Last Little Go-Hawk

Lincoln had his last day of Little Go-Hawk preschool today since they won't be doing it next semester. :o(  He & his "big buddy" Tara painted a T-shirt together for the final project.  It was a terrific experience for everyone involved!

Bed nests

We've had issues with "bed nests" lately.  As part of her morning routine before school, Emily is supposed to make her bed and pick up her room.  Today she told me, "Mom, it might look like my bed is messy, but I just made a nest.  It's supposed to be that way." 

Okay, but that doesn't explain this...

Sometimes Lincoln likes to make "nests" in his room to sleep in.  He has also been habitually hauling all of his pillows/blankets/buddies downstairs and creating "nests".  The problem is getting it all hauled back upstairs at bed time.  I don't want to carry it all up every time, but making Lincoln do it himself takes forever and requires constant coaching. 

It took a while for it to dawn on me the obvious solution--eliminate the stuff.  Lincoln is now down to one pillow, one blanket and one stuffed buddy at a time.  He has hardly noticed and bed time is much less frustrating.

Our family

I recently found this book Emily made about our family...

 

And this is the Christmas card she made for me at school...

Piano festival

Emily participated in her first piano festival.  It was an informal affair put on for just the students of Wartburg piano teachers (and a bit disorganized in my opinion).  However, Emily did great.  She received Superior ratings for everything and high praise for her musicality.  Below is a video of her performance.

Napping buddies

It was a long week with Austin traveling for work and lots of running around.  By Friday, both Lincoln & I crashed and hung out a long time on the couch together.  It was a sweet way to spend an afternoon.

I was also kind of proud of the little flannel tie-blanket (more like hankie) I whipped out in the morning.  While we were at Hobby Lobby earlier in the week getting fabric for my Advent Dinner tablecloth, Lincoln found some Thomas the Train flannel.  I obliged and got half a yard saying maybe we could do something with it.  He carried it around like a blanket all week.  I didn't feel like getting out my sewing machine to make a pillow, so I cut and tied it (I've never done anything like that before).  It's only 14" square, but Lincoln is happy. :o)

Oops!

We had quite the entertainment out the front window this week.  There has been a crew in our neighborhood laying new fiber optic cable for the high school and middle school with a ditch witch.  On Sunday they made it to our house.  We found out later that the line was supposed to go down the alley, and they never should have actually gone through our yard.  However, that's exactly what the "yahoos from Kentucky" did while we were at church. 

Austin was not a happy camper!

They suddenly packed up and disappeared after lunch.  Then slowly more trucks and guys started appearing.  By 3:00pm there were at least eight guys from six different companies/utilities having a big powwow in our yard.  You could just see the overtime hours ticking by.  It turns out the fiber optic crew had managed to hit a line that ran along our property border and cut off all communication to the hospital across the street.  Oops!  The result: an emergency trenching crew was called in to cut up a chunk of our sidewalk as well as a large chunk of the relatively new driveway approach to the alley. They dug a hole at least four feet deep.  Then some utility guys sat in the hole for almost two hours with spotlights patching the communication lines.  The next day the trenching crew came back to fill in the hole and another crew poured new cement.

Pulling up a section of the driveway approach

Just hanging out, digging a hole on a Sunday afternoon

By Thursday, the original fiber optic crew was back to dig another hole in our yard in the same place to connect and bury the two large orange tubes sticking out of our lawn.  I think they filled the hole back in pretty decent and covered it with straw, but they also managed to put a big nick in a tree branch with the mini excavator they were using.  I guess we'll try to grow some grass in the spring. :op

Advent Dinner

I volunteered to host a table again this year at the Women's Advent Dinner at our church, Orchard Hill.  This year's theme was "Peace".  I started planning my table at the after-Christmas sales last year.  I used my wedding china and the ceramic nativity set I made at VBS as a child.  Below are some pictures of my table and a slideshow of some of the other tables.  It was another fun evening!

Snowman supplies

It was pretty nice outside this afternoon, so we pre-gathered snowman supplies to keep in the garage.  This is something I have figured out over the last couple years.  It is much easier to look for ideal stone eyes, stick arms and especially smile-shaped mulch bark when it's sunny and 50 degrees instead of 30 degrees and everything covered or frozen in ice/snow.  Now we just need some snow!

Emily's Christmas tree

Emily decided the little Christmas tree on the piano needed some decorations.  She spent all day making paper ornaments and taping cotton balls to a piece of brown yarn as a "popcorn" string.  She also made cotton ball strings for the tree by the fireplace and an angel halo for herself.

November 2012 videos