Candy Houses

With Thanksgiving behind us, we have begun to tackle our yearly Christmas traditions. Kent found some candy house kits at Trader Joe's, and the kids were thrilled put them together. The girls save their Halloween candy for this activity, and they had tons.

Maddie's roof and sidewalk. Very creative.

Sophie's sidewalk and wreath. Another great idea!

Ta-Da!

As soon as we brought our tree home, Madeline was under the stairs pulling out all of the Christmas stuff. The tree was up and decorated in record time this year.

I love it! So pretty!

Thanksgiving 2014

Dad, Mel, and Dixie joined us for Thanksgiving this year. It was fantastic! Kent and made everything from scratch including pie from fresh pumpkins and stuffing from loaves of bread. Maddie made place mats, name cards, and set the table.

Following Thanksgiving, we set out for our Christmas tree. We wanted to cut ours down this year. It was so fun. The tree farm gave out candy canes and hot cider, too! I think this will be a new tradition!

A Sophie size tree:

Fall Activities

Our weekends have been filled with activity. Maddie's last season of jump rope has begun, and she's had two performances already. The one above was at our school book fair held at Barnes and Noble. Sophie stayed inside where she got her face painted to match her monkey.

The next weekend was followed up with another performance at George Mason University. It was a big venue for such an early season performance!

Sophie is a Girl Scout Brownie. She loves spending time with her friends outside of the school day.

Sophie's troop helped to raise awareness and organize donations for those in need in our community.

Halloween 2014

Halloween on a Friday is perfect, especially when your school system releases students two hours early! It was a clear, cool evening, and we hosted eleven friends from the neighborhood for hot dogs, cider, and some fire pit time before trick-or-treating.

The gang is off!

Quite a haul this year!