A month of celebrations!

With Thanksgiving at the tail end of November this year, we launched straight from celebrating with my family in Rock Hill to the Christmas parade that same weekend!  And from there everything just snowballed...which feels like an out of place expression, considering the warm weather we've been having!  Anyway, December flew by in a blur of sports games, parties, concerts, and fun.  Having some time at home has been so wonderful!  I had forgotten what it was like to be able to catch up on stuff around the house, watch a movie, read a book, play a game with the kids.  So nice!!  Here are pictures from the last month...

Girls' walk after Thanksgiving lunch.  Even got the new Moore puppy Sammy in there.  :)

Love when they play like this.

Boys' trip to Top Golf.  They loved it!

Meanwhile, the girls walked to downtown Waxhaw for lunch and a little shopping.

Sunday was Gray's mile race to lead off the Hillsborough Christmas parade and he was excited to be in it with his good buddies Will and Peter.  He was less excited to find that he couldn't beat his old mile time just be being older and showing up.  Hmmm.

Julia and her bud Emery being silly while waiting for the parade to start.

Allie had a great seat for the parade in Nanny's lap.

Allie is going through a very social phase...she loves her friends at school and plays with a variety of kids.  She also has been making friends at other events while our backs are turned and has loved seeing a lot of her cousins during this season.

Jeannie and Mama came up to see White Christmas at DPAC.  We saw Gray's frisbee game, then had a fun dinner and browsing at Parker & Otis, then headed off to the show.  

We had to take a little piece of Grandmama with us...we all wore some of her clip-on Christmas earrings.  She did love White Christmas and the movie has always been a staple in our family.

The next day, I subbed and the Grands enjoyed Wooden Nickel lunch with Matt and Allie.

That night we split up for Julia's holiday concert and Joshua's basketball game.  I love the school concert.  So well done and always so fun to see friends sing the solos...this time, the Musser girls and a few others.

The trifecta of concerts this week-- White Christmas, Cameron Park Holiday Concert, and then Behold the Lamb with my China Mama friends and their husbands.  What a great show, powerful songs, and amazing musicians.  Really fun night.

The next day we squeezed in getting a Christmas tree.  Some members were a little grumpy.  

Joshua got to have a little Christmas gathering with a few friends.  Gingerbread house making, which the girls turned into this whole storyline of their friends and a graveyard.  ???  Then they watched Elf.  Sweet little group!

And to finish up a crazy eventful week, we had our annual Rise Against Hunger meal packing event, which we love to do this time of year.  This year was Allie's first time being old enough to come and she loved it.  She was so proud to help seal the bags and deliver them to the next station.

 The boys had two games a week during December so we were always at one game or another.  Nice to find friends at some of them, particularly to entertain the girls!

 I continued to sub every Thursday and Friday and Matt continued to pass the time with Allie, sometimes at the Wooden Nickel, a favorite for them both, and here joined by Pa.

Kids' Night Out has been a little sporadic this year, as we have had many families become more assimilated into the community and therefore more busy with their own lives.  We did want to try a Christmas celebration though, and I'm glad we did, regardless of what we decide for the future.  Great to catch up with some of our favorites.

Following the annual shadow play at church, Gray got to have a group of friends over to watch a Christmas movie...

---and Julia had a few friends over to do the same.  Fun and easy night!

And here we are back at basketball and here Allie is finding a new friend again!  The mom said she asked if she could sit with them and then said, "I'm 4 years old and I can chew gum."  Meanwhile we were glued to the court, because Joshua doesn't play often and we don't want to miss a move.  

The last week of school, I got to spend lots of time at Cameron Park.  First, I helped my friend with the Angel Tree present distribution, which is another of the traditions I love so much.  Then I subbed there for the first time and ended up getting to go down to Julia's class during her market day, where they were "selling" their creations from their business at their desk.  She made the cutest tiny playdoh foods, but had mostly sold out by the time I got there.  Market Day was crazy controlled chaos as the whole 4th grade crowded into one or two classrooms to buy or sell.  Then on Friday, I got to help in Julia's class and it was so calm, as I just taught a few small groups how to make giant snowflakes.  Fun!  After all the school hopping I've done this fall, it was so nice to be back where I am most comfortable.  I'm hoping a job will open up there for next year, but it's probably wishful thinking.  

