the tool box

Nathan is in scouts again this year and he has a smaller den ~ I think there are four boys in his age group as compared with 26 or something like that for Andrews... They're going to split his den up. But the advantage is getting to work on bigger projects since you have more one on one help. He was so excited to come home with this tool box.

the climbing gym

The kids were out of school the whole week of Thanksgiving and my brother was a little slow at work so we met him one afternoon at his climbing gym. Andrew liked it, but this is heaven for Nathan. He scampered up as many walls as he could. And then promptly fell asleep almost an hour earlier than normal

Uncle Kent getting them ready to go.

Nathan on his first wall. He made it to the top each time.

Andrew on a later attempt. He looks so small up there.

my punkin making pie

How blessed am I? This little guy followed me around all weekend asking if we had laundry to fold - we didn't - so he asked "can't we wash some".... he really likes to help. And he LOVES pumpkin pie so this year he helped me bake our Thanksgiving pie. He measured most of the ingredients and added them to the mixer and turned it on and off. He must have worked some magic. I think in all my years I've only had one other pie that didn't get a little split in the top. This one was perfect.

Up on the rooftop

We've had two huge snow storms in the last couple weeks. I was so grateful to get to work from home for the beginning of the week and not have to venture out in it except to get the kidlets to and from school. It's always a bit fun to find parking this time of year since there are piles of snow the size of houses in all the lots. It was in the 40's yesterday and felt so warm, today should be good too.

Grateful

May your day be filled with things you are grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Fire Drill

We executed a mock fire drill over the weekend. We've talked about safety with the kids and had a meeting place and a list of neighbors to visit and who next in case they aren't home and so on. We thought we'd cover all the bases, but nothing beats actually practicing, not just talking. So, Saturday we put the kids to bed - they were out cold in 11 minutes. We gave them just a few more and then turned out all the lights and set the smoke detector alarm off. And waited, and waited, and waited. Finally after about 45 seconds (a LONG time when there is a horrible loud beeping noise) Andrew said "turn it off it's waking me up". I went into his room and explained that was the whole point. Then we practiced unlocking the window, getting the screen off and I made him crawl out the window and run all the way to our designated meeting place and back. He got back to bed by the time Paul shook Nathan awake. He snapped that he was trying to sleep.

It was a good practice for many reasons, we realized in the pitch black of night, it's really hard to see and if they aren't careful, they'll make it out the window only to fall into the basement window wells. It was also good to know also that Nathan lands into a thorny holly berry bush that we've talked about pulling out for years - every better reason to now. Andrew also complained it was cold on his bare feet and we don't even have snow yet. At least they have a little idea what to expect, and we talked about not having toys on the floor to trip over, which might have sunk in...

Halloween

At the pumpkin patch

Darth, Orphan Annie, and Obe-one (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)....

I used to do "theme's" for Halloween, but then the kids got older and actually wanted to pick their own costumes. If one of my children has decided more than a few days before Halloween they were going to be a Star Wars character like the other one, I would have to have gone a Princess Leia, but Annie has been in the making for a year. Maybe another time. Now I got to get to work on next years.....

Halloween is a BIG deal where I work. Some coworkers look forward to it more than the Christmas party. Sheridan always comes up with GREAT costumes. This year he got his boys to come with him as the army guys from Toy Story. His littlest one is just now crawling and was doing they crawl where he uses his arms and drags his tummy across the floor. It was so perfectly cute!