November + Decemer Round-Up

I won't even pretend to organize this or make it theme-y. Just random stuff from the past couple of months...

Kyle and I took trip to Seaside with 2 other couples back in early November. It was very last minute (for us: several weeks' notice = last minute) and we left the kids at home - crazy! We confirmed that Seaside is THE beach to go to - pristine beach, fun places to eat including gormet food trailers all within walking distance. But really this trip was all about two things: 1) unplugging - we read and did puzzles and went on walks and ate and ate some more and went to a movie in the middle of the day and even went to the beach a couple of times...

 AND 2) new friends -nothing solidifies friendships like travel glitches/delays and hanging out for a week with literally no plans. 

So thankful for these folks - us with Leslie & Kevin, John & Julie.

 Moving on - Owen's sweet soccer team - this is the best shot I got. That's how much fun (and active) they are.

 Getting his award form Coach Nunnelly (and Assistant Coach Dad).

 Rebecca wanted to learn how to sew a button. So we "borrowed" an undershirt of Kyle's that had seen better days.

She wasn't really open to my help or instruction...And she decided to hot-glue on some accouterments.

 Sweet snuggles with maggie.

 Wednesday lunch dates with this gal.

Rebecca posing with Bee (who pulled her 2nd tooth while we were at the beach).

 New little couch in the girls' room is making for a lot of family fun - the girls reading together.

All 3 reading together (or listening to a book on CD thanks to Aunt Mel's suggestion - why had I not gotten on board with these forever ago?)

And we stacked the girls' beds so there's a lot more room. And the little couch folds out (Maggie calls it her pallet) so there have been lots of weekend sleepovers where Owen is in Maggie's bottom bunk) and Mags is on the pallet).

 Random Christmasy posing at Trader Joe's after our family photoshoot.

 School was out for Thanksgiving and we went to see the Peanuts Movie. Nothing special but fine way to spend an hour and a half.

 Rebecca missed the big Thanksgiving Feast at school because she was sick. The kindergarteners dress up as Native Americans and the first graders are pilgrims. We made Rebecca's costume out of a brown pillow-case and had a lot of fun with it -complete with leather string and feathers and turquoise beads. She was really bummed to not get to wear it, so she changed into it at our family Thanksgiving feast at Nana's.

Aunt Mel had all of them playing a game together. (Kyle had to go to work and both Luke and I fell asleep the living room couches). Loudest nap space ever but we persevered.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays Rebecca stays at school for "afternoon class." It's an extra program since kindergarten at her school only goes until 12. It means she gets to ride home with Owen in carpool and I have one less pick-up. PLUS she loves it. She's taking Art & Music Around the World - they "travel" to a different country every week and spend two days there learning about the country/culture through their art and music. It's really fun to hear her tell me all about Uganda, Russia, Japan, Mexico, etc. Here she is as a pilgrim in a little performance they did for the parents - she "dies" at one point after describing how harsh the winter was - she was very dramatic and practice at home a lot. No surprise there.

 We picked up the puzzling craze from one of the gals on our Seaside trip and Kyle bought a couple of ones we can theoretically all do together. The best one has pieces of different sizes (for different age groups).

We've been on a movie-date-night-roll! The weekend after Thanksgiving the kids wen to to Christmas in Comfort with Dahdo and Pam so we had plans to go see the Martian. We really enjoyed it. And were in such good spirits (at 9pm with no kids to wake us up in the morning) that we stuck around and saw the Mockingjay immediatley after. We're so wild and crazy. Then a couple of nights ago the kids spent the night w/ Bee & JoJo and we went last minute to see Star Wars #7 - our parental duty to check it out since the kids want to see it. (FYI we're going to let them but will wait until its out on DVD/demand so we can fast forward/skip the couple of darker scenes). Overall we really enjoyed it - much more of a throwback to 4-5-6 and that was a win for us.

Popped by my mom's one day after school a few weeks ago because she said her roses were incredible - and she was right. 

Christmas is in 4 days...so more to come soon. :)

Cousins Preview

Bright and early the morning after Halloween Kyle and I hopped a plane to Florida to vacation with two other couples without kids. I know - who are we???  The Beach. In November. Without kids. (It's why you're getting all of these updates!)

Meanwhile, back at home...Bee and Nana are running the homefront. But before they came in shifts to take over on Sunday, our wonderful Marisela handled the kiddos in preparation for and during some cousin photos with the Mezger cousins and Franny. 

Here they are a week or two ago trying on pieces of their outfits - you can tell they were stoked. 

Maggie is crying about something. 

Rebecca is just having an attitude.

Owen is I don't know what.

I got reports that the actual shoot went well. Won't have any of the professional photos for a while but love these snapshots that Marisela took.

Pretty good looking (and patriotic) little clan - can't wait to see the real pics!

Halloween 2015

Halloween #1

 (Two days before Halloween)

I feel like we're in quite the Halloween rythm - it really is one of my favorite times of the year. We hosted the Bridges party again - a group that works with international students at UT and ACC. 

Here's the garage set-up for pumpkin carving. 

Students playing some sort of wrap the mummy game (student + toilet paper).

Eating chili and hanging out.

Listening to a fun recap of the history of Halloween.

Costume contest.

Getting ready to do some pumpkin damage.

Rebecca joined right in with a group. I think she actually dictated the design - but they went with it.

Here she is with her group (and their fairy pumpkin - no surprise) and wrapping another little guy (who just went with it).

O & K worked on a star wars themed one. Rebecca helped. I have no idea where Maggie was during most of this.

The line-up. And Owen's.

The group.

Halloween #2
On Saturday night we did the full neighborhood Halloween. Everyone came up with their costume this year...except Kyle. I ran out of steam so he was gracious enough to repeat his Waldo. Plus, he just makes such a perfect Waldo!
I'm Katniss Everdeen (Hunger games), Maggie is a Minion, Rebecca is Twinkle Bell (she and I made her costume - completely her brain child - from the dress that she wore in Alex/Deidre's wedding) and Owen is Obi-wan Kenobi.

Mom came over in her gypsy get-up to hand out candy. She is the best. Hands down.

Maggie Minion.

Twinkle Bell (plus Rosalon with matching costume, by Rebecca)

No prompt needed - serious Owen doing his best serious Jedi look as Obi-wan.

Hitting the pavement, candy buckets in tow (not us, just the kids)

Got to walk the hood with several fun neighbor friends, not the least of which is the Murray family - in full double-Darth-Vader star wars mode (plus giant dog as an AT/AT and the best Princess Leigh of all 25 we saw).

So thankful for this friend.

Check out her amazing knitted Leia hair.

And who is Katniss without Effie Trinket - nobody. It was so fun to find her wandering the neighborhood. We or course had to take a pic. She was in full character - introducing me as her tribute. Come to find out she is the actress who played Buddy Garrety's wife/x-wife in the show Friday Night Lights.

Maggie loving some Minion pumpkins.

Owen and Oliver - Captain Jack Sparrow.

We wanted to take full advantage of the fact that Halloween would be on a weekend night this year (and not again for 6 years) so we rented a big outdoor screen and showed It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on repeat a couple of times.

Kids were hopped up on sugar and completely mesmerized and still.

Great great Halloween. Love our hood. Love the fun with the kids. Love the parental duty to eat all of Owen's peanut butter candy. 

Maggie (4) has definitely gotten the hang of trick or treating - she would YELL: Trick or Treat, Thank you, Happy Halloween - all in about one breath. 

So: TRICK OR TREAT THANK YOU HAPPY HALLOWEEN!