I was all set to blog about our big Halloween draft, because that’s how we started November, but then I remembered I included that in October’s post.
And just in case anyone thinks we are mean for making our kids combine all their candy and then draft out only 20 pieces, we probably are, but Lizza hasn’t realized it yet:
Also, she has mastered her delayed gratification skills this year – just a few days ago she was counting her remaining Halloween candy that she’s saved, and she still had 18 pieces. So she’s only eaten 2 in more than a month. I was pretty impressed (I’ve eaten way more than that, even though technically I didn’t even draft any, because my big plan was to not eat any. Ha!)
Henry was also happy with the draft, even though he is still young and confused enough to choose a green gummy lifesaver for his first pick. He had big plans for saving all his candy for a long time, but they all fell through, and he finished it up a few weeks ago.
In other November news, here is Cynthia setting up all her Avenger guys in a princess castle. I love how Black Widow is taking a nap on the bed while Hulk is either relaxing up there on the balcony or Hulk smashing – it’s hard to tell. 
We also had one last football game for the boys in November. 
They played really well, but ended up losing, which was sad. It also rained a ton throughout the game.
Rachel and Elizabeth finished their 10-week gymnastics class that had started in September. This is their second time taking this class – they did a little 10-week course a year ago, also. The first time they loved it, but didn’t really improve that much. This year Rachel really became passionate about it, and she improved so much! They’re still at a very basic level, but it’s been such a fun class for them.
Here she is working on her backbends – she can do one all by herself now if she has someone spotting her. 
Lizza trying her best to master the bridge position:
At the beginning of the class Rachel couldn’t do a cartwheel, and she was determined to finally learn (that was her big sadness last year – that she still couldn’t do one by the end of the class). She practiced and practiced and finally got it, and now she does cartwheels everywhere and all the time.
I love that they can be in the same class. 
And this is how you can usually find Rachel now: 
Lizza with her fancy Thanksgiving turkey we had to make for school. She was a little nervous when I started using pencils for feathers (she kept saying, Mom, are you sure you know what you’re doing?), but once we got the flowers and shells on there she felt better: 
And Rachel with her “Molly’s Pilgrim” clothespin doll. This was another “family” project (like Lizza’s turkey), where the family (meaning Mom) is supposed to help make it. I was going to say I don’t remember having homework like that when I was a kid, but then I remembered my mom sewing an awesome Helen Keller outfit for an ice-cream scoop doll. Unfortunately my girls are stuck with a mom with no sewing skills (or sewing machine), so we make do with a lot of hot glue. I think both girls were worried I wasn’t going to help them out or do it right, because they acted so surprised and relieved when I finally did. 
Also the week before Thanksgiving was “dress like a character in a book” day for Lizza’s kindergarten class. Here is Fancy Nancy Lizza: 
This is what the first day of Thanksgiving break looked like at our house:
Henry at the computer, the older kids drawing/projecting:
Cynthia dressing up magnet dolls:
Mom doing yoga, and then some lizard catching (if you look closely you can see the little gecko on Cindy’s arm): 
We had really beautiful weather on Thanksgiving. Daniel took Tristan and Oliver to play flag football with a bunch of people in our ward, and the rest of us headed off to the park:
I love the big tree with the leaves changing colors – it made me feel like it was really Fall, which was nice, because the seasons in Texas are sometimes hard to distinguish. 
We decided to stick with our new (starting last year) tradition of a fondue feast on Thanksgiving, instead of the traditional turkey. We did the full three courses (cheese, broth for meat and veggies, and chocolate) spread out throughout the day, and everyone was happy all day long. 
We also had lots of pie so it would still feel Thanksgiving-ish.
The kids’ favorite course – strawberries, banana, fresh pineapple, donut holes, and marshmallows dipped in creamy chocolate: 
That night I let the girls read in my bed while Daniel and I watched football out in the family room with Tristan and Oliver. Rachel loved how cozy it felt, but then she got a little too cozy and fell asleep after about 5 minutes. 
