November Blog

Evan assembled this scaaarrrryyy ggghhhoosssttt (scary ghost) the morning after Halloween. It is neat that it has a light switch to make it light up.

We headed to Alex's Robotics competition in Chelsea. Their robot was one of three out of 24(?) that could lift up so another robot can park under it. They have to fit in the blue square on the floor for more points. 

There is Alex walking away from the field. This is the only picture I got of him that day because he was "soooo busy". They did end up in the final games, but had some mechanical issues and didn't end up winning any of their matches... but that's fine. They did well and we are so proud of his team.

We picked up Nana to head up to Aunt Jamie's house for Davey's birthday. While Mike was working on things, the kids found Nana's electric photo frame and enjoyed looking through all their old pictures and talking about them.

This is why I appreciate going back to Standard Time in the fall. On the left is Daylight Savings, on the right is Standard Time taken two days apart. Walking to the bus is dangerous when people can't see you. 

Evan and Daddy worked on train puzzles while listening to a train sound cd. To me the cd made me feel like something was imminent in happening.... but to them it was a soothing sound to do puzzles to.

Evan came into my room at 7am asking where his snow pants were because it had snowed over night. I told him they were in the closet and I had not gotten them out yet. Not long after he left Eliza came in and asked where her snow pants were, I gave her the same feedback. I felt like I was living in a Calvin and Hobbs comic for a bit. All the kids went out to play in the first snow of the year, and came back in asking where the boot dryer was, and the hall tree, and the glove dryer, to which I again said.... I haven't gotten the things out yet for winter.  By church everything was out and ready to go. Evan made this snow man, isn't he cute!

Evan and Alex took care of a neighbors cat and fish while they were away. The cat was shy until the last day, and then Evan got lots of pets in. Such a fluffy cat.

Eliza got the Star Shirt at school for being such a great kid and being kind to others.

Circuit sets are out again and the kids are having fun with them.

Rosie thought Evan could use some help.

Rosie really loves Mike's lap. If he's home, she is on his lap and sleeping.

Just a night picture of Eliza and Mike before she got on the bus for school. 

Evan's Lego League competition went well. He tried so hard that day. We realized that one of the missions we had set up wrong on the mat, so we had to reprogram the robot on the go. For Lego League the kids program the robot with however many missions they want to do, and then just push the button to run on the field. 

We worked on code most of the day trying to get things to work correctly. In the end they finished 15th out of 47 teams. This team was behind the 8ball with having only a month to prepare for this, where most teams had two months to work. 

We love our library! We all got to try 11 different apple varieties. Turns out we all have different tastes, but no one really liked the Granny Smith apple. 

When the kids try the apple they have to write down if they like it, what it tastes like and guess the type it is.

Eliza reading a Lego magazine one morning while the boys and I were getting ready to go to the bus. 

Evan really likes this tree that makes maraca seed pods. He started tearing them open and taking the seeds to plant on the playground at school. 

My seed collecting this year went well. Lots of basil seeds and Texas sage.

I've started playing duets with the boys. My lips are not what they used to be. I'm hoping that we can play a trio together in the near future.

Eliza made the Allegany Train from Henry Ford Museum for her diorama. She even made the little train table next to the Allegany.

She had to research the Henry Field Museum and write a report, and because the museum is so large her teacher told her to do a diorama of just one of the items in it. 

We took the kids out to Cold Stone ice cream as a special treat for them for doing so awesome at school and having such great parent teacher conferences. 

Evan's picture of the moon after ice cream. He really liked that you could see the dark side of the moon even though it was just a crescent. 

Can you spot Evan's turkey he needed to disguise for his math class?

I just liked this picture of the kids gathered around Alex's computer one morning looking up things. 

The day before Thanksgiving we headed over to visit Clayton's new house (sorry no pictures) and then headed over to the Wade's house to bake with Maggie.

While I was busy in the kitchen Eliza and Alex were busy in the basement making a massive horse stable and barn area. 

James and Evan were making a massive train yard in the living room with three sizes of trains.

Mike was trying to get anyone to play a game with him that wasn't doing anything else.

And Maggie and I made pumpkin pie cookies, a layer cake with a strawberry mousse and strawberry butter cream. It was yummy!

Thanksgiving at the Baker's house.

Oma joined us for Thanksgiving this year. It was nice to have her visit.

We got 5.5" of snow Saturday night. The kids woke up and were out the door to play in it. They were able to make this guy, who is 7'7" with no issue... other than needing me to put on the head.