Happy November Birthday...to Aunt Annie and Papa Scott!

Uncle Rico needed some lovin'...

And our favorite November Turkeys had their birthdays!  YAY for CARROT CAKE!

Rapunzel on Ice...BEST. DAY. EVER!

We were spoiled by G'ma and Papa again this year...Rapunzel on Ice was the BEST PRESENT, EVER!  :)  We felt completely prestigious as we made our way down to THE FLOOR to find our seats.  It was such a delight to be close enough to see the beads of sweat on the skaters' faces!  :)

 The three stories were Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.

 Joshy said the little lightning bug was his favorite...

Daddy said Flynn Rider was his favorite...

Gracie said Mother Gothel and that HAIR was her favorite...

...and these faces were my favorite.

 No wait, Joshy liked the alligator, too.

 Who wouldn't like the two-man costume of Maximus?

ALL the princes and princesses came out at the end dressed in white for the grand finale.

And I wish I could've captured the light in these eyes...it would be the picture in the dictionary beside the definition of WONDER.  So fun.  Thank you SO MUCH, G'ma and Papa!

Get Out There and Get Those Leaves Raked Up!

 (Pre-game pump-up pictures...)

 We can do it!

 Yay, for yardwork!

We love raking up wet leaves that were hiding under the snow a week ago!

Go, Team Lochhead!  Break!

(Post-game summary:  Jeff led the team with the longest string of work, the kids gave several spurts of "help" in between playing in their fort and under the deck, Ellie had several great assists--best assist was taking the whiny children in for lunch/naps while Jeff stayed out to seal the win--the yard looks so great!)

Snowman for G'ma Joan

This picture is for G'ma Joan.  We went down to the farm for the Sunday/Monday of Veteran's Day weekend and G'ma had to work Monday, so we played at the farm without her.  She didn't believe that we had a snowman built--all she found was a hat, scarf, and carrot nose lying on the lawn when she got home.  What a great time in the snow!

14-Letter Autograph

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the first "Lochhead" attempt...Gracie has her first name down (in fact her PS teacher said she was doing SUCH a great job writing her name on all her papers!) and she asked me for the letters of her last name.  I love the counter-clockwise writing direction!

I'd also like to note for posterity that I received the first "chatty" comment from her teachers today..."Gracie's gotten quite comfortable with her friends and is quite social during work time."  Translation:  We have a Chatty Cathy on our hands.  Shy for the first little while, and then chat, chat, chat!!!

November Snow SCHOOL Day

Our first snow happened the Friday before Veteran's Day this year...those November snows are MAGICAL!  I have to admit, I was glad that I wasn't teaching on the First Snow Day(!) of the year...though magical, the first snow ignites kids' "full-moon" behavior...  The irony, however, is that this turned out to be the day that Joshy and Gracie were invited to visit my classroom.

The story is, our students earn classroom points and pick the reward they'd like to work toward.  This group really is the sweetest bunch--they wanted to have a "GOSHY VISIT" when they earned 100 points!  They love hearing Gracie and Joshy stories, so I wasn't ENTIRELY surprised that they wanted to meet them, but this is the first time in my 10+ years of teaching that I'd seen a group of 10- and 11-year olds get excited about playing with little kids.  I was quite touched!

Melissa, my amazing teaching partner, had the 2-hour timeframe all arranged--some students were scheduled to read with Grace and Josh, some were assigned to play with them at recess, and the rest were given the privilege (?) of eating lunch in the classroom with us.

Gracie and Josh brought a few of their favorite books...

Look at little Harriet the Spy soaking in every detail...  :)

Love the silly pose...I think Josh was going to his happy place in his mind as the big kids got too close...

It was a fun afternoon for all of us!  I asked Gracie what her favorite part was...she thought and replied, "NOT recess!  It was way too cold!"  I guess the First-Snow magic eluded her!

Hugging Them Tightly...

 

How blessed we are...

Project Living Room

I've been wanting to paint our fireplace wall since we moved in three years ago...but somehow after painting our bedroom, Gracie's room, the basement, the laundry room, and the bathroom, I lost steam.  One Friday this month, my friend Patricia helped move the wall to the top of the priority list.

I could not have done this without this lady's energy!  She had the wall taped up before I could clean out the van from errand-running!  (and notice the icky gold fireplace...watch what happens...)

 The kids were amazing while we painted.  Movies and playing in the basement for a couple of hours...

 ...and a few reward tattoos!

Wha-la!  Doesn't it look great?  Jeff was AMAZING and took apart the brass on the fireplace and painted it black for me at the farm over Veteran's Day weekend.

Now I'm looking for a big mirror to go over the mantle...  LOVE IT!!!

Trick-or-Treat, 2012

Well, pull my string!  The Lochhead house had a Jessie and Woody costume being put on and taken off  multiple times a day, ever since the 1st of October.  Mom was SO GLAD to see Halloween finally come!  :)

We went to G'ma Colleen and Papa Scott's a few days early to see Gigi, and celebrate with the cousins.  Janie is a butterfly, her brother Henry, Chicken Little, is right beside her, and Oden is Chicken Littler in the back.  Joshy and Grace, then Anthony as Batman, and Lauren the Ladybug.

These are the big kids playing Yard Sale later that evening.  :)

  

The actual night of Halloween, we went to see Granny and Pappy...



...and then went to Arend Hall on Whitworth Campus so that our college friends could spoil us with hallways of adoring college students giving candy.  [That is the way to go, parents!  Excited candy-givers, one stop, and a warm hallway...]  Thanks for the fun night, Katelyn, Christina, and Linnea!

Girls' Weekend with Julz

Doesn't THIS look like fun?  Heidi and I were trying to spoil JULIE on her birthday, but a weekend away to CRAFT turned out to be just as spoiling for us!  :)  Julz introduced us to Hobby Lobby and The Craft Warehouse.  I thought we'd never pull Heidi out of that last store!  :)

This is the project we settled on...a Christmas Countdown pocket garland!

Lots of hot glue toughened up our fingertips...

So fun!  It wasn't even Halloween and it felt like Christmas.

Other weekend highlights include:  taking Julz to dinner and watching our server hit on her relentlessly, getting to see the house all decorated with Julie's things now, visiting Trina at her new "time-share" place, and attempting to get Ollie to hold still enough for us to get a picture of him...with Joshy's BINKY in his mouth!  And did I mention sleeping in?  Ahhhh, the little things.