Thanksgiving weekend

This year we had the pleasure of having guests for Thanksgiving weekend. Scott's parents came to visit and therefore got to come along to celebrate the holiday with my family in Farmington. After much back and forth my Grandma hosted and I was thankful after having minor surgery on the 21st. After the typical burning of the rolls and the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes, we all sat down to a delicious meal. And ate too much, of course!

After the clean up we played Bingo because Grandma Lorene has one of those really cool spinning balls with the crank handle for the caller. Claire was the caller and quarters were the prizes!

And if you got bored with Bingo, you could join Emma with Aunt Tracy's very cute dog, Maggie. Emma would love to have a little dog to tote around all the time. Maggie went along with this for most of the day while still having a good disposition.

Once we got home we still had 3 more days off school so we had to have something to do. We got out all the legos and went to town. We ended up getting them all out and spread them out on the dining room table. They are still there and they get played with everyday. Since we won't need the dining room until Christmas Eve I have decided this is a great use of the dining table.

Here is Sam with the Lego City he created. He wants me to mail this in to the Lego magazine so he can get published. We'll see. Blogging is one step, actually printing out photos and putting them in the mail is an entirely different step.

Sewing. Did I ever mention that Scott's mom loves to sew? She brought all her machinery, well actually not all of it. Just 2 machines required to make cute flannel pajamas for the kids. And the best part was that her machine has a slow setting which allowed the girls to be able to sew their own pillow cases. They had so much fun sewing with Grandma.

And here they are all outfitted in flannel! They got to choose their own fabrics during multiple trips to Jo-Anne's fabrics.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the tooth fairy also paid us a visit during this Thanksgiving holiday. Emma lost her other front tooth. So, you know how the Christmas song goes!

Emma and her gap

City Garden

I realize I am about 6 months behind everyone else in STL on this one, but I just took my kids to the "new" City Garden downtown on the 8th of November. It was a particularly warm Sunday afternoon and Scott was working. We asked the Upshaws at church if they would like to join in, we packed picnics and swimsuits and we were on our way! I know...swimsuits?! But if you are going to do this park, you better do it right is what I figured!

The kids enjoyed getting in the chilly fountains and collecting coins only to throw them back in and make lots of wishes.

E. and A.

H. and S. being crazy boys. Boys always like to splash!

The entire gang on one of the sculptures

The entire gang (minus H.) on the edge of the fountain that we were then told they are not supposed to swim in. I guess it could be a bit dangerous up on the edge!

E. and A. really enjoyed this dancing xylophone. Their music was beautiful.

We did get some stares, but for the most part it was worth it to just let the kids get wet. In fact, we started a trend. All the other kids there started to get wet too. Their parents probably hated us at the very moment, but you cannot deny that fountains are just calling for kids to experience them!

Sam's Last Soccer Game

Sam learned some fancy footwork and became quite a soccer player this year. He had some great kicks and became quite aggressive on the field. Luckily, he is still a sweet boy at home.

I think Stewart is praying that they might win this one!

Go Lions!

Saturday November 14th was Sam's last Kindergarten soccer game. It was a beautiful day, in the 70's. His team played a great game and actually won! This was the second game they won all season. It was great to end on an upswing!

Fall

I have been behind on my blogging this Fall but now that I have some "down time" I can use it to catch up. The weekend of October 24th I got to go to The Lake of the Ozarks with some girlfriends. It was a beautiful drive during the peak of pretty fall foliage! We mostly shopped and that was good. We also played a little tennis and had lots of girly gab time and movies. It was a nice trip with Amy, Audra, Sherry, Julie and Kara. Here is the view out of our condo window of the lake and the leaves.

Once we returned from a short jaunt to FL we arrived back to STL to lots and lots of leaves in our own yard. We love all the shade we have in the summer, but raking our leaves can become quite a chore in the Fall. November 1st I raked for 3 hours with a little help from Claire and Sam. I have not mastered the blower but I did what I could with a tarp and a rake. Due to having a dog this year I decided the kids could only jump in the leaves from the front yard. Blitzen is not allowed to go in the front yard so they were not contaminated if you know what I mean! There were still plenty of leaves for them to jump in considering we have 2 huge trees in our front yard that still have not dropped all their leaves.

Here are the kids in their pile!

Here is Sam with another fall favorite...a cheek full of apples!

Kindergarten did a Thanksgiving production last week. Sam was one of the Pilgrims.

"Tally ho!"

They ended the production with an interactive "Tommy the Turkey" dance. This included shaking your tail feathers, which made Sam giggle!

It also happened to be free dress day at school so we had a Pilgrim in his Cardinals jersey.

HAPPY FALL AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Things that made me laugh this week

I am behind on my "photo blogging" but I still want to share some thoughts. I hope to catch up here soon on the rest of my blog. Here are several things that made me laugh this week:

1. Emma wearing stretch pants with a sweater tucked in to Wednesday night church. I did not say anything.

2. Afterschool on Monday I said, "Alright one of you can read, one of you can play with the dog and one of you can sit down with me for homework time." Claire responds with, "Well, I am the only one that can read so I guess I will read." Then Emma and Sam continue to fight over who will get to do homework. The moral of this story is that they would rather do homework than play with the dog. I played with the dog last night after they went to bed. Something is so wrong with that. Is does make me laugh, still!

