Tucanos & turkey

This year, the family decided to handle Thanksgiving a little differently. In lieu of the high-stress big dinner, we all headed out to lunch at Tucanos. Scrumptious, simple, and fun!

Afterward, we came home to pies and finger foods. We munched, chatted, and lazed around through the afternoon.

Scott smoked a delicious turkey for our leftover-style sandwich dinner.

We have enough extra meat for three batches of turkey noodle soup. That's what I'm talking about!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Travis + Christmas music = laughter/head scratching

Example #1
Last week, we asked our kids about their favorite Christmas songs.

Libby: (blank stare)

Jamin: Jingle Bells!

Travis: Quesadilla Grizzlybear!


Example #2
Travis marches around singing/shouting, "Hail to the mistletoe!" on a daily basis.


Example #3
On Sunday, he sang (to the tune of "Jingle Bells"), "Christmas tree! Trick-or-treat! Jingle all the way! Old MacDonald had a farm, jingle all the way!"

We're probably in for more hilarious renditions as the season approaches. Travis cracks us up!

So pretty

Discovery of the week: Libby will let me do her hair when I ask if she wants it "so pretty." Hurray for clips and piggies... and no more wrestling matches!

Sum Ants R Red

We had Jamin's parent-teacher conference last week.

He is doing great! He listens, follows the class rules, and is eager to answer questions. During assessments, he scored exceptionally high in every subject. The first time Jamin spoke to Mrs. Atkins, he used Spanish, so she thought he was an ESL student for a moment. Smart little stinker!

Jamin has made some good friends, and they play together every recess. They especially love playing "Doggy Trouble," an invented Simon-Says type game where the leader picks bad commands for the other little "dogs" to follow. A few girls chase Jamin and his friends around the playground: gotta love Kindergarten crushes!

School has fueled Jamin's love of math, reading, writing, and art. He writes his own books each day. Yesterday's creations included "Sum Ants R Red."


It's amazing to see his intelligence and creativity blossom. We just adore this little man.

While building blocks with Travis this afternoon...

Travis: Mama, you're not a princess.

Me: I'm not?!

Travis: No. You're a queen.

Halloweekend 2011

Friday
Jamin's class had their Halloween party. The toddlers and I brought his costume and stayed to play for a little while.

Saturday
We brought in our pumpkin harvest: 15 total.
They're all pretty small, though, so we opted to paint them with supplies we had on hand.

Scott and I went for a collegiate theme.
The kids each got a plate of finger paints and went to town.
When they were finished, they picked jack-o-lantern faces for me to draw.
Our painted pumpkins:
Scott's other pumpkin ("Wiiiiilson!"):

Sunday
We cooked a few treats to get ready for the big day.

Monday
Jamin had no school on Halloween, so we spent the morning playing and coloring spooky pictures. That afternoon, Charlotte, Brock, Joey, Brandon, and Rylee came over. Despite the cold wind, the kids had a blast running around outside. We had a fun time catching up and looking through Joey's lovely creations.

In the evening, Joey and company headed out with some other friends (we hope you had a great time!). We had dinner and got the kids ready for a night of candy and trick-or-treating.

Crunch!

We had our first autumn freeze two nights ago. Yesterday, the leaves began falling fast. Travis, Libby, and I crunched around in the backyard all afternoon.
When Jamin got home from school, he joined in the fun.