November in a Nutshell

November was supposed to be a quieter, calmer month. Ha!

 

Charlotte's first (only?) cheer season came to an end with a meet and greet with the Kansas City Chiefs' cheerleaders.

 

Charlotte loved cheerleading, but boy, it's kind of rough on this mom. It isn't just that cheerleaders freak me out on a personal level, it is all of the layers of social commitments that go along with cheer... sleepovers, parties, extra practices, making banners for the football players to run through... cheerleading is not a sport, it is a lifestyle, and I'm not sure we are cut out for it. 

 

Daddy was Charlotte's date for the cheer banquet.  He looks super excited, huh? But he was a good sport and they had a memorable evening out together.

 

Just a few nights later was the Laternenfest (that isn't spelled wrong) at Jakey's Kindergarten. This is a celebration for St. Martin's day when the German children carry lanterns they have made on a nighttime procession while singing "lantern songs." Toby made one in his German immersion classroom as well and knew a few of the songs.

 

Nearby in the Lautertal area, there is a natural park called Felsenmeer, and somehow we had never gone there before.  We took the kids, and the new dog, on a morning hike one Saturday in November.

 

The Felsenmeer is this valley filled with enormous granite boulders.  The kids all loved climbing on them and around them. 

 

It was a beautiful sunny Autumn day.

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This is how Bingo looks when he is smiling.  Did I mention we got a dog in November?  He thought the Felsenmeer was awesome.

 

The Romans used this stone valley as a quarry for some of their building projects back in the day.  But all the kiddos see is a playground.

 

 Also in November, I felt a little sick one day.  Lucky for me, I have a house full of nurses. They brought me toast, loaded the dishwasher, and made me cards and paper flowers.  I felt the love.

 

Also, I had to just take a picture of this drawing Jakey made. It is hard to see from here, but it is a picture of two astronauts, and a few spiders, getting ready to go on a space shuttle. It is really the first time Jake sat down and focused on drawing an idea of his own from his imagination that had fully developed people with arms, legs, bodies, clothing, etc. It was fantastic.