Hanging of the Green 2018

When you have a late or lengthy fall, that leads to fall foliage as a backdrop for your Christmas clothing. HA! Last night the girls, as acolytes, helped decorate our church's sanctuary as part of the Hanging of the Green. William George was my trusty assistant in directing the acolytes. Naturally, he is now ready to light all the candles and carry a torch. 

We are getting exciting about the holidays!

Iron Bowl 2018

These superfans pulled their team through the Iron Bowl against some tough competition. To be fair, mostly Grace and George were cheering. Lauren, on the other hand, caught up on some reading.  

Like so...

But she was pulling for them in her own little way. 

Thanksgiving 2018

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, starting with our family.  We were able to have a wonderful lunch with Skip's family Thursday, and we had another great lunch with my family Friday.  We are blessed to have family and love each and every one of them.  

(We snapped a pic at Skip's family gathering, but my mom had fallen and did not want to be photographed with a bruise. We will do a make up pic at Christmas. 

Actually, now that I think about it, Skip's mom was under the weather, meaning it was a tough Thanksgiving for matriarchs. Here's to praying for a healthier Christmas.) 

Pixie

We stayed in a hotel during our trip this week. Although the hotel was pet friendly, we were concerned that Pixie would bark while we were out, and therefore, she was left behind (thanks for keeping her, Gran and Poppa!). We sure missed her, though.

Vacation: A Beach Trip For Thanksgiving Break

The trio have been working incredibly hard this fall so we decided to take a quick trip down to the beach for a few days over Thanksgiving break. We really needed some time on the beach to play football, read, and dip our toes into the Gulf. 

Due to Hurricane Michael, we were unable to stay in our usual town(s) and instead opted for something low key in Destin. We had very intermittent Internet and cellular service (due to tower damage), but the emerald coast is still stunning! We settled into a lazy routine of enjoying the breakfast bar, spending the morning lounging on the beach, breaking for lunch and maybe an errand, and then spending the afternoon on the beach. The trio read a LOT (Lauren read 1.5 books), and they played a lot of football, volleyball and badminton. Due to some warmer than usual temps, they were able to take a dip in the pool one day. There were lots of people in the Gulf, but the trio opted to stay in knee deep water. 

We purchased Trivial Pursuit to do research for a project Grace is working on for school, and we spent an evening in the lobby with a heated game. Grace won, but we were close on her heels. George  - unassisted - was the reigning champion of Uno. We also made good use of the hotel's outdoor fire pit. 

We walked along the boardwalk and looked at boats, and we did a little shopping.  

By our last day, we were completely relaxed, and we are looking forward to our next trip.  

House Day

These two Ravenclaws were decked out for House Day at school. Also, Lauren was super excited to win the class spelling bee and qualify for the school-wide competition in a few weeks. 

November Snow

For the first time in my lifetime, we had snow in November. Granted, this was only a "dusting" and not measurable, but it's still noteworthy.  

Lauren was especially livid that they had to go to school, although we explained that school closures are based solely on road safety. Clearly, the roads were fine, but she was still outraged.  While she loves school, she loves snow more.  

2018 Fall Pics

So once a year, I beg and bribe the beautiful children into fall photos. This year we had to really make it work to find the right day to capture the right lighting.  We were able to coax a few smiles and laughs out of the trio, and they enjoyed getting to run round on some hills. 

Fun fact: We have "borrowed" a few minutes on some farm land that is in our neighborhood for the past couple of years' photos. This land is home to turkeys, deer and lots of other animals. Accordingly, we have to slow down when we pass "the meadow" in the car to check for deer each morning at dawn and each evening at dusk. Every now and then, we see a deer mid-day. The trio always remind us to "slow down for the meadow"!  

Fall 2018