Mid-November weekend

It's the weekend, and the unNovember weather has returned, much to the delight of almost everyone. I can wait a little longer...no, a LOT longer...for the snow and ice and cold.

The pictures I'm posting show some of the MN cousin activities from this week. They're meant to be a hint to E and E to send some photos of H and V so we know what the NC cousins are up to!

After school on Thursday, E and O had to play indoors because it was so cold, windy, and wet outside. They both decided to do some art work.

 

Ethan is getting ready for the reappearance of his Elf on a Shelf characters. He asked me to print a couple of paper elves to color, so he could practice looking for them. This elf tried to get into the kitchen cabinets.

 

This one, dressed in a football jersey, cuddled up to Tom Turkey.

Ethan wanted to look at some Elf on a Shelf videos on YouTube, so I sat right beside him to quickly censor the drunken, raunchy elf videos that clever people have created for adult entertainment.

 

Owen's artwork was a tribute to his beta fish, who died the day before. Owen explained to me that the X on the eye shows that the fish is dead. Sad day for Owie.

On Friday afternoon we picked up M and W from daycare, then headed to their house. Annie had filled me in on a new chore chart system that went into effect recently for the boys, so their first order of business at home was to empty the dishwasher. 

They decided that teamwork was the way to go.

Gpappy joined the team. 

When Annie got home, she asked Westy to make brownies for dessert. He whispered the secret ingredients he wanted to add. 

The secret ingredients are mixed in and the batter is ready to go into a pan!

 

Just one thing left to do...lick the spatula! Notice the forehead bump. 

It's not easy making brownies. 

We had fun playing Jenga, Uno, and Monopoly. I had never played Uno before, believe it or not, and Westy was a great teacher.  The ride home to St. Peter was somber, though, as we listened to radio reports about the terror attack in Paris. Horrific and sad.

On a brighter note, if I can persuade the NC contingent to send some photos from this weekend, I'll add them as well. We miss Vivi and Hannah!

Later....

Hurray! Elisabeth sent these pics after our FaceTime session on Sunday afternoon. Hannah played several piano pieces for us. Her constant companion Ira is her most faithful audience member, although he apparently dozed off yesterday.

Vivian looks so serious here. I guess lying on the floor listening to her sister play the piano put her in a trance. Or maybe she's day- dreaming about the filibertos (special cookies from Harris Teeter) that she and her daddy bought as a treat. Either way, we love you Vivi.

                                  Thanks for the photos, Elisabeth.