For Thanksgiving weekend, we went up to Gabe's parents' house. We had a great time! Here are some pics...
The following three pictures I took without Keira knowing I was there. I love these pictures!
Jesse had a fire pit set up in the back yard on Thanksgiving day. It was so nice to sit around and talk. (Side note: We have 100 pictures of Simone and almost none of her 3 sisters! You can see Alice here, but that's it! Alice, Inez, and Nora- next time we see you, we want pictures!)
Gabe with his Uncle Phil. They wouldn't let me take a normal picture of them together.
Leila with Simone, Keira, and Andrew.
Simone playing with Keira and Andrew. She and her sister, Nora, had so much fun with our kids. It was great to see them enjoy each other so much! Plus, Gabe and I actually got to enjoy adult conversations AT THE SAME TIME!!!
Brothers. This was our last visit with Jesse for 2.5 years. He'll be in Guatemala for that time with Peace Corps. Go Jess!
Uncle and nephew.
Despite their faces, we had a good time.
Jesse taught Andrew how to play the drum.
Gabe, Jesse, and Andrew enjoying Tinker Toys.
The day after Thanksgiving, we went to a candy store. Candy canes for our official Christmas kick-off!
Sing-a-long time!
The kids with Leila and Auntie Francesca.
In other news, my daughter is potty-training herself. Yes, you read that correctly. About a month ago, she seemed interested in the potty so we got this one down for her to check out. Just before Thanksgiving, she actually went to the bathroom on the potty. I figured it was a fluke until she did it again about a week ago! She seems to have a pretty good understanding of things potty-related. I'm thinking we'll try official potty training in January!
Keira is also learning how to dress and undress herself. This is her putting on her mermaid pant.
This is a new look for shirts.
Back to Thanksgiving again... The Encarnacions came over for a special Thanksgiving feast on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We all barely fit around our table anymore! We don't get to see each other (whole families) very often anymore so this was a very special time for us.
"Indian" hats.
Jumping pilgrims!
Last Saturday was Andrew's 4th birthday party. He told me, "I always want dinosaurs all the time" so he got a dino-mite birthday party! 10 minutes before the party started (pictured above), he said, "I'm so excited about everything!"
The excitement was contagious.
As soon as the kids got there, they got to finger paint dinosaurs.
Keira was the only one who got REALLY messy. As you can see here, she is SITTING on her painting. Yikes!
Even Uncle Gabe got in on the painting.
Next, the kids got to go fishing for dinosaurs. It wasn't raining when we first went out there, but during our 10 minute game, it really started to come down. The kids loved it, though, and were so excited to see dinosaurs on the end of the fishing line!
The finished artwork.
Zach's beautiful smile!
My little 4-yr-old! (well, almost) He loved his T-rex cake. He asked for a mean, green T-Rex and that's what he got!
Time for presents.
ALL dinosaurs! Everything Andrew got was dino-related. It was awesome! He loves all of his gifts and they all got to play with them after he opened them.
I love this pic of Gabe and Allie! Don't they look cute?
Happy birthday, Andrew!
Here are the dino pics I drew for the kids to paint.
It took several hours, but the cake turned out pretty good. I thought frosting it would be the most difficult part, but designing the pattern turned out to be. It worked out great too because I saved the leftover cake scraps and the leftover frosting (3 colors) and we had enough for the kids and I to make "gingerbread houses" out of the other day.
We saw one ant Friday night before we went to bed so this is the mote we made so the ants couldn't get to the cake. (There's water in the bowls.)