3. Claire and Emma performed a show last night that was pretty creative. Claire was standing up with her hands behind her back and a guitar around her body and then Emma was behind her, so she couldn't be seen but her hands were playing the guitar while Claire was singing. Very creative, I thought and it would have been more funny if it was not at bedtime. Why is it that kids have their most creative ideas at bedtime?

4. I checked 3 books out of the library before we went to FL. I got about 1/3 of the way through one book on the trip and I have not opened the book since returning to STL. Here is the funny part...I renewed all 3 books at the library today just because it was raining, I did not want to get out of my car to take them in and I did not want to pay a fine. I have no intention of reading any of them.

5. Final funny thing. I put a Central Christian School decal on my van this week. I have never put a car sticker of any type on any vehicle I have owned. I would never put an "Honor Student" bumper sticker on or a political sticker however I feel good about the decal. It is comparable to putting a "fish" on your car. I realize now that the way I drive should be "christian". I want to give the school a good name. It is a bit of good pressure, I guess. My favorite bumper sticker reads, "maybe the hokey pokey is what it's all about." I know that is not true, but it sure does make me laugh every time I see it. Hope it makes you laugh too :)

Family photos

As a 60th anniversary gift for my grandparents my family decided to get a family portrait to gift to my grandparents. The group photo turned out really nice and my grandparents are really excited to get theirs. I am trying to decide if I should get an 11x14 or 16x20 of my kids to hang in my dining room. I don't usually love big portraits so I am really having a hard time making a decision. I would love some help, input, opinions, etc. about these photos so I am going to post them here. The website will expire on 11/21 and the password is: lowercase "l" then lowercase "s".

http://www.5smout.photoherald.com

Short Jaunt!

We decided to take a short jaunt to FL the end of October. The kids had a couple of shortened days at school and Scott had a few days off before a 16 day stretch of work plus it was Grandma Lois' 95th birthday! We were able to use our credit card points for our airfare and we found a neat resort that included a small water park and mini golf, what more does one need?! We did not want to wait in lines or see the big mouse this time, we just wanted a relaxing vacation with family.

The resort was very fun and had this small water slide at a huge pool fairly close to our condo. The kids really had fun connecting themselves and going down as a train. I am sure this is not allowed, but there were not any lifeguards!

Emma playing volleyball!

At the water park there was a long lazy river. The weather was hot when we were there. About 87 degrees. However, no matter how hot it is when you are relaxing on a tube it is never great to go under the bridge that sprays the freezing cold water. You can tell in this picture that the kids are gearing up for the cold spray and I am thinking how to steer us so we can avoid it.

Claire having fun in her tube

Emma

There was also a lot of opportunities for fishing at the resort. Daddy almost didn't bring his fishing pole because we packed completely using carry-ons. However, he snuck it on and boy are we glad he did! Sam and Daddy caught this huge bass! This is probably the biggest fish Sam has ever caught. He was really excited and proud of daddy for reeling it in!
We flew in on the Wednesday before Halloween and I thought it was hilarious that we got this car as our rental. It seemed sort of Halloween themed! Claire took this picture of our rental!
On Thursday we went to the assisted living where Great Grandma and Grandpa Smout live. We got to see their new apartment and had lunch with them in the dining hall. It was a very nice time with them. They are so sharp and full of joy. Grandma Lois was grinning the entire time we were there and all of their friends enjoyed coming by our table to see the grandchildren. The kids especially enjoyed the ice cream machine and salad bar!

Sam and Great Grandpa Chuck

All of us at lunch

We all had a great trip. It was relaxing and a nice time with family. Our kids were completely content just hanging out at the resort and they absolutely loved the FL wildlife. Between the bright green frog that hung out by our condo light every night, the lizards, the birds, and the fish, the kids were in heaven. Things to catch and care for...that's all they need!

Quick Costumes

We like to manage things one day at a time around here. At least that is how it seems to go most of the time. We took a little 4 day trip to FL last week arriving home at 2:30 pm on Halloween. So the next thing on the list became costumes. We started digging to the bottom of the toy bin and tossing out ideas. I really love homemade costumes because they allow you and the people who open the door to use their imagination!

Claire was the "Head Dolphin Trainer" at Sea World, complete with whistle key chain.

She wore my size 9 water shoes all night just to fit the part. Her joke was "What do you call a dog with no legs?"...."It doesn't matter what you call it because it's not coming'!" She got a lot of laughs on this one and a lot of candy!

Emma was a flight attendant for American Airlines complete with our boarding passes from our flight earlier that day. She was only able to pull this off with a little help from her brother's closet, some nude pantyhose and of course some makeup! Because she is Emma she hammed this up to the max. When she got to each door she said, "Thank you for choosing American Airlines!" Her joke was "If April showers bring May flowers then what do Mayflowers bring?"

..."Pilgrims!"

Sam was Indian Jones complete with whip and gun in holster. I love how Daddy's hat is so big it makes his ears flop down. His joke was, "What do you call a cow with no leg?"..."Ground beef!" Do you sense a no leg theme this year? I am not sure how that got started but they got a lot of laughs and plenty of candy which is now sorted into 2 bags. Chocolate and other stuff. Chocolate will be gone quickly and other stuff will be thrown away by Thanksgiving.

It was a beautiful night here for Trick or Treating. Sweater Weather I like to call it. We met up with our neighborhood friends and trick or treated for 3 or 4 blocks. There were not scary masks this year or maybe Sam has grown out of being so scared. The past 2 years we have had to bring him home early because he was scared. This shows me how much they are all growing up and what difference a year makes. Happy Halloween!