Someone is 34!

Happy Birthday to Angie!

Here's a picture of Angie I found by doing a Google search. Love it!

Grandpa Charlie's Birthday

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.

HGE 2015 ... the force awakens

Charlie is responsible for HGE this year, but I want an official record of the proceedings in the blog book I will have printed for 2105. So here is the email he sent today, launching HGE 2015. This may be the earliest it's ever been organized. Thanks Charlie!

----------------------

Greetings,

Your HGE coordinator has determined a theme for the 2015 event. All seven adults and Annie will be a part of the HGE exchange. The six kids will NOT be a part of the HGE event.. We can decide later how we want that to work for kid gifts - this email just covers HGE.

We will have a $30 limit on all gifts.

I found mom's email from last year about past themes, so a quick run-down:

2009 Match-up of a store and a theme. Gift had to be in the theme and from the store.
2010 College
2011 Merry Monogram
2012 Happy Holidays on the Farm, E-I-E-I-O
2013 Superheroes
2014 "Gadgets, Gizmos and Thing-a-ma-jigs"

Given the excitement among some of us for the soon-to-be-released movie featuring everyone's favorite Wookie (not you, Liz) and given the movie release date is Dec 18, the 2015 HGE theme is....

STAR WARS

Note: Items may be but do not have to be officially licensed Star Wars merchandise. Just has to in some way relate to Star Wars as a general theme.

I will work on dividing up names and will distribute those shortly.

Until then, may the force be with you.

Love,
CP

Official logo of HGE 2015

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Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen!!!!

Booooooo to you from Grandpappy McPumpkin!

Hermoine Granger and Harry Potter, looking magical!

Cowboys Westy and Miles riding their horses

Mr. Football (Owen) and Darth Vader (Ethan) posing in character

HAPPY HALLOWEEN  by Jack Prelutsky

It`s late and we are sleepy,
The air is cold and still.
Our jack-o-lantern grins at us
Upon the window sill.
We`re stuffed with cake and candy
And we`ve had a lot of fun,
But now it`s time to go to bed
And dream of all we`ve done.
We`ll dream of ghosts and goblins
And of witches that we`ve seen,
And we`ll dream of trick-or-treating
On this happy Halloween.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Enjoy the candy, kiddos, and don't forget to share with 
your mommies and daddies!

October anniversary

Happy 13th Anniversary, Evan and Elisabeth!

I haven't looked at your wedding pictures for a while, 

so today's the day to do it! 

Fun to remember that beautiful, chilly October day in Boston. 

We love you.

Fun in October

The four MN cousins had some fun together on Friday, which was a no-school day. Ethan and Owen had appointments at a clinic to get their flu shots (ouch!) before we met at Sibley Park, so Gpappy and I took Westy and Miles to Pet Expo, where Miles got his animal fix for the week.

Westy loved holding a young bunny.

 Miles was intrigued by the friendly ferrets, so intrigued that he watched 

a Pet Expo employee clean out the ferret cages, poop and all.

Our rendezvous at Sibley Park included some pet love, too. Owen, who has been reticent to feed the animals, found his courage when this pot belly pig begged for a treat. 

The same pot belly critter enticed Ethan to give out a few handfuls, too.

The day was sunny and chilly, and seemed just right for a fun game of tag, the longest one on record as far as I know!

Eventually we had to go our separate ways, but not before a goofy picture with the fake horses. 

This picture actually came before the goofy one. I can't decide if I like their silly faces or their smiley faces better! They're cute either way.

Earlier in the week, our neighbors Mark and Christine put out their cool and scary Halloween decorations. O and E got in on the ghost act.

Miles and Westy did the same on Friday. Hard to resist making ghost faces!

We had a great FaceTime conversation with Vivi and Hannah this afternoon. I'll get some pictures from Elisabeth or Evan soon. Hint hint.