November in a nutshell

When one is months behind on her blog, she then crams in several activities into one blog post.  November was a little laidback but still full of activities.


On one of our Tuesday fun days we met up with some of our school friends at Discovery Green.

You see Dora was coming, and everyone was in a frenzy.  And since it was free, a crowd had formed to greet her.

Annie's mom, Katherine, put on her daughter's Halloween mask to get in the mood.

And then she came!  I think the head piece was a little unstable as Dora had to hold her chin the entire time.

They start singing songs and dancing, and I look up and see my son trying to see what's in her mouth.  He kept saying she wasn't real (just wait until my Santa post) and wanted to prove it.

I'm sorry I captured this in a photo and THEN went to admonish my son.  I laugh every time I see this.  Such a boy, but definitely not a gentleman!

Then the kids went on a Dora adventure.  The last two days Justin has decided to walk, instead of ride his bike, around the block with me.  And we have finished the walk with our own creative Dora adventure.  Today we went through the chocolate milk river, to the oreo trail, and ended up at the chocolate castle.

Instead of staying in line to take a photo with the celebrity, Justin got one with her better side.

We then lunched in the shade (the day had once again gotten warmer than expected).

As we were walking out, Justin wanted to play in the water.  Though it was warmer, it was only 72 degrees.

I happened to have an outfit in the car, size 3T, that we changed into later (no underwear though).

He had a blast, and eventually got John, Anna, Annie, & Maggie in the wet as well.

It was fun day after all.

We had the privilege of being invited to Ethan's birthday party.  It was at Baseball USA, Derek's old stomping grounds when he would give lessons during the off season.  It was a Texas Rangers' theme, and all the Browns were decked out.

The guy hired to do the party no-showed, so the 7/8 year old boys played a game.  Justin and Braden loved watching the big boys.  Justin was mesmerized.

Smiles with the birthday boy

Landon, who was in PreK last year at our school, was there with his older brother.  Justin would talk about Landon all the time last year.  Now was his big chance to play as besties.

We played on this contraption for a long time.  It was a fun way to practice fast movement and my shutter speed.

Justin in the thick of singing happy birthday with the big boys.  Don't think he realizes how much younger he is.  He loves Ethan, so it was a treat to be included!

Nutcracker weekend came and went.  I went solo for the first time ever on Friday, thanks to Shane babysitting.  Then Elise and Aaron came in town for the weekend.  Saturday morning Derek, Aaron, and Shane went out to Lochinvar and Justin went with us girls to vamp up the Target registry.  He loved using that gun, maybe too much thanks to some deletions.  We then dropped Justin off to finish golf with the big boys and Elise and I went and had fun.

We went to Pickles and Ice Cream to find shower dresses.  This print and color was my face, thought it didn't make the cut,  Well, since this round of the shots was once again a no-go and I am not pregnant, guess I have to hope it will still be around in 2088 or something.  :-)  We then went to Elise's first Nutcracker Market ever, and I think we have something to drive into town for now every year.

Justin was asked to create a Thanksgiving wreath without help from the folks.  The stickers were whatever we had in the drawer.  So he drew his family and lots of gray long-limbed friends and a story about loving family Uno that we play at night.  We keep score and so far Justin is killing both Derek and I. 

I had the privilege of being one of four moms who helped out at the school Thanksgiving Feast.  I did not know we were putting on a puppet show.  I was Pilgrim Man, and it was hilarious listening to the kids say that was Justin's mom.  Guess I need to practice my theater skills more often!