thanksgiving ‘12

thanksgiving was fun this year. it was very exciting to host in our new house! my parents came over, and the fixings were a division of labor of sorts. they brought and cooked the turkey, which was stuffed with stuffing that I made. my mom made sweet potatoes, and I made mashed. I made green bean casserole, she made cranberry sauce. my dad made pumpkin pie, and I made apple…

the night before, we made our pie. shane helped me with the peeling, slicing, and mixing up the filling. layla helped me with the crust (sorry, it’s from a package). she did the crimping herself. it was quite pretty!

the next morning, I got right to work on the stuffing, so when my mom arrived, she got busy stuffing the turkey.

layla helped me set the table (our first time using my mom’s china), and made hand turkey place cards for everyone. I showed her how to fold the napkins and she made table tents for everyone.

while waiting for dinner to be ready, we had snacks and tea! layla was very excited (as were my mom and i) to have real tea in real tea cups! layla wound up not liking the tea, and I caught shane sneaking sips out of her cup, but he wouldn’t let me take a picture.

and more waiting… purina dog show and cut the rope.

finally, we ate!

even micah, who was required to take a bite of turkey and a bite of potatoes… you can see how excited he was about that. but he liked the cranberry sauce a lot.

after dinner, we played a hilarious game of apples to apples.

and then my mom and I played scrabble.

we had a really fun day and lots of great food. but I’m most thankful for who I got to spend it with.

week 46 in pictures

weird week for picture taking… definitely not sunday – saturday POTDs this time.

wednesday: layla’s corn teeth.

friday: micah and toby snuggled up and enjoying some of the dregs of the halloween bucket.

friday: micah discovered that he can make his chin “all bumpy” just like mine. so we had fun making ridiculous faces in the mirror trying to make our chins bumpy.

friday: shane rediscovered a map he had drawn of a town he’d desingned in like 3rd grade or something… and then played with it. it has made a couple of appearances since, in his room.

saturday: hard to tell, but layla spelled her name with some random items that she used for a scavenger hunt she put together for micah and i.

saturday: the jazz band had a performance in the afternoon at the northshore jazz festival. bad, blurry picture, but shane is the second from the right on the top row.

micah made a ‘dunk tank’ and layla had to take a turn sitting in it. nice face.

and a few instagrams. 

{book shots will be added later}

sunday school behavior problems

so, I have a problem. (no, it’s not MY behavior that is the problem.)

I am the preschool/kindergarten sunday school teacher. this means that micah is in my class.

micah, apparently, is less than thrilled with this arrangement.

EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. he is a problem.

he is uncooperative. he will not sit like a normal person on the rug when it’s lesson time. he will not participate.

basically, he lays on the floor and pouts/whines, the whole time.

I could just ignore it, which I do, except that 1) I would like him to actually LEARN the sunday school lesson, and 2) we’re dealing with little kids here who are easily distracted and/or influenced by his bad behavior.

I have talked with him about this almost each and every sunday, explaining what I expect from him, etc.

it has not helped.

so I spoke with his preschool teacher, to find out if this is typical behavior for him.

NOPE.

at preschool, he’s apparently one of the most ‘with it’ kids in the class. participates, raises his hand and answers questions, sits when he’s supposed to, is quiet when he’s supposed to, etc.

so it’s me.

I’ve asked him about it, and he says he doesn’t like having me be the teacher.

so what do I do here?

