Our crafty November

November has been the month of arts and crafts in our house. We made a door draft dodger in science class one day and for art we've made turkeys and a Thanksgiving banner for the fireplace. We have two more crafts scheduled for school this month. I'm hoping to make Pilgrim and Indian costumes, a cornucopia and cookies decorated like Indian corn. Here's some of our work so far. I'll post pictures of the others as soon as finish them in art class.

Thanksgiving pictures

The Hill kids experienced two extremes for the holidays between their grandparents' homes. One could be described as a "city-life" holiday while the other is a "country-life" holiday. With Shelley's extended family, the Manuels, it's a time to dress up and play with 7 other cousins indoors. But Thanksgiving with Jason's extended family, the Hills, it's time to dress in your old play clothes that you don't mind getting dirty in with one 4 year old cousin outside.

This holiday, the boys raked a million leaves with me at Grandmother's (Manuel) into clear plastic bags that their city would pick up. By my promting of course just to serve them. They weren't asked to rake for hours while Hannah napped. But some adult told Andrew after we started that he should get money for it so it was like pulling teeth to get him to come inside again. He'd never been paid before to rake. That was a new concept for him. But the boy loves to rake anyway whether he's getting paid or not. GrandBobby gave him more than $6.50 in loose coins that he rounded up from around the house. He even gave them all to him in a glass jar with lid just like his money jars at home. He was estactic. You'd have thought Christmas came early. `You can see in the pictures that we got much more raked than bagged. But at Grandmommy's (Hill), the boys got to ride on the riding lawnmower as she mulched them up.

This year the boys got to ride Austin and Grandmommy's 4 wheelers and had a picnic lunch outside and ate roasted hotdogs after GrandMommy (Hill) burned leftover brush from a cut down tree. No need to worry, she's done it many times before. She doesn't live within the city limits and got a burn license to do it. The kids loved it. Here's my disclaimer..... First, yes, Hannah was on the 4 wheeler but it was stationary and no she did not ride it. Second, Ethan rode with Amy on Austin's and not alone, but Andrew did get to experience the thrill of riding one alone. It has a kill switch that we could hit to cut the engine off if he got to close to something and it only allowed him to go 4 miles an hour.

The kiddoes

The cousins minus Rob's 4

Ethan loving on his baby sis

Andrew trying to wave hello

Amy and Ethan

Hannah's win, after fighting and crying to get on it.

Grandmommy's BIG fire

Countdown to Thanksgiving

Anyone else ready for Thanksgiving? I'm looking forward to Saturday. Our official first day of school break. No school for 9 days straight. I cannot wait! I'm as ready for a break as I think Andrew is. So who are you eating with this year? What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition? And what's your favorite food?

Germantown Thanksgiving Pictures

Grandmother and GrandBobby's 10 grandchildren are a cute group of kids! We missed seeing you Aunt Cathie, Brad, Lee and Jeremiah. Hope your Thanksgiving was enjoyable. Hopefully we'll be able to see you at Christmas.

To my friends reading the post, here's the lineup. My older brother Rob has 4 children: Adrienne (17), Shelby (10), Christina (5), Lily (4). Adrienne is holding Hannah. Shelby is the taller blonde headed boy on the left. Lily is the brunette in front of him in pink and Christina, a brunette too, is beside Adrienne. My twin brother Jason has three children. Caitie (8) in the striped turtleneck, Jake (5) on the far right and Neely (2) the blonde beside Ethan. That's Lily in her Thanksgiving turkey hat that all the grandchildren made before dinner and Jake being silly eating the leg that his daddy gave him.

We had a great trip to Germantown. It seems like the trip is just going to start taking us more that 6 1/2 hours with the little ones. What can you expect on the busiest traveling day of the year. Two wrecks on I-40, two in diapers, and one potty trained 4 yr. old. It makes for a long time in the car. Thank goodness for a portable DVD player, it makes the time fly by a little faster.