And here we are back at basketball!  Joshua's team hasn't been successful thus far, but I think he is enjoying it and learning a lot...and not just about basketball.  8th grade year has seen a lot of changes in him as he is figuring out who he is.  I am thankful for every moment I see the old sweetness and his many good qualities shine through and I pray God will keep working in him.  Time at home together with the 6 of us can bring out a lot of angst in all of us, but also a lot of bonding that we don't normally get.  So happy we have another week home to enjoy the break!

Where'd you go, November??

November has passed in a blur and I'm not even sure what we did all month, as I didn't take many pictures.

We enjoyed a little time with Matt's family to celebrate Nanny's birthday.  A nice lunch, always some good conversation, good-natured teasing about Nanny's "favorite" child, and some laughing together.  We are also planning a trip together for Matt's parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  I think Julia was a toddler our last family trip!! 

This month is always one of my favorites at preschool, as we learn about sea life and do a lot of fun activities together.  I also went back to way too early VIPKID teaching and added in subbing on Thursdays and Fridays.  Mostly subbing has gone well and I've enjoyed a change of pace in my week.  I've learned so much about our school system already and I've definitely learned where I enjoy being and where is not a good fit.  So far I've been in 4 schools and more to come!  I've had kids from 3 years old to big 5th graders.  I've held non-verbal kids and sung to them, helped kids write DARE essays, worked on math and reading with small groups of kids, given quizzes, and survived a fight in my classroom.  It's been so interesting and I'm only a few weeks in!  I'm pondering where to go from here, once Allie starts preschool, and gathering all the info and experience I can in the meantime.

We've gone through the school routine, but tried to capitalize on any good weather in the afternoons.  Julia loves hanging out outside with her friends and she LIVES for playdates.  Meanwhile we have a new routine with the boys since Joshua made basketball and Gray made frisbee.  They have practice every day and starting next month we will have games Monday through Thursday between the two of them!!  Can't wait to cheer them on.

We had a fun rainy Saturday this past weekend.  We got a free trip to the movies to see Frozen II, which we thought was great!  I'd never taken Allie to a movie and she was so excited and did really well.  I sat behind her and she snuggled in with the girls.  Every once and while her little arms would reach over the back of her chair for me to hold her for a bit, then she'd go back to her seat.  The kids ate toooonnnns of popcorn, as we got the large and a bunch of free little bags to distribute all the free refills.  :)  I overheard Gray say if he could eat one food for the rest of his life it would be popcorn.  I love that he was up for going to Frozen and had a great time...no worries about whether it was cool or not.  We've been talking a lot about the complicated world of middle school where so many are always worried about what's cool and what others think.  I told Gray I loved that he doesn't care about that stuff and just does what he likes, whether it's the popular thing or not.  He said, "Well I don't really have any friends that are considered popular."  Ha.  Sorry, friends.  But I do think it's a lot less complicated in his social world!  He's gotten to have two sleepovers in a row the last week and he is loving it.  Almost all his friends made the frisbee team along with him so it's going to be a really fun season for him!

Post-Frozen II, we headed with Julia and some friends for free skate.  They loved it and Julia is improving so much!

And then we had a short, but intense internet crisis that briefly took over my life as I tried to fix it and find the quickest solution for getting someone else to fix it.  I'm only allowed to cancel a few VIPKID classes before they will end my contract so it was high stress figuring out how to get through my busiest two days with no internet.  Thankfully, Matt's parents were gracious enough to allow me to sneak over to their house at 4 am and get those classes taught and as of today, we've got the green light again.  Whew.  I don't like being so tied to this and dealing with customer service/tech people for hours.  Yuck.  But still thankful for this job and getting to teach some really brilliant and sweet kids across the world.  

