November in a nutshell

November seemed to really fly by with not too many out-of-the-ordinary or unusual things happening, except for one. Matthew started in person school! This marked his fourth schooling experience of the year which seems pretty tough for a kindergartener brand new to this whole school thing. He started the year virtually in South Dakota at my parents' house, then did virtual school at home, then school assigned activities with mom, and now in person. He's been struggling with the transition and frequently chooses not to get out of the car once we get there in the morning. When he does choose to go, he seems to generally enjoy the experience and has lots of fun stories to tell on the way home. I'm crossing my fingers he'll get better at it in the new year.

Matthew turned six! You already know he always has his head in a book and that he's a great cook for his age. He loves to do puzzles, play games, and do his sister's math assignments. He's super sweet with his siblings and frequently reads to them or helps out his younger brothers (except for the time he put Alex in a trash can at church). He tends to be a quiet observer while he figures out how things work, then he usually jumps right in once he's comfortable. He's amazing me with his talent and interest in playing the piano-right now he loves to ask me how to play the beginning of whatever sheet music happens to be out and he's great at remembering what he learns.

Another fabulous cake by Andrew (though I'll admit to giving him the idea)

siblings that read together, stay together, right?

Star Wars shirt buddies

One morning we got home from an errand and simply had to make hot chocolate and popcorn to warm us up! It was probably in the 50s hehe

Pretty typical sight around here

Lost his second tooth!

This is what church looked like for the couple of Sundays that we got to have it in person

First day of School pic!

Finally put up the light in the bathroom. Next up, I need to find a mirror.

Such a sweet big sister carrying a tired boy to the car for music class

I always feel like I deserve so many "fun mom" points when I play games like this with my kids, but they're actually getting a lot better and it was surprisingly fun.

Worst use of nap time ever. I found myself with occupied kids, an hour more of naptime, and some trim that needed to be painted. Easy, right? Well, no. Not when you forget that you didn't put the lid all the way on the paint can last time. And you break your norm of shaking and pouring the paint out in the garage. Blarg, this picture doesn't even do it justice. It was allll over the new vanity as well. I had to find a way to walk back and forth across my carpet a hundred times to get rags and water, rinse, repeat in order to clean this up. There are still grooves in the floor with paint left, but considering what I started from, I'm alright with it. 

I bake too much

I think they were playing ballet class. In hats and mittens. Without clothes.

Just our family this year, and still so much food.

How fun are these turkey rolls??

Andrew and the kids were outside finishing some raking when I noticed the noise they were making started to change/increase. I went outside to find them in the middle of a quidditch match-all riding on broomsticks of course