Thanksgiving

Warm days are great for chalking!! The kids and I tried this little fox. 

 

Willow was a happy baker...trying different turkey treats for different gatherings!

We enjoyed doing the Drumstick Dash with family, then had Thanksgiving with both sides of the family at our house. 

Kim convinced me to run again. Willow opted out this time ;)  I was happy to keep up with Kim, who often runs 20 miles on a given Saturday, considering I hadn't run since last Thanksgiving. I definitely felt different muscles in my legs the next few days!

It was good to see the kids enjoy the trampoline together. It hardly gets used these days. 

Operation Christmas Child

Our family was asked to coordinate the Operation Christmas Child collection for our church since the previous family had moved. This was our first year and it was a great service opportunity for us to do together! The kids helped assemble boxes and Willow enjoyed helping to distribute and collect them on Sunday mornings, along with Patti! We were happy to match what our church collected the previous year! 

 

Volunteering at the SPCA

Owen loves dogs and wishes we had one. He also wishes we had cats that enjoyed cuddling (deep sigh). Chris and I have developed into "cat people" and appreciate the ease of having them and still being able to travel. "Once upon a time" you used to be able to just pop into the SPCA and play with the cats in the cat room. We tried that one Saturday only to learn that's not a thing anymore. You can schedule an appointment but just if you're interested in adopting. We did, though, learn about volunteering as a family and Owen was just old enough to volunteer as well. We got the application then went through hours of training (no exaggeration!) in person and online. Owen and I do "canine enrichment" and Willow joins us for "feline enrichment." It's been super fun and a great way to get Owen's dog fix in without coming home with a dog. He's done great with 90% of the dogs...understandably getting hesitant after a larger dog jumps on him. 

They have a great .25 mile wooded trail outside the SPCA that we typically walk the dogs on unless it's dark (winter) or raining. When it's dark and/or raining, there's a play yard that we take the dogs to. They each have a drawer of toys that we bring out. 

Kyler

Susake (pronounced Sauce-kay)

I'm the one to hold the leash when walking the dogs. They typically like to take the lead and end up zigzagging all around the trail. This was a rare time with a dog (Kyler) that allowed Owen to walk beside him and feel like he was walking him :)

The puppies aren't allowed outside due to them not having all of their shots yet, so we take them to the Meeting Room with toys, which is just as fun. 

Leia

The minor league hockey team in town has a "Pup of the Game" that they highlight between the 1st and 2nd periods. Owen and I have enjoyed volunteering a few times for it. It's nice to have loooooots of petting time in with the dog since we're there for just over 3 hours!

Eliza

Flea

This sweet pup in blind but lives life full force!! He was getting used to his halo but clearly still enjoyed going after his ball!

We enjoyed volunteering for the SPCA's float in the downtown Christmas parade. We were even on the side of the van that was shown on the news but didn't have it recording at home. We've never said "Merry Christmas" so many times in sequence! It was a fun experience though!

Gramma caught a few pictures as we went by!

Science Fair

Our little baker did another science fair project involving baking this year. This time it was measuring the effects of gelatin on the stiffness of whipped cream. It involved LOTS of cupcakes (which she made from scratch) and LOTS of frosting!

Frosting with gelatin anyone??

A month later we had a different "science fair project" when we were all sick of cupcakes! :)

Veteran's Assembly

Owen often takes quite a bit of convincing to try something new. Running for SCA was one of those things. I tried to give lots of examples of opportunities that Willow had as part of SCA when she was in 5th grade as a way of enticing him. Thankfully he was persuaded and was voted to be Class Representative for his class. As part of SCA, he was able to be a large part of the school's Veteran's Day assembly. The 5th graders sang the songs for each branch of the military, then sang "Proud to Be an American" with one of the 5th grade teachers on guitar. We were excited that Gramps, a veteran, was able to come watch the assembly!

Can you spot him in the blue shirt in the back row?