November Fun Stuff and Thanksgiving

Once the kids' football season was over, we moved over to basketball!

Ohio State offers this really cool game package where you get 4 tickets to 5 different home, weekend basketball games.  The first game, Colin and Danny went with our good friends that we met through the kids' last basketball season.  Danny, Colin, Mark, and Mason had a great time on campus.  Before the game, they swung by the football stadium.

Brutus stopped by to give the kids some high-fives!

After the game, the boys stopped by Adriatico's for an awesome pizza lunch!

While the boys were out enjoying Ohio State things, we had a fun girls afternoon of our own.  We headed over to Polaris Fashion Place and had some lunch at Raising Cane's.  To kill some time before their hair appointment, we did some shopping at Barnes and Noble.  The girls wanted to buy all of the books!  Finally, Cadence got her hair cut and styled while McKenna got her hair braided.  The girls strutted their stuff down the runway and took pictures at the selfie wall.  They were so cute!

We got a pretty first snowfall of the season.  Luckily, it didn't make the drive into work more difficult.

I had to document the kids after their flu shots.  They were so nervous before their shots (mainly Colin), that I had to capture their reactions afterward so that I can show them next time - to remind them that it's not so bad!  They were excited to have lunch at McDonalds after their shots.

Colin helped me with the blueberry pie for Thanksgiving.  He was a great helper.  It ended up prettier than it tasted.  It turned out too runny! Better luck next time.

My cousin, Michelle, was in town visiting her husband's family for Thanksgiving - they came over for a little visit and we got to meet Lilliana.  She was born in July, so she was just about 4 months old by the time we got to meet her.  She's such a good baby - and super cute!

Cadence wanted to hold Lilliana too. 😊

That night, we drove through the Fantasy of Lights at Alum Creek Lake.  They added a lot of new lights this year!

The kids have fun sticking out of the sun roof while we drive around.

Up next, it was time to decorate the house with Christmas decorations and put the ornaments on the tree.

Dizzert, our Elf on the Shelf, came back that weekend as well!

6th Grade Football Tournament

Cadence was pretty bummed after cheer was over - lucky for her, I received an e-mail from a cheer coach about the 6th grade football tournament.  Basically, all of the 6th grade boys (from all of the teams) combined to create the Big Walnut team to compete in a weekend tournament.  The girls practiced completely new cheers and a really cute half-time show during the week preceding the tournament.  Cadence had a lot of fun!

October in the 'Hood

This year, October brought us a ticket to the high school homecoming game, a trip to a local park, and an outing at the pumpkin farm.  Check it out!

Each class at the kids' school had a hand in decorating the homecoming float - this year had a wild west theme.  Here's Colin's class:

I convinced Colin to do some reading with me outside in the hammock.  He's doing such a good job reading - reading books that are geared toward 3rd and 4th graders!

We ran some errands one Saturday & then grabbed Panera for dinner - Colin wanted to be all fancy with his tie.  😎

Found this one evening in the living room - Cadence dressed her American Girl Doll (she's named Chloe) in a matching PJ set and gave her a book to read as well.  Adorable! 😍

Danny had a work trip in Belgium over the weekend in mid-October.  I took the kids to a local park for a bike ride. We had a great time - they didn't want to leave! 

When did they get so old?!

This project was a joint effort - Colin drew up the plans for the "tree house" and Cadence made it come to life with a tissue box, Popsicle sticks, paint, pipe cleaners, and LEGOs.  Pretty impressive, right?

We wrapped up the weekend with a trip to Lehner's Pumpkin Farm.  Man, was that place a zoo!  It was unseasonably warm and I think the rest of central Ohio had the same idea we did.  There were long lines for a lot of the attractions, so we went through the corn maze twice!  It's the kids' favorite thing there, so that was okay with us.  

They both had fun on the rock-climbing wall.

We had a picnic lunch in the car.

This sling-shot thing was harder than it looked!

Mini golf was kind of lame after going to Westerville Golf Center, but at least one of the two kids had fun.

Everything was going well with the teeter-totter until Cadence let Colin slam to the ground.  

Not cool, girl.

I think the kids had reached their limits and they were getting on each other's nerves (and frankly, mine too), so we left the pumpkin farm without any pumpkins.  I knew a nursery near the house had pumpkins for sale, so we stopped there on the way home after everyone calmed down.  They had a greenhouse set up like a spooky haunted house!  I got Cadence go to 2/3 of the way in with me!

Here's a cute pic we sent Danny one morning before work/school to say, "good morning".

Halloween 2019

This year, Halloween started off with special shirts from Mamaw and Papaw - Colin's 

glowed-in-the-dark and Cadence's had flip sequins on it!

I was able to help out with the kids' Halloween parties at school as well!  First up, was Colin's class...

We made hands out of vinyl gloves filled with candy and finished with a spider ring.

One of the moms brought Halloween themed treats.

In one activity, the kids had to hunt for "eyeballs" in some cold, cooked spaghetti noodles.

Cadence's class had some Halloween themed treats as well!

Cadence's class liked the candy "hands" also; they did some neat crafts, too!

This year, Cadence dressed up as a taekwondo student and Colin was Kevin from the movie Home Alone.  They've had these costumes picked out since last year.  I love how the kids get their hearts set on a costume and stick with it.  It makes things easier for this mama!

They were so stinkin' cute!

We met up with our friends for trick-or-treat - stick figure people and a cop!!

Luckily, the kids' school collects candy to send to the troops.  If we would've kept all of this candy, we'd have a ton of candy in the house well into 2020!  I'm proud of the kids, though, and their determination.  It was misting/snowing during trick-or-treat and super windy.  They ran from house to house and made it through almost the entire 2 hours of trick-or-treat!  Impressive!