Thanksgiving Feast

We had quite the meal at our house, enjoying all the usual favorites, including a turkey cooked by Mommy. The kids sat together at the adjoining "kids table".

While the adults relaxed around the fireplace, the kids played football on the tiny front yard. The girls won... the boys were mad ...

Then, Jillian entertained everyone by playing numerous songs on her bass.

Waiting for Turkey

Waiting for Thanksgiving has been tough ... so the girls snuggled up next to the fireplace to read.

The Bass

Not sure if Jillian could have picked a bigger instrument. She finally got to bring it home for practice because of the long Thanksgiving weekend. She's been practicing constantly, doing "name that tune" with us.

Early Start to Christmas

Even though we've been telling the kids to focus on Thanksgiving, we have been doing a few Christmas things ahead of time to get ready, such as making rings ...

A Good Citizen

Bridget was recently recognized at a school assembly with an Honor & Good Citizenship Award.

Neighbor Sleepover

The neighbor girls Hazel and Ila came over Friday night for a sleepover with Jillian and Bridget (Tor hung out with Daddy, playing the Switch). They had pizza for dinner, then did a craft project of making a fall bouquet (with Tor joining them).

Then, they stayed up late watching shows in the family room.

Soccer Party

Soccer ended several weeks ago for Jillian, though her team practiced and played until last week. They finally had an end of season party of bowling and pizza. Jillian was sad it was over.

These pics are from her last game. She had about 5 shots on the goal, but they just missed.

Dedication?

It was raining but at least not too cold outside. Every time Jillian comes, she goes outside to practice her volleyball. She starts by serving into the second story wall and then passes it to the wall and then sets it up. With daylight savings it makes it almost dark too. Then inside she does some of the drills that Julie gave her to do inside. 

 It doesn't matter what the weather is to keep Tor inside. He was out for a long time and it got really dark but he kept going between soccer kicks and shooting baskets. By the time he came inside, I had him strip and put on dry clothes.

Bridget was having none of this rain and was content to stay inside and work on her many projects. Jillian and Bridget made cards to congratulate Rielee on making it to state volleyball so after dinner we took them to Rielee and visited for awhile. Lots of volleyball talk!

Christmas is Coming!

After school all 3 played outside until dark and then came in for dinner. After dinner they were all in the computer room and I checked and they were giving a school lesson to Tor. Next time I checked it was dark and they were all dancing to Christmas music they found on the computer. I joined them for a dance and got in my exercise then left them to dance. They found some pretty good rocking Christmas music on the computer. This went on for a long time. I would guess they are getting in the Christmas spirit a little early. Darn, I should have taken a picture of all the good dance moves!

Active Beach Day

The weather cleared, so we spent pretty much the entire day outside being active. First up was 4-square on the street, where we spent much of the game arguing with Jillian about the rules.

Next, we went to the park and played a soccer game. Boys beat the girls 6-4, so Tor was happy.

Then we went to the beach and drove until we found a huge 100 foot tree washed up.

Jillian set up a court, and we played a no-net volleyball game. Girls beat the boys 15-12, so Tor was unhappy.

We finally settled down around the firepit, followed by a game of Sorry and a movie.

Rainy Day Games

It was a wet one today, so we stayed inside and played card and board games (UNO, Game of Life, Quelf and Dragonwood). Tor kept score of the wins for boys vs. girls ... and boys were winning, so he was happy.

Snuggling Siblings

The kids still refuse to sleep upstairs (either because of the dark, or spiders, or ...), so they sleep all together on the inflatable mattress downstairs. It can get silly for awhile, but eventually they do go to sleep.

Club Volleyball Player

Tonight was the team reveal for the 12-U Cowlitz Aces Volleyball Club, and Jillian found out she was on the "Pahtoe" team (or second team), which means Power League tournaments. She didn't know many girls, but she was excited about where she ended up, and she can't wait to get started.

Reverse Referral

Torion received a "Reverse Referral" from his 1st grade teacher Mr. Wells, which is a positive recognition award for doing well in class. Mr. Wells had many very nice things to say about Tor. (The pic is with his principal, Mr. Mendenhall.)

Club Volleyball Tryouts

Jillian spent most of Sunday at the 12-under tryouts for the Cowlitz Aces Volleyball Club. There were about 60 girls, and it was pretty much all skills evaluation. Jillian did pretty well. There's one more tryout night, and then we'll see how things go.

Bad Kitty and George Beard

In lieu of Halloween costumes, Olympic Elementary asks students to dress as their favorite book character. Bridget chose Bad Kitty, and Tor chose George Beard (from the Captain Underpants books).

The Best Part of Bridget

Bridget wrote a paper at school titled "The Best Part of Me". To no one's surprise, she chose her mouth.

Halloween 2019

The kids collected a record amount of candy this year, which we will happily donate to Papa Ken. Jillian chose an inflatable costume this year (a safari guide riding on an ostrich), Bridget chose to be a beautiful Roman goddess, and Tor wanted to be a ninja ... probably so he could have more swords to fight with.

Like the last couple years, they teamed up with cousin Adam to trick-or-treat at the Fibre Federal administration building, with Auntie Greta leading the way. This is where the bulk of the treats came from.

After that, we met up with the neighbor girls Hazel and Ila, and toured the entire Lilac Street neighborhood. Probably only half of the houses were actually giving out candy ... the kids couldn't believe it.

Then, we started making the rounds around Longview, before heading up to Castle Rock to wrap it up.