Cousin Sleepover

Cousin sleepover with all the necessary activities, and some special ones too!

Doing nails:

Snack time (and princess dress-up obviously):

Hot dog and mac and cheese dinner:

Christmas lights scavenger hunt:

Making snack necklaces:

Coloring:

We also painted suncatchers, played with Tangrams, taught Ella about Pokemon cards, ate donuts, played in the rain, etc, etc. Super fun!

Classical Conversations school photos

The kids' yearbook photos - taken in September.

CC Christmas Party

The CC Christmas party was a fun time of food, friendship, and entertainment (by the tutors). So thankful we have all the grandparents in the area so they could come with us!

Daphne's Preschool Fall Festival

I could actually see Daphne's class from Paige's CC class window, so that was fun :) She still loves preschool, and I'm so glad!

She was SO proud of her little pumpkin for a couple of weeks!

UNC vs NCSU

Maybe my greatest achievement in parenting is that, despite all odds, I have made my girls into Tar Heel fans. ;) Thusfar, anyway. (Russell is a Wolfpacker like his dad and granddads.)

The girls loved the football game experience. Paige was hysterical: "There are a lot of people falling on their tummies." (As Carolina looked bad at the beginning of the first quarter) "See, I TOLD you we should have gone to the Cubs game!"

(Paige looked like she was going into the game herself - she lost a fight to the corner of the bedframe in the guest room.)

We'll get 'em next year, Heels.

School and CC

The kids spent all semester studying anatomy, so they had reason to be proud of the life-size bodies they made at CC!

Our CC had a Christmas market on the last day of the semester. The kids could make anything they wanted to sell to the other kids, and the price had to be in the $5 or less range (and most, $1 or less). They had a blast! Our kids sold out of their Santa hot chocolate.

I am a contracted sub for this school year, and I got to sub in Paige's class one week. I had the best time!

Pajama day at CC:

CC field trip to Bodyology - it was wonderful! (This is Meredith's friend Ellery.)

Took a family field trip to a children's museum with Mimi - kids loved it!

Thanksgiving

Well, we were down a couple of people this Thanksgiving due to sickness. The original plan was to visit at (Jason's family) Nancy and Bart's house on Thanksgiving morning (with appetizers), come home for Daphne's nap, and go to Pops and Mimi's house for our Thanksgiving meal. Then, Daphne came down with a fever (just a cold, a low-grade fever, but still) on Wednesday night, and ended up having it Thursday and Friday, also. So I stayed home with her in the morning, and Jason stayed home with her in the afternoon. We wished we didn't have to split up, but at the same time, I was grateful that we had never in 8 years had a sick kid on Thanksgiving until now!

Thanksgiving morning (photos from Mike and Jason):

All the 2nd cousins: Anna (11), Jett (1 - his brother Mac, 3yo, was home sick too), Renee (9), Meredith, Russell, Paige.

Apparently, Bart's friend (who was at Thanksgiving) has an old Army humvee and all the kids toured it:

Thanksgiving afternoon/evening:

Aunt Jane and Uncle Randy came (on their way to Richmond!)

Manly oven work?

First year my kids have EATEN and ENJOYED Thanksgiving food! I feel like my hard work to make non-picky eaters is paying off :)

Mimi asked us to bring a centerpiece, so we brought our Thankful Tree. We make a thankful tree each year, and it's a highlight of the Thanksgiving season. Each day, we take a paper leaf, and each person says one (new/different) thing that they're thankful for. We include anyone who's eating with us that night. It's a special tradition. (Note: that is NOT our "new baby" on the front top leaf, in case there are any questions!)

1 Thess. 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Balloons for Kacki

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. It also happened to be a really rough time for Kacki last year. We wanted to do something not only to honor her memory and celebrate her, but also to give hope to those facing that terrible disease. So we organized a small get-together and fundraiser. We had snacks and invited friends and family to a balloon release at Paw Paw's house.

 I really didn't expect a lot or plan much, but it turned out to be low-key and wonderful AND we raised $400 for pancreatic cancer research!