After Halloween, we did some fun math exercises using our candy before the kids donated most of it to their dentist office (who sends it to our troops overseas). You can see from Luke and Abbey's bar graphs that of all the candy types, Chocolates, by far, is what they had the most. As a kid, I would have been pretty happy about that outcome--chocolates were always my favorite!
There were many hikes this past month. This one was at the Zilker Nature Trail.
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| We stopped through the Nature and Science Center visitor center on the way back from our hike. |
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| Of course we had to stop and climb (and hug) a tree on the way back to our car from the hike. |
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| We love fall. The outdoors are amazing this time of year. We always take the time to blow the dandelion seeds and make a wish. There is something so magical about them. |
Weather is usually perfect this time of year. But we had a couple of cold days among the perfect weather days.
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| playing in the leaves on the trampoline. |
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| The kids worked on the ninja warrior skills on our ninjaline. |
We took a really fun weekend camping trip to Lost Maples, staying in Garner State Park in an AMAZING cabin. On the way back home we stopped at LBJ State park. Three state parks in one weekend. Our favorite was Garner State Park.
These photos are from Lost Maples:
These were from Garner State Park. The cabin was AMAZING! I have included a little tour here if you are interested:
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| We loved exploring the caves there! |
We took a few formal photos on the bridge by our house (a fall tradition for us).
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| We played at our treehouse A LOT! |
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| We took many bike rides. |
We visited enchanted Rock with our Homeschool hiking group.
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| we enjoyed some amazing homemade ice cream with some of our friends on the way back home. |
Luke and I participated in the Mother Son Amazing Race at our church with my friend, Sarah and her boys Benjamin and Jack. We had a blast running all around town completing missions. And, we got 1st place in our heat at the Live Mario Cart Race at the end (click here for the video). The boys named our team, "The Lightning." We are definitely doing this again next year.
We went with some friends to our local fire station to deliver cookies as a thank you for helping their neighbor who had a fire in their garage. The Round Rock Pink Heals 1930's fire truck was there. Many Breast Cancer Survivors had signed it, and they let me do so.
We got an extensive tour of the fire station and they even let the kids play with some of their tools and toys.
We spent some time relaxing in the hammocks and hammock swings.
We visited the creek show--an interactive glowing art exhibit in along Waller Creek in Austin.
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| Playing with shadow puppets at the Thinkery's activity station there. |
We attended a fun class by the UT Physics Department (Called the Physics Circus).
We learned a little history as we checked out the old home/museum in Pflugerville, called the Heritage House. The museum contains artifacts that represent rural farm life in the early to mid 20th century. It is open on the same afternoons as the farmer's market that we go to in the same location.
Luke and Abbey put their master builder skills to use at Lego Club where they built things they were thankful for. Luke built our dining room and our family having a "feast" for Thanksgiving, because he said he is thankful for our family and food--ha! He isn't kidding--Luke can eat! Abbey built her soccer team practicing with her coach, because she said she was thankful for her soccer coach.
Speaking of Soccer--Abbey finished her first Soccer season in November. We loved watching our girly girl be so competitive and aggressive on the field!
Abbey lost her first tooth, right as out of town family visitors (Erica, Lauren, Audrey, Mitchell and Mimi and Papa) pulled in to our driveway.
We met and learned all about some buffalo while dropping off a meal for our Meals on Wheels route.
We celebrated Thanksgiving at our home this year. The kids asked for a "feast" just like the first Thanksgiving we learned about, so we tried to give it to them.
The day after Thanksgiving, we headed to the Homestead Heritage Fair in Waco. We love this annual event! We got there early, beat the crowds, did everything we wanted to do and left after lunch.
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| dipping wax candles |
After the fair, we headed to the Cameron Park Zoo and enjoyed the perfect weather while watching the animals in their Zoo habitats. It is such a nice zoo.
And while we were there, we stopped at Magnolia Market, rode the trolley to a restaurant downtown and then headed home.
On Sunday, my dad came to visit for 3 weeks! He helped out with watching the kids for a few days in that time frame while I was able to do something on my bucket list (which I can't share about just yet). We all loved having him around, since it was the most consecutive days our kids have ever been around a grandparent. They grew very close to him and miss him. We had lots of adventures with him during that time.
We finished the month out with some Christmas decorating. Drew worked on the outside lights, while I decorated the inside.
The kids really enjoyed decorating the tree this year and were excellent helpers with that.
And that was a summary, in photos of the highlights from November. Here is our one second per day in video form for November:
