Fall Break and Thanksgiving

Jack was out of school the whole week before Thanksgiving so he got to hang out with me and come to Lily's Thanksgiving day celebration at her preschool. 

We also spent a beautiful day at Fort Fun mini golfing and playing arcade games

The only one who really golfed was Jack. Lily spent the afternoon prancing around the golf course and Josie just wanted to put the balls in the hole



It was still fun and it was great to be outside

We also spent some days having fun at home:

On Thanksgiving we went to my parents house and some friends of ours joined us as well. My mom catered Thanksgiving dinner so no one had to cook. It was amazing food!



Of course I forgot to take any group pictures, this is the only photo I got that evening:

On Black Friday we drove to downtown to visit Santa. We got there early and it was a good thing too because by the time the workshop opened, there was a big line. And it was below freezing out!

Santa spent a few minutes with each kid and they got to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. 

Then, when it was time for the picture we gave Josie to Santa. We had a feeling she would cry...she doesn't like beards. 

After visiting Santa we went to a restaurant for lunch. Oh man, I never eat out so I forget how hard it is to have a baby at a restaurant. It might be another 2 years before I go out again..



After lunch we took the kids to Pinot Pallet for their own painting class. Thankfully Josie slept through the whole thing so I was able to help Jack and Luke could help Lily:










The ornaments turned out super cute!

That night our friends came over to play more board games while the kids watched a movie. 

Saturday Luke went to Costco and got our tree. The kids spent hours decorating it. 

And then the snow came... 

So we went sledding: 

It was Josie's first time sledding, she seemed to have fun with Luke

 But was a little unsure when she rode with Jack

It was a beautiful day for sledding and a great way to end our fall break. 

November

November has been another busy month! 

The first weekend in November we had fun celebrating one of Lily's friends birthday. Her family had a great idea to rent a campsite for the day and have a campfire roast. It was an amazingly warm and sunny November day. 

Lily and her buddies:

Josie exploring the campsite:

Roasting hot dogs

The campsite was on a small lake so the boys spent most of the time fishing. They had one of their luckiest day's, catching close to 20 fish!

Right after the party, I had scheduled the kids for a photo session. It was a crazy time trying to clean them up from spending a day at the campsite and into their picture clothes. And they were all so exhausted from playing/fishing that I was worried none of the pictures would turn out. When we met up with the photographer the kids were running wild and only wanted to throw leaves around. I snapped a few pictures on my phone and hoped that we could get at least one good shot of the three kids together: 

The second weekend in November was memorable for Jack. One of his best buddies came to stay with us for the whole weekend! In preparation for this event, I stocked up on some cheap fun things to keep all the kids entertained, including these puzzles: 

And these coloring sheets:

On that first night I knew the boys would be super hyper and excited, so I took them to the trampoline park to get their energy out.

I guess it didn't exhaust them enough because they were still awake and talking at 10:30pm (1.5 hours after they got in bed).


The next day I took them to a brand new park and we spent several hours there





The late night finally caught up with Jack and he fell asleep on this swing. He was out for at least 30 minutes and random people would come by and push him on the swing when he was sleeping.


Lily brought her nail painting set to the park and made a little work station for herself under the play equipment.


That night we invited some more friends over to play card games and we let all the kids play wii together.



Sunday I took the kids to the science museum and they had a blast

Lily in the wind tunnel

The boys in the wind tunnel

Then we came back to our house and they played outside for a while. It was a great weekend, and a good introduction to life with four kids...not that I am going there....

Here are some other random photos from the month. This one is Josie after her bath. She is such a snuggle bug and loves to snuggle up in a warm towel after her baths. It is the sweetest thing:

Josie also loves to color just like her sister! She will sit with crayon and paper and scribble all sorts of things:

The three munchkins. Finally have a picture of the sisters in matching outfits

We had to add another little chair to the reading nook so Josie could join in:

Jack and Lily have started swim lessons at the gym I go to. The swim lessons are much better than the city lessons and both kids are excelling. Lily is the smallest one in her class, yet she does just as good as the big kids: