Christmas tree

The boys love their Christmas tree, and often have trouble remembering not to touch and play with the ornaments.

My boys and their laptops

My Dad recently gave the boys an old laptop of his. There is no internet, but the boys are excited to have their very own real computer. Miles likes to get on and practice typing.

Earlier in the week Miles was on the computer, Quincy asked to see, so a chair was pulled up next to Miles's chair. I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back, this is what I saw:
My two boys, working on their computers side by side.

Two nights ago Miles decided he wanted to be just like Dad:

First snow day of the season!

We had our first real snowfall of the season yesterday - the first snow that stuck to the ground. So, of course, the schools let out early yesterday and closed today. The kids were impatient to get out and play in the snow, here is Miles looking longingly at the snow outside:

So a bit after 8am this morning we were digging out the snow pants and boots and gearing up for snow. I do believe it took us more than 20 minutes to get everyone ready to got out, but once we were out, we all had loads of fun. Miles started making snowballs as soon as his feet hit the snow:

And Quincy was his first victim:

Here Miles is getting ready to hit an unsuspecting Mike from behind:
Miles making a snow angel:Miles very proud of his snow angel:
Quincy practicing driving in the snow (not much of anything keeps him out of that car if we are in the backyard.):

And a little sled pulling in the backyard:

Trip to NH

We went to NH to visit and join family for Thanksgiving. I know, it has been several weeks since Thanksgiving and this post is fairly late, but hey, better late than never, right?! Anyway, we had a great visit with everyone and a wonderful Thanksgiving day with lots of my Aunts, Uncles & cousins.

Our first stop on our visit was at my parents house, where the boys had fun raking leaves into a big pile to play in. Well, Quincy worked hard raking while Miles played:
But Quincy did most of the playing in the leaves once they were in a big pile:
Then it was on to my brother's house, where the kids got to visit with their cousins, here's Quincy just hanging with Tyler watching him play video games:
And later on in the weekend more family and cousins came to visit, here is Quincy & Maddie riding Jordan:
One highlight of the visit was the afternoon that we went to a secret Santa party. It was on a farm, we took a horse drawn hayride into the middle of the woods where the party was. Here we are on the hayride, a (rare) family pic:

And across from us here is Maddie and Dawn having fun together:
At the Santa party the kids got to meet Santa (in his farm clothes):
And they got to meet several other holiday characters, such as Rudolph, Frosty the snowman, the Gingerbread boy, and the Grinch:
My two boys were a bit apprehensive of just about everyone at the party, they didn't talk to any of them, but eventually they did let them get close and play a bit:(Miles hid behind that cup the entire time the Grinch was touching him!)

And to top it all off, they a pony ride:

We had a wonderful visit with everyone. the boys (and us) were very sad to leave and are still asking when we are going to NH again.

A fun day with family

I live about 2 hours from where my Dad grew up. Now, only one of his sisters and her grown children and families still live there. It is nice that I am close enough to be able to go up and visit occasionally, but sad that everyone lives so far apart that we don't get together as a big family very often anymore. Yesterday, was a rare treat that one of my aunts, my two cousins and kids from Alabama, as well as an aunt and uncle from Michigan all came to visit my aunt and uncle and family that live just 2 hours from me. So the kids and I spent the day visiting with family that we haven't seen in a long time, and got to visit with much of the family together at the same time.

Both sides of my family are outdoorsy, but in very different ways. On my Mom's side, it is more camping, hiking & kayaking. On my Dad's side, it's more hunting, fishing & 4-wheeling. With so many relatives together, along with a beautiful day, there was lots of 4-wheeling. I was close to having a small heart attack when my two boys went for rides, but we all quickly got over that and before long I was taking them out for rides also.

Quincy's first 4-wheeler ride, with my cousin, Kim:Miles's first 4-wheeler ride (with Kim and her son Jonathon):
They both loved the 4-wheeler and begged to go faster and go again.

Quincy hanging out with my uncle:

The three sisters, my Aunts:

Sleepy heads

Here are just a couple of pics of my guys being sleepy heads. Quincy, at the dinner table one night:
And Miles with Mike this morning (watching the painting guy on PBS - they enjoy watching that show together):

Museum trip

Yesterday the schools were closed for voting, so we took advantage of the time off as a family and took a trip to the city to visit some museums. Miles has been asking for several months to go to the dinosaur museum, so when we told him we were going, he nearly jumped out of his skin with excitement.

As usual, one of the favorite parts of the day is the train ride in and out of the city.

Being in the tunnels is especially exciting:

Our first stop was the dinosaur museum, we saw the dinosaurs, then a whole lot of other animals. This museum has a butterfly exhibit where you can go into the butterfly habitat. We did this yesterday, and it was great. There are hundreds of butterflies flying all around you, landing next to you and sometimes on you. The boys were totally entranced.
One landed on Quincy's forehead, but flew away too quick for a picture. Here is one that landed on Mike's pantleg:
And Miles kept putting his hand very still right next to the butterflies, hoping they would sit on his hand:

And a quick video clip that shows a few of the butterflies flying around. If you look at the young boys head you can see a butterfly sitting on his head.

Next up was the insect room, Miles got to hold a big green caterpillar:

After that was the 'train museum' where the boys got to see some pretty big trains, old cars, model ships and got a chance to try their hand at some kid level science experiments:
We finished in the 'train museum' much sooner than we planned, so we then onto what Miles and Quincy call the 'rocketship museum'. Among other things, they both got to sit in a real plane and work the controls:
After a full day of dinosaurs, butterflies, bugs, trains, airplanes and rocketships, Quincy was worn out.

It was a great day and the boys are already asking to go back to the museums.

Halloween

The day started with the boys picking out what kind of face they wanted their jack-o-lanterns to have, and Mike carving the pumpkins:
Quincy checking out Miles's pumpkin:

Miles's pumpkin:

Quincy's pumpkin:

And then finally it was time to go trick-or-treating. Here are the boys in their Halloween costumes, getting ready to go out in our neighborhood. Quincy as the cuddly bear, and Miles, as a dragon. Yes, a dragon. After many times changing his mind, Miles decided to wear his dragon costume, some of you may remember this is the same costume he wore 3 years ago. He loves it and he had fun.

Here they are heading out:
Having fun with their halloween lanterns in the dark:

Here is Miles, sitting with their pumpkins, and like last year, he was excited to hand out candy:

And their take:

These pictures were taken this morning, so after some candy has been eaten and filtered out. Both bags were full, Quincy's bag was overflowing, literally, candy was falling out as we were walking to the last few houses. Some of the more unusual items this year: a juice pouch, full size candy bars, and playdough. The best part, Miles loves all the scary decorations and we spent quite a bit of time at a few of the more elaborately decorated houses. When asked which he liked better, seeing the decorations or getting the candy, there was no hesitation - seeing the decorations was best!