Happy Thanksgiving

Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. We made the rounds (in the car and food tables) and enjoyed our time with family. Matt and I also enjoyed spending Tuesday with Brenner's 3rd grade class making our own feast and playing board games!

Brenner shaking the cream to make butter.

Brenner and his buddies chowing down. They put their butter on rolls and crackers. The students also made cooked apples and chocolate popcorn.

Silly boys!

Nola sleeping with KC - that dog is patient.

The Hinck Family Thanksgiving!

Eadlin, Brenner, and Nola enjoying the sun.

Brenner pulling Gannon in the wagon - check out those smiles!

Gannon and Grandma.

Brenner, Austin, and Mackinzee - she is getting big!

Student of the Month and Show Me Games

A little late posting this week - but better late than never. The kids are excited for Thanksgiving break after a lot of activities this past week. We are all doing well - Matt's lip has heal relatively well. We have all battled a bit of a tummy bug but nothing too serious thank goodness!

Love these two - took some pictures for the Christmas card this year. This one didn't make the cut but it is still beautiful in my opinion!

Retro Bill came to David Barton. Can you find Brenner?!

Our student of the month! She got to eat with the principal, some friends, and Matt at McDonalds! Matt was there for Watch Dogs.

BSA Ravens U10 3v3 boys team. This was taken after all the game - still smiling after some cold weather and some bad loses (one game was close and they lost by one). Temperature was 33 degrees on Saturday morning - Sunday was a bit nicer. The end of the 3v3 season - now on to futsal!

Brenner working the ball - note his cheek!

Brenner missing the ball? He spent more time timing to do scissor moves than anything else - sigh. We laughed about it afterward - telling him no need to do tricks with the other team has to be 5 yards away. To his credit, he did fake opponents out a couple of times.

Games were held on the turf of a Columbia high school. There were 10 3v3 fields on the one football field so you had to watch for flying balls from other fields.

Brenner improved immensely over the fall season. I am looking forward to futsal - faster moving and inside!!!

Nola's version of Chicken Little - good job, girl!

Nola's picture "I saw a rainbow at my grandma's house".

Things that drive Brenner batty. Notice any patterns?

Nola's version of how to bake a turkey!

Brown bags and bagging a doe

Well - we survived the election.There was some lost sleep in our house and a lot less news watching! The kids also asked lots of questions which is a good thing. Nola also had a brown bag lunch, Brenner had 3v3 soccer practice, I volunteered at Brenner's school on Veteran's Day, and Matt went deer hunting and managed to squeeze in a trip to the ER. All is well but a little more excitement that anticipated!

The sunrise on Saturday morning. Struck me how a little light can make such a huge difference. That is the way I will choose to view the election - with a little light present in what I see as a lot of darkness. The light will grow - just like it did on Saturday - into a beautiful sun-filled day.

Nola asked for Subway for her brown bag lunch - she kept whispering "Girl Time" to me while we ate.

Our activity at lunch was to use spaghetti and mini-marshmallows to engineer a design of our choice. We made a tee pee and wagon. Construction was challenging with Nola eating all of the pasta and marshmallows!

Brenner's Wednesday practice - it was soooo cold (for me - you can see he is in shorts and t-shirt!).

Nola and Draco had a fun time playing while the boys practiced. Note Draco's bare feet!!!!!

KC's normal sleeping position - legs up in the air. Such a silly dog!

Brenner ate french toast and played with his circuit kit on Saturday morning. He did a great job figuring it out mostly on his own!

Matt's doe from Saturday morning. His climbing tree stand slipped on him and he dropped about 8 feet. I get a text with blood dripping from his chin and a note saying he needs stitches. I immediately try to call him and he doesn't answer!!!!! Thanks to Grandma Val for going and checking on him for me. Nola got quite upset and was very glad when Dad called. He ended up getting 5 stitches on his lower lip from the plastic surgeon. His hands were also pretty bad from where he grabbed the tree. Thank the good Lord it wasn't worse than it was!

Brenner set the "table" so we could watch a movie with our dinner.

Nurse Nola watching out for her patient.

Nola gets done with her worksheets early so she tries to spell out words on the sheet. Good job Nola!

"First you get a wrench" - you go girl! Girls can use wrenches!

Some of Brenner's work - he is doing a good job. I wasn't in his classroom on Veteran's Day but we had lunch together. He has two girls in his class that like him. Callie calls him "Cookie" and Keilynn calls him "Fried Turkey". Not sure where they come up with these names! I asked B what he calls them and he said "stupid". I said that is what 9 year old boys say when they like someone :)

More of his spelling work - he does a great job - progress reports will come home this week. The year is flying by!

Halloween, Fall Party, and early Thanksgiving

Another busy week -there was Halloween of course. We also had a reading and math family night, a fall party at Brenner's school, tons of yard work, and an early Thanksgiving dinner at Judi's (Grammy Vo's) church. Whew! Fall is flying by!

Our Statue of Liberty and Viking! We started the night at a local nursing home (we passed out the cards I showed last week). The kids showed great kindness and compassion to the residents. I was very proud of them.

A neighbor snapped this family photo of us. Brenner took forever to get in and out of the car (because no food in the car), but this pictures proves Nola was also eating along the way!

Talk about putting their heads together! Brenner and a classmate working on circuits.

Math and reading night at Brenner's school. One of the activities was this giant jenga game - it made a huge crash!

Matt helped Nola make a nest with willow branches and leaves. Also note Nola lost her other front tooth! It was barely loose - but she worked and it bled. Ugh - turns my tummy!

Corn pit at Brenner's fall party. It was a HOT November day - but very pleasant to spend several hours outside.

Bean bag race!

Brenner finally got time with his best buddy Drystan (they don't have recess or class together). Funny they wore their Raven's shirts on the same day!

While Matt was at a gun show, we made leaf piles at home!

Jump!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Judi's church, we felt the need to burn off those calories! We did lots of tree trimming and piling - now we need to have a bonfire.

Some of Brenner's spelling class work. I met his teacher for this at the Fall Party. I was telling some story about him (and his easily frustrated kind of came through) - and the teacher said she saw that as well. So - Matt and I are trying to figure out how to address that. Brenner is a mini-me (perfectionist) so I know what a struggle it can be. But - note the sentences that he wrote with Nola as the subject - little booger.

Nola's class voted!!!! Popcorn or Chips? :)

Nola is also working on her spelling. She wants to spell everything - it keeps us busy for sure! While trimming the trees today - she got upset that the limbs of the pine near the fort were cut - this is her hideout. But now she has dreams of a huge treehouse "to have my meetings in". Straight to business for her!