November's Highlights

I did not do a great job taking photos in November – this month seemed to fly past!  We took the kids to the Veteran’s Day parade and held at the fair grounds on 5th.  The weather was great and the kids loved playing in the leaves! 

Imagine our surprise when Billy opened the local section of the paper the next day and saw a photo of the kids and me at the parade!  Billy was with us, but I guess the photographer didn’t capture him.

Alexa’s school had a really nice Veteran’s Day ceremony the Thursday before Veteran’s Day.  Billy was not going to be able to attend because he had a final that same morning, but he found out two days before the ceremony that the final was pushed back and he was able to attend!  Alexa was soooo excited to have her Daddy there (if you can’t tell by the smile!)

I have a neighbor who enjoys ‘crafting’ as much as I do, so we decided to host weekly craft afternoons for our kiddos throughout the winter to give them something to do.  We started our 'crafts club' on November 10th.  Our first project was making a turkey basket out of paper, and though a little chaotic, I think the afternoon was a success!  The kids definitely enjoyed it and all six were back the next week for to make turkey game pieces and play a turkey game (I forgot to take photos of that week). 

On the 19th, we took the kids to the Bass Pro Shop - seems like an odd choice for the holidays I'm sure, but they had a really cute 'Santa's Wonderland' where the kids could meet Santa, make a Christmas craft, and play with several of Bass Pro Shop's signature children's toys.  We went with another DCP family and all of the kids has a blast!  Again though, I didn't take enough photos.

We went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and had a great time catching up with friends – unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos during our visit.

Our tradition is to typically put up the Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Due to our limited space in the apartment, we had to think creatively to figure out where to put a tree.  We ended up using a four foot tree the mantle – no floor space required. I think it still turned out pretty cute, and both kids got their fill of decorating between hanging ornaments on the living room tree and the trees in each of their bedrooms. 

We even had help from a special visitor...who apparently likes Starbucks!

Halloween Fun

So much for being caught up on the blog!  I feel like I blinked and a month flew by!  We had fun decorating our pumpkins (with paint) for Halloween.

The kids are both in AWANA and the Wednesday before Halloween, the theme night was ‘crazy hair’.  Brody was determined he needed clown hair for the event, and thankfully, with it being close to Halloween, we were able to find a clown wig!  He loved it and wore it EVERYWHERE (literally) for the entire week! 

The weekend before Halloween, we took the kids to the YMCA Halloween party and Brody won in his age group for funniest costume – at that point, he wore the mask but not the wig, though I love this photo taken of my silly Luigi one afternoon!

As mentioned in a previous post, Alexa decided to be a snow queen.   Though it definitely tested my sewing skills, I think we pulled it off!

The day before Halloween, I was pulling out the face paint and the kids decided they wanted me to paint their faces right then - Alexa wanted a snowflake and something 'swirly' so it was good practice for the next day.  

 Brody on the other hand, just looked at face painting photos and picked this tiger-like one!

On Halloween, Alexa's school had a costume parade which parents could attend.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated so it was held outside.  It was a cute event!   

They played Halloween music through the loud speakers, and once the parade was over, my youngest decided to ‘bust a move!’  The child loves to dance!!

Alexa only had a half day on Halloween, so she was able to go with us to watch Brody’s class Halloween parade at preschool that afternoon.  

The kids went trick-or-treating through the apartment complex with several neighborhood kids.  

 

 

 There aren’t a lot of trick-or-treaters through our apartment, and those that were home loved seeing the kids and loaded them down with candy.  I'm sure we were quite a comical group that was HEARD before SEEN!  The kids were SOOOO excited and if they knocked on a door and no one answered, the boys would throw one arm in the air and declare, "To the next house!" and then run to the next door...it definitely made for a memorable night!  ;)

More Falls and Farms...

Last weekend was actually dry, so on Saturday, we decided to visit a few more local attractions - first, Pratt's Falls in Manlius.  Pratt's Falls is a 137' waterfall which was formed by retreating glaciers and was the site of Onondaga County's first mill operation in 1796.  It was a short, easy, uncrowded, and beautiful hike!  I just need to remember to make Billy hand over the camera on our outings so we have proof he was with us!  :)  I loved how these photos turned out and had fun playing around with them in photoshop! 

After exploring the falls, we took the kids to a farm just down the road to enjoy more fall activities!