'Tis the Season. . . for Crafting

I think the coming holidays give me the crafting itch because every fall, I unbury my desk from the summer pile up and start playing with my supplies again. This year, I decided to make Peanut a turkey that he can use for practicing buttoning. I think it's helped--I still have to do most of his Sunday shirt, but he did manage two buttons the other day.

 

One of the non-holiday related crafts I got to do was creating a door display for  Bug's class during their Human Body unit. For some reason, this unit also includes their unit on Shel Silverstein poetry, so I got to incorporate a poem, which has nothing to do with the skeleton, or body, into the door, but whatever.

I thought the paper plate skeleton turned out cute (and not scary--I didn't want the face to freak anyone out, although the smiling skeleton is kinda creepy in his own way.)

 

And then there is the annual Christmas Journaling. I decided I wanted to do a album this year instead of the blogging, but knowing how busy December will be, I have fully prepped the pages so now I get to fill in pictures and writing as I go. I've done various amounts of prep over the years, but I've always hesitated to actually put the pages together because "What if this doesn't fit for that day?" This year, I'm letting it go. I'll make whatever I want to include fit with what I have. Because having anything will be better than the nothing I'll have if I wait.

 

Deck the Halls

It's that time of year--when the boxes come out, a giant tree takes over our living room, and there are dozens of little things to hang.

Kids are getting taller every year. Someday, we're going to be able to let them do the whole thing

 

(and maybe, someday, we won't even have to rearrange things when they aren't looking.)

Our house is all decked out, ready for the holidays.

Zoo Day

 

What says Christmas more than a sunny, warm day at the zoo? Haha. We may not have had much "winter", but when the kids have a couple days off school and the zoo will be lit up at night for the holidays, it seemed like a great way to kick off our Christmas celebrations. 

 

And the zoo had a couple special things that made it feel a little more Christmasy--

 

"snow" made from bubbles (because even fake snow probably can't hold up in 70 degree weather) and Santa, along with the decorations and lights.

 

 

We split up for a little while after lunch. 

 

Daddy-o took the boys over to the carousel,

 

while Bean convinced me to try the ropes course. It's always scarier up there than I think it will be when I'm on the ground, but I did the more stable challenges while Bean went on pretty much everything.

It was a fabulous day to be there.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving Day--an amazing day of delicious food and fantastic company. We've been so lucky over the years to share this holiday with many different friends. Living far from all our families, friends make the difference in how our holidays turn out. This year, we spent the day with our good friends, the Perez' and another friend.

Of course, I got almost no pictures of the people, but I did take a couple of the food. S made this beautiful turkey.

And of course we had all the normal sides--mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, rolls, and creamed corn. It was all so good. We sat around together, eating too much, laughing until we cried.

And then there was the best part: the pies. I won't name names, but there were a couple of people who had a really hard time waiting for the pie, and it wasn't only the kids. Daddy-o made apple, pumpkin and a chocolate peanut butter mousse, and then S brought a gluten-free pumpkin as well. It was more than enough in the sweet department. 

I think this girl would have a hard time choosing between the pie and the dog show. Happy moments all around.

This year, 2015, we're grateful for pies and dog shows, friends and family, gorgeous weather and holidays, beautiful memories of all our blessings and the opportunities we have to look forward.

Autumn Days

It has been a very pleasant autumn around here. Lots of warm days, lots of rain, but some good, sunny days, too. And plenty of gorgeous colors.

We've had a lot of random fun, too. Tattoo boy has been quite the character lately. He alternately makes me laugh and cry, all day long.

He's been loving Christmas at Costco the last couple months. Who doesn't love a gigantic teddy bear that is big enough to be your bed? Random note--I figured once he was in school, I would do most of my shopping during my kid free hours, but you know, those kid free hours go fast and they are precious and there are about 57,000 things I can do better when I can focus, and somehow shopping doesn't make the cut most times, so I still drag Peanut around, at least for groceries. And most of the time, he's not too difficult. Making my list for said shopping trips is a different story and that does happen when I'm kid free, or I'd never survive the shopping itself.

Our friends got a new puppy this month and someone was in heaven when we visited. Puppies are pretty much the cutest thing ever, but we're still not getting one.

I got to spend a day at school with Peanut. I have subbed twice now in his class, and surprisingly, he does really well with me as his teacher. We were all worried since he tends to be a little clingy with me dropping him off, but when he knows I'm going to be around, he has no problems doing his thing.

