Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's talk turkey!

* Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.


* According the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the United States at Thanksgiving. That number represents one sixth of all the turkeys sold in the U.S. each year!


* Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird.


* Domesticated turkeys cannot fly, however wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles per hour over short distances.


* Only male (tom) turkeys gobble. Females make a clicking noise. The famous gobble is actually a seasonal mating call.


* The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 pounds – about the size of a German Shepherd! (But turkeys are normally not used as police animals.)


* A turkey under 16 weeks of age is called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey is called a roaster.


* The Turkey Trot, a ballroom dance in the 1900s, was named for the short, jerky steps of the turkey. It became popular mainly because it was denounced by the Vatican as "suggestive."


* Turkeys are known to spend the night in trees! (Maybe to escape the Thanksgiving table?)


* Turkeys can drown if they look up when it's raining!


* A turkey's field of vision is 270 degrees--one of the main reasons they're able to elude some hunters.


* The average age of the Mayflower passenger was 32. The oldest Mayflower passenger was 64.


* There was no milk, cheese, bread, butter or pumpkin pie at the original Thanksgiving Day feast.


* Contrary to popular belief, the Pilgrims did not have big buckles on their clothing, shoes, or hats.


* Buckles did not come into fashion until the late 1600s – more appropriate for the Salem Witchcraft trial time period.


* The cranberry got its name because the pale pink blossoms on the plant resembled a crane’s head and neck. The name craneberry stuck, eventually becoming cranberry.


* Fresh cranberries are ideal for cranberry sauce. Cranberries of the highest quality will always bounce! (If you try this at home, please wash the cranberries before eating.)


* President Abraham Lincoln established the original date for our National Thanksgiving Day celebration in 1863.


* President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of establishing a national “Thanksgiving Day.”


* Congress did not declare Thanksgiving a national holiday until 1941.


* The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. (Now that's a lot of turkey!)

Family & Fun

Look no further than your phone to bring your family closer together. We’ve got ten apps to keep your family entertained, from word games to text message lingo, and even the iRewards center, which helps kids work towards rewards for completing their everyday chores (or for sharing the iPhone during a round of Angry Birds).

1
iReward Chart


iReward Chart's Rankings

* #1 Family & Fun
* #15 Top 50
* Free

We are a family that uses charts; we have charts to track chores, charts to track laundry day, charts to track whatever behaviors we are currently working on. The iReward Chart app is one that can help me move away from using these sticker charts as my home decor. This app lets you set up accounts for your children and assign them different tasks. Tasks are grouped into the categories of behavior, chores, responsibility and other. You can choose from a variety of tasks that the developers have included in the app, or you can add in your own. Selected tasks show up next to empty stars, one for each day of the week. As your child finishes tasks, they can tap the stars and watch them add up. iRewardChart also contains a list of rewards that your child can earn with their stars. You can assign a star amount to the different rewards so your child will know how many they have to earn for each. iReward is a terrific app for motivating children and helping them keep track of their progress.

2
Angry Birds
My life is in constant motion. There's the to do list to tackle, the mom's taxi service to run, play dates to coordinate, bills to pay, groceries to plan for. Honestly my brain rarely stops running and I need some silly, mindless fun every once in awhile…


3
Baby Activity Logger
Baby Activity Logger is a simple app that does a terrific job helping you track life with a newborn. Using simple buttons you can note when your baby is eating and (depending on whether you are breast or bottle feeding) you can note the bottle amount or time it took baby to eat…


4
smart-ICE4family
smart-ICE4family is another application that you'll hope to never need but if an emergency situation occurs you'll be very glad it's on your phone. The app was designed by a former EMS director and it allows you to enter in personal information that Emergency Responders would need to know…



5
Baby Connect
Baby Connect is an application designed to track your baby's every move. From sleeping to eating to the endless diaper changes, you can note it all here. But the real magic in this app comes from the "Connect" aspect. By using the app you can share what your baby is doing…



6
LRNthelingo
Lrnthelingo is a great resource for parents of children who are sending texts and instant messages to their friends. It provides explanations and descriptions of text codes, emoticons and slang. If you're looking for something specific LRNthelingo will let you search…


7
Cooking Dash
Cooking Dash is the app I turn to when I want a reminder that my constant kitchen duty could be much, much worse. In this app you're responsible for running a restaurant. You're in charge of seating customers, taking their orders, cooking up the food and clearing things up…



8
OurKids
OurKids provides an easy way to record family events, vacations, baby milestones and more. Basically, you can use the app to keep track of whatever is important to you and your family. When you are creating an entry OurKids lets you add the entry as text, a photo, or an audio recording…


9
Baby Travel
Anyone who's ever traveled with a baby knows how mind boggling packing for the trip can be. It's a shock the first time you realize you might as well be taking the whole house with you for a weekend getaway. Packing does get easier as the kids grow older but there's still much to remember…



10
Words with Friends
Words with Friends is like Scrabble but it can be played against anyone who also has the app and appears on your friends list. The way the game works you play a word and then your friend receives a push notification that it's their turn. They'll play a word and you'll be the one to receive the notification…

Thanks to babble.com