Waving through a window

 November 2022

The kids are always making forts

Working his way through his Halloween candy-for breakfast

Happy 8th birthday to Matthew! Matthew is such a fun kid to have around. He is insatiably curious and obsessed with playing games. He has made leaps and bounds at school as he has opened up more and gets used to how the classroom runs (1-3 are all in the same classroom, so he's feeling much more comfortable this year). He is brilliant-consistently testing in the 98th-99th percentile for math and reading, and it feels like he just can't help himself. He seems to want to know everything. If anything is broken-or he thinks it might be-he is quick to grab the screwdrivers and take it apart to try and fix it. Luckily, he's usually pretty good about putting it back together. 

Matthew had a random and specific request for his cake this year. He wanted two of his stuffed animals and himself watching a movie. I laughed out loud when he told Andrew what he wanted and just said, "good luck!" I was astounded when I was what Andrew came up with. It was adorable and perfectly captured what Matthew asked for.

Perfect, right? They are always climbing on stuff and shooting webs

Meanwhile, Michael started losing teeth like crazy! This was his first, but the next 3 came quickly after. The best part? Once they get loose, he asks me to pull them out with floss. The least dramatic tooth-losing-experiences of any of the kids!

Spirit Week and this was her Taylor Swift outfit. I thought she nailed it

Dressing like Matthew-it really shows how much alike they look

Karaoke night for primary activity

I took a trip to TX for my grandma's funeral. I'm glad I got to go and I'm glad that I got to be with my family, but it was really hard as well. I hated seeing her house emptying of all her things and just feeling how strange it was to be there without her. I've been visiting her at that house since I was 6 years old, and I hated knowing I would never be there again. Anyway, the funeral was nice and something I like she would approve of. 

I was surprised to discover the open-air courtyard in the middle of the Long Beach airport. That was a fun surprise.

The only other picture I took was at the Perot with my niece. We did get a pretty big group of my siblings together for a few hours to hang out at the museum and that was nice.

I got home two days before Thanksgiving and hadn't planned anything. I didn't even want to cook. Any big family meal like this is going to make me think of grandma, and I was not able to pull myself out of that funk. Thankfully, Andrew had planned food and gotten groceries, and friends ended up coming over which gave us a reason to put in some effort even though I didn't feel like it. We made pies together the day before and then they came over early the day of so that we could finish making the food together. The kids made decorations and helped set the table. Everything was delicious and it was fun to have a big group to be with.   

I brought home a donut cutter that I found in grandma's garage so we made donuts together. They turned out surprisingly delicious, but just enough work that I don't think I need to worry about accidentally making them too often.