Thanksgiving on Nantucket

This year we rented a house on Nantucket and invited my parents and Becky’s parents to join the 3 of us and Beth for Thanksgiving. It has been great!

Ally was sick for a few days before Thanksgiving – high fever and the sniffles. She kept saying “I feel crummy”. She missed two days of school, but that was actually ok since we got to leave earlier for the ferry on Wednesday.

We made great time to Hyannis and then had lunch there waiting for our boat. Once on the boat dad headed up to the stern and watched us depart the harbor during sunset. Eventually he headed back to the car where it was warm.

A selfie of Dad and I in the front seat – his first ever selfie! And then a shot of the foursome in the back. Mom, Becky, Cloey and Ally. I traded cars with my boss Charlie for the week, so we could take a bigger car to Nantucket.

It was a short drive from the ferry to the house, and Debbie had dinner ready for us. After a movie with Grandma Debbie and Aunt Beth, Ally snuggled in for bed.

In the morning Ally made Pilgrim Hat treats with Poppy Dave.

Ally made place cards for everyone, even Cloey.

 

Beth took people on a drive around the island, and let Becky out to walk Cloey for a while.

 

After some hard work by everyone, dinner was finally on the table. (Beth’s room mate Jess joined us for dinner – she is next to Beth in the picture.)

Eventually, several hours after dinner it was time for dessert, and goofiness. Ally loves whipped cream from a can.

And she liked drinking sparkling cider out of a fancy glass.

After dessert it was movie time, and snuggling with my daughter. She just wanted to sit next to me. The movie was not one of my favorites – I can’t recommend Rata.toile but she loved it, and I kept telling myself that Ally is 9 now and she wont want to sit and cuddle with me watching a movie for much longer. So I made sure to savor it.

 

This morning I took a picture of the Beaver moon over the house. And we girls went to the beach. Well, Beth went to work, but the Grandmas, moms and Ally headed to the beach.

It was a gorgeous day at the beach. 60 degrees and very little wind. Ally wore one of my socks over her boot to keep it protected and mom even joined us walking on the beach.

 

We spotted some seals swimming in the ocean – about 15 yards off shore. If you click on the pictures below and look at them bigger you can see the seal heads sticking up. It was the highlight.

 

After the beach we drove thru town, found an amazing parking space right near the museum (great spot Barb) and toured the Festival of Wreaths.

Here are a few of my favorites.

I even bid on one – but I forgot to take a picture of that one. It was of a mermaid and would look fantastic in Ally’s room.

Hawaii Party (Part 2 The party itself)

Ally invited 7 friends:

The Guat Girls; Alice, Roxie, Rosa & Gabi. Her friend Stella, and 2 friends from school; Willow and Daniela.  All 7 friends were able to come. Ally was so excited to celebrate with her friends. It was cold here – 40 and windy and all the guests were happy to celebrate in such a tropical environment.

The girls sat and colored ocean-themed mosaic pages while chatting and laughing and giggling and drinking smoothies and munching popcorn. Ally handed out leis and hibiscus hair clips. Mama and Beth brought over the Jell-O and the girls squealed in delight.

Eventually it was time for games. We had a long list of games to play:

Limbo:

Hula Hoop  Contest.

Ally, Gabi & Daniela were so good at it we had to call it a three way tie, because after a few minutes it got boring to watch them continue.

Next up was the “Tacky Tourist Relay Race” Ally picked teams from names in a hat. She worked hard on this system during the week and was excited to be the hostess and one in charge of selecting names from the cup. The race was 2 teams of girls who had to dress up like “tacky tourists” each team had a suitcase of items to wear; Hawaiian shirt, floppy beach hat, beads, sunglasses, a purse. It was hilarious to watch. Then once dressed, she had to walk to her team mate, tag her, walk back and take off all the items. Walk back, and tag the next person who then had to put all the items on again.

 

Pass the Orange was next:

The game where you pass an orange under your chin to the person next you and try to get it around the circle without dropping the orange. They dropped it a couple of times.

Our version of musical chairs was “musical beach towels” but since we didn’t have enough room for beach towels, each girl had a washcloth:

Next up was pin the coconut:

Ally got to go first, and Stella was last.

Next up was the Pinata!

This year we just strung it up on the limbo stick and Julie and Mary Beth were brave enough to hold it up.

We had the girls line up in order of height. Ally was 2nd (mostly because with her hiking boots on she was taller than Roxie) Tallest a was very close decision between Stella and Willow, in the end it was determined Stella was taller, by a hair. Gabi was 6th to go and she broke it open!  The girls were very patient and let Willow and Stella get a whack in on it and then it was a frenzy to grab the loot.

As the girls compared what they got, we got the dining room ready for cake cutting. I was very touched that Stella gave Ally the baby penguin she found in the loot. She knows Ally loves penguins. Ally gave Stella the baby seal she had grabbed. (We fill the piñata with a variety of items- pens, erasers, candy, mini figurines)

Willow, Alice, Daniela, Gabi, Ally, Stella, Roxie & Rosa. Such nice friends for my daughter to have.

After singing, blowing out the candle and eating cake we had time for one last game before the girls all left.

Coconut Stomp:

There is a balloon tied around your ankle and the object is to pop other people’s balloons while keeping your coconut intact.

 

Willow was the last to be picked up, and while her parents ate some cake with us, Ally opened her gift from Willow. Ally was thrilled to get some Shop.kins.

After Willow left Ally posed with her remaining gifts. And Becky is posing above with the card Roxie made – it’s a hula girl, complete with coconut bra saying Aloha! It was adorable.

It was a fantastic party.

Huge shout out, thank you to Beth. She traveled to come, has never missed Ally’s birthday in all 9 of them, and works so hard to make the event a huge success. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Ally is so lucky to have an Aunt like you.