Thanksgiving visit

Mike's Mom, Sister and all the kids came from New York to spend Thanksgiving with us this year. We had a wonderful visit! It was great to spend several days with everyone. Kerry and I had some good sister-in-law bonding time while black friday shopping together, we got some great deals and had lots of laughs. The kids played together nonstop. All the cousins slept in Miles and Quincy's room, and the first night resulted in lots of giggles, laughter and a very late night. They were so tired the rest of the time they fell asleep pretty quickly. Mike tried a new sweet potato gnocchi recipe and he and his Mom made gnocchis together. We all visited, played games and ate, we ate a lot. Oh, and the chocolate wine, we went through two bottles of it - it was yummy!

Apparently there were a few boring times:
Quincy was attached to his cousin Ally the entire time, I barely had him in my lap at all, whatever Ally did, Quincy was there, and if she was sitting he was either in her lap or snuggled up beside her:
A bit of craft time:
All the kids together, and just as happy and getting along as they were most of the time:
We were all sad to see them leave, Quincy cried as they drove away. We are looking forward to our next visit!

Raking leaves

Our front yard was covered with leaves, to the point that you could not see any grass at all in one corner. So time to rake 'em up. The boys wanted to help. So while Mike tackled some other projects around the house I kept the boys out from under his feet and the three of us raked. Quincy loved it. Miles took lots of breaks, but liked to tell Quincy what he was doing wrong and how he was supposed to be raking.

They wanted to combine the different piles into one big one for jumping in. They found many different ways to carry the leaves. They started out fairly traditional, rakes and wheelbarrow:
Then Quincy tried just carrying a bunch in his hands:
Then a shovel:
Then Miles tried just his hands:
Eventually they both went back to rakes, to varying success levels, here is a video clip of them moving leaves:


Now was leaf throwing and pile jumping time!
And a short clip of leaf jumping:


After that we lost Miles. (we didn't really lose him, he just was done raking and went inside.) So Quincy and I moved on to filling up leaf bags. Which meant that the leaf bags had to be unfolded and opened. Quincy wasn't ready for a break so got right to opening the bags while Mike and I chatted with a friend. Us grown ups had quite a bit of fun watching this part:
And done with the day.

Miles's new hair style

This past weekend the boys got their hair cut. We've told Miles for a while now that he can tell the hairdresser how he wants his hair cut or styled, before this weekend he never said anything or seemed to care. Before we left the house, he put his hands up over his head with his fingertips touching and said he wants 'spikey' hair. We took this to mean a mohawk. We did ask the hairdresser to do it in a way that allows for him to have regular hair when he decides he doesn't want the mohawk. Apparently that to has a name. And so now, Miles has a fauxhawk.

Here he is at the hair salon right after getting his hair done - he is just a little excited:
The first day he asked me to give him a mohawk to wear to school, he told me to pick out his clothes for him and he wanted me to pick out fancy clothes. Apparently a polo style shirt and cords are fancy for him (since he prefers athletic pants and screen print Ts, I guess this was fancy).

He spent quite a bit of time looking at himself in the mirror that first morning:

Again, excited:
And this morning with his hair done again. This time no fancy clothes required. But I only got a little hug goodbye, he didn't want to crush his hair.

New trombone

About a month or so ago Mike got a new trombone, this one instead of just being for him is for the whole family. It is a new type of horn that is full size, fully functioning trombone, but is made of plastic and comes in fun colors. It's called the p-bone. He got it mostly for the boys since they are always wanting to play his trombones. This one is light enough that they can hold it all by themselves and play it themselves. It is fairly sturdy, but since it still is a real instrument they only get to use it with adult supervision!

Here are some video clips of the boys and Mike playing it:
Miles:



Quincy:



And Mike:

Halloween fun

The kids had lots of halloween celebrations this year. First, a few weeks ago, was Halloween at the Zoo, Miles was Darth Vader and Quincy was an astronaut:
Then Miles and I went to a local middle school that was having a halloween event as a fundraiser, I didn't get any pictures, but he went as an astronaut and had lots of fun. Then was a halloween party at a friend of mine's house, again no pictures, but Miles went as an army soldier and Quincy as a cuddly bear.

Then, of course, last night trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Miles was a knight and Quincy (who at first was also a knight) decided to be a cuddly bear again. Their friends came over to TOT with them, unfortunately I'm having trouble loading some pictures on here, so I'm not able to put some of the cute pictures I have. Here is Quincy on his way to some houses:

And when they were tired, they came back home and all wanted to help hand out candy. Well three of them handed out candy and one was a scary decoration! I think they had more fun handing out candy and scaring people than the actual TOTing.

Luckily I we have a large stock of costumes from post-halloween shopping and past presents, otherwise either I would be broke or these kids would have (gasp) wear the same costume for each halloween event!