Week of 11/20

This was a really busy week with Thanksgiving and prep, but we spent lots of time together and not too much time working.

Monday we had tennis. Logan is loving it.  Andrew is bummed to be in a group with younger kids than Seth, which is hard for him, but hopefully they'll all learn a lot.

Tuesday, Logan had his Thanksgiving feast in the morning.  Katsu went and basically watched him eat in his cool outfit and say a little prayer.  I really wanted to come but couldn't get a sitter for Noah.  Oh, well.  Then, we grocery shopped, made a cherry pie, and cleaned the house for our pie night.  I was kind of worried no one would come, and no one did, at least for the first 30 minutes, but then it was packed afterwards and a lot of fun.  Everyone just brought a pie and chatted.  The boys were upstairs playing with nerf guns and kids were on the drums and running around and it was just crazy and a nice way to start out the weekend.

Wednesday, busy cooking most of the day and trying to watch key Gilmore Girls episodes.  Boys had a half day of school and spent lots of time playing outside and watching screens, but fun was had by all.

Thursday, we started the day at the turkey trot.  Katsu, Andrew, and Seth ran.  It wasn't too cold, but it did rain near the end.  There was lots of other people we knew there from the neighborhood, ward, and work, so that was fun.  We told Seth he could run as fast as he wanted, so he did and Katsu and Andrew ran together.  Seth ran the entire time and finished in 26 min 38 seconds.  We were at the finish line and got him when he finished.  He felt pretty sick for the first couple minutes and told me he didn't want to do that again, but then after that he was just proud.  He ran faster than any kids his age or younger.  Out of the kids under 10, he was 4th.  Not bad for his first race.  Katsu had to motivate Andrew some, but he finished in 42 minutes or something like that, so a good 5+ minutes faster than his last race.  Good for him!  There were lots of his friends from running club running too, so that was fun.  And Seth was just proud of how fast he raced.

We went home, threw the turkey in oven, and watched the Macy's Day parade, and then finished cooking dinner.  It was just - kind of anticlimatic - and we had way too much food because the boys don't really like any Thanksgiving food.  Next year, we need to have less or more people to share it with.  We had turkey, stuffing (sausage, pecans, and apricots), gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, apple pie, chocolate pudding pie, and pecan pie squares.  We rested and then had dessert.

Friday we put up the Christmas tree and decorations and tried to play games together, but each one ended up in fights and chaos.  Andrew was particularly awful and spent a lot of time in his room.  We had the elf on the shelf out and we played the elf games he brought with him.  The boys loved it and were making up their own games of hiding the flashing rudolf nose outside - until they broke it!

Saturday, we spent most of the day with me taking the kids shopping individually to buy presents for the rest of the family members and then wrapping them up.  We also went with Brother's Keeper to feed the homeless/poor.  The boys just played at the park, but it was a good time and the stuffing we brought was gone in a flash.

Andrew - lots of trouble as always.  He loses his temper like crazy and then will lash out verbally and then physically attack to the point where he hit me this week.  Not good.  At all.  But when he's good ... he's good.  He has worked hard on getting ready for the battle of the books because they are making the team next week.  He really enjoyed decorating the tree and then putting toys around it.

Seth - super anxious to open Christmas presents.  He was the one insistent on buying them and then has been giving out clues, so basically everyone already knows what his presents are.  He has been loud and whiny lately, but also spending lots of time outside with friends.  His main thing is complaining about how everyone he knows (including the smart kids!) get more screen time than he does and how I am the meanest mom ever.

Logan - he seems really tired this week and has been having lots of tantrums.  On Saturday, we cleaned up in the evening so we could finish getting everything done.  He hates picking up, so before we knew it, he had put himself to sleep and was already asleep.  This is not the first time it's happened either!  He spends a lot of time playing with our neighbor, riding his ziggle up and down the driveway or playing in the sand box.

Noah - he was happy to be at home a lot this week and wore more costumes than I can count.  He is always dressed up as something!  He is talking a lot more and has been enjoying talking about the parade in Raleigh and how he saw Spiderman.  He is loving all the Christmas decorations and presents and wants to open them already!  He bought his brothers' Christmas presents - ornaments - so he could give it to them right away and I think he got the concept of giving.