we give thanks

Richard's first cheese plate

The chef presents the bird

the kids table

the bigger kids table

we got a head start this year!

for family, friends, a mostly rain free weekend, and cute little boys.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend, starting with the big day- Richard spent the day cooking the turkey dinner and all the fixings, while the boys spent the morning watching the Macy's parade.  The Muhly's and the Stokes' joined us for dinner and the kids alternately enjoyed and taunted each other.

Friday and Saturday were both rain free- opportunities to for Owen and Richard to do a bike ride, Ben and I to go to the park, and for us to get the Christmas tree up.  Richard almost got all the lights up outside before the rain started on Sunday... but ended a little wet.

obsession

Owen and Sophie and the external fuel tank

Mom's obsession?  Footed jammies on Ben!  What could be cuter?

A mid November check in, with some happy pictures of the kids and the topic of: obsession.

Owen has been interested in planes and rockets for a few years, but is in the middle of a fever pitch over the space shuttle right now.  It's being fueled by Sophie at school, who is also excited about rockets. Together they spend each recess plotting and building various paper rockets and shuttle, discussing fuel options, and plotting their space launch.  Other kids on the playground (including Laurel) are signed up to man the command center and do other various jobs- basically they have organized the Zion Lutheran School Space Program- which they have named the FSA- Fabulous Space Agency.  During a play date last week, Owen and Sophie were supposed to go into space, but they scrapped that launch due to some technical issues.  Yesterday she came here to play and they built the solid rocket boosters and the external fuel tank.  We'll need another play date to build the orbiter- Sophie is concerned about how we will make the ceramic tiles strong enough to withstand the heat of re-entry.  Oh, the problems of youth.

Ben is in the middle of a 2 day obsession with painting.  Super fun artwork is being generated.  There was one mishap last night when during a game of chase, Ben decided to ramp it up a bit, grabbed a bottle of paint and threw it all over Owen (and the floors).  Richard laid down the law, got everyone cleaned up, and Ben was reciting to me this morning: Paint is for Paper.

Everyone is healthy at the moment- hope it lasts through Thanksgiving!

my tiger cub

Never underestimate the power of a good bribe.  Here's my super cute cub scout.

trick or treat

Discount!

Super handsome Shuttle Commander Owen

And his fearless brother, Pilot Ben, complete with blankie

Fairy Princess Laurel and Commander Owen hit the neighborhood

A record year- both brothers and mom dressed for Halloween this year.  It was hit or miss with Ben- last minute he decided he wanted to be Mickey Mouse.  Aunt Susie's timely trip to Disneyland scored him a perfect Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and ears, Zappo's came through with yellow Croc's, and Kmart had white gloves. But Ben wasn't feeling good and changed his mind.  To doggy from last year- great it still fits!  No.  He wants to be a Tiger.  Great!  We have one of those!

Halloween morning came, Owen put on his flight suit from Aunt Pat, and Ben wanted his on too.  Done.  Two cute astronauts works for me.

My friend Tim gave me most of my Flo costume for my birthday, so I got the rest of the pieces (blue Converse, white jeans, a bump it for my hair, red lipstick, black eyeliner) and had a fun day as my chirpier alter-ego.  I think I may be Flo more then once a year- she's a blast.

Richard took the boys downtown trick-or-treating.  Ben loved it- walked the whole time- and was only scared once by a Darth Maul costume.  They came home, Ben was pooped, so Owen and I met up with Laurel and Susie and some neighborhood friends to get more loot.  Ben enjoyed handing out candy to the few kids that make it to our cul-de-sac.

Ben asked Richard that night when it's Halloween again, and Richard said Thanksgiving is next.  Ben asked if we can go to Thanksgiving, and Richard replied that actually Thanksgiving will come to us.  Ben said "ding-dong!  Hi!  Thanksgiving is here!"

pumpkin season

We did our annual hay ride and pumpkin finding trip, to Davis Farms again this year. Mother Nature blessed us with an amazing fall day, and the Davis family blessed us with great pumpkins and freshly made donuts and cider.

Owen and Richard went to Muddy Creek Farms last weekend, and did the GIANT corn maze.  This year they were prepared with a printed map and they were successful!

october

Owen's front teeth have made an appearance!

Peeking out of a spacecraft at OMSI

Sylvie and Owen deeply engaged in playing with buckets at OMSI

the best picture I could get away with

Some random pictures from October.  This month flew by, with both kids alternating who was sick but ensuring we never had a fully healthy week.  Now that it's November, they passed the germs on to Richard.

Owen's front tooth finally broke through, and its neighbor peeked out a couple of days ago.  Ben was so excited for him "Now Owen can eat corn on the cob!" he said.

Owen got a couple of model rockets for his Christmas gift from Uncle Steve.  He's been "flying" them around the house since then, but finally was ready to launch them for real..  Richard and Owen got them put together, and brought them to a Adair Park.  Owen put the rockets on the launch pad, Richard put in the ignitor, and they launched it up.  Both went really high, and both were recovered safely.  They went much higher then Owen had expected.

Owen is now a Tiger Cubscout, part of Zion's pack.  He and Richard baked a colorful cake for the Cubscout cake auction, went on a hike, and are about to participate in the Space Derby.  Owen is lukewarm to most of it, but we hope it will grow on him.  All the kids are from his school and are excited he has been coming to the meetings.  He looks SO CUTE in his uniform, but I didn't yet capture it on film in all it's glory.  Next time...

aunt susie's milestone birthday

Susie, me and Dad at Andina's in Portland

Surprise!

Susie's Cube

Playing with Grandpa at Avery Park

Aunt Susie had a milestone birthday at the beginning of October.  Dad called me late this summer and asked what the plans were, but we had yet to come up with any.  He said- whatever we do we need to blow her mind.  With that objective, Dad, Todd and I batted around a few ideas.  We ultimately ended up with a 3 stage event.

Stage 1: Aunt Susie and I planned a girls day to Portland the Saturday before her birthday.  After a fun lunch we ended up at Nordstroms downtown, at the customer service desk asking for "Georgina," our personal shopper.  Dad called from the back room "I can help" in a pretty funny falsetto and came out to surprise Susie.  Susie nearly passed out.  We spent the next four hours in a dressing room, with our actual personal shopper, and Susie got a new Dad-funded wardrobe.  We had dinner downtown at a fantastic place in the Pearl district and brought Dad back to Corvallis for a week of birthday fun.

Stage 2: We had Susie's colleagues decorate her cube for her birthday. The results were posters all over the site, and her cube was full of boxes, such that it wasn't obvious how to get in.  After visiting her office, Dad and Susie spent the rest of the day at the Oregon Gardens.

Stage 3: We figured by this point Susie would be relaxed and not expecting much more. Todd told her that he found a new restaurant, they dropped Laurel off with us and headed out.  We hopped in the car and just barely beat them to Gathering Together Farms, where 20 or so of us surprised Susie with a dinner party.  The Delos-Reyes, the Stokes, the Muhly's, and a bunch of families from the neighborhood were able to make it and we all enjoyed a gluten-free, lactose-free, nightshade-free 3 course dinner.

We got to spend the rest of the week enjoying mostly rain-free warm fall weather and Grandpa's company.  We took a trip to the Evergreen Aviation Waterpark in McMinville, an indoor waterpark, where the large waterslides come out the side of a 747 parked on the roof of the building.  Everyone had a great time.  We spend one afternoon at Avery Park, exploring all the playgrounds.  We had a fun week and ushered Susie into a new decade in style!