This month Mike was able to go to a UCLA reunion. He saw so many wonderful friends and had a really wonderful trip. He even got to see Kelly, who missed the reunion, but was there on business. Thanks, Marc and Ali, for hosting!
This is the group that was elected with Mike (minus Kelly) for second year. Great memories!
We had another belt test. #2 and #3 are now advanced brown belts!
Amy turned 29 (for the 4th time, but who's counting?), and the girls she works with in the church youth program decorated the front sidewalk with pumpkins decorated the way we do with the boys. She LOVED it and all the other celebrations!
#2 did his first book report. Could you have guessed that he read about Abraham Lincoln? We figured that was a good follow up to his recitation of the Gettysburg Address at a pep rally last year.
#3 had his first grade performance, where they presented a book through music. He knew he was important because he was the only maraca!
We visited the pumpkin patch with Allie's family.
We had a visit from Nan and Pop. Our honey-do list is significantly shorter. Coincidence? I think not.
Said visit produced the Mike-and-Marie-yawn-for-a-national-audience moment (see our other blog for the video).
#2 had his drum club performance.
We are getting to go trunk-or-treating twice AND trick-or-treating once! Holy candy buckets, Bat Man! Disclaimer (to the tune of a Sesame Street song): 5 of these kids are from the same fam'ly. 5 of these kids are kind of the same. One of these kids aint from the same family...it's time to play our game; it's time to play our game! Bonus points if you know which is a look-alike-cousin. ;)
Quote of the month: When Mike declined cutting #4's dinner due to a previous fit about which fork was used to cut, he responded, "Yes, you will. You will cut, Dad, or it will not snow in the winter."
Mike suggested that I do an extra update in December (since in the next 2 weeks we should have a very full update--Christmas and Gran, Pops, Ann, Adam, Allie, and Brian visiting! YEEHAW!). So, here goes! This first picture is our family with Santa and Mrs. Claus from a little get-together we had with two wonderful neighborhood families and the Hamiltons. We so enjoyed sharing some Christmas cheer with them!
We went to see this movie with our kids' book club.
The boys loved learning binary from Mike. Their new favorite way to tell someone they love them is 19! (If you're counting binary on your fingers, 19 is the same as the sign for I love you.)
We discovered #5's passion for performing. He stood on this chair singing for over half an hour, interrupted only once when he heard the garage door open and ran, screaming "Daddy!", to the door to greet Mike. Have I mentioned the hero worship Mike gets from #5? Every morning when I get him up he asks if Daddy is home. When I take him up for a nap, we pass a wall of family pics...he finds Daddy in each one, but doesn't concern himself with anyone else. His first request of the morning is either "bottle" or "Daddy Shower". Every time the garage door goes up, he runs--screaming with ecstasy--to the door to welcome Daddy home. #5 LOVES his Daddy!
We had our school holiday parties. #4 is decorating his house (or maybe his tongue) while #5 gets out every toy in the room. I also got to bounce between #s 1, 2, & 3 parties, but I had forgotten my camera. :( Lots of fun to be a celebrity to the kids! I'm sure that's going to fade fast.
We made more hats, of course. #2's making pretty fast progress these days!
We even had a snow day! We played wii, jumped on the trampoline (that and the chairs were the only surfaces that held much snow), dipped oreos in chocolate with a friend, made some deliveries, and generally enjoyed ourselves.
