Thanksgiving Games

We always play games and they usually involve ridiculous relays and things that make you look or sound very silly. We had gobs of fun this year - tacky tourist relay in which you have to put on tons of touristy stuff and race around, a wildly impossible game of tag, and balancing fruit between foreheads with a family member. Madison and Logan won that one, although Justus and Zach put up a good fight with a very unruly orange. Noah watched the craziness from the safety of Danny's arms.

Thanksgiving Luau

Every Thanksgiving, we try to go with a new theme - one year was Asian, one year was Hebrew. This year we went Hawaiian and had a luau. Hence all the colorful shirts and leis. These are shots of the White Elephant game in which everyone invariably gets the thing that they want the absolute least. For example, Zane and Zach both got shirts made for small girls. Angela got three huge rolls of duct tape. My dad got a shirt that says "I really am a princess." HA! It would be so boring if it went any other way... (We trade around afterward so everyone gets something they might actually use.)

A walrus doing situps?

We saw seals and otters and sea lions. We watched a walrus do situps, which is strangely adorable. The sea lions walked on their flippers and shook their heads and nodded and were generally cute and amusing. We loved it. Noah seemed somewhat unsure about the whole shebang. But he did like looking at all the animals.

We got to pet dolphins!

That was the highlight of the trip. Touching a dolphin's silky skin is amazing. It feels like a gift. They jumped and clicked and whistled for us. It was fabulous. What wonderful animals. And the $5 for four fish to feed them - completely worth the money. We bought three trays - I would have bought more. They were beautiful. I was just enthralled.

Sea World! Yippie!

Noah, Summer, Shamu, sharks. It was grand. We met the parental units and the Everetts and we headed to San Antone. We had a great two days with the aquatic creatures. We'll definitely have to do it again.

More Harvest Party

We dressed in costume as the invitations dictated (I'm telling you, people, next year I'm cracking down.) We are a hippie family. Noah's costume consisted of a homemade vest with a peace sign on it, but hey, I was busy getting ready for the party.

Our Harvest Party

We hosted a Harvest Party this year the first weekend in November. (As an alternative to halloween.) It was wonderful weather and we had a fantastic time with our friends. The goal was to have everyone wear costumes and play games and eat. Well, next year, costumes are going to be a requirement to get in the door! The kids did a haystack hunt and found lots of candy in the straw. They did bubbles and drew all over our driveway and played in the ball pit. It was a good time. Little Ellie was too cold in just her bumblebee costume, so we found a little shirt for her. Ian here was supposed to be in costume, but his was made of fleece and he would have been too hot. That's okay - just remember next year, you'd better be prepared with a spare costume or something!

Random Acts of Cuteness

First haircut

Here is Noah's first haircut. This was in October so you see how woefully late I am in posting these pictures. He did well for his first haircut and looked absolutely adorable. I was afraid his wonderful curls would get chopped off never to return, but they are here to stay. They just curled right up again. The bottom shot is with daddy after his haircut.