Month: November 2018

We got to enjoy some wonderful days this past week. Starting with Grandma Rush’s 88th birthday/Thanksgiving celebration

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We headed down to Des Moines on Wednesday, so I had to get a very special sewing project done first for Odie and David. Henry tested it out to make sure it was comfortable enough.

The weather in Iowa was so awesome while we were there. Sunshine!!!

Thanksgiving morning, this crew did the Turkey Trot through downtown Des Moines.

It was beautiful, and a great chance to chat with Bret and Joe, my 5K buddies. Leslie and my dad ran the 5 mile.

I liked the wall décor on this building by the finish.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a magnificent feast at Arlys’ house. She was definitely the hostess with the mostest!

It looks like I’m explaining something to myself here. I wonder if I was listening to me.

It didn’t take long for the boys to warm up to things. Henry was an extremely animated rhinoceros for much of the gathering.

Charlie has been dying to get to a model railway setup at the Pella Historical Society for way too long. So finally, Grandma Jan made his dreams come true, and on the day of his 8th birthday, no less!

She also sweet-talked this woman in to giving him the tour of the working windmill he asked for.

He is appalled at the sleeping quarters of the miller. Apparently sleeping flat was for dead people, so they slept upright.

Helping get the windmill started

Afterward, we had pizza and cake at the Forsythe’s old/new house

The boys did the cake decorating

Happiest of birthdays to my love! EIGHT

To celebrate both of their birthdays, Grandma and Grandpa took them to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! at the Des Moines Playhouse. I think you can see they enjoyed themselves

While they enjoyed the show, Joe and I stocked up on T-shirts and tea in the East Village with Bret and Leslie.

Bring on that cold weather. We’ve got tea enough to get us through the winter!

 

1. Harvest time. You can’t beat that. That’s why it’s number 1.  I especially love being part of a CSA, because you get some cool, unexpected things. Like this rutabaga the size of my face. This is me pondering, “to roast or not to roast? That is the question.”

2. Leaf piles

Charlie happened to be inside this particular one.

Charlie’s kind of a perfectionist when it comes to moving leaves around.

And I’m kind of a goof when there’s sun in my life.

3. Halloween themed books. I don’t know why, but I just LOVE them.

4. Jack-o-lanterns

Charlie feels less than great about the removal of the guts

Henry feels phenomenal about drawing every possible face his pumpkin could sport before choosing one.

They were both over-the-moon about the results

5. Costumes.

Henry is Mr. Costume, normally. So I was surprised when he pulled the ‘I want to be what Charlie’s going to be’ card.

Ninjas!

However, in the end, he wore the ninja costume only to school and then was something else for Trick-or-Treating. Can you guess what he is? (I’m Frenchy from Grease, btw)

He’s a witch. Yep. He’s got a pointy hat, sparkly star shoes, a spell book and a wand. A costume of his own design, so who could possibly argue with that?! Especially since he told at every house what he was. He also had a great cackle.

Charlie’s costume was a lot clearer, but Henry still said at every door, “This is my brother, he’s a ninja!”

Happy Halloween! Hope yours was great, too