Fun in the Sun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break in Florida. Emma still gets confused as to whether we are headed to MN or FL when we get on a plane, and we were all thankful to be headed to the warm temps and water views in Cape Coral this time.

We had the most beautiful weather! We enjoyed beach time at Captiva, and the girls quickly assumed some of their favorite activities.

 Cabana Girls!

 They had the best time boogie boarding. The water was so beautiful and calm, so they rode the low-key waves and loved it.

Emma was proud of the coconut she found. She tried with all her might to throw it out to sea, but it kept washing back to shore! Grandpa helped her hurl it out there.

 These two enjoyed the sunset, and then of course we all sang "Day is Done".

I love stress-free vacay time with this guy.

 Of course there has to be a pic of one of the *many* tropical delicacies we enjoyed throughout the week. All calorie-free, of course. Not pictured: the rum bucket something-or-another that we shared at one point.

 My favorite beach crew!

 After lots of beach and pool time, the girls slept hard in their "suite" at G & G's condo.

 We saw Todd's FL band, The Tap Monkeys, play at Scotty's Beirworks. Lots of fun to hear them play. We also visited the beach spot they play at on Sundays on Ft. Myers Beach. Patrons literally sit with their toes in the sand while listening to music and drinking a cold one. Who can argue with that?  I love seeing my parents so happy and enjoying the good life!

 And here's my whole heart in one pic:

 I had to snap this picture of the girls swapping secrets under their towels. After this moment, they spent a good hour building a fort, making up "routines" in the pool, playing, eating snacks, and laughing together. Totally made my Thanksgiving!

 We overlapped with Melissa and Adam for less than 24 hours, but it was great nonetheless. We surprised Melissa with birthday candles in the pumpkin pie!

It was so hard to leave after such a great week, but the to-do list at home is plenty long before we go back to school Monday. Today I hit the grocery store and tackled ALL the laundry, then we headed outside to decorate the house for Christmas. It was beautiful outside today, and tomorrow is supposed to get cool and windy, so today was the day. This year we bought a second tree and we put it up today, too. We will still have our old tree in our traditional spot (I proposed moving it but nobody liked that idea) and now a second one in a front window. "Clark" in action ...

And the finished product!

We'll finish decorating inside tomorrow. This year, I have one of G Lou's nativity scene weavings to hang. It's a bittersweet honor. Looking forward to having our home decorated as we celebrate my favorite season!

Thanksgiving Break

When we started school back in early August, Thanksgiving break felt so far away ... and now here we are! The last couple of weeks have been packed with - among all the other things - a soccer tournament, cheer, l-o-n-g hours at work, and a little furniture shopping as it's time to update some spaces.

A few Sundays ago, we actually found ourselves with a quiet afternoon so the girls and I had a little date to Paint 'n Party and Henry's ice cream. Emma decided to make her painting project for her teacher.

 Both girls spent a long time painting to perfection!

 Henry's has the best ice cream in Plano.

 This past week, the girls had field day at their school. Many activities had to be moved inside because of cool morning temps, though it was beautiful by the afternoon. I'm not a fan of fall field day, but the girls had a blast, of course. I pulled these pics off of their teachers' pages and obviously didn't bother to crop them.

 Steve is a great field day volunteer. This year, he made the school's FB page!

Tomorrow is laundry and packing day, and Sunday we're off to Florida for a beach Thanksgiving! We've had cold weather this week (as in below freezing, not just "Texas cold"), so the warm sunshine will feel great. Really, though, I'm just looking forward to - and very grateful for - a get-away and some R & R with family. Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Fun

October flew by and Halloween was here before we knew it! Luckily we had purchased costumes earlier in the month, but I waited so long to buy pumpkins that I had to make multiple stops to find some good ones. We always have a fun time carving our pumpkins and listening to Halloween music.

The girls separated the seeds from the slime so I could roast them for us to munch on.

 As Steve said, we went with "the classics" this year.

On Halloween, the girls' school always has book character dress up day. Sara's costume was a legit book character, but Emma really wanted to be a nurse (and I wasn't doing two separate costumes for her), so we found a book that worked with her costume. Sara's teacher was kind to snap pics for me!

 In sticking with the theme of our fall, it poured rain all day on Halloween. Luckily, it lightened up significantly and then went away altogether right around trick-or-treat time!

 Best part is always assessing the loot and test-testing.

 Everyone was tired Thursday and Friday, but it was a small price to pay for a fun Halloween. I still think we should just officially move Halloween to always be on a Saturday. It's hard to believe that now, we just have two weeks of school until Thanksgiving break. We'll be packing for Florida soon!

Rainy October

I think it's been the rainiest October (and September, too) ever in North Texas. Until this weekend, nearly every weekend has been a rain out, and may weekdays, too. Most of our soccer games have been moved indoors, although tomorrow's make-up game should happen under sunny skies. In other October news, the Cyclones have gone 3-0 (with a bye week), and we love it. When I told Emma we wouldn't be able to go to today's alumni group game-watch and she responded with disappointment, my cardinal & gold heart swelled with pride.

A couple of weeks ago, the girls had bike rodeo at school. I think it was the only day that week it didn't rain, thankfully! Sara was very serious about the whole event, apparently. I'm proud of this girl - she stepped out of her comfort zone and ran for student council this year, and was elected to represent her class!

 I guess I could have cropped these photos that I pulled off of their teachers' sites, but I don't feel like going back to do that now. Emma was pretty thrilled to be one of only a few kindergartners without training wheels at bike rodeo. She is still loving kinder, and has been super excited about her daily reading homework. 

