Happy Thanksgiving

The kids and I went down to the Bootheel with Nana Jana for Thanksgiving. Sam stayed home and had a meal with his folks on Thursday. I took very few pictures (which seems like par for the course lately! I'll do better next time).

For entertainment on the way down, I checked out a book on CD from the library, then got out to the van and thought that it didn't have a CD player, then got to the bootheel and Sam informed me that yes, there was a CD player, though of course I left the book at home because I thought that it didn't have a CD player. The kids stuffed their backpacks with books. Amelie brought her piano book and math homework down, then ended up not practicing piano or working on her homework either. Here she is playing with some of her cousin's toys:

I think I've mentioned before that James is really into games right now. He played The Game some (and even let cousin Levi play). Aunt Patti and James and Amelie played a rousing game of Sorry! and then Nana Lana gave games a present of a "kind of gross" game called "What's in Ned's Head?" that Uncle Jeff played with the kids and lost every round.

The kids liked sleeping on the air mattress all together and watching movies. They watched so many movies! Mrs. Doubtfire, Transformers, Home Alone, live-action Beauty and the Beast, and Despicable Me 2 over the long weekend.

Here's Uncle Jeff and the kids. As you can see, Leah was not particularly cooperative:

So then I said we could just try for a picture of her on her own (should have done this idea first!)

A more accurate representation of their interests:

Leah had a little trouble getting along with her cousin Levi this time, but James said that it was the first time they actually played together, too. (Aunt Lana texted me all of these pics!)

They are exactly one month apart. Uncle Darrin said Levi was just a little heavier. 

Holly roped me into helping with Thanksgiving and I made my first-ever custard pie. I also made the broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole and then proceeded to eat on it for six straight meals -- since I love it but Sam does not.

James went Black Friday shopping with us at Farmhand Supply with $2 to spend. He went to buy a candy bar and the worker offered to give it to him for Christmas and he was so disappointed because he wanted to spend his money that the worker let him buy it. Ha!

Everyone also commented on James's (lack of) hair. Nana Jana said that Grandpa Leroy probably would have paid him $5 for it. He sang, with backup vocals from Leah, every song that he knew. Well, at least some of the songs that he knows plus several new ones he's learned from Aladdin. Leah told us that the throw pillows were "guitars."

We ate at a Chinese buffet on the way home and there was a 12-year-old girl there working and her 3-year-old baby sister gave us our fortune cookies and the bill at the end of the meal. Amelie said, "This is either a family-owned business or it's bring-your-daughter-to-work day."

I was going to have the kids write out their Christmas lists and I forgot! Here's Amelie with Grandma Doris:

And a three generations picture with her Great-Grandma Doris and Nana Jana:

Leah looks like she's telling her great-grandma something very important!

We got home and Spark was completely overjoyed to see us. Holly took several pictures of Leah with Sadie, and she had her inaugural dog bite from Oliver, so we did get our dose of dog time in. When we were looking back through these pictures together, Leah pointed at this one and said, "That dog nice. The brother dog bites."

Leah convinced everyone to read to her the whole trip long. I don't know why she looks so grumpy! This is a regular trend in many of these (and other!) photographs - I say sometimes that she has a mean mug.

That's a little happier:

Aunt Tara reading with kids, too. I'm pretty sure Leah's just concentrating on the book in this one, versus truly being grumpy.

And Aunt Tara reading a different time - with the same suspicious face on Leah bug. 

Uncle Kerry even got rope in: 

Sam organized the basement some and worked on building a bench for our outside table while we were gone.

He also recorded a Christmas carol on the vibraphone:

Leah's Drawings

Leah's drawing people (and monsters and babies) with many different body parts! This is such a fun milestone. However, between the three kids, we're going through many, many pages of paper.

Here's an earlier attempt:

And this was even earlier -- it one of her first recognizable people-type shapes. As you can see, she likes to do little doodles all over the page:

I may have mentioned this before, but she narrates while she's drawing -- maybe to tell a story or maybe just to let you  know that this shape is a little pig and that shape is a big bad wolf. 

Scroll to the end of this post to see what kind of pictures Amelie was drawing at almost 4 years old.

And I was so excited when James first drew a person-shape that I made a whole post about it.

I did a couple of minutes of googling and found this blog that says she's in stage 4 of drawing, which typically emerges at age 4 or 5, and also this about the Draw-A-Person-Test, which basically says that she's a genius (but we knew that).

Leaves

I already posted about the drop-dead gorgeous leaves on our camping trip, but here are some more photos of leaves (and kids).

We had a spare 20 minutes after Lego Club and before Piano Lesson, so we stayed and played on the playground at school. Sometimes James is okay with this -- it seems like it would be fun, right? -- but sometimes he's quite upset about not being able to go home and stay home after a club meeting. This day, the plan was acceptable, perhaps because there was an impressive pile of leaves.

James looks like he's about to be up to something devious: 

Like maybe throwing this enormous pile of leaves onto his baby sister:

She wasn't upset about it at the time, but I did have to comb leaves out of her hair in the bath later. 

There's Amelie, also on the playground, doing a pose. She made her own pile under this tree.  

And here's Leah another day on the trail at our little neighborhood park: 

Happy Belated Birthday, James!

Well, two months have passed by and I feel like I already wrote about James's birthday in a prior post, but here are some (belated) pictures from James's small 7th birthday party.

We asked James what he wanted to do for his birthday, and I braced myself for a Chuck-E-Cheese party, but he said that he just wanted to have his cousin come stay the night - easiest birthday ever! Later he added that he wanted to go to Bonkers, and then at the very last minute he wanted another friend to come just for the Bonkers part (not to stay the night), so I guess it ended up not quite being the easiest birthday ever, but still relatively low-maintenance.

Nana Jana dropped off some bubble wands and collected Amelie so that she'd be out of the boys' hair. Leah stayed home and inserted herself in the shenanigans.

See who's on the table?

James requested a Spiderman Cake, and I stole decorating ideas from the internet. The eyes were formed with a fondant-like substance made out of of marshmallow and powdered sugar (there was a lot of it left!). James decided on the placement of the candles and the Spiderman figure (which I just cut out of a cereal box):

He did not want to invite the neighbors over for cake, and he did not want to wait on Amelie to get home from her after-school club, either, so it was just his two friends and me and Leah -- an intimate gathering.

Sam took the boys to Bonkers, where they ran around and burned off steam, and Ben managed to leave his shoes there! And no one noticed until it was time to go home the next day! I couldn't believe he wouldn't protest as they were leaving and he was in sock feet, but he says he was distracted by the Skittles he won as a prize. Fair enough.

Here's James with his loot:

He cashed all his points in for candy! (These are the only photos Sam took at Bonkers :)

 Opening presents:

They watched Home Alone 3 and were in bed by about 10.

Last but not least, we got James a bike! And he picked out this tough-looking helmet. Amelie requested knee pads, and James wanted to try them out, but hasn't worn them since.