November Fun

November was another fun and busy month!  The kids are doing great in school and are having fun with their various activities.  Sarah had her birthday, and Thanksgiving was great, as usual.  Both sets of grandparents were able to come and feast with us.  There has been a lot going on, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Elsie has been doing a hitting clinic one night a week with some girls from her softball team.  She LOVES it and is gaining a lot of confidence with her batting.

She also had her 3rd grade music program at school.  The class sang songs about different occupations and what they wanted to do when they grew up.  Elsie wanted to dress like a plumber so that's what she did. 

On Veteran's Day, the Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts) were summoned to be the color guard at the Spring Hill Veteran's Day Ceremony

Buddies 

The ceremony was pretty small and didn't last too long.  It was a nice way to practice being the color guard.

Good deed for the day complete!

For probably the first time, and unfortunately the last time, the wind blew the wrong way and our yard got a bunch of leaves.  Who do we know that likes leaves?

Bright and early the kids were out raking to make a giant pile to play in later.

Even Cousin Maddie came over to play.

We hung the baby swing up for Maddie, but Owen decided to see if it s

Sarah had a good birthday!

Elsie made her a very sweet card...

...and the kids made her some "stress balls".

We also made her a cake!  Sarah said to surprise her on the flavor so we picked Cherry and it turned out great!

We had Elsie's craft class again and made gingerbread men.

Millie is a VERY patient and good dog!

Owen got to build a raingutter regatta for Cub Scouts.  He picked his Cub Scout colors and it turned out really nice.

Sea trials in the bathtub

Quick Aside: On the day of the big regatta race, Owen got P.E. Student of the Month.  Great way to start the day!

Getting "in the zone" for the big race!

Fierce competition

There were four lanes and each boy got to race on each lane.  Owen was laser focused.  He'd been looking forward to the competition for a few weeks and practicing how to blow on the sail.  The first race he finished 2nd.  Then he reeled off 3 straight victories!  Pretty good way to end the day!

Later that weekend, I had a little help putting up our Christmas lights.

Thanksgiving.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but the turkey (and all of the food) was really good!  We had a great feast and then played outside because it was so nice out.  Then we enjoyed leftovers for the rest of the long weekend.  :)

Elsie had a big craft event planned.  We each made turkeys and then drew someone's name to and had to write something nice about them.  She's so sweet and thoughtful.

The kiddos built a volcano in the sandbox.

After everyone left, we put up our Christmas decorations. 

The weather was great all weekend, but Saturday night it was nice enough that we had a fire pit.  It was a fitting end to a very nice, long weekend.

Oh yeah, guess who's back?  That's right, Alex the Elf is back again!  He "flew" in over Thanksgiving weekend and hopefully is going to stay through Christmas.  The kids LOVE Alex and he loves them and us.

Of course he's been up to his usual hijinx.  I think he was hungry after his long flight.  :)

He's pretty bendy too.

Stick 'em up, Mr. Jazzy Pants! (that's the name of the snowman)

Yesterday, Sarah and the kids bought Alex a new pair of clothes to see if he'd use them.  Looks like he did!

Here's to the holidays and family time!

See ya,
Ryan, Sarah, Elsie and Owen