Thanksgiving and Family Photos

We flauted the covid guidance and had a massive Cole Thanksgiving dinner and party. (To our knowledge nobody got covid from the gathering.) We did do the eating part outside. The weather cooperated and it was in the upper 60's and beautiful- Thank you Texas! Afterwards while playing games inside we did wear masks. It was fun to be back with the big group for Thanksgiving!

 

Funny Leona

Just a few of the many selfies that Leona takes every time she gets her hot little hands on a phone.

I was facetiming with Jacob and Leona looked at him, got a mischievous look in her eye, and ran away. She came back about a minute later with her gag glasses and pointed out how similar she and Jacob looked. Hahahahaha 

Leona has been doggedly working on being able to do the splits. Clara took these photos for her so that she could see how close she is. Pretty darn close!

 

Grandpa Cole Paints a Mural

We decided to bring a little bit of the Pacific Northwest with us to Texas. I found a picture of Mt. Rainier on Etsy and bought it, then Grandpa Cole altered it to make it more true to life. (The original had a steeper mountain.) It took him about five or six days of working a couple hours at a time to complete it. It turned out great! I can't wait for Covid to be over so we can actually have people over to the house to see it. :) Actually, it was him posting photos of our mural on his Facebook page that launched his side hustle as muralist. He has since done several jobs for strangers in the area.

 

Halloween 2020

On the Friday before Halloween the kids were allowed to dress up as their favorite book character for school. It just so happened that Eliza and Clara were reprising last year's Halloween costumes which were book characters anyway. Eliza was Ginny Weasley, and she clearly thinks she is too cool for this photo. Clara was Matilda. Leona slept in sponge curlers to get appropriately fancy Fancy Nancy hair.

From L-R: Mom's Cinderella pumpkin carriage, Timothy's green pumpkin, Eliza's Voldermort pumpkin.

Clara's owl flip-book style animation pumpkin (if you twirled the pumpkin the owl looked like it ran and flapped its wings), Leona's beautiful ballerina pumpkin, and Dad's scary monster pumpkin

On Halloween morning we went over to the Cole's house for a fun tradition. They make a fortune telling sweet bread that has a small wrapped object in each portion. The different objects that can be gotten are: match- you'll fight or have a confrontation, rag- poverty, coin- riches, ring- marriage, and a bean- divorce.

Collin and Eliza got coins. I know that either Leona or Clara got a ring and the other got a match. I can't remember who got which and the photo is too small to help me either, even when I zoom in. I guess we'll just have to watch over the next year and see who finds love and who fights a lot, then we'll know for sure. I can't remember what I got either. 

Because of covid-19 regular trick or treating was off the table. So instead Auntie Mel asked her neighbors if she could hide baskets of candy or prizes in their yards. Then all the cousins got together and were a roving hoard of children going through the neighborhood collecting the prizes in the baskets. It was certainly not the traditional way to do things, but it was fun, and way better than staying home. The kids had a great time and ended up with way too much candy, just like always.

Leona changed up her costume and went as a ballerina tiger. For the record face painting was offered, and declined.

Bonus Photo from November 1st

 

Scriptures

During family scripture study we were reading in the Book of Mormon about reading scriptures. To check to see if the kids were paying attention Collin asked, "So what is it that you're supposed to search?"

Without missing a beat, Leona replied is a Yoda voice, "Search your feelings."

I'm not sure that she was paying very close to the point of the discussion, but it was pretty hilarious!

 

First Day of School at Coyote Ridge

Not only were they starting at a new school, but they were starting back to school after 6 months of vacation and home school. They don't look very enthusiastic, but they were excited to be back at school. Eliza is in Ms. Christian's 5th grade class. Clara is in Ms. Clifford's 3rd grade class. Leona is in Mrs. Timm's 1st grade class. All of the kids and staff wear masks all day, except at lunch and (outdoor) recess, the desks are spaced out, and there are desk "shields" on top of each of the desks to give kids added separation.  At lunch there are only 3 kids to a lunch table as they have to be spread out while eating. Everyone is so relieved to be back to "normal" school, even if it isn't normal.

 

Getting Moved In

After not having our stuff for a week it finally arrived. When it did Collin tried to unload as much as possible by himself before everybody else showed up, and then he tripped over something getting down from the truck and sprained his ankle. It was a group effort to assemble Timothy's borrowed crib. He kept climbing out of the packnplay and running away from naptime so we had to borrow a crib from the Caldwells.

We have lizards at the new house. Everyone really likes it except Eliza, who is terrified of the lizards and the way that they pop up out of nowhere.

Texts from Auntie Mel describing online school with Leona.

Hanging out with the cousins.