Thanksgiving

 Our Thanksgiving morning began with the traditional parade on TV.  We saw some really cool floats!

 Then off to Grandma's for our big dinner!

Emma and I made pilgrim hats...

Grandma asked us each to write a thing or two we are thankful for...

 Some people were more serious than others...  

Then we went around the table and drew out a one or two to read...

 Nathan wasn't there, so later we added him :)

It snowed, big beautiful flakes and all the kids enjoyed playing outside.

 Lucas trying to catch snowflakes

 I caught one!

 The next day Nathan made quite a sandwich-- this was the highlight of his day

 Me and my sis

 Mom and LuAnne

 We enjoyed two full days of family fun

Honor Band

Nathan was one of four students from his school chosen to participate in Honor Band this year.  Honor Band is a group of kids selected from 19 schools in our region.  The kids are given special music to learn and then they have one full day of rehearsals with a performance the following day.

Nathan is standing up on the far right:

 He did a great job and we were SO proud!

This was Nathan's favorite... a song called Cyclone.  He leads on the xylophone

First real snow

On Nov 16th we had our first measurable snow.  Though only a couple of inches, the kids acted like it was a foot!  They had a blast playing outside for about an hour!

 I watched from inside while the boys discovered a little ice skating rink

Special visitors

We had some special visitors recently.  Grandma and Grandpa B came for the weekend.  We did some shopping, went out to eat, and hung out with them at home.  It was good!

 Goodbye hugs!

Lucas tried to keep Grandpa here by attaching his suspender to Grandpa's pants.

Tooth #2

On 11-14 Samuel lost tooth #2!  His big new tooth had been pushing it out for a couple of weeks.

Swimming

We are just about to finish our third round of swimming lessons for Emma and Samuel since summer.  They have been making tons of progress so we've been trying to keep the momentum going!  We will take a break over the holidays and then start back up sometime in January.

Samuel just learned how to tread water!

Once Emma conquered her fears, she began teaching herself!  On her own she learned how to swim under water, and how her teacher is working on swimming form.  What an amazing transformation from a girl who couldn't swim and was too afraid to be in the water without a life jacket!

The Mayflower Compact

For CC a couple of weeks ago Emma had to do a presentation on the following history sentence:

In 1620, the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England signed the Mayflower Compact before landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

She was to take a shoe box and create a scene from the sentence, adding details that others in the class may not know.  

This is her box:

 She did a great job and added some interesting details.

 

Little Monkey

Lucas got a new Monkey hat.  He says it's his "Christmas hat."

Lowe's

We love the Lowe's Build-And-Grow program though we pick and choose which ones to attend.  A week ago Daddy's took the three youngest to make a really cool science set.  I think this has been their favorite!

 They also saw some friends!

First snowflakes

46:52 First
First snowflakes of the season

Appreciating Veterans

On Veteran's Day Emma went with her American Heritage Girl's troop to hand out appreciation cards to veterans at a local nursing home.

Sweat

45:52 Sweat

Fierce

44:52 Fierce

Trick or treat!

Our community has two nights for trick-or-treating.  No one seems to know why this is, but we enjoy having the chance to stay home and give out candy one night and go out trick-or-treating the next.  This year our church had a Trunk or Treat on Halloween night so we did things a bit differently.  The night before, we did a little trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and spent the rest of the evening handing out candy.

Captain America

Stitch

 

Lalaoopsy, Pillow Featherbed

Batman

Trunk or treat at our church was great fun. We had over 165 kids there, plus many parents!  It was a full house!  It was rather chilly and drizzly, so we had it inside rather than in the parking lot.  All booths were Bible themed... ours was Jonah.

 We won third place! 

There were games and bouncy houses, as well as hotdogs and chips.

On our way home we stopped at Grandma's house:

 Lucas though HE made a cuter Stitch than Grandma