Just a random slice

Theo's not really gender-aware yet, and with 3 sisters he sometimes gets caught up in some hilarious trends. Hairbows and headbands for everyone!

I was peeling a pomegranate for the kids in water and Ellie asked me, "Mom, why do the seeds sink but the pomegranate floats?" Great question! And I demonstrated floating a tangerine before and after taking off the peel. Turns out the peeling is very buoyant!

He loves to read. Loves it.

Yard work

We had an epic storm here this week and all the autumn leaves fell down (along with many many branches). Since it wasn't raining I decided to put us all to work!

Leaf blowing! Way too much fun.

The kids did this themselves, I pretty much just got the corners inward for them and let them go. The littles got to try too, but no pictures since I had to help them hold the blower :(

My audience. We have a very large bush on the side that gets a little wild, so I had them "direct" my cuttings from a safe distance.

Then we worked together to rake off the branches!

And put them in the can.

Stomp stomp!

Then we went for a walk! Everyone was tuckered out by the end.

Decorating the tree :)

Theo is hiding from bedtime. Do you see him?

Chris..what?

They were dressing up, a last lingering of Halloween.

Look at Lily rocking the "I know I'm cute" look.

Theo: "Stop photoing me Mom!"

Painting!

So, Lily got stuck with painty hands and no paper for a few minutes while I was swapping out for new paper. She handled her boredom with great ingenuity; just used a nearby medium instead! Many baths were had that day ;)

Christmas! Wait, I think we're missing something...! Family is coming to town this week and we're having Christmas before Thanksgiving this year so we can include them.

Avy's hushed response when I first turned on the lights: "Oh my gosh, it's beautiful!."

Ellie just wanted to lie under the tree and look up.

Lazy days

We're enjoying the ramp up to the holidays with some easy days. Here we were about to go run some errands; Avy is very patiently showing Lily how to zip up her jacket and letting her practice on her.

A stop for lunch! We got piroshkis, which didn't go over great but it was an exercise in them picking out their own food and requesting it directly from the lady.

Some playtime

After dinner candy. You can tell who didn't get any by the laser-focus on Ellie.

Daddy getting snuggles!

Dad's mid-way into his project of running power lines through the attic to the master bedroom. Here he's installing a conduit outside the house to get down to the breaker box.

Our wonderful friend Nikki came over to play with the kids. Theo is adopting her.

Avy too :)

#stuffElliesays

Ellie: "Sometimes Mom when you talk I get overrested."

Me: "Overrested? Is that like interested?"

Ellie: "Yea, that's when I have too much in my head and I can't think any more and I have to leave."

.... signs I might be lecturing too much...

We haven't done much recently

It's been a lounge-around-the-house week. But there's always cute moments.

Lily really wants to do everything herself now. I'm in no hurry, she can take her time. She's stubborn though, so when I pointed out that she had both legs in one leghole she refused to let me help her fix it. This is how she ended up shuffling around the house for 30 minutes (and face planting twice, I really shouldn't laugh).

My waders! Calf-high for me, hip-high for her.

She's a little mooch too. My breakfast is carefully calibrated to keep me running until 2 pm+ (the next chance I get to eat) and she's decided she's a big fan of rice/avocado/cheese/mushroom/egg/SO MUCH CAYENNE. She now pre-emptively gets herself a cup of water before staking out the chair next to me and asking me to "Share? Taste?". Yea yea girl, I get it, you're cute, have my food.

Theo is also a mooch, but he doesn't like cayenne. He steals my veggies instead. Here he swiped one of the dollhouse plates and placed his piece of broccoli on it before eating it. He was so proud.

Plastic teddy bears in bowls with ladles. Best game ever. They share back and forth; Lily asks for this first thing every morning.

Theo didn't finish his dinner so he didn't get to eat any Halloween candy. Ellie gave him her candy wrapper to smell. I can't tell if she was being nice or evil....

Hey there cool dude.

Weird weather

As I mentioned, it's been cold here. We've been spending a lot of time camped indoors, but that hasn't been a chore with Daddy here (day in question was Sunday).

A snapshot of our new world - everyone playing happily together!

Theo looks a lot like Dave now with his matching haircut.

Lily: "Me! Me!"

Daddy making a fire.

Daddy has an ambitious project to hang a TV in the master bedroom. It's ambitious because there's no cabling on the wall in question and the breaker box is on the catty-corner of the house.

Therefore, we must investigate the attic! Crawl space, really, full of lovely insulation (good for weather like this, bad for crawling).

The kids were baffled. Why would you do that? And also, can we go too?

Daddy showing the kids his scouting video.

Babies went down for a nap, Daddy went back into the attic, and the snow began to fall.

And fall. Here's Ellie snuggled in front of the fire while an inch of snow drops in an hour. Goodness.