Snow Day!

What does it mean when we have our first snow day before Dec 1 and it is already the third snowfall? I think it could be a long winter!

While they were "helping" me shovel the drive

A little afternoon crafting

Thanksgiving

We were so lucky to have David and family home for Thanksgiving. We did a few things differently this year. The whole family participated in the Chocolate Turkey downtown on Thanksgiving morning. In lieu of a traditional turkey for lunch we had racqulette - melted cheese over charcuterie and veggies and bread. We did find time to also make Grandma Heller's cherry chlorates and we had a few extra helpers this year!

Yes we had tail feathers, compliments of Ima

Can you imagine their conversation?

Cherry chocolate making in progress 

Grandma would be proud!

The wheel of Thanksgiving cheese! 

Could they be any cuter?!

Native American Home

2nd grade is the year of Native American homes and potato people! Following in Elizabeth's footsteps, Grant too made a tepee. When Brandon complimented him on his design, I politely interrupted with "thank you". Because let's be honest about who really made this teepee, tepee or tipi :) I drove him to school this morning, the only time he hasn't taken the bus this year. The home and Grant were happily delivered to school. Now to just get through the oral presentation part that he is a bit anxious about!

Yes that is a soft glow of a campfire inside the tepee!

Boys Weekend, Girls Weekend

This past weekend Brandon took Grant hunting for the first time. What a big boy weekend it was! We were all just certain daddy would get his first deer, but we were all wrong. Although Brandon said Grant did a very good job being quiet and only had to be reminded once about not moving his arms quickly to point out a deer in the distance! 

Elizabeth and I took advantage of the time to have lunch and do a little shopping. Her new favorite pizza is wood-fired. We are still trying to find one as good as the one we had in Geneva. (I have already told her that may not be possible and we will just have to go back!) She had a celebration at her school Saturday night for good behavior and good grades for the first semester. I volunteered and got to look after the world famous junk food buffet. Watching un-parented 4th graders be able to eat whatever they wanted was quite interesting! We came home and cuddled up under the electric blanket and watched a new show called "Nailed It". Elizabeth loved it, I cringed through most of it! Most of Sunday was dedicated to her passion of working with clay and making not one, but TWO gingerbread houses!

A Day at the Farm

Due to parent teacher conferences the kids had a day off school so we went down to farm to help with a few projects. 1) Clean out the Morton Building 2) Build a platform for a deer blind 3) Camp paint the new "lazy man" deer blind that is seen below mounted on the grain wagon.

Needless to say the spray painting was the most fun and I can't even tell you how many cans of spray paint we went through! But it must have done the trick because Pops got the first deer of the season! It also may have been a reward for so patiently working with the kids on building the platform.

 So in honor of deer season, while the men stayed and hunted, we went back home and painted deer!

 Then the weather was really cruddy and we bought cake mixes and frosting and let the kids do what they wanted and I cleaned up later!

Halloween

Sadly, this truly is my least favorite holiday but I put on a smile and enjoy the candy :)

This year we had a Dorothy and a Kirk Cousins, Vikings Football player. Ima made Elizabeth's costume and at the last minute we were able to borrow a Toto and I found red glitter shoes. My attempt to convert Queen Elizabeth's black heels from last year turned out horribly. How hard could it possibly be spray paint and glitter some shoes? Apparently very hard. Target saved the day for $10! 

We went over to a friend's and all of the kids trick or treat together and we then go back for pizza. It was a pleasant evening. Not warm, but we have been so much colder on previous Halloweens. This year's haul brought in 11+ pounds of candy. See why I love this holiday? The kids had fun and I do love watching them running to and from the porches and showing off what candy they selected to daddy. On the drive over Brandon's speech went something like this..."Kids, we need to talk about something very important. Remember you only take one piece of candy and when given the option you select candy in the following order. First, Reeces, then Snickers, an occasional Skittles, but focus on chocolate based"

Grant's halloween parade at school

The trick and treating crew 

The supervising dads :)

What 11.5 pound of candy looks like

Of course is what is Halloween without the high school boo-bash...we got the picture at the end, just as the banner was falling down!

Yes, the candy corn dress/tunic/shirt still fits!  

The great candy sort. This year we took it to the next level and made it into an excel spreadsheet so we could look at the different charts and graphs! Just making halloween educational!