I started November on a search for some faux fall foliage to decorate the porch. I was eventually successful, although I'd hoped for a more absurd quantity of leaves. Perhaps next year, lack of supply chain issues will allow me to go truly bonkers with the fall decorating.
How do you get preschoolers to do chores? Tell them they can have new fall window clings if they clean the windows first. Then sit back and finish coffee.
The boys showing off their sparkling windows and awesome decorating skills:
Probably my favorite craft to come of the PBS Kids newsletter is coffee filter fall leaves. Simply cut filters in leaf shape, paint with watercolors...
... and hang.
Thanksgiving turkeys (and the cookies they decorated):
Pre-Thanksgiving at School
The boys' school did their annual Stone Soup reading and meal preparation, and fully vaccinated parents were invited to attend.
The boys (particularly Henry) still love their school, and apparently the feeling is mutual. After the boys were recently absent due to a cold, the director responded to my e-mail (providing their negative COVID tests so they could return) with, "Whenever the boys are out, there's a big hole here. It was so wonderful to have them back yesterday."
Turkey-themed art from school:
Jack's "The turkeys are playing with each other. They're finding gems on treasure land."
Henry's "The turkey is running from its house because its house was on fire." Yikes.
The boys also decorated cards for the table and the teachers noted inside what each boy was thankful for. Apparently Henry likes his stuffed animals and food more than anything, and we're all chopped liver to Jack's stuffed panda from Ikea. Sigh.
We had fun launching little helicopter-like toys from Grandma at a local park:
The boys' favorite activity by far was playing superheroes with cousin Camdan. Unfortunately the best picture I got of this game is fuzzy, but after Camdan made Jack a shield out of a frisbee, they took turns throwing and deflecting soft light-up rockets.
The boys were super delighted by this, Camdan was great with the little guys, and Grandma was very tolerant of it all.
We were also able to chat a bit with Steve's brother Ed and sister-in-law Tiffany (featured in our pictures watching the antics), which is always nice.
Either Henry wants a turn, or he has some concerns about what Jack is planning.
They also spent some time building with the gigantic blocks.
Thanksgiving
Visiting Grandma
Early in the month, we visited Steve's mom at her home near Sacramento. The highlight for Jack was the Captain America mask we found on extreme clearance at Michael's. For Henry, it's all about the food.Museum Time
Killing time back at home, we paid another visit to our local children's museum. The boys got to make glittery crowns (gold and shiny things are very popular with them right now) and then dove into playing with their favorite attraction: the hydropower machine.This year, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the first time. My parents arrived early to help around the house. My mom offered to play board games with Henry. She had no idea that Henry was so good. Henry had no idea the Grandma was not going to just let him win.
Rematch!
My dad dove in working on 209 (the former neighbors' house we acquired next door) with Steve. Jack is never far away when there's work to be done:
The boys embark on their own project of some sort:
The time came for Thanksgiving dinner...
... and we were delighted to have Steve's mom join us! I never thought we'd have one guest room, much less two. It was very cool to be able to host all the grandparents at once.
Steve smoked a turkey, which turned out amazing. In additional to the more typical sides of mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts, he also made Jiffy corn pudding (delicious) and this:
This is a "stuffing" ring, which is actually off-the-shelf pre-made biscuit dough, flavored to taste like stuffing. It has all the deliciousness of stuffing, but lends itself to being cut into clean slices instead of little bits that children spread everywhere. Fantastic form and function... and extremely tasty.
The boys showed off how good they can be to the grandparents by spending long stretches of time playing with Legos. If only they'd do that when it's just Mom and Dad around.
Miscellany
I think Captain America Jack may actually be an aspiring villain. After attending a birthday party for a child in his class, he was discussing his own (very distant) party plans and declared, cackling with laughter, that he was going to have a piñata... "with nothing in it."
I was framed!
Henry, busy on a "call:"
In a move I should have made a long time ago, I bought Henry a hair wrap so he'd stop going to bed with wet hair. He's a fan.
Luckily, the wrap came in a two-pack:
Henry loves his dad. His card reads, "To Daddy. Because you make us good food:"
Although, he did also say recently, "I want to live with somebody else, these parents don't do much." This was in response to the high crime of Steve and I trying to have a peaceful Saturday breakfast and telling the boys to go play elsewhere.
In response to his own boredom, Henry excitedly declared a brilliant idea he'd had for an activity: "I have an idea! We could do science!" Luckily he got distracted by something else before I had to find out what exactly that entailed.
Henry is not amused.
Who, us?
Roasting marshmallows:
For a long time, Steve had been fueling fires in his home-made fire pit (aka metal trash can) with construction scraps. I was very happy when my parents brought us some real, nice-smelling firewood from their cabin.
Having a blast at a local pump track (Henry foreground, Jack background):
And off we launch into December. The boys are old enough to be so excited about Christmas that Steve and I don't have a snowball's chance in Santa Cruz of living up to their expectations.
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