"Insta"-replay #98, a thankful heart is a happy heart

Last week was Thanksgiving break so no school and LOTS of cousins!

They had fun playing board games.

Braved the cold for a chance to play outside.

And spent a reasonable amount of time at Target so their moms could get much needed coffee.

They even joined up with cousins from the other side of the family for fun, food, and crafting.

Charry felt extra special since she was Aunt Katie's sous chef for Thanksgiving  dinner.  They made almost the entire meal (aunt Abbie made the fabulous mashed potatoes.)

We ended the week celebrating Jon's birthday.  He can no longer make fun of me for being "older" because we are now the same age.

November is officially coming to a close as we start Advent sand Christmas traditions.  We have had much to be thankful for and many reasons to be happy!

"Insta"-replay #97, fall fun

Middle November, that short time between birthdays and holidays.

Charry has been working hard.  She starts school during breakfast so she can be done before her evening activities. This way we keep the 4 days a week schedule.

Merry has also been working hard. She works better with an audience.

Charry and I have been learning clogging.  It's fun exercise and I think she's better that I am.

Dress rehearsal week was surprisingly simple with all our rehearsals on the same day.

Charry surprised me by looking a bit more grown-up with her hair up.

Sunday was full of music.  First boom whacking during church thanks to a missionary visitor.

Then Hayden's "the Creation."  Despite the bored looks they assured me later that they actually really enjoyed it.

School, dancing, and music, it was a full week.  We are looking forward to family and fun in the weeks to come, let the holidays commence!

"Insta"-replay #96,

This last week seemed long!  I had tests in both of my classes as well as the normal weeks assignments.  So I spent most of my free time on school, but thank goodness for the weekend!  

Legos have been out every morning.  They come up with some crazy stories, everything from blowing up decoy death stars to opening brand new malls.

Starbucks has their buy one get one free holiday drinks, so I dragged Jon to coffee.  Free coffee is the best!

We started the weekend at the Peanuts movie with my inlaws.  It was a cute movie full of nods to the original comics.  I even liked the stylized animation.

November is halfway done, the holiday season is up and running!

"Insta"-replay #95, birthday week!

Happy Birthday to me!

My sister's birthday is just a few days before mine, so we tend to celebrate together, luckily we get along pretty well now that we're adults.

I'm the same age as strawberry shortcake, and I had this doll way back in the day.

Charry spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week.  She cleaned ours, even mopped.

And she helped aunt Katie make me a birthday meal.  I was pretty impressed that she knows how to separate eggs!

Now that birthdays are done it is time to start the holiday season! 

"Insta"-replay #94, happy Halloween

I did much better taking pictures this week!  But mostly of school time.

Girls worked together on Oregon history. They are learning about early missionaries and how difficult is was to even get to Oregon before the Oregon trail.

 They worked together on science experiments also.  The first was an experiment for Charry's science.  She's learning about simple machines and this experiment showed how levers work.

The second experiment went with Merry's astronomy lesson.  They poked pipe cleaners through tissue to "see" what the inside of the box looked like, and learned how radar works.

We spent time with cousins, mostly at Target.

And had fun partying withToby on his birthday.  The lego themed party was awesome, of course.

 We finished October handing out candy at our church's first annual trunk-or-treat.  It was our first time decorating a trunk and it turned out to be lots of fun!

It was a good week, busy like always but good.