Pottermania update

After devouring book one, Olivia wasted no time in continuing on in the series. I wish I had kept better track, but I know sometime following the first post and during her week off for Thanksgiving, she read book two and book three in about a day each, and book four took her a couple of days. I think she finished it in time to watch the fourth movie for FHE the Monday after Thanksgiving (we've been watching the corresponding movie after she finishes each book).

Of course, this has translated into lots of Harry Potter role play. Thankfully poor Carmen has at least seen the movies so she has an idea what's going on, even if she has to be Malfoy. When we were trimming the bushes, we realized the branches made excellent wands, so Olivia and Carmen collected a bucketful and decided they wanted to paint them.

Olivia just recently finished book five, which finally slowed her down a little bit, being massive and a higher reading level. Before she finished, though, she checked out book six from the school library so she wouldn't have to ask us to get it for her when she was ready for it.

Leaf pile

We had nice weather on Saturday, so I told the kids to go play outside. After riding bikes for a while, Carmen decided she wanted to rake. Eventually we ended up with a pretty sizeable pine needle and leaf pile, and the kids spent at least an hour jumping into it before we had to bag it up.



Miles, as you can see from the blood on his shirt, decided to cut open his head (again) using a brick wall, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the leaves. Olivia, of course, didn't want to come outside, and missed all the fun.

Before and now, part 3

We have a tradition of taking pictures in the same spots every time we go to the Renaissance Festival. I documented some of the changes a couple years ago, and here is the latest installment.

 

 

 

 

 



Thanksgiving

After the RenFest and camping, we took the rest of the week easy. My big project was finally trimming all the bushes in the backyard (I started a month or two ago), then giving the lawn one last mow to even it off and bag all the leaves and pine needles that have been falling.

It was such a nice day I made the kids come out and help me.

We had Thanksgiving at our house with two other families. They added four more little boys to ours and the kids had a great time playing together. Amber did a great job making the dinner, as always, and we were all very thankful. One of our friends made a Thanksgiving trivia quiz and I was the winner. Amber said it was because I have an "east-coast" advantage.

Friday we did our traditional Christmas decorating. The kids were very exited to get out all the Christmas stuff, and had a great time playing with the Christmas toys, decorating the tree, and watching the train go around the tree when we were done.

Amber needed a quick portrait of the kids, so we got this shot with Miles just up from his nap, Damon with something all over his face, and the girls with messed up hair. They can have fun recreating this one when they're older.

Saturday I put the lights on the house. I switched it up this year and used LED bulbs that I got for cheap last year. They use much less electricity, so I was able to string them all together without blowing a fuse (instead of having two strings like I used to do). There are more per foot, too, which made them too heavy for my clips, but I'm just excited to not have to deal with replacing burned out and broken glass bulbs. I even expanded into the lawn this year and got some LED strands to wrap around our trees. It's nothing compared to the two-story snowman our neighbors have, but we like it.

Camping

Since I was already taking the week of Thanksgiving off work and the kids didn't have school, we thought it would be fun to go camping on a weeknight when there weren't tons of other people around. So Monday night we drove to our local campground.

The weather was nice when we got there and the kids had fun collecting acorns and berries while Amber and I set up the tent. Of course, Miles immediately fell into the only muddy puddle anywhere near us (and lost his shoe soon after that).

But no problem, surely Carmen won't fall in the mud on the way back from the playground, requiring us to dry her pants by the fire.

The kids had fun throwing sticks in the fire, then we cooked hot dogs for them, and tinfoil dinners for Amber and me (which were delicious), followed by roasted marshmallows. Then it all went downhill after that.

The weather got a lot colder than forecast, and Damon and Miles were constantly wiggling out of their sleeping bags and getting cold. We ended up playing musical sleeping bags all night (at one point I had Carmen and Miles in my bag). After passing Miles back and forth, I eventually had to walk him around outside to calm him down, then he slept on my chest the rest of the night (somehow I ended up in Amber's bag).

Needless to say, nobody slept very well.

It was still cold in the morning, when we had doughnuts for breakfast.

I took the kids on a short hike in the woods while Amber cleaned up, but it was still too cold for it to be very enjoyable.

Nobody was interested in waiting around for it to warm up again, so we packed up and went home.

Renaissance Festival

Amber's parents came to visit and we thought it would be fun to take them to the Renaissance Festival, since Grandma didn't get to go last time last time. Thankfully it wasn't cold this time, but it did rain on and off all day which put a damper on things.

We spent a lot of time looking at the shops and exhibits, like the spinning wheels and looms at this place.

Nobody wanted to ride rides in the rain, so we went to several shows, including all the jousting. Crowds were light so we got a seat in the front row, and Carmen was selected by Sir Thomas to receive his flower head wreath.

She was so excited she wanted to go afterward to the stable and get her picture taken with her knight.

Olivia turned out to be a star too, getting to go up on stage during the Fire Whip show, and holding out a ring for Sir Thomas's lancing demonstration.

We had lunch at our favorite Polish place, and of course, we visited our traditional picture taking spots.

After a long, soggy day, everyone was ready to go home. Especially Miles.

