Thanksgiving Fun

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Ours was nice, and all the food was edible. I say that mainly for my cooking. It isn't like I would question Ben's pumpkin cheesecake or the green beans he slaved over, and I wouldn't question Stacey's delicious pumpkin roll. I just always worry about my turkey. I don't want it still gobble-gobbling when I set it on the table for eating.

But seriously, how could I go wrong with my trusty cooking sidekick.....Myles.

Besides cooking, eating, and enjoying the company of Ben and Stacey, we had a bit of some lint smoldering in our dryer. I had put some clothes in to dry, and Chris asked me about two minutes later if I had a candle burning or something. We discovered the horrible burning smell coming from the laundry room.
So, needless to say Chris spent the entire morning taking the dryer apart and cleaning it all out, as well as cleaning out the pipe going from the dryer to the wall. It took several hours for the stench to dissipate, and the clothes had to be washed again, but we are very thankful that there wasn't a full fledge fire. My dryer is working so well now that all the lint was cleaned out of it's insides.

After dinner, the two little ones took a bath together for the first time. Myles was blowing bubbles in the water and Elsa was laughing hysterically. Unfortunately, my batteries died, so I didn't get any footage of that.

We had fun playing a cranium board game, where each team is asked to do some pretty funny things.

It was a blast and there was lots of laughter heard in our kitchen.

Chris and Rhaevyn had to guess what Ben was building with the playdoh.

My team members had to guess the song I was humming.

This was my do-over since I didn't hum completely on my first try.

Ben had to use Rhaevyn's hand to draw a picture of a word, and Chris had to guess it.

It was a poodle, and Chris did guess correctly.

Chris and Ben had to balance cubes on their heads and take five steps with arms linked.

Rhaevyn had to spin ten times while balancing a cube on her head.

Team Ben, Rhaevyn and Chris won, but we all enjoyed playing so much!

Here is some footage of Chris and Rhaevyn fencing yesterday.

Rhaevyn is using a sabre in this, and not a foil.

She just wanted me to make sure I clarified that.

Chris has been getting quite a workout when he goes to the practices with Rhaevyn.

They have so much fun doing this.

Have a happy first week of December!

Our Week

The countdown has begun for Thanksgiving.
We are looking forward to a short school week,
and some good food and family this coming week.
Here is a look into our lives this past week.
Miss Elsa is showing us the trouble she can get into....things she can reach, climb over, etc.

She got stuck on the rungs of the chair I was sitting on while doing lessons with the girls.

She is also becoming a bit independent.

I sat her in her chair the other day, gave her a bottle, and she fed herself while I did the dishes.

She loves Myles's Lightning McQueen car.

I love how she wiggles back and forth with the music.

Our little Miss Fencer went to another three hour fencing practice yesterday with Chris.

I love how she comes home with her eyes are sparkly and lit up. I think she has found her niche.

She just can't seem to get enough of it and waits on pins and needles for the next Saturday to come around. Best of all, it's something that her dad is participating in as well.

He comes home with lots of battle bruises.

Then there is our Miss Aeva.
Here she is practicing for her up coming piano recital.

She cannot wait for the recital day to be here.
She enjoys her lessons so much that she is even reminding me that she needs to practice her piano homework.
Myles is anxiously awaiting his next soccer lesson, but while he waits he is enjoying a new found game that he loves to play...Bugdom.

And speaking of Myles, the poor guy got car sick the other night. He has never thrown up before ever, so I think it took him by surprise.

It was dark out and the road was pretty windy. I heard this noise from the middle seat and thought to myself "That was an odd noise, but oddly familiar, I wonder what it was." Like I said it was dark, so I couldn't see anything. Just as I started to tell myself " Well it must not be anything bad since no one is saying anything...." I heard a cry from Myles. Then the light bulb clicked in my head and I went "ahhh, the sound of someone throwing up, that's what it was." So Chris make a quick turn off onto a side road, and we tried our best to clean Myles and his seat up in the rainy darkness with what diaper wipes we had. We cut our outing short and drove straight home, in rush our traffic which really was not too bad, with a wonderful aroma in the car and the heater on to keep Myles warm since he was stripped down to a shirt and undies. I felt so bad for him. When we got home he had a bath, some chicken noodle soup and was then bouncing around as usual. We were glad that it was, as Chris said, just due to his driving rather than the flu bug.

Here he is modeling one of my latest creations....

I made a beanie out of some pajamas that had holes in them.

