Christmas coming

 Stocking shelves at the food bank

 Tony's Santa meal at work. Then off to...

…standing in line at the Indy airport... the entertainment becomes…me. 

My ma ma!!

 Our Thanksgiving surprise visitor--Nana Cobia!…it was a gooood video & we got it all!  

My turn, same picture!

 Sweetie Pie!! We picked her up from the airport with me with her 'I Love Nana' shirt on & kept looking at her with a slight 'Can I believe this?' smile on her until finally she broke into this beauty that seemed to say, 'She's really here!!' She kept calling Nana our "present." 

 One of our first events, courtesy of Nana

 My mum gets a laugh out of the fact that Rhett eats twice what Ari does each morning :)

 Jyson caught this delightful moment.

The magic of a music box…in Costco :)

There are many other pictures, but at present are unavailable…more to come for my book's sake!

Winter

 A grand discovery!

 Jyson's cherished job of 'net straightener'

The way he wears his coat. Every. Time. 

 

When he isn't trying more unusual ways...

 What can I say, I'm hooked on that smile.

 He stayed out longer than anyone else. Shovelin' and shovelin'.

 Who needs boots when you have bread bags? It brings back good memories... 

"I'll only eat the top layer," quoth he…"Good idea," says I...

 Ari's favorite: snow angels

 This little lady didn't last long. Like 5 minutes tops. Snow is colder than it looks. That's for sure :)

Parent Day

 Look at Tony's face…this act of camaraderie is painful :)

In groups we were to build an edifice of noodles & marshmallows in order to vie for the titles 'strongest, prettiest, & tallest'

 This looked to be the 'strongest'

 Thanks to the architect father, this looked to be the 'prettiest'

After some sorting out how to do what & a collapse, this was the base, constructed by a few in our group

 And our top was constructed by Jyson, adorned by a mallow flower & a mallow dude.

In Jaydon's class (I came in at the end & it was a little different) there was a video showing how this guy did this activity with business men & kindergardeners all over the country. Interestingly, the kindergardeners did consistently better than the majority of the adults because they had no 'pecking order' to sort out…there was no one seeking to be the leader, they just all got in & built it. Invariably it would collapse…more than once, but each time they learned how to make it stronger & in the end their constructions were better because the business men spent so much time figuring out how to make it, there was little time for the actual 'making' & 're-making' after the usual collapse of the first 'draft'. We had lots of fun & again learned…mistakes are HOW we learn!! cool stuff :) 

 Rock-wall man…he's getting sooo good & wants Santa to bring him rock-climbing shoes!

 At our local Amish store they have this lovely pond where all of my kiddos want to stop every time before we head inside. Rocks and ducks, what else is there to life?

Halloween

Sadly I always seem to take these pictures when it's pretty much dark (we eat dinner later because of Tony's work schedule) so they never look so very appetizing, but really they are :)

 Deviled spider eggs

 Yogurt-caramel sauce (CCK) w/Granny Smiths

 Goblin greens (salad), brains (pumpkin) & Witch's brew (green smoothie)

 I had this darling little tutu & fairy wings, but nope, she wanted to be the puppy again…cuteness she is!

 Delighted Dino!

 The back :)

 Robin Hood (he finished the book awhile back & that bow/arrow set was from Jyson last Christmas so that came in handy :) Nice of the wind to cooperate & flair his cape for the camera!

 Ohgoodness…This guy decided he wanted to be a Peregrine Falcon…areyoukiddingme!! was my reaction…I'm not an excellent seamstress & right now there's not really a fund for Halloween costumes so it's whatever we borrow or have or maybe get at Goodwill on their half-off day…however this was a STRONG desire of his so even though it was really last-minute (partly from his late discovery that this was THE costume of choice & party because I drug my feet hoping he'd change his mind :) I did find a pretty good start on a tutorial so we went with it…he helped me cut out the rows of feathers. but even so we didn't finish in time for the ward party :) But he did have it for school & trick-or-treating. I needlessly stressed too much about it, but in the end I was glad he horn-swaddled me into it :) It was good for me & he was thrilled (even without a headpiece!).

YMCA mini carnival :)