November round-up

Regular season football done, we focused headlong into performing arts and...more football.  And our first kid birthday in the new house.

 

Potter was once again at home on stage in an amazing production of Tarzan.  A rare sophomore in the cast, he blended right in and the entire summer of workouts paid off in his rigorous ape role.

I'm so glad to see him gaining friends right away.  It's tough to change schools in 10th grade!

The day after Tarzan, he was in a drama class production called 60 in 60.  60 plays in 60 minutes.  Yes I'm serious.  They each wrote dozens of them, voted on the best, and performed in & directed the mini plays.  What a riot!

The day after 60 in 60 he got his cast off after 8 weeks. All better!

He broke his hand in September during Tarzan rehearsals.  The director asked him to get a black cast so it would blend in better with the costume.  He technically could have gotten it off just in time for opening night, but the hand wouldn't have been strong enough for the choreography.  So it was on an additional two weeks.

Jedi is trying orchestra this year.  He's a cute viola player!

 Bugs is in year #4 of the alto sax.  He's very good; I love listening to him and it takes me back to my days in band.  I loved it and I'm glad he does.

Bugs' team was invited to play in a Nevada Tournament.  Strider took off work and they drove down together for three days.

Bugs had the camera and recorded all the scenery he had never seen before.  Like red rocks.

Palm trees.

St George Temple.

They played three games and shut out their opponents completely for the first two games.  

Strider took him to lunch in Vegas.  Hey, now two of my kids have been to Vegas, but I still haven't been!

 They lost a tough one for the championship, though, and came home with second place.

They got home in the wee hours of the morning on his 14th birthday!  We had family coming up to celebrate, plus he was advancing from Deacon to Teacher at church.  Glad he made it back!

He requested cake pops instead of cake.

And pretended to blow out his candles.

So proud of my boy.  He's such a fun, responsible kid.  I rarely have to worry about things with him.  He remembers assignments, stuff for school or activities, things to take care of in church.  Really impressive for his age.  I'm thrilled he was able to be home for his birthday, even though I was scared to death as Strider drove through the night.

Prior to Thanksgiving I cooked up a lot of our garden pumpkins and made a bunch of pies.  I tried a couple different crusts to see which one I wanted to bring to family Thanksgiving.

We got to babysit cousins.  Bugs is the baby whisperer, so no surprise that he got Brooklyn to sleep!

She is hilarious with her faces.  This is what happens when she's listening to Justin Bieber on mommy's phone and daddy calls, interrupting the song:

The kids were laughing so hard.

I found some fabric at the thrift store and decided to makeover the living room for Christmas.

 Here's a preview.  Show you next time! (ha ha - selfie in the iron).


November, you were good to us!  But please, let's have less craziness this month.  yeah, right.