It was fun seeing what he's up to while at school. He painted, built stuff, played with his friends. I love how busy age 4 is.

 

We started the pie eating a little early this year. 

 Daddy-o taught some of our friends how to make pies on Sunday, which of course meant that we had to eat pie with dinner that night. 

I think this should become a new tradition because it was a fun afternoon with friends and good food. 

 

And this little space traveler finally got to do the 3rd grade rocket launch. It had been postponed twice because of the rain, so their space unit has been over for awhile, but the kids have been waiting for this final celebration.

 

They came out to the Star Wars theme song with both teachers wearing masks. And then we began the rocket launching. Most of them took a couple tries to get a good flight, but it was fun to watch.

Peanut was really upset when he found out he would be in school and couldn't come with me, but since the school specifically asked for siblings to not come, I thought we should stick with our normal day. And then, Peanut asked in a sad voice, "Are you driving the rocket?" and I realized that in his 4 year old mind, his brother and mom were going on a rocket and leaving him. Of course he wanted to come! He seemed a lot happier once we explained what a rocket launch was and that I'd be picking him up from school after lunch just like I always do. I forget that the world is a completely different place for him.

Bug also had his well check that morning and is healthy and tall. We can tell he's tall by looking at him, but the measurements don't lie--92%, 4' 8.5". He's going to catch up to his sister soon!

Time Travel Weekend

 

It was closing weekend of the Renaissance Festival and finally a non-rainy weekend with no plans, so Saturday, we got to travel back to the time of knights and ladies, pirates and archers, jousting and crude entertainment. (We did try to avoid the crudeness--it's amazing how many of the shows at the renaissance festival aren't exactly family friendly.) 

 

The getting dressed up and out of the house that morning was not the best experience. But let's be real--when is getting out of our house ever fun? It doesn't seem to matter where we're going, even if it's somewhere we all want to go, we just really struggle. But it all turned around when we were finally there and heading toward the ticket booth.

Actually, we got incredibly lucky and ended up being so glad that we were running 30 minutes late because right before I got in line, a woman came running up to us and offered us 5 tickets that she had leftover from work. Getting in for free kind of made the day for Daddy-o and I :)

 

And then there was all the fun inside. First up, the toys and shops. The kids were pretty focused on finding the perfect souvenirs. They all ended up with some variety of a dragon necklace, although Bug was pretty disappointed when he didn't get a dragon that sits on your shoulder and you can control with a wire. They were really cool, but you either had to pay $25 for an egg that guaranteed some type of dragon, or hope you got lucky with the $5 eggs (or just pay for the dragon, but they weren't cheap). He didn't get lucky this time.

 

Turkey legs (Peanut LOVED the turkey leg), smoked corn, fries, and pastries. We grazed on different treats all day long. And they were all really good. I'm a fan of ren fest food. Probably a lot more so than actual food would have been back then.

The entertainment was fun, too. We watched a juggling show that was very funny.

And an untrained dog show that really wasn't. Except Peanut told us repeatedly that it was his favorite part of the whole day. The dog was cute, and kind of funny, but the owners were obnoxious clowns (literally.)

Some people went on a camel ride. Bug and I went last year, so we skipped it this year.

All 5 of us can now say we've ridden a camel. We'll pretend like it was an exciting excursion and not an overpriced 1 minute loop.

Bug tried his hand at archery. He actually did pretty well and at least hit the target several times, which was a lot better than the ladies I was watching right before him. I overheard them talking about how many mimosas they'd had already, so maybe they had an extra challenge that Bug didn't.

The petting zoo had a bunch of cute, fluffy animals to slobber all over us.

Peanut liked that, too.

And then, the highlight--the joust to the death.

We sat in Sir Maldron's section again, so we could cheer him on.

 

Peanut had no recollection of his short, but intense, obsession with Maldron from 2 year ago, but the rest of us remember his love for Maldron fondly.

This guy was cracking me up. He posed half a dozen times and insisted I take a picture of each new pose.

The tournament was the last of the day.

And after they determined the winner, our scoundrel knight was angry that he'd lost so he stole the prize and started a sword fight that ended with all the knights and their squires being killed except the original winner. It was a lot more gruesome, and exciting, than the tournament we'd seen last time. The kids loved it, of course.

 

We were all so glad that it the weather finally cooperated for us to make it out this year. What a perfect day!