Change

Lauren has given Kenzie a gift by teaching her to love to sing. It's something that neither Cindy nor I could do! Cindy gave her the love of Carrie Underwood. They came together today in a duet by Lauren and Kenzie singing, "Change."

Mason sat beside me the whole time singing right along.

I'm trying to get Kenzie to sing a duet with him, but somehow it's just not as special as singing with Lauren. Even if it's a Carrie Underwood song.

Hold still and smile. Please.

Screaming tree

First thing this morning Kenzie said, “Mom, I just know there is that perfect tree out there for us. You know, like it’s waiting for us, like it has our name on it.” So, we thought it would be appropriate to scream when we found it. Here it is!

We like going to Christmas Creek tree farm. Santa is very patient and allows us to take our own pictures and flash gang signs. Ho, ho, ho…

Squash Lasagna

We had a very nice, low key Thanksgiving. But, it wasn’t our best communicated, and certainly not the most traditional.

I’ve been working a ton of hours. A couple of months ago I took on a new job and just haven’t quite gotten my arms around it yet, so I’m not home as much as I’d like to be. Couple the long hours with the fact that this was the first year in many that I’m not eating meat meant I wasn’t exactly in the mood for cooking the whole bird and all its rituals. (I’m not sure my dad remembered this when he accepted my Thanksgiving invitation.) However, in the spirit of the season, I thought it would be nice if everyone else enjoyed the tradition.

Time kept passing, and I just couldn’t get my act together to plan the meal. I have several friends who have had a “Whole Foods Thanksgiving.” Meaning, the grocery store fixes everything and you just reheat! People have said it’s delicious, and this sounded fabulous to me. But my mom didn’t seem so convinced. When I told her I was going to do this, she said, “okay,” as if that word had three syllables.  And then the next day she bought a turkey. She said she was going to cook it and bring it up on Thanksgiving. That was fine. I just figured I would do the trimmings as we always do. I told her to bring it up and we would cook it that day.

The week passes, and then the day before Thanksgiving she asked, “what can I bring?” I said, “the bird is plenty!” She seemed a bit confused at my ignorance and said, “oh, honey, I thawed that bird a week ago and we had to eat it. We’ve been eating it for days now and are both tired of turkey.” I do remember that she mentioned cooking a turkey, but I didn’t put two and two together that she had cooked THAT bird. Oh well, too late for Whole Foods…chef’s choice now…and I pick squash lasagna. (My brother Mike called out of concern and said if I just put some sausage in it it would be fine.)

Then I noticed my dad’s Facebook status “Anybody ever heard of squash lasagna? That's for dinner and I can't wait to try it out after six glasses of vino..............” Hmm, perhaps he wasn’t so sick of turkey. Oh well, it wasn’t traditional, but it was a nice day. Jackie came over too, so it was just the seven of us, a relatively small Averill gathering, but we topped it off with football and desserts, so I think it rounded to a full day.

it just broke

Here's Mason's apology to Grandpa. Says he didn't throw it hard....Except somehow the window broke. Weird.

sweet girl

snowballs are hard

Just after June and Bob left for Sedro Woolley,  Mason launched a snowball at their truck. He hit it. I wonder how many pictures of broken glass we will have on this blog by the time he turns 18.

kenzaroonie desk

Cindy picked up a second hand desk for Kenzie. Together they painted it and put new knobs on. As you can see from the white board sign, she likes it a lot!

fort

Mason’s new bed doubles as a tree house. He loves it, and especially that he has glow-in-the-dark stars above the bed.

First snow

pony party

Our new neighbors have 4 and 7 year old girls, Anna and Alaina. It’s been great having them as the kids all get along fabulously. Last night Kenzie went to open gymnastics with them after hanging for much of the afternoon at their house. A few weeks ago Anna’s birthday party was at a pony farm.

Kenzie continues to love all animals, and holds steadfast to the notion that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

brown eyed girls

Since I’m stealing pictures now, why not another one? Or two or three?

ethiopian food

Now I’m shamelessly stealing pictures from Randy’s blog, but what the heck. I like this one where we celebrated the boys’ birthday at an Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle. It was the first time Kenzie or Mason (or Cindy or I) had eaten Ethiopian food.

sweetness

She’s faking it, he’s not.

special card

Grammy and Grampy sent Mason a Halloween card. He wrote them a thank-you note. It says “I like the card. From Mason. Do you like it?” I especially like the spelling of “do you like it.”

Obligatory pumpkin picture

Don’t look closely but it wasn’t taken at the pumpkin patch…that’s pavement under them at Carpinito Brothers vegetable stand.

But we did carve them this year! Half points?

Oh, and speaking of pumpkins…hello Maddie…

Jump

We need to get the kids back in swim lessons. Kenzie is pretty fearless, but it takes Mason a bit to warm up. Here's their first jumps at David and Daniel's birthday party.

Mason, by Mason

Basketball IS fashion

Halloween

Kenzie went as a cat, Mason was a Ninja. Mason lost the mask at school so he had to be pictured with his tough face. I think this is the first year that each kid completely  selected their own costume. The highlight of the evening was hanging out with friends in a new neighborhood…one that had the ideal Halloween set-up…expensive houses tightly packed together, excellent street lighting, perfect weather, and even a house that handed out adult beverages.

(Perhaps the lowlight of the holiday was the prior night when Cindy and I dressed as Laverne and Shirley and our “friends” submitted our pseudo-names for a karaoke song, which, when we went on stage, realized we were about to sing a duet of “Making our Dreams Come True.” No need for that picture to be shown.)

Fast Forward

It feels like somebody has hit the fast-forward button on life lately. I can’t believe it’s November, almost Thanksgiving. Last month I got a new job at work, and that has meant many long hours for me. I’m not used to being away so much and it’s been tough. I think this is a short-term phase and life will balance out soon. Fortunately, Cindy is home almost every day (substitute teaching only when specifically requested into ideal circumstances!). On Mondays she volunteers in Kenzie’s class, and in Mason’s on Tuesdays. She is connected with the other parents and on the whole, things are great.

Yesterday Kenzie and I hung out all day. We made invitations for a girls movie night next week, went to coffee, went shopping around Gilman Village, then grocery shopping in the afternoon. It was relaxing, and she was at her best – which is an incredible, engaging, smart 8 year old. We talked about her friends, school, and the type of art we like. It reminded me of how quickly life changes at that age, and I’m so grateful to be with her as she goes through it.

Mason got spoiled by Liz and Casey this weekend. They hosted “Boys Club” which meant Josh, Luke and Mason hitting all their favorite things in one night: bowling, Chuck E. Cheese, Star Wars, Red Robin and the hot tub. Does life get any better at six?