November Theme Dinner

I think I have to say that this theme dinner has been my all-time favorite. (Do I say that about every theme dinner?) Anyway, I struggled with a theme for this month. Of course it is November where have turkey and celebrate the pilgrims and the Indians. Well, the whole family does that every last Thursday in November so I wanted to do something different. Plus, I can't cook a turkey.

I told Kevin I wanted to pitch our tent in the backyard and use the firepit to cook hotdogs like the pilgrims and Indians did and then sleep in the tent like a teepee. Ava flung her head around at me and said "Momma, the pilgrims and Indians did NOT cook hotdogs." Then Kevin said it was going to be too cold to sleep in the tent. Ok, two bubbles burst at this point.

After much thought, I decided we would still cook hotdogs over the firepit but we would do turkey dogs which is close to the pilgrims and Indians (right?).

We decided to have dinner on the back patio. It was a beautiful night. Here are a couple of pictures of our dinner settting:

Miley even joined us sporting her new puffer coat:

Ava wanted a picture with her "new pet" which is a ladybug she has named Cotton Candy. So Miley and Cotton Candy spent the evening with us.

Here we are cooking our turkey dogs just like they used to do back in the day. HA!

Ava got so fed up with all the smoke so she went in the house and got her swimming mask and snorkel. What a goober!

After all that roasting, it was time to eat!

I think Elia has been around her teenage cousin, Hannah, too much. Check out the arm on the hip and the lips!

Now it was time for dessert. You can't have a fire pit going and not roast SMORES so we busted out the chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers. YUM!!!

Once we were finished with smores, Ava ran in the house to get something. She came back out with her guitar and serenaded us to "Big Green Tractor". Like I said, what a goober!

After dinner and entertainment, it was time to do something special. I gave everyone a piece of paper numbered to 5. We all had to come up with 5 things we are thankful for. Here are each of our letters (with some translation for the little ones).

Kevin's Thankful List:

Jenny's Thankful List:

Elia's Thankful List:

(Don't you love how Elia put the dog before her sister? Of course, the dog got put before everyone.)

Ava's Thankful List: (Her number 1 is God, how sweet! Her number 4 is Cotton Candy her new ladybug pet. I guess it is only fair that Cotton Candy beat out Elia too.)

This was a fun way to spend dinner with our family on a beautiful night! I can't wait to see what the theme dinner for December is going to be like! Stay tuned!