Grandma Charlene

On our way to Aunt Alice's house, we stopped in Clinton, IL to see Nate's Grandma Charlene. She was in good spirits and it was nice to get to talk to her and see her.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Illinois with Nate's Aunt Alice and Uncle Ronnie. Nate's first cousin Lisa and her kids were also visiting from Minneapolis. Nate's Dad and Fay also came from Tulsa to visit as well. We had a great time on the farm. We stayed inside the entire time because the weather was FREEZING! Our family slept each night in an RV in Alice's driveway which was fun - except if you had to potty in the middle of the night! We had to go inside for that! Of course, I was the only one who had to do that! We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and the kids had a ton of fun playing with Jess and Alissa (Lisa and John's kids who are 13 and 11). They made Gingerbread houses and decorated cookies and Henry also arranged a talent show where even the adults had to participate. It was a lot of fun for all...I took these pictures with my iphone, so they didn't turn out very well.

Aida and Alissa decorating their houses.

Aunt Alice helping Henry decorate his house.

Ready for Thanksgiving dinner!


Henry waiting for the Turkey!

Kids with their teachers

I took a picture of the kids with their teachers at the Halloween parties. They have really adjusted well to Apple Glen Elementary. Aida with Mrs. Bowen

Henry with Ms. Wright - with green fangs in his mouth!

Halloween!

We had a candy-filled Halloween. We went over to Shadow Valley to trick-or-treat and the kids loaded up on candy and seeing old friends. Aida and Henry hamming it up for the camera!

This is Henry's candy only! This doesn't even include Aida's stash!

Ok, this is my old neighbor, Lisa's candy basket. I had to take a picture because she put raisins in to get rid of them because her own children won't eat them! It was the joke of the night. Kids would come up and pick over the raisins!

Halloween preview

The kids were allowed to wear their costumes to school on October 29th for their parties. Henry was so excited to be a clown. Aida was not in a good mood (a common occurrence in our house on school mornings) so she is crying in her picture below! She wanted me to delete it from the camera, but too late! I will try to get better pics of her on Halloween.

At least we had a happy clown.

The crabby witch (who wouldn't wear her hat.)

Pumpkin Carving

We carved some of our pumpkins for Halloween. Henry carved his all on his own. I carved a little ghost for Aida in a pumpkin and Nate did a traditional one.

Nate's jack-o-lantern

Henry's is on top and mine is on bottom,

Henry with his...He did a great job carving.

Pumpkins

Henry and Aida had literacy night at their school and could decorate pumpkins like book characters. Henry did Captain Underpants and Aida did the pig from "If You Give a Pig a Pancake." We had fun making these pumpkins.