Air Hockey

We went to a birthday party over the weekend and Dylan spent a great deal of time at the air hockey table. He didn't quite get the concept of getting the puck in the opposite hole but still got a kick out of how fast he could make it slide.

Black Friday

Itching to do something as a family but still in a turkey coma without the energy needed to head into Philly for the Please Touch Museum, we decided to once again go to the local natural history museum. The kids loved showing Grandma Sandy their favorite parts of the museum and we had a lovely, lazy morning and were still back in time for naps. Even managed to do a bit of shopping online to catch some deals :-)

Turkey Day!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. My mom was visiting from Nebraska and we had some friends over with kids close in age to ours. I cooked a Trader Joes turkey this year which was quite good. And I made a cornbread stuffing that everyone liked and that I think will be on the menu for years to come. The day was again relatively low-stress and very enjoyable.

Mitchfest

Some friends of ours host an annual party called Mitchfest. I think it was once a post-college, all-night beerfest but because everyone has kids, it has now evolved into a late afternoon kidfest. Still live music and lots of beer but the juiceboxes are also free-flowing and the sugar spiked kids outnumber the slightly tipsy adults. While Ellen spent most of the time in the playroom and Dylan grazed in the kitchen, Anais and Nic loved getting their groove on! The 2nd video shows what appears to be Nic's signature dance move which I'm going to dub "the zoom zoom". He is holding a matchbox race car in his hand :-) Needless to say we all had a great time!



A friend at the party also uploaded a video to YouTube with Anais and Nic dancing in the crowd.

Firehouse

The local firehouse had an open house over the weekend and we weren't going to pass up a chance to let the kids climb all over firetrucks. They let the kids try on the gear and climb on the trucks. They also put on a demonstration showing how a fire spreads, how they put it out and what the damage can be. Of course the next day the boys woke up begging to go see the firetrucks!

Trick or Treat

This year we went to a Halloween party at a friends house and the went trick or treating in their neck of the woods. Shawn and I even wore costumes - the first time since before we were married! Shawn was a crashed mountain biker complete with brains and blood oozing from the stick that was impaled through his head and a broken collar bone coming out of his jersey. The kids seemed to enjoy the gore - I think it helped that they painted on the blood for him. I was Mrs. Ratt with rats pinned in my hair and crawling up my clothes. For some reason Ellen was uber-shy around the camera so I didn't get a photo of her in her Thumbelina costume. Great party, Mallory! Thanks for having us!!!

Vocabulary Parade

Instead of a Halloween parade, Ellen's school did a Vocabulary parade. They had to choose something from nature and make a costume with a sign. The sign had to include at least one descriptive word. She was a "Black Queen Ant".