November Fun

At the beginning of November, Samuel, Katherine, and Elisabeth marched with their Trail Life/AHG Troops in the Broken Arrow Veteran's Day Parade. 

Brynn and Katherine played Rock, Paper, Scissors while they waited for the parade to begin. They were so cute!

Katherine rode on the float, and Elisabeth got to walk and pass out candy along the route. She loved it and immediately asked when she could march in a parade again. 

The sweetest little Tenderheart Unit. AHG has been a wonderful new activity for the girls this year. 

Samuel marched with the Trail Life Float. 

That same afternoon, we celebrated Elise's seventh birthday with a Five Senses Party. The kids had a blast playing all the five senses games. 

Our co-op hosted a Bike Fest for the kids where they rode their bikes around and played different carnival games. It was a cold morning, so I only took one picture. The cold didn't bother Katherine. She even ate a popsicle at the end. 

Papa took the girls to Branson to ride the Polar Express one weekend in November, so Matt and I had the boys to ourselves for the weekend. We made the most of it and took them to dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Friday night. 

Saturday morning, Nathan had a memorable last flag football game. Matt took him, and I was at a Ladies' Breakfast. I got a call midway through from Matt asking me not to freak out- cue the freaking out, ha! He told me Nathan had a collision on the field and was at the ER getting stitched up. 

He needed three stitches and did great during the procedure. Now he has a football battle scar. 

We spent the rest of the weekend teaching the boys some of our favorite board games. They caught on quickly to Power Grid and to Settlers Cities and Knights. We also watched football and thoroughly enjoyed the quality time with our two oldest. 

Meanwhile, the girls were having the time of their lives in Branson. They stayed at the Grand Country Hotel and got fun passes for ALL the activities- water park, arcade, pet show, mini golf. I told Barry he was going to need a vacation from his vacation when he got home. Those girls kept him busy. 

On Saturday they rode the Polar Express. I loved the pictures I got. This was a special tradition Papa and Grammy did with the kids every year, and Papa carried on the tradition. Katherine hadn't ridden it since she was two, so I'm so happy she got to do it when she was old enough to remember the experience. 

They even performed their own song when they got back to the hotel that night

We had a busy month at co-op in November. Thursdays are our favorite day of the school week!

Katherine had her sweet Thanksgiving Feast at school the week before Thanksgiving. It was our fourth and final one. 

One...

Two...

Three...

And Four...

These Pre-K lasts sure are bittersweet. 

I always love to see her excitement when she sees us. She looked forward to this day for weeks. 

The kids did a short performance before lunch. 

I sure love that girl! She is a constant ray of sunshine and joy. 

We continued our annual Turkey Cupcake tradition, and the kids were able to do them independently this year. It felt like a milestone. We've been making these cute cupcakes for years. 

This year we made them for our CHEER Thanksgiving Party. 

We spent a fun afternoon with our homeschool friends partying it up. 

Nathan was a good sport and volunteered to be the Bingo Caller for the Elementary kids. He did a great job. 

Nathan's been taking homeschool acting classes this Fall, and he had his end of semester performance the week of Thanksgiving. We were excited to watch his show. 

Their show was called- Nine Reasons to Not Be in a Play. 

He had two performances with a break in between, so we spent some time at the Gathering Place between his performances. His acting was all the way across town, but thankfully just a short drive to the Gathering Place, so the other kids and I would often play there during his weekly classes. It was fun that he and Matt got to join us that afternoon. 

He finished up the evening with his second performance. 

It was a fun way to close out his Fall semester of acting.