November news

This week we'll be halfway through November and less than two weeks from Thanksgiving!  Halloween feels like forever ago already.  And the fall leaves and colors have been spectacular this year!  I can't complain.

Except for the fact that we have all been battling a nasty cough for weeks!  It started with Evan in the beginning of October.  We were told it was allergies.  So, he took an over the counter allergy medication and nothing changed.  Then Scott and I both came down with it (including chills, a low-grade fever, etc.).  Scott went to Urgent Care and got a steroid for his cough and I saw my doctor and got Augmentin (they called it a Sinus Infection).  I ended up having to stop taking my meds because they were making me throw up.  I let my cough slide for another two weeks, which resulted in pneumonia with steroids, a Z-pack, and a shot at Urgent Care.  Needless to say we'll be happy when our house no longer sounds like a symphony of coughs!

In other happy news, we've been enjoying our weekends in November!  My parents bought us a family membership to the Hands On Museum in Ann Arbor.  We used to have a membership when the boys were younger, but haven't renewed it in two years.  Wow - what a difference two years made!  The boys are the perfect ages for this museum!  Everything kept them entertained for several hours!

We loved the new additions like the rock climbing wall and the revamped water table area!  After playing for a couple hours, we took the boys to the Arbor Brewing Company for lunch.  We were smack-dab in the middle of all the U of M fans for a Michigan home game.  But, we made do and the boys actually colored the whole time.

That same weekend I took the boys to meet Santa at English Gardens with my parents.  Sunday is football pretty much all afternoon through bedtime in my house, so I'm always looking for things to do to escape it.  Santa it was!

I'm still thinking we'll visit Santa at the Henry Ford or Somerset since I wasn't thrilled with our Santa picture, but at least if time seems to disappear, we visited him.

This weekend my brother was in town from Portland!  He came in to do some recruiting at U of M for his company and managed to escape and spend some time with all of us.  He stayed at our house Thursday night and Friday we all went to dinner at Compari's.  They had live carolers downtown Friday night too!  It was a nice evening.

Saturday we went to Legoland Discovery Center again, taking my dad and brother too.  We initially bought tickets for Sean and one of us to go as a birthday present, but we were able to get 50% tickets and added on four more of us so we could all go.  I know we enjoyed it the first time we went, but it's just not worth it going more than one time.  The boys still had fun, but the adults were bored out of their minds.  And it was crowded!

My mom stayed behind and cooked up a mock Thanksgiving dinner that was absolutely delicious.  The best part?  We got the leftovers for this week.  I'm sad to see my brother leave and I hope that him and Ana come home for Christmas!  I know the boys loved having him home!

During the work week we shifted from soccer back to swimming at Aqua Tots.  I was worried the boys slipped in the skills since we stopped back in May, but they're actually...better?  It's amazing watching them swim!  I love going on Tuesday nights and having Scott cook dinner back at home.  It's like a night off for me.

Sean has been doing great in Kindergarten!  We just signed up for his first parent-teacher conference of the year in early December (they're on trimesters).  He had his first "homework" assignment this past week:  to decorate a turkey feather.  It was really fun, as all of us had to help find things to put on the feather that represented Sean.

And he aced his first sight word spelling quiz!  The teacher in me is just as proud as the mama in me!  Go Sean!  Those flashcards are really paying off.

Evan's doing great too!  His parent-teacher conference is the end of November after Thanksgiving and we'll start that dialogue regarding his Kindergarten readiness for the fall.  I'm still torn between whether we'll do Young 5's with him or let him go to Kindergarten.  He misses the cut-off day by one day.  Tough decision, as it was with Sean!  He'll be singing in his Pre-K Christmas concert in early December too.  I need to cherish these memories!  They are growing up so fast suddenly!

As we wrap up our weekend, the boys are watching The Little Mermaid and eating popcorn after playing outside with Jameson.  We love our new neighbors!  Lunches are packed, laundry is done and put away, and the boys even cleaned out their rooms today and made a bag for donation.  We are ready for this week, as I'm sure it will be a long one!  We are so ready for our first break from school!  It's been a long and busy fall...