Happy Thanksgiving!

 So much to be thankful for this year. We had a lovely, lovely Thanksgiving with Grammie and Grampy and our usual Thanksgiving staples. R and RUS had a lot of fun putting together Thankful Hands in the days leading up to the big meal.

New Nephew!!!!!!!!!

 Big Dragon (so named because he was born in the year of the dragon) was born on 26 October at 7:17 a.m. in Hawaii. He was 21 inches and 6 lbs 13 oz.

I cannot wait to cuddle him!! Here are a few of the photos Local Hero and Local Heroine shared over the weekend. He is so beautiful, and we can't wait to meet him!

Halloween Costumes 2012

We got good use out of the kids' Halloween costumes this year! The pic above is just before they headed out trick-or-treating with J.

R was Hermione from Harry Potter, complete with a black grim-reaper robe J found on sale, a scarf that Grammie crocheted for her, a "Gryffindor" badge R and I drew together from an image we found online, and a stick J picked up in the Poconos.

RUS told J he wanted to be a super-hero. When J asked him which one, RUS said, "Red one!" and he stuck to it, so we made him a big red "R" (R for Red and R for RUS!), pinned it to a red shirt, had him wear red pants, and found this red hoodie complete with a very super-heroish mohawk.

The kids wore their costumes for their school parties as well as for a Halloween party hosted by one of my coworkers, whose kids are absolutely gaga for Halloween. We made a dirt cake, decorated with gummy worms and tombstones that R drew and that we taped to toothpicks, to bring along. Here are the kids helping decorate before the party.

Milburn's and Pumpkins!

While Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle G were visiting, we headed back to Milburn's to get some apple cider donuts and pumpkins to carve. We stocked up on some more apples, too--oh my gosh. Fresh apples from the orchard is seriously one of my very, VERY favorite things about fall.

We only managed to carve one of the pumpkins so far--J and R carved this while home waiting for Hurricane Sandy; RUS was too busy doing other things (reading books with me, watching Bob the Builder) and didn't end up carving that day. We're thinking we might make his a "Thanksgiving" pumpkin and carve a turkey in it now that Halloween is over.

J and R also decorated the back of her pumpkin by adding eyes with toothpicks and scooped-out pumpkin rind, and coloring on them with marker. ICK!

Delaware Football

We bought tickets for UD's Homecoming game versus Rhode Island in a battle between the two smallest states. We had a blast at the game with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle G, who came down for the weekend. Here we are in the pre-game tent enjoying a buffet meal and really loud music from a DJ as well as the marching band.

The kids got to meet Baby Blue up close and personal! The official mascot is YouDee, who we didn't actually see at the game, or at least, I didn't, but Baby Blue was all over the place.