I can’t have him keep acting this way.

and I want him to have a good time in sunday school and to learn what the lessons are. if this is making him miserable, I want to respect that. however, if you know anything at all about sunday school, you know that teachers are in short supply.

anyone have this experience?

anyone successfully solve the problem?

help me out here.

week 45 in pictures

sunday: morning after the luncheon, miina and I having a REAL breakfast at the athenian at pike place, overlooking elliot bay. yummy food, bad coffee!

monday: a rare break in the rain for a couple days allowed for what is probably the last mow of the season. shane was ecstatic because he mowed our grass and my parents’, and by the time he was done, it was dark, and he got to use the headlights! seriously. who knew mowing in the dark was such a treat!

tuesday: this is layla ALL. THE. TIME. right now. she cannot get enough books. she’s plowing her way through this ‘rainbow magic’ series about fairies and has read probably 25-30 of them in the last several weeks. it is not unusual for her to finish 3 books in a day.

wednesday: toby has decided to adopt ginger’s bed. you know, because it would fit about 10 of him… and it’s right in front of the fireplace.

thursday: micah’s preschool class had a field trip to the theatre to see a performance of “the 3 little pigs”. it was hilarious, as usual, and he had a great time, even when the folding seat swallowed him. it was great to see some MOMS club friends there, too!

friday: MOMS Club playgroup at lindsey’s house. the big girls (sara and layla) made a piñata with candy corns in it and the little kids took turns whacking it with a pencil until it broke. SO funny!

saturday: I took layla and micah to ella’s birthday party at kidsquest museum. they had a blast. it’s been a few years since I’ve taken layla, and I don’t think micah has been since he was old enough to remember. he was SO in his element! of course, the DIY facepaint was a big hit… layla drew herself a dog face, of course. micah has “a beardy man face” according to ella! ;)

and then I have a couple verticals to stick in the center slots of the book: 1) this is how/where shane does his homework… yes, that’s a desk beyond him. does he use it? sure… to stash a bunch of junk on. 2) shane, showing micah how to climb up the big climber at layla’s school. 

I had no instagrams to speak of this week but am including a big collage of extras:

plus another of the fun the kids were having at kidsquest on saturday:

(book shots will be added after I get my pics back and put in the book.)

and I’m linking up again, over at the mom creative.

week 44 in pictures

sunday: the giants won the world series!!!

monday: layla had an ultrasound of her bladder and kidneys. everything looked good! she thought it tickled.

tuesday: micah woke up not feeling very well. he had a bad cough and when he got up, he came in and found me in the bathroom, where he promptly laid back down on the floor. I kept him home from preschool that day.

wednesday: our front porch all decorated for halloween.

and ready to go trick or treating. layla was rapunzel and micah was a pirate. I wore shane’s banana costume since he was staying home to hand out candy instead of going out himself.

thursday: micah got his own library card. he was SO excited!

saturday: our group at the MOMS Club luncheon.

a few littles to stick in the center slots.

 

and the grid of instagrams:

book shots:

first half of the week:

second half:

1 side of a design G insert:

other side of G:

a design A cut in half to hold some extra pictures from the luncheon. I think I need to get some of the adhesive tabs to stick on the edge of this page because, in the book, it just looks like it’s half of the page behind it, which bugs me. 

and hopefully I’ll remember to link up this week as well.

harvest festival at church

today, after church, was our annual ‘harvest festival’. layla was VERY insistent that we go, since we were mean parents and skipped it last year. there was a lot of kid-friendly food, coloring stuff, game stations, prizes, story time, etc…

after eating, micah went straight for the giant pumpkin to pound in golf tees.

layla spent a good 20 minutes coloring this before she even left the table to play the games.

pumpkin hockey was a HUGE favorite, especially of micah. I actually had to pull him away at one point so other kids could play. I had several adults tell me I needed to sign him up for hockey because he was so good!

shane got roped into helping out in many areas. he spent the church hour cooking, he passed out candy to the ‘trick or treaters’ at the end, and spent the main part manning the ‘lolly pop tree’ station. also known as the leaning tower of suckers.

basically, you pick a lollypop. if your lollypop has a regular stick, you just get the lollypop. if your lollypop has a colored stick, you get the lollypop AND a prize. (I just wrote lollypop a lot of times.) lollypop.

more coloring!

more pounding…

those are all the pictures I have because my camera battery was dying.

I love that we seem to always have several ‘halloween’ events leading up to it and the kids get to wear their costumes more than once. of course, I guess I have to go and get the rest of micah’s costume…