Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving in Virginia this year, and filled our weekend with food, family, and fun.   We were blessed with warm, sunny, weather, too, and were able to step back in time during a Thanksgiving Day walk through Colonial Williamsburg:

Leah's "fierce face" shooting the canon.

Real fruit adorns all the wreaths in the Colonial Village.

Petting the horses.

Reasons to give thanks.

The Magic Turkey followed us to Virginia and left footprints in Bean and Poppy's neighborhood for us to follow.  After a futile search for him, L&L discovered the gifts that the Magic Turkey left behind, and were excited to receive their new Lego Advent Calendars: 

We DVR'd the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and watched it commercial free in the afternoon (which is brilliant if you have young children who can't sit through the entire 3 hours of floats/bands/young performers who I no longer even claim to be able to recognize/know).  There were sweet snuggles and quiet time before heading to Aunt Kathy & Uncle Bob's house for dinner:

What a special reason to give thanks:  Great Grammy was able come to Thanksgiving dinner with us!  Here she is with 4 of her great-grandchildren: 

The Kids' Table was a first this year, and it was fun for our children to play with Nate and Evvie, who are their second cousins and are close to the same ages. 

On Friday, Brian & Sara's family came to Williamsburg for the day, and L&L were ecstatic to play with Lauren and Gabe.  We went to the playground, played croquet in the yard, and enjoyed the beautiful day:

We have so many reasons to give thanks, and it was a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with all of our little turkeys!

Jamestown

Bean and Poppy took L&L to Jamestown last month while we were visiting them, and the kids loved exploring the settlement and learning about America's first permanent English colony.  The Powhatan Indian Village provided a lesson in Native American tools, culture, and games, and both children tried their hand at grinding corn and scraping animal hides:  

Luke and Leah dressed up in attire typical to Native Americans and settlers in 17th century Virginia, and I'm not sure who was more pleased with his/her costume: 

Replicas of the 3 English ships that sailed to Jamestown in 1607 (the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery) were another favorite, and Leah checked out the Captain's Quarters:

The kids also helped to raise the English flag on the mast of the ship, and proudly displayed St. George's Cross:

The weapons at the colonists' fort were particularly interesting to Luke, and he gave a presentation about Jamestown to his class when he returned to school:

The kids were excited to spot the North Carolina flag at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitors' Center later that afternoon, and took pictures posing beside the plaque for their home state:

After a fun, busy day, it was time to relax with Poppy and Bean.  What a wonderful, educational excursion for our little history buffs!