Hmm let’s see… November… AMERICAN Thanksgiving, a visit from Nana and Baba, full on fall weather, school, the beginning of the Christmas countdown. Because Nana and Baba were there in the right time frame we also saw Santa which you can read about in a previous post.

Beach towels from their travels

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Not only did Nana and Baba take over the cooking and make a full on turkey dinner BUT the Novaks also joined us! The kids were beyond excited to have the 4 boys over and we adults had a great visit.

Echo chose our seasonally coloured cake. I baked it.

And the twins decorated it.

Ken and I snuck off after Thanksgiving for basically a second honeymoon. For the first time in over 12 years we went out overnight WITHOUT kids. We went to a B and B that Karyn and I had visited previously in Wisconsin (different room). We hung out in our awesome room.

Went out for a delicious dinner at an old mill.

Dressed up for a dinner out.

Shopped at an amazing yarn place.

AND drove out of our way to an even more amazing wool place.

Oh yah I spent a little

We even stopped in at a brewery for a tasting for Ken.

And visited the capital building.

It was AMAZING.

ALMOST like back home.

It really was as good as people say!

Breakfast

Wisconsin = cheese of course

NAP

The weather went from sundresses and sunshine to snow and snowboots.

We spent plenty of quality time at the YMCA.

And Ken and I went to an open house at Shandai and Ravyn’s new digs.

We found time for Home Depot.

Crocheted in spare moments.

Cat butt coasters!

Fingerless dragonscale gloves.

Hats for cats!

The girls had their nails done by Nana.

And the twins pitched in with some baking.

We decorated our tree. 

And watched our local black squirrel run our yard like a boss.

Can you believe we even found time for schooling. 

Prepping the Christmas countdown paper chain.

And a visit with the Schwartz family!

A trip to IKEA had us well lit and the girls in new beds. 

November went by in a blink of an eye. But it was a fun blink!

Christmas decorations at the YMCA

Annnnnd on we go. April… Well of course April is Trinity’s birthday – 8 this year! You can read all about her special celebrations HERE. She is growing up so quickly… they all are!

We made if over to the Novaks in April as well. I swear I take more pictures of pets than kids when we are there though. Snoopy the cat is way too much fun to photograph.

I think we would live at the YMCA. I know we BASICALLY did over the summer. (oooh spoilers) I figure if we are to be gifted a membership by Nana and Baba we better make it worth their money! So lots and lots of pool fun over our spring this year.

We are also getting in a lot of together time, often on my bed. Which is just fine. Planning school, crocheting, hanging out together. It is so special. 

Of course we made it to the Home Depot free Saturday. 

And spent some lovely time with Nana and Baba during their time up from Florida.

The big kids even had a field trip to a radio station!

And best of all – fun trip to the zoo with our new homeschool buds!!! You can read all about it HERE

April was a mix of warm and cool weather but with so much fun going on I don’t think anyone minded. 

And at a fairly brisk pace for once! I am determined to hit current BEFORE 2017 begins. Let’s see – March – creeping up on spring weather, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, my brother and my dad’s birthday month. Wow, thinking back that is quite the list of special days for our family.

Easter is always a bit of a deal. The girls get new dresses and hats if we can manage it. We go to church as a family, take photos, have a nice dinner… OH and the Easter baskets. This year we did our own egg hunt as well. The weather was far from perfect so we did it indoors. You just have to make it work, right?

At church

Baskets

Egg hunt

We had a fun and rather special craft… dragon eggs. Styrofoam and thumb tacks. All thanks to Nana. Even Echo got in on the fun, though then you had to glue down a few extra tacks to make sure nothing comes loose. 

We decorated traditional/conventional eggs as well.

Of course we did our monthly free Home Depot project.

Emanuel and I had to miss the scout’s mom and son dance so instead we went out to Mom and Son ONLY lunch at Dairy Queen! Talk about fun! 

Emanuel did make it to his Scout field trip to a police station. 

We actually had a few good crafts this March. Marshmallow and toothpick structures.

And making more relaxation bottles using glitter and glitter glue. Sparkle Sparkle!

We even managed to get in a visit with the Novaks. 

And spent plenty of time at the YMCA.

Post swim curls

Celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a themed lunch.

All in all a good month. This has really been a pretty good year as we look back!