Here she is a few nights later – she fell asleep again, this time in the middle of turning her page. 
Maybe she could have stayed awake longer if she had been reading up in the fort that she and Lizza built over Thanksgiving break.
They were very proud of their fort; I’m not sure how this worked, but somehow it was a kind of school, too (?).
And they were the teachers, and Henry and Cindy were the students, and there were all these rules and codes and secret fort meetings, etc. Lizza told me they were getting Henry ready for kindergarten, so he would know how to behave. She wrote down all their fort rules on a big piece of paper:
- no Runing
- no Wildness
- listen to the leader
- only talk when your leader tells you to
- no violence
- be a Respectful
- be honest
- be cheerful
- no quiting activities
- no bothering people
- be frends
- Rass Your Hand When You Wont to talk
- stay in line Right
- no talking back
I think I would like to adopt all of these rules for the whole house. That would be really great. No wildness! No bothering people! No talking back!
You might remember this video of Henry, back when he first fell in love with Brandon Flowers and the Killers. I could watch him sing that song over and over again. They have a new album out now, and I guess it makes good puzzle-working music, too:
And speaking of puzzles, Cynthia is still following strong in Henry’s footsteps. She used to just do her wooden state and letter puzzles over and over again, but we have another wooden animal one and a bunch of the cardboard 25-piecers that I taught her how to do, and she is in heaven. These puzzles are out all day every day. 
My sisters will be happy to see that she inherited my “stick your tongue out when you’re concentrating really hard” gene. 
Some Cindy Lou puzzle cuteness:
And some non-puzzle related Cindy cuteness. She decided to branch out while the camera was on her and create some drama by making up stories about Henry (and Daniel) being rude to her. She also throws in a mention of her crush, my little brother David:
She and Henry are so funny to watch together. They have hilarious conversations all the time, because Cynthia loves to act like she is Henry’s same age. Here is an actual conversation I wrote down the other day.
C (to Henry): You’re really annoying at me. Be like Jesus at me. Gosh!
C (to me): How does Jesus be like?
C(again to Henry): I’m sooo funny. I’m just doing puzzles. I’m sooo excited about my puzzles.
H (to me and Cindy): What if we didn’t have a house? We could just live in the rainforest – like gorillas! Because gorillas don’t eat humans, so that’s good. Wait – do gorillas eat humans? (he recently saw some of Congo, so it was a valid concern) Do they hurt humans? Okay, we can just live in the park then, with no gorillas. And then the nice thing would be we could wear our shoes in our house, because you know – poison ivy!
C: Yeah, we don’t eat cinnamon (somehow she thought Henry was talking about gorillas eating cinnamon, not humans).
Me: What are you talking about?
C: Henry says gorillas don’t eat cinnamon. I just know about things.
C: Henry, stop eating with your legos! (he was holding legos in his hand while he ate his lunch). That’s really gross!
She still takes breaks from her puzzles to do lots of set-ups. She disappeared up into the playroom for a really long time the other day, and when I went upstairs to check on her, this is what I found – she was dumping out the toy buckets one by one and then doing elaborate set-ups with all the toys. I kind of want her to stay this age forever, even though I know I really don’t. 
We are all getting excited for Christmas around here. We’re going to be out of town for half of December, so I didn’t get a tree this year, but I did pull this plant out of my room and put lights on it and decorate it, which the kids were all happy about. And Cindy is of course not touching it, because she knows that’s against the rules – she is “smelling it”, which really means she is putting her whole face all over the leaves and ornaments, but she somehow thinks it is a brilliant way of getting around the no touching rule. She has knocked off several ornaments while saying, “but Mom, I am just smelling it!” (I would understand if it was a real Christmas tree, because even I can’t resist how those smell, but this is a fake plant that I’m sure smells like plastic and dust, so she is for sure faking it.) 
Oliver and Rachel doing homework at the table, with snowflakes hanging from the ceiling (to help us remember it’s winter, since it’s 80 degrees outside. Not that I’m complaining). 
The end.
