The month of November (pre-Thanksgiving)

It has been a busy fall, and I keep waiting for things to slow down so I can really organize our office.  Turns out, when you have 4 kids, life never really slows down.  And we don't really do that much.  But, here are some of the things we did do in November:

 One Friday afternoon, Eric was home a little early from work.  Normally, he and I would talk and have pre-dinner snacks (that more often than not just morph into dinner.  Popcorn, anyone?).  However this particular afternoon, Will asked for a game of chess.  No self-respecting father would ever turn down his son with a request such as that.  That one game turned into an evening of games.  I know Eric lost the first one.  I'm not sure how the rest turned out.  But, it is always fun to watch Will problem solve.  Molly played a game, too, I think.  John just messed with the pieces...typical.

 John is continuing to grow his vocabulary and ability to hold a conversation.  Eric travels quite a bit for work and is always amazed at what John is saying when he comes back.  The rest of us aren't so easily impressed, but we still think he is pretty cute and we are awful glad he is a part of our family.

 Eric took part in the Movember event held to raise awareness of prostate cancer.  I know some may disagree, but I actually like him with the moustache.  Maybe because he looks like a film star form the golden age of Hollywood.  Despite it being a week into December, he has not shaved it, yet.  It may become pretty permanent.  We'll see!

 One of our regular Sunday activities is to play a hand or two of cribbage in the afternoon.  Generally with pre-dinner snacks (that more often than not just become dinner: Party Supper!).  We don't keep track of who wins or loses...because I am generally the one who wins.  Most games are relatively close, including the picture below.  It looked like Eric would actually win this one.  I had to get a pretty amazing hand and he had to get next to nothing for me to pull it out.  He made it all the way down to the last hole before victory...and I got the hand with all of the 5s,4s, and 3s.  That story will only make sense to 2 of you.  And even fewer will appreciate it, but this is my blog, so why not?

 Can we get back to the kids, now?

 Molly is my little kitchen helper.  And she is actually very helpful.  We have an understanding that I let her help, but she has to do exactly as I say.  Sometimes one of us fails to follow through and tears ensue.   More often this is me breaking the understanding.  For example, I will, on occasion, wake up earlier than usual and make pumpkin bread.  Without waking Molly to help.  The truth is, I am not avoiding Molly, but John, who also thinks he should be allowed to help, but does not have the same understanding of doing exactly as I say as Molly does.  Also, he isn't the best at taking turns with pouring in flour and sugar.  And he eats way more chocolate chips than he actually puts in the cookie batter. #2yearolds

 We hosted Oktoberfest in November because that was when we had time to host it (see first paragraph about it being a busy fall).  Knowing there were apples to peel in my future, I purchased a new thingamajig (technical name) that peels and slices the apples in a nice spiral.  Molly was in heaven.

 It did not take Will long to observe the fun and want to join in.

 We had a nice turn out for our 2nd Florida Oktoberfest.  A funny thing happened, two people let me know how much they had looked forward to eating the hot potato salad and the sauerkraut.  I remember hearing people compliment my mom's food all of the time (something, being a picky eater, I never fully appreciated).  It was surreal to have similar comments directed at me.  That said, I have come to really love the potato salad and sauerkraut I avoided in my youth.

Also in November, as it turned a bit colder (I think it got down in the 40s a couple of nights...brrrr!) Therefore, we had hot chocolate a couple of those mornings to help thaw out my Florida children. And with hot chocolate comes: MARSHMALLOWS!!! Which means, John is on a steady diet of marshmallows (or 'mallows' as he initially called them).  He is of a scavenging civilization.

Let's see....also in November I took the plunge and subscribed to the Tinker Crate.  They offered a free first month and I can cancel anytime.  It is pricey, but I am very impressed that all parts are included and the instructions are clear enough that Dom and Will made our second one completely on their own.  I did help with this initial one.  One, because I didn't know how hard it would be, and two, because it is pretty awesome.

I mean, we made a constellation! In our backyard!!  We also made light jump using the magic of water's ability to bend light.  That was also cool.  #science

After creating perhaps 7 other planetary systems in our backyard, the boys moved on to a slightly easier task.  Climbing a tree.

And climbing down.  That is really the hard part, by the way.  Will actually mastered this a while ago, but Dom just recently attempted and succeeded on getting all the way up.  Will was the first boy to both climb into the tree and get down, but since many other boys have witnessed his feat, he has been joined up there by 7 other boys and 1 neighborhood girl, who is really the best of all of them.  Now, Will is discovering new ways of getting down.  Dom initially jumped, which was pretty scary for both of us, but this past weekend, he did learn to use the rope.

I cannot let the November post go by without a picture of election night.  We printed out the electoral map for the kids to color in as states were projected.  Though many were shocked at the end of the night with the Trump victory, Dom called it at a little after 7 when the initial electoral votes were 24 - 3 in Trump's favor.  It was only then that I realized I should have given them a bit of a primer on how the electoral votes worked.  Because there were about a million questions asked throughout the remainder of the evening.  I, alone, made it to the end.  But, I dvr'd the last couple hours so that the boys could see the exciting conclusion and not miss a single projection as it came in!  I think Will spent most of the next day not wanting to have the end spoiled.

And, here we are back with John and Dad.  I really like this picture.  And selfies continue to be an excellent way to keep John entertained when Mom is otherwise busy!

Next up: Thanksgiving  or ROAD TRIP!!!!  (I haven't decided what the title will be, or if I will split it into two posts)