Gobble, Gobble!

My two turkeys and I tried our hands this week at our first Thanksgiving craft together.  

I found this idea to make turkeys out of prints from our hands and feet from AllKidsNetwork.com.  

They turned out adorable and more importantly, my little ones LOVED making them! 

   

If you'd like to do this Thanksgiving craft with your kiddos, you can find the instructions here.

Even though my two children are growing up so rapidly, I do enjoy getting to do more hands-on activities with them... and that definitely brings me JOY!

National "UnFriend" Day- November 17th

This snippet from Jimmy Kimmel is so funny and so true!

Good Tidings of "Grape" Joy

If finding a four-leaf clover brings good luck,
then what does a  grape of love  bring??? 

New followers, new blogs, new JOY!

Six days later and I'm still hopping around!  : )

I'm excited to see my followers increasing *happy dance* which means I'm getting really close to checking number 1 off the list...

If you've found me from one of these blog hops shown below, 

WELCOME!  

Just leave me a comment and I promise to visit your blog and follow back.  While you're visiting, please check out my three current giveaways going on here, here, and here.

Joy & Number 8

8. Have a family day at the zoo.

(From Fifteen Things in Fifteen Months)

The Klapper family was recently invited by a friend to enjoy a fall day at the zoo together.  Due to a conflicting work schedule, our fearless leader wasn't able to join us this particular time.  Which I guess means we didn't technically have a true family day at the zoo together.  But since we were invited as non-paying guests from a season pass holder, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to take my children plus check another "thing" off the list.

We definitely chose an impeccable day for the visit, as far as the weather goes.  But we had one member of our clan who didn't understand how perfect the situation was...

Enter this  pouty pants.

The kid seriously cried for the whole. first. hour.  No joke.  I was about to pack up and jet out of there until this bright idea hit me...

 

A carousel ride plus a picnic lunch did the trick.  Everything was hunky-dory from that point on and we were able to enjoy our time together at the zoo.

Don't you love how Mr. Meerkat posed for the photo opp?  
What a celebrity!

It isn't at all obvious that this was sister's FAVORITE part of the whole day.

Two monkeys...

Two more monkeys...

A trip to the zoo on a gorgeous fall day with my children and great friends brought me JOY.



And what about you?  I'd love to hear your comments about something simple that has brought you joy this week...

10 Reasons Why I'm Glad it's FALL!

1. The weather is FINALLY getting cooler!  I love warm days and chilly nights.
2. Fall colors are my fave. 
3. The smell of bonfires make me giddy.
4. F O O T B A L L.
5. Who doesn't love a memorable trip to a good old punkin' patch?!
6. Watching season premieres of the best television shows makes for a great late night activity.
7. Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. Non-fat, extra hot.
8. Hoodies and jeans become my daily uniform of choice.
9. Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving menu planning.
10. Eating my favorite vegetable is both accepted and encouraged this time of year.  And by vegetable, I mean, Brach's candy corn.

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!

10 Reasons Why I Love My Job

10. I can wear pajamas to work every day if I want to... and yes, most days I want to.

9. I don't have to keep my "office" clean if I don't want to... and most days I don't want to.

8. Naps AND ice cream breaks are allowed.  Every day.  Yesssssssss.

7. Instead of fulfilling one job role each day, I get to have several careers, all at one time:

• Cook
• Maid
• Secretary
• Accountant
• Teacher
• Coach
• Nurse
• Parole Officer (just kidding... sort of)

6. I get the joy of saying things like: 

• "Please don't stick that in your nose." 
• "Why do you have underwear on your head?"
• "Boogers are for tissue, not mouths."
• "We've already watched Barney three times today.  NO MORE!"

5. Lots of money is saved when you neglect to because you don't have to wear make-up, fix your hair, and wear nice clothes most days of the week.

4. I'M the BOSS and what I say goes!!!  (Most of the time...)

3. Even though they can be a bit needy and demanding, I have two of the CUTEST subordinates on the planet!

2. I get to work on posts like this when Facebook is down during my free time. 

1.  I love my job because I just don't believe there's any job out there more special, gratifying, and rewarding as being a mother.

This post was prompted by and linked up with:

It's the little things...

I have to go ahead and warn you that this will probably go down as my most random post ever. But like I said in my title, it's the little things that are making me giddy this week.

I've noticed lately that socks are beginning to be packaged as partners...  Meaning, there are two particular socks in a package of 8 or whatever that belong together.  Somewhere on the sock, there's a special color that denotes which socks go together.  The last two packs of athletic socks I've purchased, one from Old Navy and one from Nike, both had the special "color coding."

Yes, I'm nuts (and a tiny bit OCD) but I'm loving my married socks!

Joy and Jealousy

Don't you love how family pets can drop little hints of jealousy in the cutest ways?!  

Take the following picture that my sister-in-law sent to me yesterday...  Any guesses what her sweet little dog is thinking?

 I simply had to post this adorable picture just for the JOY of it!

just for the JOY of it...

This morning I stumbled upon my two monkeys in a sweet cuddle on the sofa.  Seeing their affection and love toward one another brings me uber-intense, melt-into-a-giant-puddle-on-the-floor
JOY!

(crappy photo quality courtesy of BlackBerry camera)

Joy and Tea Time

To be honest, this week has been a bit unpleasant.  My 1-year-old has been sick and has wanted nothing more than to be on my hip every second that he's awake.  As I'm sure many of you know, this makes for a very cranky and tired momma!

But thanks to a new favorite store of mine, Teavana, I've been able to find a temporary escape each afternoon from the motherhood madness.  Last Friday, my sweet husband treated me to a trip to one of the local Teavana shops as one of my anniversary gifts.  Mmmmmmm, it was so wonderful to smell the aroma and taste samples of a few of their MANY teas!

The particular tea I chose to bring home this time is named White Ayurvedic Chai Tea. It's currently one of their most popular teas, and for very good reason. It smells heavenly and is very soothing to the taste. And just happens to look very pretty, too! : )

We also picked up a pound of their unprocessed German rock sugar. Even though it's not as pretty to look at (because let's face it, it literally looks like rocks), it's much healthier than white sugar and has a more natural, mild sweet taste to it.

Once nap time arrives each afternoon, I've taken time out for myself to relax and enjoy a special spot o' tea... just for the JOY of it!





And what about you? What brought you JOY this week?

Joy and Tiger Slayers

My little girl has reached the very normal stage of worrying about monsters...

Just last night, she ran to her daddy and let him know that there was a tiger sitting beside her bed. Instead of accusing her of being silly or dishonest, her daddy, the household tiger slayer, quickly enters her room, has a short talk with the supposed tiger, and runs him off for good.

I love knowing that my daughter trusts her father to protect her. I love seeing my husband carefully and tenderly nurture my daughter's imagination...

They both bring me INCREDIBLE joy.

And what about you? What brought you JOY this week?