Smoked Turkey

It's Wednesday night.  It's been pouring all day.  I just want to curl up in bed but I have to drive Aden to Hebrew school.  Then cook dinner.  Then play with the kids.  Then pick up Aden.  Then get the kids to sleep.  Then clean the kitchen.  Ahhh!  So last Thursday was Thanksgiving!  I had been planning on smoking a turkey for ages.  There was a lot of prep work and research to do.  I couldn't wait to try it!  Of course Amy had no interest in it and asked her mom to roast a turkey.  I brined it the night before.  I seasoned it, injected it with spiced butter and threw it on the smoker around 9 am.  

We cleaned the house then I took the kids out.  We found a new playground.  

Ariel chilled in the car.  

I came back to check on the turkey.  After about 6 hours, I slathered it in cranberry barbecue sauce.  

The finished product.  I have to say this looks so much more interesting then the all the beige oven cooked turkeys I saw on Facebook.  

It looked good cut up too.  

My mom and Amy's mom made a ton of food.  I also smoked some corn.  

I think most everyone tried my turkey but Aden and I were the only ones that really ate it.  Aden was in love.  Every bite was so moist and flavorful.  

Ariel got some new Jordans for her birthday.  

Stylin'

It was a great night.  

Later that night, after we cleaned up, I helped Ariel make some chocolate covered pretzels.  

A nice late night snack.

 

Choreography

It's Tuesday night and it's Ariel's 11th birthday!  We love our sweet, kind princess.  We took some people out for ice cream tonight.  The girls had fun.  Back to last Monday.

Ariel stretched before cheer.

I dropped her off and went home.  It was a 3 hour practice!  They were getting some of their competition choreography.  

I went back to help with the twins.  

Then back to get Ariel.  The full year teams were all there waiting to find out who was getting invites to Nationals in Florida.  It was a crazy, tense scene that I'm glad we were not a part of.  

I watched a few minutes of her practice with the choreographer.  

Tuesday, on the way home from work, I saw a fire!

Harper came over.  The girls did some tumbling.  

Harper helped stretch Ariel.  

They lifted some weights.  

Rachel is back!  Of course we had her come help with Ariel.  

Rachel was all business.  Ariel needed that.  

We did some stunts.  

Ariel loves when Rachel lifts her.  She's so strong.  

Rachel went back to Penn State for 2 weeks, then she's back for a month!

On Wednesday, the kids were off school.  Noah went to art camp.  He was surrounded by girls.  

Eli made forts.  

Ariel and the cousins went to work with Mark and I.  

Later that day, Ariel had her private with Serina.  

Doing tons of stretching.  We need to loosen her up for those heal stretches.  

Eva and Gwen stopped by.  

My car put on a show for me. 

 

Friendsgiving

We went to the Sixers game tonight.  That was a lot of fun.  They won it at the very end.  So it's pretty late now.  Back to last Saturday.  We went to Melissa's for a Friendsgiving.  

The girls got right to drinking.  

There were lots of cute babies.  

Everyone brought great food.  

The kids were nuts.  

When we got home, Ariel wanted toast.  

Sunday morning we had Hebrew school.  After, we met Adam there to talk about having Ariel's Bat Mitzvah at the synagogue.  

Then lunch.

Mark Rober, a very popular scientist Youtuber, sends out monthly science kits.  We got our first one.  

We put together a really cool disc thrower.

We stopped by Amy's parents house to see Mark's parents, who were in from Pittsburgh.