Fall Fun!

 It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Thanksgiving!

At Will's preschool feast last week, he sang some precious songs with his friends (videos coming soon!)

 & was so stinking cute as "Lightning" the Indian

(& when he tells the story of the First Thanksgiving, he pronounces "pilgrims" like "pograms."  I don't have the heart to try to explain why that is not a good pronunciation of pilgrims.

 I was so excited to be able to do  Operation Christmas Child boxes this year because I got my act together in time (sort of.)  

We decided to do two - one boy & one girl in Will's age range.  We headed to Wal-Mart & I was so pleased at how well he did picking out toys for each child.

At one point he yelled out, "Mommy!  Would this be good for the poor boys and girls?"

Admittedly, I set him up for that as I explained that these toys were for boys and girls whose mommies and daddies and cookies and lovies and honeys and g-dads don't have enough money to buy them food or Christmas gifts...

but I didn't exactly want him yelling that out in Wal-Mart!

I was a little nervous that he might not like delivering the gifts - that he might get upset that he wasn't getting anything...

but he got it & did great!

dropping off our packages

(until it was time to leave the drop off and he got upset and didn't want to go to the car because he was upset about something unrelated.  Oh four year olds!)

Ellie is such a good mommy in training - she rocks her babies and loves on them all the time!

 She's also learning how to balance and be a cowgirl

 I am in awe at the fall color.  I know we are in a terrible drought but wow!  The trees are breathtaking.  I seriously take pictures when I am driving around town.  They don't do them justice.  So pretty.

(And praise the Lord it's been raining a lot this week!)

On a cold morning run with Mommy

I kept getting distracted by pretty leaves I picked up for our fall craft.

Will had some friends over recently from school - they played in the backyard

 

At one point, Will came running in to tell me that in our "woods" behind our house they found cat bones.  I got freaked but then he showed them to me & claimed they were in fact dinosaur teeth fossils.

(I would have called them stones.  Love his imagination.  Glad no one had thrown a dead cat in our yard.)

The boys exploring

 Have you seen this?  UPS guys delivering packages on bikes with trailers!  Love it!

( & love the season of packages on front porches)

 Ellie's hair is long enough to hold pig tails!  She rocks those pig tails!

 I recommend taking an Indian grocery shopping the week of Thanksgiving.  He's helpful at shooting any threatening bears or dinosaurs or elk on aisle 6.  Seriously, he made me go to aisle 6 as he was convinced he had seen a scary animal there.

I went with it.

I do love his imagination.

 Actually, the Indian goes everywhere.  Here he is at one of Ellie's therapies this week.

(in his galoshes)

 I read about waxing leaves as a fall craft and thought we would try it.  But, typical me style... I didn't get it all done in one day.

Which meant that by the time we got around to waxing the leaves, many were too brown and dry.

Oh well.

We did get some beautiful leaves waxed.

First, we took a walk to choose some leaves.

Then, because I have very little follow through, I forgot about the leaves waiting to be waxed...

for about 5 days.

Finally, I remembered and I melted the wax and we got to work.

Will preferred to watch me dip the leaves.

except for the giant leaf.

They are so pretty and maybe I'll get it together before Thanksgiving to actually hang them up! :)

R & I took Will on a date to see a local elementary school's production of Seussical, Junior, Friday.  

He was so excited for his special date night!  So was I!

 Saturday, we ended up on spontaneous picnic at the lake with Cookie & Lovie & Mimi & Pepaw.  

This is the view from the house now:

 This was May:

Notice the lack of water from this awful drought.  I walked way past the dock to the middle of the lake bed.  So so sad.

Ellie while picnicking: 

 Will helping Cookie & Daddy do some work under the dock

(no water means a good time to do dock maintenance)

 Ya'll.  This is the view of the dock & house behind it from the middle of where the lake used to be.  I was standing in the middle of an empty lake bed.  There is some water still - in the deepest parts.  But so sad to see how bad the drought has effected the water.

 Will walking with his Pepaw - (Great Great Uncle Jimmy in town from IN!)

 Only a master Indian has the skills to hunt with a bow and arrow on horseback.

 I attempted to get a funny Christmas card picture in the bath.

It was a failure and got lots of tears.

But I did get some cute photos - just not the one I was going for.

 Teaching Ellie Indian sounds

 Showing off his fur pelt

 We built a "tee pee" / tent of a sheet in his room and I let him take a nap under it the other day.  He took a great nap in his little cave and has had fun playing in it too.

 a foot peeking out from under the tee pee wall

This week, Ellie has had PT, OT, & hydratherapy - 

in 2 days...

and we are done for the rest of the week!!!

I feel like I just got a vacation yet I'm staying at home & don't have to pack a suitcase.

It just feels like something has been lifted knowing I have a few days off of driving her to therapies and incorporating that into our day.

(of course, I'm still doing exercises and taping at home.)

She was very happy in hydrotherapy this morning:

We had some friends over to play and eat lunch together

 hard at work coloring

 Ellie got sweet hugs from her friend, E, while the kids played "Duck Duck Goose."

Loving these fall days!

By the way - did you notice how many pictures above of the last week have included Will as an Indian?!?!  The boy loves to dress up & has no qualms about staying in character all day long wherever we may be.

Here he is describing what he plans on hunting tomorrow for our Thanksgiving feast.

Apparently we'll be eating a heavy in protein diet.

Including dinosaur... which I have never tried.

Yum

Happy Cooking Day today - 

whether you are cooking turkey or t-rex.