November 2016

Caleb and Abby cleaning the bathroom:

Since Grandma and Grandpa Kaufman were here the whole month of October, in November we had the "post-grandparent blues."  The kids took this picture to send to Grandma to say "We miss you!"

Snuggling with Dad before bed.  He has been reading a devotional with Caleb and Abby before bed every night and then hangs out in "Micah's room" (which is actually Abby's room) to talk for a while.  Such a good Dad!

Abby had some sort of cold/mild fever for a few days.  I knew she must not be feeling good when I found her like this at about 1:00 in the afternoon one day.  

Kids had eye appointments and had to have their eyes dilated for the first time.  (Which they now dread because it involves EYE DROPS - the worst torture weapon ever!)  Micah said Caleb looked like a baby deer with his pupils so huge for so long. :)

My friend has a Usborne book party, and Micah requested this book... the Illustrated Dictionary of Math.  That way he could "look ahead."  He just wants to do Algebra so badly!  (Whose kid IS this??)  I found him reading this is bed.    

And here he is the next morning trying to figure out the steps to solve a simple equation. :)

We were at the Thompson's one evening for Jason's birthday.  Everyone wanted a turn holding baby Abraham. I told Ben I'm keeping this picture for Caleb and Zuri's wedding day someday. :)

We went with some friends from CC to the "Compassion Experience"... a free traveling exhibit put on by Compassion International.  You walk through a replicated house, market, school, etc. from a certain country (i.e. Costa Rica) and use these iphones to listen to the story of a kid growing up there.  We did two of them - one about a little boy from the Dominican Republic, and one from a little girl in the Philippines.   It was really good!  The kids loved it.

We got a suit for Micah to wear at the wedding when go to Ohio.  $8 for the suit at Once Upon a Child, and $10 for he shirt and tie at Walmart!   ($3 for the shoes at Goodwill.)  Not bad! :)

And here's another good-looking kid, wearing the suit that Micah wore a few years ago in a wedding...

I knew our membership to the Children's Museum was getting close to expiring, so we took a trip there the week before Thanksgiving.  We happened to go when they were offering a storytime/craft.  Caleb and Abby loved making turkeys.

Cooking at the Children's Museum.

We went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving (the Lee's) with some other friends.  I tried to make apple pies, but they weren't nearly as good as my Mom's!

The leaves finally peaked toward the end of November.  The kids played outdoors more.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the tree out our front door did look really pretty!

When we were at the Thompson's house, our friend Steve and Patty heard Caleb trying to pick out tunes on the piano, so they offered us their old keyboard for free.  

It was weird not being in Maryland over Thanksgiving, but still really nice hanging out with friends!  We had several people over at our house during the month of November, including having a big backyard party for some missionary friends of Mike and Sharon Jette's.  My friend Juanita also gifted me an hour-long massage since I watch Josh and Jenai for them sometimes.  A lot of November was also spent gearing up for our trip to Ohio the 1st of December to fix up our Limestone house (and communicating with new renters who were moving in to both of our properties, working out leases and details, etc.)  It was a pretty busy month!