Great Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow! What a great weekend! We always go to one of my sister's house for Thanksgiving each year. She and her husband cook amazing dinners every year. They have four kids between 7 and 11 years, my other sister and her husband have three kids between 8 and 11 years, we have our five, and my mother goes as well. Their house is big enough that even with all of us there, it still never seems crowded. Or loud, which is amazing. It was a really good day, even though it took us three and a half hours to get there. It usually takes about an hour and a half. It was just the five kids and I in the car because Ray drove by himself. The kids and I spent the night, but Ray wanted to leave that night. It was pretty crazy trying to watch all three little ones all day and I have to say I was beyond exhausted when we got home Friday night. I slept with Brookelyn and Sasha and it took forever to get them to fall asleep. They took turns tossing and turning, waking up coughing, rolling onto each other, waking up...I hardly slept. The next day we all went to an amusement park, which was great. We were celebrating three birthdays. Brookelyn turned three on Wednesday, Nov 26th, my niece Jacquie, turned eight on Nov 20th, and Dakota will be turning 18 on Dec 5th. We went to the same amusement park last year the day after Thanksgiving and had a great time so we thought we would do it again. It was great. It was pretty empty, so we were able to ride one ride after another with no line. They have rides for little kids like Sasha and for older kids too, so all of us like going. We stayed four hours. Luckily for me, my older kids, my sisters and two brother-in-laws helped me with the little kids. Brayden, Brookelyn and Sasha all really liked it. All three loved going on the rides. We didn't get home until after 8:00 pm and we were all exhausted. Another great holiday with family.
Another thing I was really happy about was that I learned how to crochet this weekend. A couple of weeks ago I made a huge pan of pasta and brought it to a local shelter. My mom and one of my sisters went too. We all brought food and helped serve dinner one night and clean up. While we were there we passed out hats and scarves that someone had made and donated. The people at the shelter (men, women and children) all were very appreciative of them. They actually were really pretty and really soft. I decided that night that I wanted to learn how to crochet so I could make scarves and hats and donate them as well. Some of the people at that shelter slept inside, but a lot of them slept outside and those scarves and hats made a huge difference in their lives. So one of my sisters taught my mom, other sister and I how to crochet this weekend and we all learned how to make scarves. I loved it. I went out yesterday and bought a bunch of yarn and a few more crocheting hooks (needles?) and started a scarf. I stayed up until 2:00 am last night working on it and just finished my first scarf tonight. It turned out a lot better than I had expected it would and I hope I will get better and better as I go along. It is pretty addictive. Brayden and Brookleyn have asked me if I would make them each a scarf and even my older daughter asked if I would make her one. I volunteered to get a group of people together to cook and serve dinner at the shelter on Jan 14th, so I thought I would work hard to make as many scarves as I can before then. How great that I found a hobby that is so cheap (the yarn for this scarf was less than $2.00) and one that helps other people? I'll post pictures tomorrow. I am still tired from the lack of sleep from this weekend.