I also found a sweater that had a broken zipper.
So, I made two hats from it.

One......

and two.

Tickles for Myles!


Chris getting Elsa to giggle.

Time for recess.....
I decided to pull my van out so the kids could play in the garage since it was pouring down rain outside. Why didn't I think of that sooner? Oh right, because there was a non working car in the way. So nice to have a clean garage now.

Aeva would only play on one side of the garage... hence a short kicking distance.

Oh, and I finally got footage of Elsa standing up.




Though we may be far apart, you all are in our thoughts and hearts this holiday week.

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving.

My Soccer Boy

Ever since Myles received a soccer ball, shin guards, soccer shorts and cleats he has loved donning the outfit and kicking his ball around.
The weather has been pretty blustery and wet, as of late, and that means being cooped up in the house most of the time. This is when I truly notice a difference between "the boy" and "the girls." He is not content to sit around reading a book or coloring for very long. He would rather be running around, and that means jumping off the couch onto the ottoman, jumping from the ottoman to the couch, jumping off the piano bench, etc., etc. I think you get the picture. He is all boy.

About two weeks ago I just happened to see an add/coupon in a booklet that came in the mail for an indoor soccer arena. Chris and I decided this would probably be a good idea for Myles so that he could run around, kick a soccer ball, or two, or ten and use up some of his pent up energy. So, we bit the bullet, or the price tag so to speak, and signed him up.

Tuesday was his first class. Oh how I wish you all could have seen him in person. I know I am biased, but man was he ever cute running around the field kicking and chasing the ball, and dribbling the ball (I think that is correct, I am not a soccer guru by any means). There are only three other kids in his class, so it is nice and small. I am glad.

He was so excited during class that he kept running over to fill me in on what his class was doing next. They played a game called "Wake up Fred!" The kids kicked their ball a short distance against the wall to wake up a mouse living on the other side of the wall. He refused to play this game. Apparently he thinks the mouse is real. He doesn't want to wake up Fred. He would rather hold him. I tried explaining that it was just a game and there is no Fred, but he didn't believe me. I think his favorite game was the hippo game. It was at the end of class and they just kick balls into the small semicircular nets. Again, I am biased, but he looked like this was nothing new to him and got the ball in the goal about 97% of the time. He would put the ball down, back up from it a bit, and then run full force at the ball and kick it. Then he would raise both arms up in victory.

Here are two small video clips of him running around the field just before class started.

Myles got two stamps, one on each hand, of a bunny rabbit. He is in the Hoppers class.

He didn't want to take a bath when he got home because he didn't want them to wash off.

I love it, he loves it, soccer life is fun so far.

The best thing is I don't get wet watching him,

and he doesn't get wet while he plays because it is indoor.

Yeah!

Let's Play "I Spy."

What a great week it has been.
It was one of those weeks where things just seemed to come together and click.
And speaking of "click" ....I have been clicking away on the camera.
I thought it would be fun to play a little game.

I spy a little dolly holding a dolly for the first time.

I spy a basket full of laundry

with a darling surprise in it.

I spy a double rainbow. Do you?

I spy a big brother who loves his little sister

oh so very much.




I spy a little boy who loves to dance.




I spy a little bit of Elvis hip action and

a Michael Jackson twirl

happening in this clip.


I spy my little dumpling who is now

7 months old.

And who still has her blue eyes too!













I spy my two girls who were

kind enough to wear my two new creations.

I spy the "Elsa Whisperer."

Elsa can fall asleep in her arms in any position.

I spy snow????





No, just hail that covered the street in minutes.

The kids thought it was the most awesome hail storm!

I spy a girl finally getting

the opportunity to do something

she has wanted to do for more than a year.



And loving every second of it.

I spy a girl who looks like my Aeva,

but who sounds a lot like Julie Andrews,

and who can make her voice sound like

seven kids singing all at once.

Now, for this next video you really don't need your eyes.

However, you do need your ears.

What was that loud bang, crash, kerfuffle you ask?

Did you catch Myles in the background saying "I'm okay."

Poor Myles fell or tripped over Christopher's lunch box,

hence the loud crash.

Then reassured us that he was fine.

He loves watching this over and over

and gets a good chuckle out of it.

I spy Elsa standing up.

What, what's that you say?

You don't spy her standing up?

Well, that is because every time I try to get video footage of it,

she falls down before I get the camera,

or I push record only to realize

that the camera was recording before

and after the fact, but not while she was standing.

Oh well, maybe next time.

May you all have a very wonderful week.