November recap

The month of November has gone quickly and as seems the case these days, I have not kept up with blogging. So here are some highlights in pictures!

One Saturday morning we headed off to Swiss Valley Park for a little hiking.  It is hard to get the kids to want to go, but once we are hiking we have fun.  Playing by the creek is always a hit.  Timothy was throwing things in the water and Teresa was stirring up fairy dust in the sand.  We all had some hiking sticks to help us along the way.

We had another Iowa Thanksgiving this year.  It was a beautiful day.  We went for a family walk after lunch.  This was the only picture from the day, but it was a great day.  After dinner we walked around the neighborhood again to see some Christmas lights.

I checked out a few Christmas books from the library.  One book had a cookie recipe, so we decided to make some.  Teresa painted a few cookies with an egg yolk glaze.  Later Timothy and his friend Michael did some decorating too.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we got 11.7 inches of snow!  This was delightful for the kids.  They have been fort building, sledding and having a blast outside!!

And now that Thanksgiving is only a day away, our house is fully decorated for Christmas.  The kids and I did most of the decorating over the weekend.  We saved the tree for last night when Troy was home from SBL.  Timothy and Teresa love to see the ornaments again and hang their own special ones.  It is always a magical night to get out the tree!

Halloween

I was a little worried how this year's Halloween would play out. The day before, Teresa ended up at the doctor with what I thought was pink eye.  It ended up being pink eye and a sinus infection.  Then the night before Timothy complained of feeling like he would throw up.  Not a great way to head in to a holiday, but it turned out to be a fine day.

Timothy and Teresa were excited to trick or treat and did a little pretend trick or treating to start the day.  The went to all the rooms in our house and Troy and I handed out our pretzel bags.  Then it was time to do some pumpkin carving.  I helped scoop out seeds, but Troy was the carver this year.

Timothy went for a mad/scary face.  He tends to like the spooky part of Halloween.

Teresa requested a puppy.  With a little guidance from a sketch from me, Troy came up with a pretty good puppy for the animal lover.

Teresa even tried dressing up her kitty.  She was Queen Daisy.  The picture does not show it well, but the kitty has on several of Teresa's rings and bracelets.

Timothy did not want to be left out, so he gave Beaver a Frankenstien mask!

In the afternoon we went to Lego club at the library.  It helped pass the time as we waited for the hour to finally go trick or treating.  Timothy was Jango Fett from Star wars and Teresa was a cheetah.  I went as a dalmatian and Troy was an elephant or a Vikings fan!  The kids had fun.  Teresa went around with her buddy Sophie and Timothy went with another neighbor boy.  It was a Happy Halloween!

A leaf jumping getaway!

It was conferences week around here which means a few days off from school.  (Conferences were thumbs up for both kids, by the way!)  Since we had not been up to my aunt's house since August, it was time for a getaway.  Plus, she has leaves and we don't.  It does not seem like fall unless one can do some serious leaf jumping!!

 Posing while they waited for the pile to grow bigger and bigger.  I am working hard in the background!

 A successful jump right into the middle.

 And almost completely buried in the pile.  The leaves kept us busy for at least an hour of fun.  Jumping, sliding, hiding, throwing, raking...there is so much one can do with leaves.  The kids actually were a good help moving the pile of leaves onto the tarp so we could pull it to the front of the house.

 Besides leaf jumping, we enjoyed a trip to the dollar store to help pack Operation Christmas child shoe boxes, a trip to the indoor playground, watching some Halloween shows, and decorating a little bit for Christmas!  It is always fun to hang out with Aunt Mary (or Grandma, as Timothy calls her!)

The only bummer was Teresa coming down with pink eye and what we later found out was a sinus infection.  But despite that, it was a great couple of days!