Class Photos

McKenna's class photo

Nolan's class photo

Thanksgiving at Nonna & Papa's

Thanksgiving...at the Beach!

How lucky we are to live at the beach! We had a beautiful morning so we decided to take a walk at the beach...of course most of the photos are of the back of their heads, but I can never pass up beach photos!

Nolan is jumping over the "mountains"...
McKenna likes to take her time and check everything out...
Thank goodness for rainboots...now Mommy needs to invest in a pair!

Pilgrim Nolan

Our school has a Thanksgiving Feast every year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and Nolan's class and mine (the two Nursery classes) dress up as Pilgrims, and the Pre-K classes dress up as Native Americans. As a teacher, getting the costumes ready and making the food (my class made stuffing and Nolan's class made mashed potatoes) is such a pain in the you-know-what. But I have to say that as a parent, they are so ADORABLE all dressed up! Nolan loved his costume, and his chocolate pudding pie as you can tell from the pictures at the bottom. And the picture in the bottom right is of our dear daughter giving attitude because I asked her to put on the Indian headband she made at school (I thought it would be cute...a picture of the pilgrim and the indian). Miss Attitude...

Tree huggers

I just had to get some photos of the kids in the middle of these gorgeous leaves before daddy picks them up again (for the third or fourth time, i think...and there are still plenty on the trees).

Yep, it's Turkey Time!

We certainly do seem to have a turkey fetish going on, here. Nolan made a turkey puppet at school one day, and was DEVASTATED that he wasn't bringing it home the same day-he literally cried for an hour! So we had to make another turkey hat (if you remember last year's hat that was worn through New Year's) to placate him-and of course we need TWO of EVERYTHING now-a-days! Mommy had class, so after I got them started on it, Nonna helped Nolan and McKenna make their turkey hats and all was well!

Taking Turns

So this was McKenna's idea...everyone should have a turn wearing the Thomas hat. She started with Sedona, who was quite agreeable and even posed for the picture (she really does think she's a person, I think...she always has had that attitude like "dog, what dog?"). Then McKenna decided that it was Granby's turn-but he was less inclined to pose, so he needed a little help. Then it was McKenna's turn, and Nolan barely got the hat on his head when she snatched it away to give Mommy a turn (darn, no picture ;) ). Oh, the things we find to amuse ourselves!

The Twelve Days of Halloween

We got the kids' costumes less than a week before Halloween, but they sure got their use out of them. You can imagine why Nolan is OBSESSED with his costume...he puts it on just about every day, so then McKenna follows and we have our own little Halloween parade around the house! (she's a sugar plum fairy) We went to a party at our school on Saturday afternoon, then a party at Sara & Sidney's Saturday night, then we went trick-or-treating at Chris' work Tuesday evening...so we had plenty of candy (I managed to give most of it away on Halloween to the trick-or-treaters who came to our house). McKenna was sick on Halloween, so we ended up skipping trick-or-treating on Halloween, but we sure got our fill this year! And I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Thomas the Train and his Sugar Plum Fairy.....

1st annual pumpkin carving contest

Chris and I decided to have a contest this year...for who carved the best pumpkin. After the prepping (which the kids helped with), I carved the cat in the window pumpkin, and Chris carved the pirate ship...but we only got a vote from Chris' brother, so I guess Chris won by a unanimous vote--oh well!

Pumpkin Picking

We went to our usual spot for pumpkin picking again this year...but made the kids do the work...pulling the wagon and collecting the pumpkins. Nolan just kept putting gourds into the wagon (and we kept emptying them when he wasn't looking)...so we came home with some pumpkins to carve and gourds to play with!

They know how to get dirty....

Nolan and McKenna certainly don't have any trouble getting dirty! And of course, they decided that they should eat the bubbles while washing their hands...not quite sure whose genes are responsible for that good decision-making....and thanks to Grace & Matthew (KIM!!!) for the stamps in the Halloween goodie bags...my kids decided to use them for face art--it looks like McKenna is turning into the Incredible Hulk for Halloween...

These "sparkly shoes" are McKenna's birthday present from Aunt Janeen, Uncle Tim, Ryan and Sofia...and for days, she wanted to wear them all day (and even to bed, but mom vetoed that one). They are quite spectacular....man, she's such a girl!