Author: eaumaison (Page 41 of 207)

Sam really enjoys having a LEGO advent calendar. Every day he rebuilds the growing scene, often in creative ways.

It’s especially exciting to lose a tooth while at school!

Jack helped his Cub Scout Den collect donations to the food bank.  A great start to the Thanksgiving holiday!

While Ben got in some work hours, I took the boys over the mountains to grandparent-land.

Thanksgiving was everything it should be: parade and dog show, snacking, all our family together, games, and loads of delicious food.

Friday evening we mustered all the Waterhouses together for a group photo.  It came out shockingly well for how little prep we did, and how many people had colds and boys were out of patience!  We look coordinated, but apparently we all wear the color blue!

Halloween was a week long stretch of festivities.  Two Trunk-or-Treat events (one moved indoors because of snow), two school parties, pumpkin carving, and the actual Halloween night.  Ben took them trick-or-treating with a pack of 6 neighborhood kids.  After dropping off Sam they hit up some special, spooky houses by car.

I’m exhausted from it all but the kids had a great week.  We got an enormous collection of candy, all of our costumes worked beautifully and received many compliments, and the kids have heads full of memories.

These pictures posted in reverse order (I still can’t understand the upload), sorry I’m not going to rearrange them.  It starts with candy and “dinner” on the 31st.

How many more seasons can we trick them into thinking yard work is fun? It’s a shame that they’ll probably figure out it’s a chore around the same time they actually become effective at raking leaves.

I experimented and discovered you can bake banana bread in Bundt pans. Why would you ever use a boring loaf pan again?

“ Something smells especially delicious in here, Mom!” -Jack

It came a little early this year. I continue my tradition of baking buttery rich liege waffles with the first snow of the season.

Costumes are in the works:

Two hour scarf!! For certain projects my knitting machine rocks!

Cool pajamas make every night a costume night.

We started karate classes this fall and Jack is loving it. He is getting more confident physically and responds well to the discipline and ethics of martial arts.

Of course, he has a little shadow 🙂

Look at the cutest new cub scout in town!

Jack joined the pack fed by his elementary school, helping make the second-grader Wolf Den so large it split into two dens.  Look at me throwing around terms like “pack” and “den” like a boy scout mom.  😉

They meet only a few times a month.  So far they have played capture-the-flag (with real camo facepaint from the Army Surplus store), earned their “Running with the Pack” belt loop, and raced in the Raingutter Regatta.

So far scouting is a perfect fit for Jack.  Outdoors activity (but NOT sports), leveling up, gear/badge collecting, rule-following, and education.  He read his whole Wolf guidebook cover to cover the first night and knows all the answers in every meeting.  I can’t help by hum Little Mary Sunshine when I see him in meetings.

“…He’s cheerful, honest, thrifty, and obedient;To love the good and hate the bad is his plan!  So if there’s any danger you can be sure the Forest Ranger ever will march on man to man!”