We had a day off in early October, so I got in a special date with the girls. We went to Jump Street at their request, followed by a late lunch at The Lazy Dog. Even though it was sprinkling (and sunny - weird), we enjoyed lunch on the covered patio surrounded by butterflies and other peoples' pups. 

 My parents recently drove through on their way (sort of) to Florida for the winter. We were thankful for a day of sunshine while they were here, and even enjoyed a backyard day (the girls tested the pool but it was cold after lots of cool rain - earlier that week, the high had been 40 ... so crazy in October!).

School lunch with G & G never gets old. It's fun that the girls' lunch times overlap by 15 minutes this year, so they all got to eat together for a bit.

 I thought the girls looked so cute in Grandpa's glasses. Luckily they don't need their own yet.

Of course we had to have dinner at Ojeda's while they were here, and my mom and I couldn't pass up the Halloween margarita. It was delish. The guys went for the traditional variety, but were probably jealous of ours.

 And everyone enjoyed the eyeball souvenir. Lots of "Captain Ron" references ... but we watched "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" instead!

Since we can't pass up a good marketing ploy (thanks, Target), we had to buy and decorate a Halloween haunted house. Coming soon, a very similar looking gingerbread house, I'm sure.

 I just got back from 5th grade camp, which was great as always. We had rain and cold and LOTS of mud (which the kids thought was awesome), but one night we had this amazing sky. So peaceful and beautiful. This year was especially fun because at campfire, our teacher skit ended with a pregnancy announcement for one of the 5th grade teachers, and the kids were thrilled!

 I canoed with multiple groups of students and we only ended up in the reeds a few times. Many of our students have never had a camping (or even vacation) experience, and it's so fun to watch them enjoy the outdoors. On one of my rounds, I had a group of boys who had never been in a boat, and they wanted to canoe with me because - in their words - "Mrs. Brittain won't let us die." The ended up being sad when our time was up!

 While I was at camp, the girls had their Color Run at school. Steve said Emma sprinted the whole thing because she thought it was a legit race, and Sara ran hard but with her friends. Looks like they had a great time!

We're looking forward to a fun Halloween and an eventful November!

Tailgate Fun

We had so much fun with our DFW Cyclones yesterday at TCU. We packed up coolers, and after Sara was done with cheer at noon, we headed across town to the tailgate.

 The rain came in and out for a while, but didn't last long and didn't stop our fun. At one point we were kicking ourselves for not bringing the tent, but luckily once the hard rain passed, the sun came out and everything dried up quickly.

 We played games, grilled hot dogs, walked around and visited, listened to music, and just enjoyed the afternoon together.

 I took this picture before many more cars joined the lot. It was a pretty large and very festive Cyclones-only tailgate at a high school parking lot about a mile from the stadium. Of course many of the tailgaters were part of our DFW alumni group, but there were plenty of cars from Iowa, Missouri, Arizona, and many other states. A little piece of Ames in Fort Worth!

Forced family time ... and everyone actually enjoyed it.

 There was a great Cyclones contingent at the game. We were loud and proud, even though it was a disappointing 17-14 loss. Still fun to see our team in person and to celebrate with fellow alums. I also have to give props to my kids, who were excellent contributors to our cheering section. If nothing else, we've accomplished turning them into ISU fans!

We got home last night about 11:00 - tired and happy. The girls both decided that tailgating is super fun, and we're all looking forward to heading back to TCU in February when the basketball team comes to town. Proud to be part of CyclONEnation!

The Stand

For a while now (and I wish I could say how long but I can't), Emma has been really into running a "stand". She sets up on the piano bench and offers various services. Once in a while, the stand spreads so far that it takes over the entire room, so we clear it out while she's in bed or something ... but she's persistent and it's never long before the stand is back up and running.

The stand has provided services such as hair and make-up, drawing pictures, doing math, and serving water. Sometimes we have to pay for services, and other times we get homemade coupons. Emma rotates through the three of us, asking us to come to her stand. Once in a great while, she convinces Sara to run the stand with her - that's a real feat, but it especially warms my heart when Sara plays along semi-willingly. Usually Emma's just happy to find a ready customer. I love her creativity and her entrepreneurial spirit. Hopefully it pays off big time someday!

Book Talk

Jhumpa Lahiri writes amazing short stories. Many years ago, I loved her Interpreter of Maladies, so I knew I would also love Unaccustomed Earth. She's such a gifted writer, and her characters feel so real. Unaccustomed Earth is made up of stories that are a lot about family, but mostly about love - love that came to be through arranged marriage, love that was forbidden, love that could never be, love that wasn't meant to be... It's all in there, and since this is a book of short stories, you're always left wanting more. My only complaint is that I wanted lots of happier endings.

 Tell the Wolves I'm Home is about a teenage girl in the mid-80's who has to grapple with her uncle's death from AIDS. It's the thing nobody wants to talk about, and she searches for connection with someone as she mourns the loss of her very best friend. This book really explores the intricacy of family relationships when controversy is involved, and it tackles the ultra-taboo issues surrounding a disease that was largely unspeakable in the 80's. Meanwhile, the author also does an amazing job of portraying high school angst and a family at odds.

"'You seemed so far away,' Miss Honey whispered, awestruck.

'Oh, I was. I was flying past the stars on silver wings,' Matilda said. 'It was wonderful.'"

-Roald Dahl, Matilda