Kindergarten Feast

Every year, the kindergarten classes celebrate Thanksgiving by singing fun Thanksgiving songs to their families and then having a huge feast complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and zucchini bread. The kids are encouraged to dress up as if they were going out to dinner. Kristen had such a fun time. The food was delicious and the songs were adorable.

Each child made a special turkey handprint placemat.

We had a wonderful morning and I am thankful for all the hard work that the teachers and parents put into making such special events for the kids!!

Brutally Honest!

Lately, my kids have been brutally honset with me. It's funny how as you get older, you learn to have some tact, but young kids tell it like they see it. Unfortunatley, as a mother, I sometimes get the grunt of it. Kristen often tells me how squishy my tummy is, and though I wish I could say "it is not!", she's right. And I still remember at the end of my pregnancy with Kristen, Nathan asked me if I had boobs on my back since my back had gained a good amount of weight. At the time, it nearly sent me into tears. Of course, now I can laugh at it.
Well, they've done it again! Last week I was getting ready to go to master's swim at the gym and was walking around in my swim suit. The kids were home for Veteran's Day. Grant saw me in my sawim suit and all of the sudden said "Aaggh" as if I was a scary sight. Less than a minute later, Kristen walked down the hall and innocently asked, "Mom, why is your butt all wiggly?" Could the two have planned it any better? Brutally honest! Needless to say, I decided to take the cinnamon rolls I'd made that morning to the gym and share them with my fellow swimmers rather than eat them all myself and make my butt more wiggly!

Happy Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year! The kids started the weekend with Trunk R Treat on Friday evening, and went out Trick R Treating on Saturday with my sister's kids. Needless to say, we have more candy than we could ever need. But it's been fun watching the kids as they sort it and trade it. They take this candy stuff pretty seriously.

Kristen wanted to be a princess. While I was at the thrift store, I found this outfit for $5 in perfect shape. I couldn't pass it up, so I convinced her she could be an Asian princess. We went out to the Asian market and picked up a pair of chop sticks for her hair and Wishing Well had this paper umbrella. Her favorite part though, was wearing makeup.

Grant wanted to be something with a weapon. Nathan had been an army guy a couple of years ago, so Chris made him this bazooka (sp?) and Grant suddenly became enthusiastic about being an army guy. Of course, Chris was the one who ended up carrying the big thing as the kids trick or treated.

Nathan said the entire month that he didn't want to dress up. We had vetoed anything gross or gory and he's getting to the age where it's not as cool to be a character. We told him that if he wanted to go out trick or treating he would have to dress up as something. This is what he came up with, an injured skater. A few people asked him what he was. I mentioned that he was lucky that he went out with some cute, dressed up kids, otherwise, people might not have wanted to give him candy. Next year, we'll have to get more creative!

And once again, Grant refuses to smile. He cracks us up with his grumpiness.

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

We had a great Friday evening at the pumpkin patch with our friends, Dale & Melanie and their boys! Grant had been invited to a birthday party that evening and had chosen to go to that instead of come with us. We missed him, but he had a great evening as well.

We started the evening with a ride on their train. The kids loved it!

Nathan enjoyed helping David dig in the dirt.

Nathan is my little (maybe I should say big) monkey. Here he is up high in the treehouse.


The petting zoo was so much fun! At first, Kristen was very nervous about the goats. They were quite aggressive about getting the food from kids' hands. Here is Kristen protecting her handful the only way she knew how.

But she soon got the hang of it and enjoyed feeding the goats, particularly the baby goats.

Here's our animal lover, Nathan with a little one on his lap. He kept trying to eat his shirt.

Out in the patch picking pumpkins.

Our family, minus Grant. The sunset was gorgeous!!

It was getting dark, so we put Kristen out with her thumb to hitch us a hay ride back.

It worked, and we headed back after a fun evening with friends! Happy Fall!!

Space Derby

This year instead of the raingutter regata, Nathan's pack decided to do a space derby. It was new to us all and interesting to watch. The kids had to wind their propellers 100 times, so each heat took longer than usual. Overall, it was fun and Nathan's spaceship did well.

In this video, Nathan's is the red that won the heat. Go Nathan!!