It was great to be back in the auditorium for Aubrey’s 8th grade band concert. The next week Joel had his concert. We had a wardrobe scramble right before he had to leave for his basketball practice, and a rummage in Greg's closet turned up a seemingly workable pant. When Joel was changing from practice clothes into concert clothes in the locker room, he realized he ended up with blue pants instead of black. Oh well!
We have nice kitties. Tiger lily had become more of a lap kitty, too, recently. There is something nice about a cat and a fire in the winter to make the house feel cozy.
Coach Riegelmann has a hosted a water polo clinic on Saturdays for the last month. Grant was all in and excited, of course. He absolutely loves it.
It took some effort, but we convinced Aubrey to try it, too. Malala has been trying to get her to do water polo for years, and she always said no. She didn’t want to get her hair wet. :-) And she wasn’t sure she’d like it.
The first time she tried it, she wasn’t so sure. By the second time, though, she liked it. By the third time she was egg-beater-ing and looked like she knew what she was doing. The sophomore girls from church (Maggie and her friends) wanted her to do it, and they helped convince her. I hope she continues because I think she’ll be good at it! There’s a four week session in January now, too, so we’ll see how that goes.
I came home late one evening and stepped into what felt like a sauna—stuff and gross. Greg was gone, having just left to drive Joel somewhere. I checked the thermostat, and it said 73! What in the world?! Turns out, Grant felt cold, so he turned the heat up to 80 degrees! It was even hotter when Greg got home, and he had already cooled the house down a lot by the time I came home. I started lecturing Grant about how he is not allowed to touch the thermostat when Greg walked in the door and explained they had already had that conversation. 😂
We were in and out in 15 minutes this year. We went back to the farm we went last year—Olcott’s Tree Farm out in Corbett. That might be the fastest experience ever. It’s a nice tree—not the best ever (it’s a little short), but it’s pretty.
Mom and dad brought over our ornaments the day after thanksgiving, and after talking about the different ones they’ve given over the years, we decided to sort and organize them by person and year. There are a couple years missing, but we have some impressive collections and so many memories tied to them. Such special gifts!
After church the weekend of Thanksgiving, the kids were all in the hallway chatting and came up with the idea to y y o have an Elf watch party. Joel asked if we could host at our house. I said yes, and all the kids who were there at that moment were invited. They planned the snacks and insisted everyone wear Christmas attire, and this semi-random group showed up at our house to watch movie. Greg and I had community group that night, so we left the house full of teenagers and felt great about it. They had a blast! They made spaghetti to eat with maple syrup and marshmallows and ate other movie-inspired food. So fun!
I was ready by November first this year with my branches and papers. I love this tradition and love seeing what ends up on our tree from our family and friends who come over, too. Anyone is welcome to add to the tree.
I didn’t take a single photo on Thanksgiving, but Greg did take this one of the kids playing Chinese checkers. I if was a very low key day this year. It was just us, Mom and Dad, and Grandma. Greg and I both got afternoon naps in after cleaning up after the feast. Great day!
Kelly invited us to come watch Katelin and the dance team at their competition. We went in the morning to watch their first dance, watched bunch of other teams, left for a lunch break and went back to watch the it other dance in the afternoon. It was quite the experience. It C was fun to see the results of all their hard work and fun to support Katelin.
Greg and I got to go to the Blazer vs Lakers game. We bought popcorn nachos to munch on the whole game so we wouldn’t have to wear our masks. I overdid it in the beginning and got full too quickly, but Great managed to eat the entire time we were there. 😂
Halloween was a full day with church in the morning, pizza and harvest party afterward, and then friends and trick or treating that afternoon and evening. Joel stayed home that morning, still recovering from his wisdom teeth removal, but got in on some Halloween fun that night and went over to Hayden's to hang out with friends. The girls both had friends over. The older girls handed out candy, did some piano playing and singing, and watched a movie. The younger girls went out trick or treating for a short while and came back and decorated cookies in between helping answering the door, too. Grant, Russell, Ellery, and Miles went out in the neighborhood together with Brian, Emily, Greg, and Eric. Leah stayed here with me and the girl crew. I had been in the kitchen all afternoon, making soup, melting caramel for apples, and baking cookies, so we had a bit of a kitchen mess when everyone got here, but it was a fun night! The kids had a blast, and it was great to have the crew here. I love having our kids' friends here.
We had Fauna (the fairy godmother in green), a recovering wisdom tooth Blazer fan, Katniss Everdeen (love this one!), and a Jedi knight, whose broken fancy lightsaber somehow magically started working Sunday morning. We decided it was a Halloween miracle. Greg had spent several hours trying to fix it and had given up on it, but when he put it all back together for Grant to use as a prop with his costume, it lit up!
In an attempt to squeeze in Joel's wisdom teeth removal between fall basketball and Barlow tryouts, we scheduled his surgery two days before Halloween. I promised to save out his favorite candy and apologized for him having to miss his friend's Halloween party. He was pretty silly on the way home, laughing and singing songs from Coco. He laughed with the cat when I got him inside.
Lots of pudding, jello, applesauce, sorbet, mashed potatoes, and his beloved Cup Noodle. He'll be back to normal life soon, I think.
