botanical garden

Made it for an after Xmas visit to the US Botanical Garden. They had a huge natural material Biltmore!

natural history

 Christmas visit to the Cleveland Natural History Museum with these fun cavemen...

puppy

pen glen

Penitentiary Glen's Candyland game that led to a vet clinic was a highlight. Seeing the bald eagle and hawks up close on a really beautiful day was awesome!

cousin squad

cookies

Decorating cookies was a highlight! Thanks to Liz for prepping all the delicious cookies and the perfect icing!

xmas day videos

Here is a belated rundown from last year:

xmas day

Crossfire was a hit!

Ornament exchange and a visit from the neighborhood hawk...

xmas morning

So much fun on Xmas morning!

xmas eve

Matching grinch jammies ;)

giving tree

Fun for the kind boys from G&P...

good list

Visits with old HB friends. Candy trees. Payday, the good old game. Hong To visit.

merry mosaic

Mosaic at the holidays is a fun spot... Cheestique is always a favorite treat.

class parties

The entire school had pajama day. The sixth graders made sock snowmen and had a movie morning. Then third graders played pin the button on the snowman, decorated some crispy houses/gingerbread men, and decorated some fabric snowmen.

xmas cards

Merry, Merry! Christmas greetings!

first snow

The tiniest snow for the tiny pup... She liked eating it.  Can't wait until she can frolic in it ;)

elf

Carter came to visit again this year and kept a careful eye on the weeks leading up to Xmas. He even delivered some alcohol markers (fun blending!) He loved hanging off anything he could this year!

more tidbits

Ice cream with friends ;) and a trip to the Melting Pot with a friend for his birthday ;)

Aiden's band concert on percussion, way in the back...

This guy and a pup in a mug ;)

chorus

The town square hosted the chorus concert again this year. Luckily it was about 50 degrees! There was still time for s'mores and visits with friends.

pinnochio

Aiden at age 12 was made for the role of Pinnochio. The Story of My Life song will be a forever ear worm! This cast really had a great time up there! It really was one of my favorite shows.

Aiden wasn't feeling tip top during the second show, and I even noticed when he was up there that he looked pale. He came out in the lobby after the show and told us he was super tired. Then he staggered, almost sat in a woman in a wheel chair's lap, and then fainted and fell into J's arms before he was on the ground . It was the most horrifying few moments, but he bounced right back. I was so thankful for the two ER doctors that were in the audience that could jump in to help us be sure he was ok. We think he was dehydrated and he felt better nearly immediately after getting plenty to drink. 

shrek faces

K had a great time playing Shrek in the Adventures cast. The original script featured Shrek's birthday and had a dance off to see he would win the swamp. He has such great directors and they really bring out the best in all these kids.

shrek video

tidbits

Field trip to the yarn shop with two new knitter friends!

Keaton's character bag was a fun project.

The Frozen 2 movie premiere with drama club buddies.

good list

This Ok, Boomer thing can be pretty funny... if not overdone ;)

This cuddle bug can be just like a teddy bear...

Keaton is a study participant in a study at the Social Skills, Imagination and Theater Lab at George Mason. They are specifically interested in how involvement in fictional worlds affects children's social and emotional understanding and how children understand social information in fictional worlds, especially those that they act out in theater programs. 

santa paws

I figured out to reinvigorate everyone’s interest in visiting Santa! Go during the special time reserved for pets! Santa Paws was very exciting for Zoe especially because her favorite thing is new friends! J introduces her on walks by saying this is Zoe, your new best friend. She was so excited to meet Santa and be his new elf.

deck the halls

Decorating the trees in our jammies... even Zoe helped by not eating any even tho they do all look like really fun dog toys ;) spread out all the ornaments on the two extra trees too.

national harbor

A fun afternoon visiting the National Harbor to see the Xmas decorations right after Thanksgiving.

harbor 2

Sunny day!

nanowrimo

Last year Aiden’s fifth grade class wrote a novel in one month for National Novel Writing Month. This sparked a writing bug in Aiden and he’s written tons of stories since then, some collaborations with his friends and some shared for editing back and forth with his good buddies. Aiden and I talked about doing NaNoWriMo together, but he was pretty tuckered our after Rags and busy with school and Shrek rehearsals, etc etc 

But I still had this idea brewing for a book about Mary Washington, George’s scrappy single mother who has had many varying interpretations by biographers. I think of it as a historical parenting/self help book where I speculate based on some historical facts what advice Mary would give on a variety of topics like resilience and gratitude. When I first started I was pretty sure at day two and three there was no way I’d meet the 50,000 word goal. But then the roughly 1,600 words a day goal became a reality and I just kept with it through a very busy month... 

Here is November by the numbers:

 5 days off from school for the boys
 4 days with husband out of town
 3 days with sick husband
 4 days being sick myself
 3 Rags musical performances/meetings
 8 shifts at the school book fair checkout
 Over 1,000 photos taken for the school play
 Over 2,000 photos edited
 1 Piano recital prepped and attended
1 Chat n Chew book club read
 2 knitting groups hosted
 2 sleeves and a quarter body stitched on J’s complicated sweater
 1 turkey dinner prepped and roasted
 Countless walks and cuddles with the puppy
 50,006 words written! 91 pages single spaced!

Now I need a National editing month ;) But the boys were excited for me and we celebrated with Boston cream pie just like we did for Aiden last year! A friend asked me what do I get as a winner? I did earn a pin (one of my favorite things!), but mostly just a sense of satisfaction.