Budding Vocalist

Although he didn't enter his act in the Thanksgiving performances, Caleb is developing quite an interest in music. He sings along with us in a lusty voice and always the same text: doh, go, doh, go... Here he is several weeks ago accompanying himself on the piano.

Thanksgiving Poetry Recital

I wanted to give Nate an opportunity to recite something "in public" as Meg did in her kindergarten year of school, so he memorized a poem to present to the family at Thanksgiving. Then we decided to get Meg and Kate in on the act. Mission accomplished, but I think next year we'll work a little more on poise and stage presence. (The Forstrom cousins also performed a musical number, not included here.)

Thanksgiving

We had a nice visit with Erik's family in Connecticut last week. Some highlights: playtime with the cousins, a great meal at Erik's sister's house, a few game nights, a tour of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, and lots of Grammy and Grampy time!

Caleb LOVES Aunt Crista's dog Barney!

Darian's clever Thanksgiving craft: Pilgrim place cards/napkin rings

Kids' table

Caleb with Aunt Bethany and Uncle Nate

Erik read the story of Squanto and the first Thanksgiving while the kids "acted out" the plot in costume. (Next time we might need a rehearsal first.) Here, Squanto and other Patuxet Indians are captured by pirates and taken to Spain.

Wardrobe change; the Pilgrims suit up for their scene.

The Peabody Museum - a beautiful old building with some interesting exhibits of dinosaurs, stuffed birds, and Indian artifacts, plus an interactive exhibit on contagious diseases like the flu. One favorite of my kids was the leaf cutter ant colony. See the last photo below for a shot of Kate in her element :)

Snapshots of Caleb

Reading to baby doll

At least we got to him before he flushed.

Bed head. This hair do finally pushed "cut Caleb's hair" to the top of the list. (Next photo.)

And a very poor cut it is, but his face is so cute you hardly notice.

Discovering Pockets

There's nothing in his hand. But every time I said, "Show me how you put your hands in your pockets," he put them in and then pulled them out, looked at them, and held them up for me to see.

Partygoer

Today Kate went to her first birthday party. She has talked about it for weeks. We wrapped the present last Saturday. Finally, today was the day. And I let her wear her red tights. And she got to ride in Daddy's car. This was a happy girl!

Candy Binge

Today was the Halloween candy finale at our house. Somewhere I got the idea to choose a day (it's better to do it 2 or 3 days after trick-or-treating) and tell the kids they can eat as much candy as they want in one sitting, but that when they stop I will take whatever is left and throw it away (after picking over it and eating the good stuff myself, of course.) The theory being that if they eat a few pieces every day until it's gone they will eventually eat 50-75 pieces of candy each (!), but if they eat a big handful at once, their net sugar intake will actually be lower. (I also do this on New Year's Day with their gingerbread houses.) For the most part it works like a charm--they rip into it and devour several pieces, enjoy a few more at a reasonable pace, realize they're maxing out and suck on half of one last piece before throwing in the towel.

Well, this year, Nate rose to new levels. He happily and steadily ate candy for 30 solid minutes. Then, with a few pieces left in his pile, he decided he was full and stopped. He washed his hands and went out to play and that was that. No sick groans of regret, no green face, no sugar high. I always knew the boy could hold his sweets, but this was unbelievable. If his smile looks a little weak in this picture it is due to mediocre photography, not a queasy stomach. Trust me. He was barely 10 minutes in at this point.

Here is a shot of the remains. And in case you're curious, I took inventory:

3 snickers

1 m&m fun pack

1 butterfingers

2 starbursts

1 twix

1 take 5

1 pack of sour patch

1 baby ruth

1 3 musketeers

1 pixie stick

1 hershey's kiss

1 mini reeses peanut butter cup

1 nestle crunch

1 tootsie roll

A Girl and Her Worm

Trick-or-Treat

Meg

(Queen of Hearts, costume inherited from her Aunt Bethany)

Nate

(bow hunter)

Kate

(ballerina; switched from bride 20 minutes before departure)

Nella, our friend next door

(cowgirl)

Not Pictured: Caleb

(20 month old baby in pjs whose mother thought he was too young to trick-or-treat)

Desk Upgrade

Some of you may know that Meg is a prolific author and illustrator. She is constantly making books, papers, notes, and drawings. Back in January she took it upon herself to make a desk (see first photo below) but it didn't hold up too well. For months I've been looking in vain for the right desk to put in her room: cute, small, decent storage capacity. A few weeks ago my mom offered this one (second photo) that she had refinished but is not currently using. It perfectly fits the bill and Meg is delighted with it (even though it is not portable).

Good Clean Fun

Oh, to be young again.

Climber

Caleb has been proficient on the swing set ladder and slide for a while now. He is very delighted by his skill. In fact, if I let him he would spend his whole day on here (as well as meandering around the backyard).

Grampy and Grammy Come to Town

Last weekend we enjoyed a fun visit from Erik's parents. We played games and read books. Grampy told LOTS of stories and Grammy helped Meg sew a few early Christmas presents. Here are some photo highlights of little train ride in North Georgia. Thanks for coming G&G! We can't wait for Thanksgiving!

Grammy and Nate ready to roll.

Grampy and Caleb.


Must be something interesting in that other car.

It doesn't show here, but we did see some beautiful Fall color.

A decent family photo...too bad Caleb was asleep on the train.

Or was he...? Stinker.

So here we are all together, but just not that greeting card look we were going for. Don't expect to see this one in your mailbox come December.

Carving.

Fall Family Camp

This year all six of us went to Camp Westminster for the church's annual Fall Family Camp. We opted to sleep in the dorm rather than tent camp, but, oh my, if you could have seen how full of paraphernalia our car was for a less-than-24-hour stay: sleeping bags, pillows, towels, rain boots, coats, etc. I've realized it doesn't matter how "light" you pack. Anything times 6 equals a lot! Of course it was worth all the packing, repacking, and unpacking (and laundry). We had a really fun time.

Erik and Nate spent some time before supper practicing basketball. This winter Nate is going to play on a K/1st instructional league down the street. He said he thinks the hardest part will be "walking and, you know, dribbling at the same time."

Caleb did a lot of roaming and picking up rocks.

Hayride. Rainy, but fun.

Kate and friends gear up for horseback riding. She could hardly wait to get on a horse and counted down for weeks. She told me the week before that she thought her horse would be named "Gallopy" and would be purple. Thankfully, when the time came she didn't seem to notice that neither of those was true.

Nate usually wants to get off the climbing wall about 8 feet up, but he's always all smiles at the start! Meg on the other hand shoots straight to the top (granted she gets a little hoisting help on the way). Then she scoots onto the zip line platform and jumps right off without a second thought. Most of the kids and several of the grown ups take lots of time (and heavy pep talks) before they can work up the nerve. But not Meg. Here she goes from about 30 feet up:

By the way, Fall Family Camp two years ago was the first blog post I ever did. Check it out.

Sandbox

For Grampy and Grammy

Happy Birthday Meg!!

Our sweet girl is seven!!!

We had several fun days of celebrating: cupcakes at school; family supper, cake and presents; surprise visit from Pappy and Mema; and a tea party with friends. Here are a few highlights. birthday girl

new bike

Coconut!

seven in one blow

reading her first "real" Bible

ready for the friend party

lots of sparkle and glitter

making bracelets

pinata

cake and ice cream

Friends!!