Turkey 101

A pair of turkeys fun for children to draw...

Ben worked on these in school with the teacher's help to trace the outline of his hands.

At home, he drew another one, and Jon, too. And I asked them to each name a few things they are thankful for -- and write on the fingers that made up the bird's tail-fan (below).

And it was really nice, when separately, they both included...

not just
COMPUTER GAMES

but also
ONE ANOTHER and KAIT... awww! With all the sibling rivalry day in day out, I was afraid they stopped recognizing how important they are in each other's lives.

In the morning, not quite done with breakfast, the little girl is raring to go and joins her brothers to shoot hoops -- indoors...

And the boys are fighting with me over the low basket height, that's Kait-friendly, and more importantly, a safer distance from the windows, picture frames, and a mirror on the wall. Why do I even allow it? They have so much energy; the crazy things my kids drive me to do or let them do. But I tell you, this is so much milder compared to one boy jumping on the couch with a hula-hoop and daring the other boy to slam-dunk his way through the floor!

Another turkey Ben brought home from school earlier, as homework for the family:

OK, so I remembered the wattle, but got a bit carried away with the leaves Jon picked up to help in the project. (It's a turkey, mom, not a ...)!

But it is Thanksgiving, specially to give thanks for the bounty in our lives, and also for everyday things such as these:

The slam-dunks and the boo-boos...

the saner moments and crazier ones...

and the semblance of order we try and achieve with daily routines, though more likely -- and it is the case in our home -- there's more chaos. Because many things and our lives themselves are works in progress. And the (growing) physical messes I've not found time and energy for.

All part of the family life, crazy as it is, and my family whom I love very much -- I thank God for. Also, our loved ones back home, and dear friends old and new. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Fun fact: Incidentally, Mayflower was the company we used, moving from St Louis to Spokane.

Ground Cover

It's raining this week, and here's a red carpet of leaves after the rain...

pretty pretty still, than if the leaves were intact, don't you think? :)

Except this was last month, so you can imagine how bare such trees are now.

Good thing WA is the Evergreen State, and while I haven't been able to give a blow-by-blow account of the season whizzing by...... let me try and cover a bit more of the leaves, leaves, leaves, before I get to the snow!

Some more "ground cover"-- paving the way, like a miniature yellow-brick road, to this small park...










Jon (below) and Ben are ahead of Kait and me that Sunday, weeks ago now... Then, the boys drop their bikes, and Kait can't wait to join them in the sand pit.

But I bring her instead, slightly beyond the playground, where these leaves have just fallen, as fresh as it gets...

And she gets to them before the rain (afterwards) does...


Kait stops to gaze, and does her own exploring...


... mesmerized by the sea of leaves.

Now this is my favourite part... and Kait gets to it before I do...

Krunch, krunch, krunch!

But she has a mind of her own. And only for so long I can steer her away from the sand, the sand that's more like mud. She has no qualms getting all grubby, and gladly helps the boys dig their way -- to China (so we say)...

Until there's more than enough dirt for me to hose them down (once home), and I start worrying, too, how I'm going to "oxi-clean" the laundry -- but without any OxiClean.

OK, got to go.

Meanwhile, Kait still stops to pick up leaves...
There are new things she's figured out since, and more she enjoys discovering. And when she'll let us hold her hand, SHE is the one doing the leading -- to show us what she wants!

Pictures taken last month, Kait at 14 mos. She turned 15mos last Fri. For someone who loves the dirt, she shows potential in picking up after herself (yay!). The other day when the eldest child was questioning me over why I did not make his bed (*sigh*... but yes, about time I stopped), the little girl is going "Ah-ah, ah-ah" to the tune of "Pack up, pack up" whenever I get to those words in that song. She'll also pick up every grain of rice/cereal I miss from the floor, though it's more her excuse to open the trash bin. The hilarious part is when she tries to close the lid with her foot -- the way I do when my hands are full!

A golden birthday

A golden birthday, I learned from a friend, is when your age matches the date of your birthday. So it was one for Jon, turning 9 on the 9th.