And now we get ready for Thanksgiving.  I'm so ready for some down time with family.  So ready.  I'll leave you with my yearly recipe for pumpkin pie, written by my class!  The first week of December is on its way and will be full of celebrations...Gray's running a mile at the Hillsborough Christmas parade, the boys have their first games, Julia has her holiday concert, and I get to go see a show with my mom and sister.  Yay for Christmastime!!

It was a dark and stormy night... (with pictures hopefully!)

It rained all day Wednesday and Thursday, Halloween day, wasn’t looking great. We had watched the weather all week and were wondering if it might be a very short night of trick or treating. At our house, we had a growing group of friends coming for a quick dinner before going out and I was crossing my fingers that everyone could actually go out.  The food was all ready, costumes good to go, Mimi and GrandGene here to help, and....no rain!  It was hot and humid, which proved to be a wardrobe issue for several kids, but we were thrilled to get some quick pictures and send everyone off!

Joshua and friends hemmed and hawed about going trick or treating this year.  Too old?? Too cool??  Finally they made a plan to gather at our house with varying degrees of costuming and then meet some girls around the corner to go around the neighborhood together. When he finally made it home, I learned this plan didn’t really come together and he spent most of the night just wandering the neighborhood with a group of friends. He had one small handful of candy to show for it.

Gray and friends came up with a costume idea the week before and while all costumes were slightly different in sizes and materials, I thought they looked great together. I don’t think their costumes lasted very long, but they went out for a couple hours and had a great time, then went back to one of their houses for candy trading and movie watching.

The supervised group of trick or treaters included two preschoolers, a second grader, and 3 fourth graders. The older ones were quite motivated so we ended up a little spread out through the neighborhood trying to keep track of everybody, particularly the families who don’t live there. Allie soon gave up and decided to stay home with Mimi and GrandGene. When we got quite far away from home, everything fell apart a bit, as it got dark and a storm/tornado conditions headed our way. We all split up and booked it home. Fun night and all were happy the weather didn’t shut things down till late.

We didn’t have much time to recover from our night because we had a lacrosse tournament at the beach to get to the next day!

It was a chilly weekend, but Julia proved her love for the ocean by getting in the water anyway. We had fun checking out the beach and hanging out in our condo the first night, watching Animal Planet. We were pretty cold at the tournament, though Allie claimed the only thing that was chilly was her hair. Unfortunately Gray has some packing issues— he brought no shorts/pants/swimsuit/long sleeves/sweatshirts.  Thank goodness for his pj pants for post-ocean swim attire. :)

Our first night was a little rough, as we didn’t have heat turned on and were freezing. Throw in a crying child at 11, a fire alarm at 2 am when we did turn on the heat, and an early morning for lacrosse and you’ve got some tired people!  Thankfully the second night worked out much better. Allie particularly enjoyed sharing a little room with Joshua, which she called “the zape” for some reason.

The lacrosse team won two of three on Saturday and one of two on Sunday, so not too bad. Wasn’t Joshua’s best playing but he enjoyed it. We liked hanging out with our Hillsborough people and all the kids ended up in the ocean this time.

Julia was so happy to have a friend there and these two were inseparable.

 For some reason, one booth there had free mustaches, so that made for some funny pictures.

Allie wandered away from us for a moment and Gray found her over by a group of random kids. She told him she was just talking to her new friends. 

Oh, and one more fun thing last week. Matt and I went away for a day hiking at Hanging Rock. We did a waterfall hike and the Hanging Rock hike. They were challenging with lots of steps up and down, but the weather was nice, views amazing, and it was great to be outside and just get to be together.

Meanwhile, the kids got to go to a pumpkin patch with Nanny and we returned in time for s’mores with Nanny and Pa and their international students.

It’s hard to come back to reality, but the week awaits and this one marks the beginning of the second quarter of school. The boys are trying out for basketball this week and I should have some full days of subbing too. Welcome, November!