day when the kids were getting a little crazy my mom divided the kids up into teams and had them go on an Alphabet scavenger hunt around the yard.  It was pretty fun and cute to see them all searching for different items.  The big kids did a great job of helping the little guys with the letter sounds.  My Aunt Rhonda and her husband Scott came with their girls Jenna and Carly.  When I asked Carly if I could take their team picture she said "Ok, are you done now, cause I want to do the hunt".

1 comments:

Sarah Harward said...

I CAN NOT believe you portrayed me that way!!! And you didn't even add an amendment to the post with the TRUTH!! I should sue you for slander!! We both know I only knock innocent people out of the way when a bouquet is being thrown!! You need to tell everyone that Grant wanted to get the rocket but WOULDN'T run to it and insisted I carry him. Sheesh! (although, my kids were convinced that I snatched it from Grant which made him cry)!