The Rest of November

We've had several busy weeks and I got behind on blogging!  Here's a catchup from November.

We celebrated Grumpy's 70th birthday with him and the boys were happy to help him blow out his candles and dig into the chocolate lady finger cake.  It's funny how 70 doesn't sound quite so old as it used to!

 

We spent some time decorating a tree with things we were thankful for this year.  Alex wrote many of the things himself!  Several made me laugh - like the fact that Presley (our neighbor) got higher billing than I did, and Mariokart got 9 leaves front and center. (click on the picture to enlarge it)

 

On the last day of school before the break, I was in Ben's class to for his Thankful party.  Finally got a picture of his sweet teacher, Mrs. Cooper.

 

The kids had a lot of fun with snacks and crafts and I was so happy to see that nearly every kid had parents or grandparents to join in the fun!  It certainly made my job easier because I was a little nervous about running the whole deal myself.

Ben loved making his turkey cup.

Next up was fall bingo with candy corn markers.  The kids also had capri-suns, gummi treats, icing, and lots of other candy at 9am!  I felt sorry for the teacher for the rest of the day :)  But we checked Ben out and hit the road right then for Thanksgiving in Alabama with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amanda.

The boys always have a great time in Alabama because there is plenty of stuff to play on and lots of dirt to roll around in.

Ben made his first trip squirrel hunting.

I enjoyed some of the beautiful fall colors in the woods.

 Ben also learned how to shoot the 22-gauge and actually did very well.

He was very proud of his shots on the target!  All of those shots were his and a few were almost dead on the bullseye.

 

Meanwhile, Alex was behind us goofing around on the parked 4-wheeler.

 

In the house, we did a lot of good old fashioned Thanksgiving eating.

 
The kids decorated a few huge cookies....

...and had no trouble polishing them off.

Back home, Alex has been obsessed with writing and workbooks.  He actually finished a big Pre-K one on his own and asked me to buy him a new one, so now he's working through the Kindergarten book.  He is completely the opposite of Ben at this age, when he wanted nothing to do with letters or writing!  I guess the second kid has a lot more incentive to learn these things to catch up with older brother.

On a side note, Alex has a July birthday but there is no doubt he'll be ready for Kinder in August.  I was just filling out some school dates in my new 2013 calendar and I skipped right past the date for Kindergarten registration, then a few minutes later my heart skipped a beat when I realized I'd have to go sign my baby up for real school that day!  Where has the time gone?

The kids were happy to see some Christmas toys coming out and made a stuffed animal train through the living room.

Alex's obsession with MarioKart hasn't lessened at all.  He still wants a picture every time he wins a race or a battle.

I love a sweet sleeping picture every now and then.  I often find Alex with his arms over his head.

 It always reminds me of this picture when he was two weeks old.

 

There is never any guess as to where Ben will be in his bed. 

 I'm slowly decorating for Christmas and Alex was pretty excited to see this guy in the yard.

I can't believe it's already December and Christmas is nearly here, but this is my favorite time of the year!  I've already done most of my Christmas shopping and the tree is going up today, so hopefully we'll have a lot of time to celebrate and enjoy the season this year.