Thanksgiving Week

On the week before school was out for Thanksgiving, Emily's school had a Thanksgiving Feast:

 Then on Saturday we went to Montgomery to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.  Abigail got a belated birthday present from Aunt Chelle and cousins:

We enjoyed a wonderful meal together and then decked out in Auburn gear for church on Sunday:

Michelle and I and the kids stayed the rest of the week while the hubbies went home to work.  I worked in the mornings and then we spent the afternoons shopping for Christmas!  It was so nice to spend this extra time with my mom and sister since this has become a rare occassion.

We also took the kids to the mall one afternoon and they got their picture taken with Santa! 

Abigail also wanted to ride the carousel:

I met Joe back in Auburn on Wednesday night to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.  Aunt Leslie let the girls help her in the kitchen.  She is a brave woman:

 

On Thursday we ate a delicious meal and enjoyed having the whole family together (minus Vann since he was working):

And the girls officially fell in love with Shug (Leslie's dog):

 Emily even took a short nap with Shug on the bed:

Fun Run

On Friday Emily had her Fun Run at school.  I helped mark laps on the kids backs as they went around.  On Saturday and Sunday my back was hurting pretty good from having to lean over for an hour marking shirts!

The kids were troopers because at the start of the run it was drizzling outside.  They had a good time:

We also enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning of sleeping in and the girls hanging out with us:

 And a bit of randomness.  Abigail continues to enjoy playing with Harper while Emily and Hayden take gymnastics.  Abigail wore these glasses the entire time Thursday.  Too funny!

Veteran's Breakfast and New Playground

Friday night we helped decorate Emily's school cafeteria for the Veteran's Day Breakfast they would have on Monday.  The kids enjoyed eating dinner together, helping decorate, and playing with each other:

 

They even discovered that someone had left the microphone on up on stage so most of their evening was spent singing songs to us while we worked : )

Our neighborhood also FINALLY put a decent playground in.  We have enjoyed breaking it in with friends a few times:

 

School update and movie nights

This past Wednesday I had Emily's First Grade parent/teacher conference with Mrs. Jackson:

Emily is doing really well in school.  Her teacher said she needed to work on allowing herself to make mistakes.  Her need for perfection slows her down.  This is the exact same thing that her kindergarten teacher said last year.  She is reading on a third grade level and scored high in reading comprehension.  Her artwork to go along with her story telling are really good.   They were given a task of choosing a topic for a report based on winter animals.  They had to fill out a worksheet where they chose the topic and surrounding thoughts that they wanted to include in their report.  They also had to illustrate it.  They were basically doing a research paper for the First Grade!  They were given the choice to follow along with the teacher and do one together as a group, or they could do one on their own.  Emily chose to do one on her own!  Emily chose to write about the harp seal.  Mrs. Jackson showed me her work so far on the project.  I was very impressed.  Now to get her to loosen up a bit and allow herself to make mistakes while she works . . . it will be hard since both her parents are uptight people : )

On Saturday, Emily had a birthday party with a friend from school.  It was at a horse farm:

 

This weekend Joe and I took turns seeing a movie with our friends April and Jason.  April and I went out on Friday night to see Gravity and Joe and Jason went out Saturday night to see Ender's Game.  A good time with friends with free babysitting . . .

Saturday night while Joe was out, the girls and I went to Alexa's house for the girls to play, eat pizza, and watch a movie together.  They also wanted to get facials:

We also got our church newsletter in the mail and guess who was on the front cover:

Trick or Treat

This year for Halloween, our friends came over to walk around with us.  Their dad dressed up also : )

 

Emily dressed up as Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Abigail chose to dress as the Tooth Fairy:

 This year they sorted thru their candy to pick some favorite pieces and then we took the rest to their dentist the next day.  They donate the candy to soldiers and they gave the kids $1 for every pound they gave.  So the girls got $2 each!

 We also enjoyed playing with neighbors this week when a trip to the pumpkin patch fell thru:

Emily had a Dress as your favorite community helper at school and chose to go as a vet.  This is also a skirt and top I made her.  The first outfit I have sewn in several months:

Emily also loves drawing pictures and this was a cute one that she made of her pets:

More Birthday fun

On Saturday we went to our friend Julia's birthday party.  She had it at an indoor arcade/golf place and the girls loved it.  Emily has already informed me that this is where she wants her birthday party.  The girls were several quarters to play the arcade games and then all got to play a round of golf.  Julia picked donuts to celebrate:

 

 

 

 That evening Joe enjoyed a back massage while Abigail fed him some cookies!

Birthday Party

Abigail had her first friend birthday party today at a park.  The kids played on the playground and then we all had cake and Abigail opened gifts.  She invited friends we met thru our old preschool and friends from her class this year:

Tara made a Pinky Pie cake for us:

 She enjoyed opening her gifts from her friends:

 Getting to check out the toys:

 Reagan and Abigail were in deep discussion about how to work this toy: