O Christmas Tree!

Thanksgiving 2014

It was a wonderful, but quiet Thanksgiving!  Here is a photo of Heidi at her little preschool program.  She made the cutest little pilgrim I've ever seen.

And then the night before Thanksgiving, we had a "pie party!" It was Gordon's dream come true.  About 8 families, all bringing pies to share, descended upon the house and we had a big old feast.  A tradition that will be repeated for sure!

Even Vader the puppy was invited, and enjoyed a lick.

Thanksgiving morning we put on our best Puritan running attire and headed out for the turkey trot!  Our poor old jogging stroller limped along, with Heidi, Emilee, and even baby Vader in tow!  Emilee was getting over a cough and had to ride.  We discovered about half way through the 5K that we were missing MANY spokes to our front wheel.  Made for an exciting run.  Next year they better be ready to run because I don't think the stroller's going to make it!

And then we had our Thanksgiving dinner, just our little family.  It was so nice!

And, we ended the night right.

 Thanksgiving might be my very favorite holiday!

Emilee's Dance Performance

Emilee had been telling me that they were dancing at school for quite some time.  I didn't really wrap my head around exactly what was up though, until I was invited to the performance.  They had a ballroom dance teacher doing a "residency"at the school and teaching them line dancing, Meringue, and Swing!  It was basically the cutest thing I've ever seen.  And Emilee loved it!  Kept me smiling for days!

Grammy and Grampy came!

Before thanksgiving, Gram and Gramp came for a quick visit.  We had a great time together.  Some of the things we did were:

the selecting and eating of delicious pastries

Some Tuesday afternoon Bowling:

the watching of various after school sports:

 the melting of ice off of cars, when we had some freezing rain: 

Grammy getting her first smart phone.  We are so proud!

The chopping of large logs into firewood:

and of course, going to church.

We are so happy to have grandparents that make the trek to visit us.  We miss them when they're away, but it makes the visits all the sweeter!

my littlest buddy

Oh I love her!

Milestones

The minivan continues to serve us well.  I drove around the block one extra time in order to get this number to pop up, while parked in the garage.  Gordon was so proud.  Here's to the next 100,000 miles!  

a Cultural Experience

One of the perks of being in the JR high Orchestra is that once or twice a year you can get tickets to the Portland Opera.  They go as a group, so it's much more fun than going alone.  It's the final dress rehearsal for the opera company, and you might get to see some fun things like stage switches, and last minute notes. Aidan and I got to see Die Fledermouse and even enjoyed it a bit!  Looking forward to more of these outings in the future. 

It's the Halloween Report!

Ah, sweet November is here, which means Halloween is done!  I love Halloween, but I am always glad to kiss it goodbye.  :)  This year we barely got the pumpkins carved in time for the trick or treaters to arrive.  Daddy was out of town all week and we managed the trunk or treat without him, but didn't ever feel up to a carving fest with a solo mama.  So, we waited until the last minute!  We had a great time and did a quick slightly damp trick or treat around the neighborhood.  I wish I had taken a photo of all the candy on the table after the second round of trick or treating.  There is no other word for it but obscene.  Each kid collected a "personal bag"of 20 items to take to their room.  Mom doesn't care when you eat those.  And those bags were full of king sized candy bars.  Then several of the kids wanted to collect their teachers favorite candy to take to them (goodbye baby ruths!) and about 1/10th of it went that way.  Then I collected as much as I could into a heaping bowl (the biggest bowl in the house) for lunches and slow distribution, and the rest. . .  don't ask don't tell!

Here we are ready to trunk or treat.  A Mime, ladybug, "good"witch, Frodo, and there should be one more kid. . .  where is that Waldo?  I can't seem to find him.

this is as far as my costume got this year. . .

Chandler tried his hands at power tool carving this year.  Very fun.