So thankful!

We have so much to be thankful for and are grateful that Thanksgiving allows us to slow down and appreciate those things. Yesterday I read George Washington's original 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation. What a nice reminder of where our thanks should be directed. 

We took our annual Thanksgiving hike. The boys built this cairn on an early hike and added to it.

We are so thankful for great friends who feel like family. Holidays with the Paz/Combs family always makes being away from home easier.

 Especially when they have electric trains to occupy busy little hands and grace when things go off track.

We're also so very thankful for the ability to remodel our house to make the space more livable for our family and also our friends. We are getting there!

And I'm thankful for a cabinet maker who took this picture that I gave him and did a great job copying it! :-)

Festivals

It's festival season in Phoenix! So we've been taking advantage. This past weekend we went to Local First AZ's Certified Local Festival and the Chili and Chocolate Festival at the Botanical Gardens. 

Braden gave the rock climbing wall a try.

Hunter got in on the action, too.

The Science Center was there doing experiments.

Hunter got in on the action, too.

Culinary Dropout was doing a prostate cancer picture fundraiser.

Hunter got in on the action, too.

Actually, Hunter is ALWAYS in on some sort of action!

This little hummingbird lives in the tree on the way in to the Botanical Gardens and is very friendly. Braden tried to get it to land on his fingers.

There were 4 of these rather strange sculptures at DBG, one for each season. This was Spring.

We checked out the monarch butterflies while we were there.

And made chilis and ristras out of Tootsie Rolls. Of course those didn't last long!

On to the fun ones.

We've made it through Halloween. A day that the kids love, but doesn't rank too highly on my list of special days. But, what kids don't love going door to door for candy. I actually was scheduling an appointment a few weeks ago and asked about Oct 31st. They told me they were closed for the holiday. What!!! I'm ready to move on to the real holidays - Thanksgiving and especially Christmas!

 Braden had a group come into his school and do some character lessons that led up to a Harvest Walk fundraiser on Halloween. Here they are getting ready to go. Can you find an interested little brother in the background?

 Hunter did participate.

 Running through the cool tunnel! He did about 25 laps and was pretty worn out after!

 Hunter helped me with my volunteer job of keeping track of the number of laps the kids ran... although it didn't really count for PreK and was a bit like herding cats.

 Mrs Smalls' Superstars!

Part of the crew. No comment on Spidey's need to use the restroom...

 Oh so silly.

 Hunter's wondering what's happening with the pumpkin.

 Anthony saw us off but felt that it was his responsibility to stay back at the house and hand out candy.

 One super cool astronaut.

 We have one neighbor who goes all out each Halloween. This was part of his creation this year.

Not even a sugar high can sustain them after all that walking!

Hunter still likes to go right on in to houses when trick or treating. When he saw some nickels in one ladies basket he dove for them... she said she didn't think little ones would be interested. I had to explain that their Daddy always has them looking for coins wherever the go!