Catchin' Up!

I know I am behind on the blog--but I am ahead with Christmas!! Here are some things that have been happening here in Leavenworth.

We went camping for Thanksgiving. It was unusually cold and Cebu spent a lot of time under the covers inside the camper. We will have a traditional Thanksgiving meal tomorrow (Saturday), but on the real Thanksgiving Day, we had fajitas for supper and hot dogs for lunch!

We had our first snow of the season here in Kansas. It was a light dusting that melted quickly, but it was still very pretty to see.

Leavenworth hosts the largest Veteran's Day celebration West of the Mississippi. We enjoyed a parade that lasted two hours!

Caroline's preschool entertained us with a selection of Thanksgiving songs on Monday. Afterwards, we were served "Stone Soup" and dinner rolls and enjoyed having lunch with Caroline and her friends. P.S.--She was the cutest pilgrim there!!

Our Weekend

This was a great weekend--the perfect balance of productivity and relaxation.

Saturday we took off for some shopping. Mattie had a few birthday gift cards burning a hole in her pocket and D had promised the girls some ice cream. Soooo....we took of to Legends and had Stone Cold Creamery for dessert at 10:43 am (before lunch). Then we headed to Books-A-Million where I totally enjoyed watching Mattie make her selections and purchasing books with a gift card. Caroline still had some money left from her birthday gift card and she bought a new Webkinz. Derick and I also bought books (and, since I skipped the ice-cream, I got a great SF Latte).

Our third stop was Target. We hit the jackpot in the kid's clothing section. Both girls got much-needed jeans and sweat-type pants. Caroline even got a new "everyday" coat since she had been wearing Mattie's worn-out old one this fall. Mattie spent more birthday money on a new DS game while I perused the Christmas section. Then, home for football and homemade pizza. Roll Tide and Go Air Force. A good football day!

Sunday, we enjoyed a lazy morning before church, birthday cake at a friend's house and (for me) handbell rehearsal in the evening. Now we are waiting to see if it really is going to SNOW!

PS--I got lots of Christmas shopping done, too!

Sleepover Survival!

Mattie chose to celebrate her birthday with a trip to the movies followed by pizza, cake and a sleepover! We had a great group of well-behaved girls and I enjoyed the evening. I will admit that I was pretty tired the next day. I insist that the girls go to sleep since I don't think 7 and 8 year olds should stay up until 2am. I managed to get a giggling Mattie and a loud Gabrielle to go to sleep between 11 and 11:30. Caroline and Olivia fell asleep about 30 minutes earlier. The problem was with Cebu. He woke at our weekday hour of 6:20 and proceeded to investigate the new people sleeping in his house. Soooooooooo...our day started about 2 hours earlier than I had hoped and about 3 hours earlier than needed.

Pizza, cake and ice-cream were served on our girlie dishes in the dining room.

Mattie loves the PowerPuff Girls and I was lucky enough to find a from-home baker who made a custom cake.

Leaving home to go to the movie theater. Mattie is proudly displaying her newly legal ability to opt-out of a car seat of any kind. Her nervous mother made her get back in the half booster for the ride home!! Luckily we did notice that she didn't have the seat belt on correctly!

Our Week In Review...

After Halloween, it seems pretty boring around here. Glad to report that we are all well. Preparing for Mattie's birthday party tomorrow. She is treating several friends to a movie, returning home for pizza and cake and two little girls will be staying for the night. Wish us luck! I really think it will be a lot of fun.

I had a physical fitness "work up" done this week. It is a benefit offered to CGSC students and their spouses. I am extremely pleased with my blood work results (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.). However, I am afraid my cardio output is lacking (too much focus on strength training perhaps?). Also, my BMI is far too high. Irritating since my weight is right on for my height. So...I am altering my eating habits and taking the family along with me. It is true that I have gotten lazy--both physically and in the kitchen. I think some of it is a normal transition to learning to balance working (writing) more and all of the other stuff required to be a mom and run a household. Some of it is just laziness.

Thoughts and prayers to the families affected by the events at Ft. Hood. I can barely even grasp what has occurred. I cannot imagine the panic that families who were separated felt and I wondered how many people had trouble getting to their children or their homes while the post was closed. So very sad. Life can change forever in an instant.

Halloween!

We had a party on the 30th.

Birthday donut!

Birthday loot!

The cutest trick or treaters in town!

Parties!

The girls had really fun Halloween parties at school!

Wackadoo Zoo

Thursday night we were treated to a rather elaborate second grade musical, "Wackadoo Zoo." There were seven songs, speaking parts and my favorite, the special dancing monkeys (Mattie was one of them).

Here is the monkey, dancing, in the best photo I could get from a distance.

The kids dressed in colors appropriate for their zoo animal and then wore masks they made in art class. Check out the ears!