But now, the birthday boy said he couldn't see what was so "golden" about it, so here goes some saner moments (sans tears and tantrums) on that day I thought had made it a fairly good one:

Jon tucking into some barbecued ribs, when we ate out late that schoolnight...

And when yet another of my simple, "out-of-the-box" (a boxed cakemix, that is) birthday bakes became fodder for laughs at the end of another long day. See, I'd quite forgotten it was a brownie, not a cake cake, and left it to chill in the fridge. By the time we got back after dinner, Jon had to try and do a "hai-yah!" for the cake-cutting!


Otherwise, the brownie I'd topped with a basic melted-butter-and-semisweet choc frosting was rather tasty -- when allowed to thaw out some. And the fall-coloured sprinkles (happened to have them handy) plus the skittles Jon added on, did give it a certain glow, no?

Especially given the circumstances -- Vern had just come home from being away; he was exhausted, and so was I, dog-tired from the long weekend on my own with the children. But indulgence is what many of us parents are fond of. And the daddy, not just me, did also oblige the son with the meal outside, even though Vern had rested only less than the time he'd spent travelling back and returned to work.

These calm, friendly shots don't give a very accurate picture of how the rambunctious and unruly kids wore me out. At their friendliest playing together, the two not-so-little monkeys were jumping on the bed, using pillow cases as potato sacks -- but with the pillows still in them, and the littlest one at her fearless stage was running back and forth with nary a thought that she might accidentally hurl herself over the edge!

I was going to keep this short, so let me just wrap up with these wishes for Jon: I pray that these tween years will be a wonderful time growing up, and he'll learn to make good choices, not just appreciate the good things in life.

My thoughts on this "phase": it's exciting, no doubt, but challenging, too, because of the growing going on and even more independent thinking. Different incidents, including some jaw-dropping ones (I kid you not), let me see it's so much easier said than done for us to expect our children to "ought to know better" what to do or not, but they do the complete opposite. And I realized, oh no, there's still so much to try and teach them, and so much I need to learn, too. Also, it's one thing to indulge them, and another when I over-do it with the giving in and doing everything for them -- it can do more harm than good. But the battles to pick are the ones to do with values and principles, and thinking about the good of others besides our own, and yes, the golden rule, too. Those are what's worth fighting for.

Colour Fast

The season is going by quickly...

See the discolouration in these leaves I picked up one morning:
Other leaves continued to hang without changing colour, or have fallen faster than normal. All these, due to the hard freeze last month, are what the local papers reported as "subpar" colours for the Inland Northwest this year. And for awhile now, there'll be days that start off with below 0C temps, that explains the icy leaf edges and frost on the grass. The first snow, albeit a light one, had also made its appearance a week ago.

But subpar or not, the foliage is at its prettiest -- to me, it always is, in fall. And blogged, the colours get to make a lasting impression, so to speak, than many leaves already fallen off the trees by now.

There are other snippets of the season and our daily lives that are nice to capture here, only, I'm caught up to get round to them. Family life is busy, with the usual chaos and more, and new issues besides the old, to juggle. But as they say, the days may be long, but the years are short.

Boo!

Ben (left), with Jon in their Singapore army outfits, practising his "boo-ing" at a friend's party ahead of Halloween earlier...


All the children were invited, and I brought the little girl, too. She wasn't in any particular costume, and it didn't matter. The brothers said she went along as "mommy"...

Kait with her toy stroller that she loves to push around and forward and back, but not let me put any "pretend" baby/plush toy in it. Try, and she tosses it right out!

She's another strongwilled determined one, alright. Same doggedness she shows when she doesn't want to be in her own umbrella stroller, high-chair, and the shopping cart. Just don't ask me who she got that from! (Another day, maybe, I'll show you the biceps I have my babies to thank for).

P.S. This post in lieu of Sat's trick-or-treat pictures... till I can find the wire to download them. Afraid that's how organized I am not, and now, I have to scram!