Neighborhood Love

We were very excited to see in our November Neighborhood newsletter that Riley won the Pumpkin Coloring Contest.  Last year he came in 3rd place.

 We also won Most Creative for our milk jug ghosts in the Pumpkin Carving Contest. 

On November 15 Riley competed in his first ever Cub Scouts Space Derby.  He was excited to get a patch.  While he didn't win, he did come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in each of the heats he was in so he was excited that he came in EVERY place.

Chad did a great job helping the other dads load up the rockets for each race.

Riley's rocket on the far left here

While we were at the Space Derby Grandmommy took Carter and Wyatt to an activity at Amphibian and they ran into the Loveladys there.  I love how Carter and Uncle Jason are holding hands in the below photo.

I was unable to attend Carter's Thanksgiving Feast at school this year, but Kate went and took some photos for me.  Carter would not eat any of the feast.  His feast was 1 cookie.

Carter and his 1 cookie.

 Both boys made Thanksgiving placemats at school this year.

And Carter decorated quite a few turkeys.

 I'm having such a good time each week looking at Carter's drawings and having him translate what it is to me.  Pretty impressive!

  

We were invited to the Loveladys the Friday before Thanksgiving for a dinner and the adults stayed up late visiting and all the kids crashed watching a movie in the living room. Carter was the first asleep!  On the stuffed crocodile!

 Thanksgiving was such a nice laid-back day for us.  We woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Our friend Jay was performing, which was very cool!  We had just seen him in his show, On The Town, on Broadway, when we were in NYC earlier this month and we got to see him open the parade on Thanksgiving. 

We then went to my Uncle Jimmy's new house for lunch and the food was awesome and the desserts amazing.  We ate, the boys played, we visited, and we were back home in time to see the Cowboys kick off.  We made dinner at home that night (Riley helped Chad grill steaks) and then we walked to Grandmommy & Haha's for dessert.

The next day was beautiful weather.  Chad & I decorated the lamp posts on our block for the Neighborhood Association.  Chad was inducted this month as the new Vice President of the neighborhood association.  I love our neighborhood so much!

 On Friday I went to a yoga class and we went Black Friday shopping with the boys.  The next day Chad & I went on a 3 mile run and worked out at the Lily B track for a bit afterwards.  It was so much fun.  When I got home I had these beautiful flowers waiting for me.

It's amazing when friends recognize a hard time and the flowers were from Kate, who knew that for the first time since 2008, when Jake died on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the days of the week were all lining up the same this year, just like they did in 2008.  So on Sunday, November 30, we hit the six year anniversary of Jake's death.  It was a hard day for me.  I cried on the drive over to my parents that morning.  We helped them decorate their tree that day and spent the morning and lunch with them before heading home.

Riley spent some time shopping with Grandmommy that week and enjoying snacks with the top down.  Beautiful weather that week!

I also received Riley's re-taken school photos back.  To remind you, the left is where we started.  The right is where we ended up.  Not much better, but at least his eyes are open.  These school photographers are awful!!

Carter was cracking me up last week.  He refused to get in the bathtub until after he "practiced" his letters.  Boy is quite a perfectionist it seems....hmmm......like me, perhaps??  His teacher was telling me last week that he was upset one day and she thinks it was because she asked him to come to the mat for circle time and he had to stop mid-work and was mad he didn't get to finish.  She also says he has pretty perfect handwriting!

 

 

 

The Christmas season is in full-swing.  The tree is up, Jack, the Elf on the Shelf, appeared on December 1 and we put antlers on the dogs the other morning for a good laugh!  I love this time of year!  I love it even more this season because for the first time in as long as I can remember, Chad is not working on a show right up through Christmas Eve.  I'm so looking forward to the coming weeks, when usually I am dreading them!

Jack, the Elf on the Shelf, being silly!

 Last week I volunteered at the Clayton Holiday Store on the day that the 2nd Graders were working the store.  I got to work with Riley which was so much fun!

 On Saturday we loaded up the car and drove to Austin to stay with Chad's friend Tony and see Ballet Austin's The Nutcracker. 

 We ate Amy's Ice Cream, Sandy's Hamburgers and got to play before the show.  Riley stayed awake through most of the ballet, but Carter fell asleep in Act II.  We still had a great time though and after breakfast at Kerbey Lane Cafe the next morning, we drove back home.

   

I told Carter to stop waving his hands and acting silly so this is what he did!

So sad to not act silly!

 We drove straight home to a party at the Loveladys and then after a mad dash home for laundry and to the store for groceries, we went to our neighborhood Christmas Party.  The boys were thrilled with the candy table!

But they were even more excited when they saw Santa and Mrs Claus walking up the driveway!

This is the cake Chad & I brought to the party from Sweetish Bakery in Austin.  YUM!

Great party and again, great neighborhood, and we are really deep in the holiday season now.  Loving it!