1/21/16

November

 
All apples at Sprouts were $0.80/pound so I grabbed 1 of each and we had an apple tasting. 
  We've done a few of these and found new foods that we love (it's hard to eat yogurt that isn't Brown Cow yogurt now).  The kids love doing taste tests.  We did 4 apples at a time over a few days. 
 I love Noah's taste testing notes.
 
Our findings.  Adam tastes most of them, but ate most of them before we could see what he was eating.  He's more into the tart apples.
 Nala's 3 years old and still doesn't have a dog house.  Not that she really needs one, since she sleeps inside, but since we were going to be gone for 3 weeks, we needed to give her a space to sleep.  
 Adam and the boys built an amazing dog house.  We were worried she would freeze if the temperatures dropped, so I added a heat lamp on a timer.  SPOILED!!  We didn't even need to worry, because the sweet girl we hired to take care of her, brought her in whenever it got cold.
 My walking partners.  We go 4.5 miles and they have no problem doing the loop.  They know each spot they have to stop and wait for me and Nala.
 They found a scooter in the creek.
 I told them whoever got to it first got to keep it.  Ava was the winner.
 My baby turned 6!!! SIX!!!  I still can't believe that. 
 Breakfast of choice - anything with syrup.  This boy loves syrup. 
 He got a new bike and a little flying remote control thing.
 Grant requested batman cookies for his school class, so this is what I came up with.
 
Ice Cream cake for this weirdo birthday boy. 
 Ava wanted to spend some of her chore coins, so she picked ice skating.  The boys didn't have enough coins, so just Ava and I got to have a fun girls night.
 It was a great time. 
 
Ava's my little artist.  She's been learning about the pilgrims and Indians, so I have lots of pictures like these around the house.
 Ha. Ava needed to go potty on our bike ride/walk. 
 Stinker Ava found some wet paint from Nala's dog house and decided to do a little decorating on the house.  Little fart.
 Had to get our letters to Santa sent early this year.


 Every month Ava's class does a themed activity day and I help out as often as I can.  Obviously it was about Thanksgiving.  They made these necklaces that go with a cute story.

 Turkey hats.  They did a listening station and colored some pioneer and Indian clothes. 
 
'Planted corn'.  Graham crackers for dirt, candy corns planted in the dirt and then fish (fish crackers) on top. 
 The salmon were coming up the river, so the fishermen line the rivers until the the gates open at the hatchery.

 My kids are master fort builders.  This turned into a zoo too.
 Thanksgiving Day!!  Ran out of oven space, and the sun was bright, so the sun oven worked great.
 Grant was the table decorator, and he took his job very seriously.  He made the napkin rings out of Ava's necklace making set and got the leaves from the backyard.
  
This year we had the Oakes, Notleys and Thrift families over for Thanksgiving dinner. 
 The food was amazing, and it was nice to have friends make some of the sides.

 Only got a picture of the kids table.  Had a fun day and yummy dinner with great friends.  Can't ask for much more than that. 

 
Some of our friends mentioned that they loved being with family on Thanksgiving, but wished they could do a friend dinner too, so we thought why not do a Pie Night.  I think this might be a new traditions.  We invited everyone over the night after Thanksgiving and everyone brought a pie and we just hung out, let the kids run wild and ate lots of pie. 
 I made an apple crumb pie,
 pumpkin pie (although it was really made of squash - which is better than pumpkin anyway), and
 pecan bar tart. 
 The girls in Ava's dress ups.
 The boys.  Love how they segregated. :)
 Some of the gang playing games.  So grateful for good friends (and missionaries) to spend the holidays with, when we can't be with our families.






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