Run, run, as fast as you can...

One of the boys' favorite books is "The Gingerbread Man" - I read it almost daily to Nile. For a few weeks he's been asking to make his own Gingerbread Man. So, we bought some premade gingerbread dough (even I know when to let Pillsbury take over) and borrowed some cookie cutters from my mom. Today, since we had to stay home for the morning (cousin Emily came for a visit), we decided to do it!

Step 1: Roll out dough and select your shape.


Step 2: Bounce excitedly as your brother gets to cut out a cookie. Ask ten times if it's your turn yet. Switch places with your brother. Repeat 10 times.


Step 3. Watch mom put cookies in oven. Ask her 15 times if they are done yet.
Step 4. Watch mom take the cookies out of the oven. Ask her 10 times if they are cool yet.
Step 5. Ask mom again when they will be ready to decorate. Get frustrated when mom tells you we don't have the ingredients to make royal icing.
Step 6. Send mom to the corner store (i.e. gas station) for powdered sugar.
Step 7. Watch mom make icing. Ask her 5 times why the egg yolks don't go into the icing.

Step 8. Finally! Decorate the cookies!


Step 9. Ask mom 50 times when you can eat the cookies. Sigh when she says not until after naptime.


Step 10. Eat a cookie and pronounce it the "greatest cookie ever."

I suppose I'd have to agree. They do look pretty festive, don't they?

Missouri in November

This weekend we took a trip to Missouri for my aunt's 50th wedding anniversary. The boys got two nights in a hotel, swimming, three nap-free days (yikes), lots of playing, and lots of car time. Tom and I got to "enjoy" three days of driving (over 800 miles and 17 hours total), three nap-free days (did I already mention that), and two cranky boys, but we did still have fun.

I don't have pictures from my aunt's party (I left the camera in the car), but I do have pictures from the park in Clinton we played at before heading off to the party. It was over 60 degrees and sunny, the most beautiful weather.

I have the three cutest boys in the whole world!


I just love the expression on Nate's face in this one...


Nile, as usual, enjoyed going over the "bridges."

Introducing...Brown Bear

Let me introduce Brown Bear. Brown Bear is Nathan's preschool "Indian" name.
(I cringe even to type it, I'd rather say "Native American," but I feel I should stick with what Nate and his teachers were calling it).

Oh, and by the way - that's not red paint on his nose. He hit his nose with the lid of his laptop last week...

Today we attended Nate's preschool Thanksgiving Feast and program. Again this year I continue to be amazed at the improvement Nate is making. At last year's program he stood with the group and, well, just stood there. This year, he participated! Yippee!

Here are a few photos I thought I'd share.

The class singing one of the songs. (Nate is on the right side of the photo)


The boys go to do a little drumming while the girls dance.


The boys then got to dance while the girls played the drums.


After the program the families got to eat a special Thanksgiving meal that the class helped prepare. Vegetable soup, cornbread, applesauce, chocolate chip bars, and apple juice. Nate proudly informed me that he "dumped the corn into the soup!"

It was a good morning.

Festival of Trees Parade

Today the boys, my mom, and I went to the Festival of Trees parade for the first time. I had never been to this parade, but had seen it on TV last year. We made sure to get there early (about a half hour before the parade was scheduled to start) so that we would be able to find a spot. Even then, we had some trouble - but we were able to find a place between some lawnchairs. I hope the people around us weren't angry - nobody said anything at least.

We parked ourselves on the curb and began the agonizing process of waiting. Yeah, a whole 20 minutes. You would have thought it was 20 hours.



To entertain themselves, the boys did some jumping.



Mom did her best to entertain them...



Nile found a stick on the street. Oh, and he found some broken glass too...


And more waiting...


Finally, the parade started! A few favorites: the John Deere balloon, the Curious George balloon, the skating Santa balloon, and the John Deere tractors set up like reindeer pulling a sleigh. The front one even had a red light for a nose!





Afterwards, Nate said his favorite part was the fire trucks and the bands. Here he is seeing a band coming down the street. ;)

Nile said his favorite was the balloons, although I can't say that during the parade any one thing was more exciting to him than another. He was actually pretty quiet. Although every time a group of uniformed servicemen went by, he pointed them out to me.

Counting the Loot

This is mine, and this is mine, and this is mine...


Hmmm...Are you sure this is everything?

Tricks or Treats?

It was a truly awesome Halloween. First, the boys got to spend the morning with Grandma and Papa while Tom and I watched the strangest Iowa Hawkeye football game I have ever seen. But...in the end, the Hawks are 9-0, Nate and Nile got to spend some quality time with my parents trick-or-treating in downtown Geneseo.

We got home from the game about 4:30 and immediately started getting ready for the "real" trick-or-treating that had started at 4 pm. By 4:45 kids were out on the street and ringing our doorbell, and the boys were almost ready to go.


We met the first of the neighborhood kids at our house, and then we set off! The beautiful thing about a small neighborhood is we only had about 10 houses to visit, and it was just enough! (according to me and Tom...I think Nate had other ideas!)





After we returned to the house the boys counted their loot while we all watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"