November

Has been really, really busy! Lots of playing, working, serving, preparation, cooking, family, shopping, planning and everything else that goes into this time of year and life in general. We are gearing up for a big month in December, so we got our Christmas decorations out a bit early this year. The girls oh and ah over everything. It makes it a lot of fun.

Kate and I got to go with my parents and a few cousins to see Beauty and the Beast. As expected, she loved it. Although she did mention that the Beast was a little scary. She sings the music constantly.

Her school had a Thanksgiving feast and she sang a few songs. She was quite the festive pilgrim!

The night before Thanksgiving we organized a Turkey Bowl with family. There was some tough competition, and my brother Brad ended up the winner--with antlers as the prize. My mom was a proud loser, and took home a turkey baster as a consolation prize. It was the girls first experience bowling and they had fun.  Gwen wanted to run down the alley and knock the pins down herself, we kept trying to explain to her that she needed a ball!

 Thanksgiving day turned out to be quite relaxing. We decided to do things a bit different this year and my family went out to a restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious and the setting was nice, but still, there is no place like home.  Instead of cooking on Thanksgiving day, we assembled some Christmas baskets, made Reindeer munch, took a bike ride and listened to Christmas music.

 Friday came and we were really missing the leftovers that Thanksgiving always brings, so we decided to cook a smaller feast just for our small family. After some Black Friday shopping, we went out a bought a fresh turkey and put it in the oven for dinner. It turned out delicious and we've been enjoying it all weekend.

 And this last picture was what I saw when I came into the kitchen this morning. Kate was reading to Gwen and it made me smile.  They are sweet sisters and growing soo fast. We have much to be thankful for.

Halloween!

Halloween celebrations began last Friday for us. We were getting ready to go the Halloween parade at Kate's school when I noticed her hair looking a little weird. That's when I found this:

Hair all over the playroom floor. Awesome. "Kate, what happened to your hair?" "It was getting too long, Mom". She climbed up and got her blunt tip scissors off the shelf to give herself a little haircut. Breathe. It could have been worse. She chopped the sides of her hair off about 4 inches long. Thankfully not her bangs. I tried to make it look as decent as possible for her school parade with lots of hairclips and pigtails and later she got a proper haircut. It still looks a little weird, but I guess it's something a kids got to go through. The scissors are off limits for a while now.

After we got over the haircut incident, we made it to her school parade. They paraded down the street, complete with police escort to stop traffic, and went to the old folks home to sing Halloween songs they'd been practicing. I know I'm biased, but it was pretty cute. Kate has got a little friend Heidi at school that she's holding hands with in the picture and eating her snack with. They seem to be best buds at school and wait for each other on the playground each morning. Then run off together holding hands. It's pretty sweet.

Saturday we carved pumpkins, read Halloween books and ate too much candy. We went to Halloween parties Saturday and Sunday night all dressed up. A pirate, his lady, a princess and (surprise, surprise) a ladybug. By Sunday night we were sick of sugar and ready to move on to the next holiday. It was a blast, though! Having kids makes the holidays a lot more exciting.