Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.  Hope yours was as lovely as ours!

Festivities Begin

 The day started out with an unwanted adventure (James lost a hearing aid when he was out at the doctor's office and grocery store with Mike), but fortunately it had a happy ending (we retraced Mike's steps and found it in the parking lot of the store!)

And we had a great day with Uncle Adrian, Auntie Nora, Cousin Daniel, and Grandma. (Unfortunately, Grandpa was still not feeling well enough to travel.) Grandma brought a 100-piece puzzle, and of course James wanted to start on it right away!  He and Matthew and Grandma finished it, and here James is demonstrating that the puzzle is taller than he is. 

Grandma also brought a "Cut the Rope" game for Daniel (with the same frog as the iPad game, but basically it's Connect 4 except with the random element that you swing the checker into the slot instead of just dropping it).  Daniel liked it very much!

Fours Feast

The "Fours Finger Food Feast" was on Monday at preschool.  The classes performed a few songs (very cute!) and then ate with parents. 

James brought home his "James is Thankful for..." book, which was noteworthy for two reasons -- the first is that the drawings of us and Stanley actually resembled people and dogs, which we hadn't really seen before from him.  And the second reason is that the final entry was that he was thankful for "My iPad and Temple Run game."  Hilarious!  (Parenting fail, or raising a digital native?  You decide!)


Today was N's last day with us (and also her birthday), so we celebrated the birthday part and tried to remain in denial about the leaving part -- too sad!!  We will miss her very much.

We are looking forward to seeing most of the family for Thanksgiving.  (James is particularly excited about seeing Daniel this time around -- several times today he has announced, "I love Daniel!") 

Unfortunately, baby Seth is sick, so Isaac and Erin are not making the trip.  At least we'll all be in Florida at the same time for Christmas, if all goes according to plan.

Counting, No Sheep

A couple of weeks ago, James told me that he was going to count to 500.  And he said that it would take him eight days.  I told him that I thought he could probably do it faster than that, but it turns out that what he did was counted each night after he was in bed but before falling asleep.  (The problem with that is that he would sometimes then loudly announce which number he had reached, or want me to tell him how many more until he got to a certain number -- which was not very conducive to helping Matthew fall asleep!)  He would then remember the number and the next night, he'd pick up where he left off. I didn't keep track of whether it really took eight days, but it wouldn't surprise me. Then he decided to go on to 900 and then 1000.  I think he's stopped there for the time being, though we did teach the boys about infinity the other day.  :)

Help the Preschool

One of the fundraisers for the boys' preschool is a super-easy Amazon program:

http://www.fundyourpta.org/uump.php

Just by using the link above to start your Amazon "search," Amazon gives the preschool a donation of 6% of your purchase amount (4% on electronics).  

Simply visit the link above and start your search through the box on that page.  You will then be redirected to the Amazon webpage where you may continue your shopping experience.  Anyone can use this link to help raise money for the preschool.

Thanks!!  

Crossing

James made it all the way across the monkey bars at the playground!

And Mattie spelled his first words in the tub (boo and zoo, although I did have to remind him that English goes left to right rather than right to left). 

Spiderwebs and Soccer Balls

  It's gotten chillier now, but we enjoyed a nice fall day on the playground over the weekend.  :)

Our other adventure this week was that one day before bed, I noticed that James just had one hearing aid.  I asked him what happened, and he said it had fallen out on the playground at preschool -- "and I put it down the slide.  And then I put it somewhere but I don't remember where."  Lovely.  The child can read, do addition, count to 1000 -- and he thinks it's a good idea to put his hearing aid down the slide.  :)

Of course, we then emphasized how important it was to give the hearing aid to a grownup if that happened (which we've only been telling him for, oh, years).  Fortunately, there was a happy ending -- Ms. L from the three year old class found it the next morning before school. 

Bulls to the China Shop

 The boys were invited to a pottery-painting birthday party.  (I admit I was a bit nervous about that -- James likes to knock things over and Mattie doesn't always watch where he's going -- but we escaped with no destruction.) 

The boys had a really good time, although their painting was more abstract than the rest of the party guests (six-year-old girls).  Matthew was especially pleased about his "messy beagle"!  James picked a dragon, in case you can't tell from the pictures.

Welcomed

What a nice welcome the boys gave me when I got home! 

(James said, "It's 4:40.  You were supposed to be here at 4:30.  That's ten minutes.  Not eleven minutes.  But that's not too late."  The kid is very precise about his times!)

The boys were also delighted today to welcome back their babysitter N, who was out of town the early part of the week.  But we're very sad, because she's going to be moving out of state at the end of the month.  Matthew and James are really going to miss her, and so are we.  We are trying not to think about it too much!

Miami

I'm on a trip for work again this week.  Mattie's idea of what I do is a little fuzzy:

Mattie:  "You're going to talk to some people?"
Me: "Yes."
Mattie:  "And teach them some things?"
Me: "That's right."
Mattie:  "About Halloween?"
Me: "Uh...not quite."

Of course, I can't complain about travel when the view out of my balcony looks like this!  It's the most fancy hotel I've ever stayed at in my life (of course, someone else is paying for it).  For the elevators, you wave your room key in front of a sensor and it directs you to a particular elevator -- there are no floor buttons in the elevators (which is a bit unnerving, actually).  The room is gigantic and has an amazing marble tub, among other luxuries.  Very nice indeed.

Leaves are Falling

 This weekend, the boys had fun filling up Rojo (their fire truck) with leaves, and then helping Daddy clean up some leaves in the front yard.  They especially liked getting a ride in the yard waste container!

You can tell we are in the South because they were doing all this in bare feet.  :)

End of Season

 The boys had their last soccer game of the season yesterday.  They've enjoyed soccer, but I don't think they're too disappointed for it to be over.  :)  Matthew's favorite part is still playing Fox and Chickens (where they chase people who have the pinney and try to grab it). 

It was a nice morning, so they had some playground time afterwards.