Thanksgiving Eve 2021

 We had our traditional cheese plate and fire:

Turkey Hands 2021

 

Benji

Abby

Ruth

Kevin

Graduation Memorabilia

 It all started with a text from Abby about a class assembly:

Abby came home with the catalog, which led to a discussion about the value of class rings and Kevin and I pulling out our class rings. I had mine readily available, but Kevin was not able to locate his. In his quest, he pulled out his box of other memorabilia, which led to a fun night of looking through it all:

Universal Yums: Scandinavia

 Always reliably a good time:

Abby's Senior Photos

 There were a lot, but here are some favorites:

Badminton with Friends

The Lamy-Petersons were down this weekend and we took a break from various activities to play several rounds of badminton. This was a full-family activity (we played moms with their younger kids, then the girls v. their dads, then the older kids v. the younger kids) and it was the surprise hit of the weekend:

Veteran's Day Concert

 The Buford Band was invited to Ashlawn-Highland to play as part of their Veteran's Day celebration. The band played three numbers: a medley of the marches of the armed forces to open, the Star Spangled Banner during the presentation of the colors and Stars and Stripes Forever to end the program. The hour long celebration also included a key note speaker and a presentation of wreaths from various civic and veteran's organizations. It was a beautiful day out at the estate - the last one before the weather turned cold:

Getting Ready

Benji sits right up front when he plays with the band, so I can actually see him :)

Bird in Progress

 Abby's been asking us to save pink cans because she is making a wire and aluminum flamingo in art:

Evan's Orchestra Fall Concert

 On his band teacher's recommendation, Benji joined the wind section of the local youth orchestra this fall. He's been practicing hard as the pieces are more complicated, and we got to see him in his first orchestra concert on Monday:

Winds sit behind the strings, so it was hard to see Benji. We sat all the way off to one side so that we could get a peek

After the concert with Gammy

Foster Kittens

 Our friends the Dukes are fostering two adorable kittens from the SPCA, and they invited us to come over and play with them on Saturday. Benji was particularly taken with this little guy:

The Ukelele

 A gift from our neighbor Dana Patek because I told her I wanted to learn. So far Benji has spent way more time with it than I have. On the plus side, he has taught himself several songs already:

Halloween 2021

 

We started with a Halloween-themed breakfast

These were our plans for the day, which we mostly followed. We hiked while Abby worked at Sunday School and then headed to Spooky Tea at IX. It turned out tea was sold out (despite their assurances that we did not need a reservation) but we consoled ourselves with lunch at Brazos. We took a big break after lunch for Abby to work on her college applications due the next day, but the boys watched Charlie Brown without us and we were all able to resume our fun in the afternoon and finish the rest of the list.

Benji was definitely the big winner at bobbing for apples

Trader Joes Spooky Halloween House

Halloween Dinner:

We got an extra box from Universal Yums this month with Halloween candy from around the world and a trivia game to play with it

Benji meticulously setting out our candy for trick-or-treaters

Our pumpkins, all lit up. Kevin moved them into the driveway and we got a lot of compliments on them