The Rest of November

The boys made flags for Veterans Day: Alex did the stars and Jacob did the cutting and pasting.

We had two visits from different college friends in November. One is a friend who now lives in Virginia, but who has a brother who lives in the bay area. The other visit was from two friends who got married a couple years after we did. Her family lives in Northern California and we try to meet every time we end up on the same side of the country!

Alex also moved up to the Preschool class (from the Twos class). We were kind of hoping that he would move to Jacob's class because we love his teacher but also that means one set of rules and one set of schedules to remember. Jacob will be in Kindergarten at another school soon enough so it would be nice. But when they spend time in the same class, Jacob likes to "help" Alex. As a result, Jacob does Alex-level things and Alex doesn't get to participate. I love that they help each other and get along so well, but obviously, this could be a problem. And Jacob's class is full for the moment. Alex has had a little bit of a hard time adjusting but has been participating in the class and is generally doing well.

We don't typically travel for Thanksgiving and particularly not this year with all of our other travel. We spend Thanksgiving with friends and this year our friends hosted. Somehow, though, I still ended up making most of the meal anyway. Over a couple days I made a full turkey (for daycare and because I like leftovers), sausage dressing (in the crockpot!), and two pies.

With a little creativity, an empty laundry basket and throw pillow become instruments to be played in a parade.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the first day of Advent so I needed to finish up a project from last year: a reusable Advent Calendar. We have always gotten the chocolate ones, but really the chocolate isn't all that good. I saw a version using a mini muffin pan last year that I liked but when I found christmas themed baking pans on clearance last year that was all the inspiration I needed. I just put small chocolates in it this year, but I have grand plans for little notes and clues in future years - don't worry though, the notes and clues will still involve chocolate.