Pottermania

On Saturday Amber put on the first Harry Potter movie to kill a cold afternoon and the whole family ate popcorn and watched. The boys got bored and wandered off after the popcorn was gone, but the girls, especially Olivia*, loved it.

Olivia has already read everything in the house and her reading level is way past the age-appropriate books suggested for 2nd graders, so after the movie we handed her the first Harry Potter book (which is apparently 5th grade level). After polishing off her current book Saturday night, she started it Sunday morning. That night, even after breaks for eating, church, and playing with Carmen, I found her like this at bedtime.

She was only a few pages short of reading the whole book in one day.


*A great "Olivia" moment happened at the scene when Harry gets on his broom to chase Malfoy after the teacher specifically told them not to fly under threat of expulsion. Olivia was visibly upset that Harry disobeyed the rule and was very worried that he was going to get in trouble. I don't think Olivia would get sorted into Gryffindor.

Staycation

I won a trivia contest at work, getting the closest number for one of the questions, and my prize was a staycation package: a one-night hotel stay nearby in the Woodlands Marriot along with a $150 gift card for the Woodlands mall next door. We left the kids with some friends for a sleepover (which was a hit), and Amber and I got some time to ourselves, a real win-win.

We had a ninth-floor* room overlooking the waterway.

The room was pretty standard, but we didn't need anything fancy. It was nice just to be alone for a while.

We wandered the mall that evening, looking at whatever caught our eye. For a while I've wanted to get a nicer jacket that I could wear with dress clothes, and after visiting several department stores we settled on a nice lambskin leather jacket. The retail price was ridiculously high, but with a 60% off sale and the gift card, I got a pretty good deal.

We enjoyed eating dinner without kids at PF Chang's, then walked back to our hotel. It was starting to get chilly, so we snuggled up next to the hotel fire pits by the waterway for a while, then retired to our room. The next morning we took our time getting up, then stopped by IHOP for child-free breakfast before going home to pick up the rugrats. It was a nice reprieve while it lasted.


*On our first trip up the elevator we rode with a taller, older man, and I noticed he was wearing an "NFL Alumni" fleece. I couldn't resist and found out he was Billy Joe DuPree, who played for the Dallas Cowboys. (We didn't have much time, but I looked him up later and learned he was a Pro-Bowl and Super-Bowl-winning tight end in the 70s.) He and the woman with him jokingly threatened to kick us out of the elevator when I told them I was a Redskins fan.

Wings Over Houston

In what has become our biennial tradition, we attended the Wings Over Houston airshow again this even-numbered year. Amber had something she needed to do early that morning, so we tried a different tactic. Instead of coming early to see the ground exhibits, we got there right as the flying started and stayed later to tour the rest. We looked around for a few minutes, then set up chairs. Everyone was excited.

They had the acrobatic fliers, the recreation of Pearl Harbor, and plenty of interesting airplanes flying around.

Miles took a nap sometime during the afternoon, thankfully.

And there were more airplanes.

The kids weren't as impressed as I was.

Amber and I switched off taking the kids to restrooms and getting lunch. I made the mistake of stopping by a toy booth with Damon. He was so enamored with the airplane toys, that I got him a souvenir to remember the marquee act, the Blue Angels.

Unlike last time, I remembered to charge my camera battery and got plenty of pictures of their impressive performance.

They were very good at keeping extremely tight formations while doing all sorts of maneuvers.

And I was impressed how fast they could break apart and then find each other and get back in formation.

After the flying was over, we went around to get close-ups of some of the airplanes and helicopters, and even sit in a few.

But by far the most impressive exhibit was the stealth fighter. Isn't technology amazing?

As usual, it took forever to get out of the parking lot. We left as late as we could and still ended up chatting with another couple for about an hour (while the kids climbed all through the van) before the cars started moving enough that we could get out. Needless to say, the kids were pretty exhausted by the time we got home. Everyone (except Olivia, of course) fell asleep on the ride home, and some were not interested in making it up the stairs to bed.

Halloween

Amber loves Halloween, because that means it's time to make costumes. But first, we had to carve pumpkins and decorate the house.

After some deliberation and a few vetoes, Olivia and Carmen decided to be a bat and a spider.

Miles ended up being Charlie Brown, complete with Snoopy, because he has a big round head and hair so light he almost looks bald anyway.

 

I think Damon won again for best costume, going as a roman soldier. Once again, Amber was inspired by his hair and wanted an outfit where he could wear a laurel wreath with curls peeking out beneath.

 

He got lots of comments from passersby, and even stabbed a few of them for good measure.

Not to be left out, Amber fulfilled a lifelong desire to make a fruit hat and dress up as Carmen Miranda (really, she was super excited about it). She was a hit at the trunk-or-treat. Here's the whole gang before going out.

After Amber took them to our neighbors, I took the three oldest for more. Olivia ran full speed from house to house and would have gone all night if possible. Carmen trudged along, making me hold her bag between houses, and Damon plodded along stoically, always a little behind.

They were all very excited to inventory their candy haul, but nobody more excited than Miles, who brought us candy after candy for us to open for him.