Santa

We got to meet Santa a couple times this year.  Neither was Norman Rockwell, but good enough for our family!

Alena and Nora stand in proximity to Santa at the Kirkwood Holiday Party.  A delicious meal served at 3:30 in the afternoon, with kids crafts and live music included.  Just be done by 5:30!  

Hy-Vee Santa!  Edith clearly loves it!

Cookie making

Girls making cookies with Grandma.

Edith and Miles each suck down a packet of applesauce.  

A November to Remember

As it does, life was fast and November was a blur.  Not to say that is was uneventful...it was full of great things as you will see....

Edith tries on some new winter gear.  She'll grow into it, once Nora is done with it, that is.

We visit the giant sloth at the Natural History Museum in Iowa City.

We didn't capture it in a photo, but Edith was very excited by the displays and twice ran smack into the glass at a full run trying to go see it.  She eventually figured out that there is glass there and we could only look at all the cool stuff inside.

Is this dangerous?  Yes. But allowing....encouraging a toddler to hang precariously between a microwave and an oven that could each open at any minute for the sake of a cute photo is always worth it. 

Edith's dream car.

Cousins chill at the Square in Washington awaiting the Holiday Parade.

More fatherly encouragement of normal kid activities.  Roof climbing to hang Christmas lights.

Edith turns 2!!!!!

Cake #2 for turning 2!

Daddy went on a work trip to Colorado Springs to the Broadmoor Hotel.  Super fancy.

Daddy's room.

Hike to a waterfall that is owned by the Broadmoor.

Part of a wildlife evening, also present were eagles and a wolf.

Super tasty and pretty dessert.   So...what was the conference about? .....does it really matter after all that?

Pumpkin contest

Alena and Nora each entered a pumpkin in the annual Erskine Elementry Pumpkin Decorating Contest.  Nora designed a "patriotic" pumpkin and Alena entered hers into the "most natural" category.  The stars aligned and both Nora and Alena won their respective categories by popular vote!

Daddy Builds a Kiln

It took something like a decade (plus), but Daddy and his friend Jeff finally got around to building a wood kiln of their own.  They worked on and off from May until October and had a lot of help from Cousin Alan, some girls, and Paul (very minor).  We'll have to see how it fires!?!

Alan digs a hole to fill with 3' of packed gravel as under-structure for the chimney and a more shallow are under the body of the klin.

Nora hard-packs the gravel.

Alena packs block sand on top of the gravel to fine-tune the surface for brick-work.

Yes....this small section of the kiln was actually level.  The rest of the kiln, who knows.

Hey Paul, now we can get to the hard work!

Last few layers of the chimney.

DONE! 

Wet at Wapsie

Fall camp at Wapsie was a bit on the wet side, but it did not stop our fun!  We still did creature catch and ate tons of sugar - the two most important activities for these girls.

NINE!

Alena Mae turned nine years old this year, oh my!  She got to have a big birthday party with friends, including Maya, Harper, and Alliyah, with a Harry Potter theme and they made clay "goblets of fire"!  From Mom and Dad, Alena got a pair of cowgirl boots!

Tamales

Ben and Melissa took a 4-hour class at the New Bo Kitchen, taught through Kirkwood Continuing Ed, on how to make authentic tamales.  They slow-roasted pork, simmered chiles, seasoned their cornmeal, and wrapped about 3 1/2 dozen in corn husks to freeze for later.  And they were delicious!!!