November Catch Up

I've been a lazy blogger/family record keeper lately and this is my attempt to catch up.  Here's some of the things we've been up to this past month (as far as I remember):

We had crazy warm weather.  It was warm enough that I had my heater off for nearly a week and my home got warm enough to turn on the AC.  I didn't turn it on of course, I just opened the windows because I just couldn't stomach paying for AC in November.  At any rate, aside from open windows we also enjoyed some outside time.  The pictures below are from an outing to Huntley Meadows.

(Elli couldn't quite figure out how to use our magnifying glass.)

We enjoyed our first overnight babysitting swap.  The kids enjoyed a couple sleepovers, we tried our hand at caring for six kids (and succeeded!), and we earned a blissful 24-hour kid-free break.  I can't wait to do it again (I swiped this picture from Sarah's blog).

Lizzie finished off her soccer and basketball classes (whew!).  She also enjoyed helping out when our ward served thanksgiving dinner to a local assisted living center, though she got her feelings hurt when one of the residents said she looked like she was wearing lipstick.  Hard life when one of your problems is that your lips are naturally dark.

Alaina continued to enjoy "Joy School," though you wouldn't know it the way she cries and kicks and otherwise carries on when I drop her off.   She continues to love all things princess, daily requesting to "be a princess" when she wakes up (meaning she wants to wear a puffy skirt or her raggedy dora nightgown all day).  She also developed a love for the show, Phineas and Ferb this month (she calls it "Can and Ferb").  Now she regularly talks about Jeremy Candice, pretends to be Hinz Duffenshmurtz (showing us her "----inator"), and asks "Watcha doin?" 

We bought a digital piano.  The kids are loving it.  I love laying on the couch, reading while Andrew practices a song.  I need to find a teacher for him and Lizzie.

The whole family attended Lizzie's Thanksgiving luncheon at school.  It was the first time Andrew has ever had Veteran's Day off and it was wonderful.  Okay, the food was just typical gross school lunch fare but it I was able to volunteer without having to worry about Lainey and Ellie and that was very nice.

I made comforter covers for Liz and Laines--nothin fancy, but for me a big accomplishment.

The older girls have spent the month decorating their new cardboard playhouse (I could have sworn I had a picture of the whole thing, but no.  Sorry Mom).  They love it.  The only problem is Ellie loves it too and she still doesn't understand that it can't support her weight. 

We finally did a couple Thanksgiving/fall crafts.  We repeated our gratitude turkey from last year with the standard things we're grateful for written on the feathers (Lainey's only entry was: dinosaurs).  The girls also painted fall leaves on a bare tree printout (thank you pinterest).  Liz used a cotton swab for her leaves, but Alaina insisted on using a paintbrush and when she was finished I couldn't even see the tree anymore.