For Thanksgiving all of the Bowman side of the family came to Texas to celebrate together. Unfortunately we threw a bit of a wrench in the reunion with car problems and finding out the day before we were supposed to leave that Don needed to stay in town to work on a project over the holiday week-end. But my big brother Bob came to the rescue and drove down from Dallas at 3:30 am to get me and the kids back there in time for the family photo shoot. He is a rock star :-)
Bob holding his nephew Elijah
We missed Don tons, but had such a great time with all my siblings, parents and cousins. It has been a few years since we were all together and we had a bit of catching up to do. First order of business was meeting this new little guy, Elijah. We all had so much fun holding Scott and Jenny's newest addition. He is such a sweet baby!
Elijah, Jean and Luke
The days went by too fast, filled with good food, visits to parks, family pictures and so much fun with each other. I love my family!!
Ben and Michael catching up
Trevor and Alex
Luke, Isaac and Jean at the park
Anna, Jake and Veronica
Abby and Hayley at Cedar Hills State Park for Hayley's school project
In November Don celebrated another birthday. Jake woke up extra early to make sure Don was able to open the best present ever before he left for work. Jake thought it was a perfect gift for those "family movie nights that Dad just loves!!"
Hayley was super cute and made a fun scavenger hunt up for Don to find his present.
We celebrated with cake balls, experimenting with German Chocolate Balls, Don's favorite type of cake. It was a great day. We love ya Don/Dad!!!
November was filled with with so many fun things, here are just a few of the going on's around here....
Jake made a floating replicia Mayflower ship for school, complete with popsicle stick pilgrims.
We had fun filling up our Gratitude Tree.
Speaking of the being grateful for things, Michael was able to add a big on November 18th - his Driving Learners Permit!
When Michael isn't busy driving, playing ball, or doing homework, he can occasionally be found playing the piano. This is a little jazz tune he played at his recital at school in November. He did a great job!
We put up our Gratitude Tree again for the month of November. It has been a lot of fun adding a leaf everyday and reading what everybody is thankful for this year. This is one of our favorite family traditions we started a couple of years ago - see here & here for past years trees.
We also had a great family night lesson the other night on the importance of having gratitude in the midst of challenges. We talked about this quote:
The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.
No Americans have been more impoverished than these who,
Monday night we also had a rockin' game of Freeze Tag going on inside to go along with our FHE lesson on gratitude. It was hard to get any clear action shots, but here are a few of the "frozen" shots.
Hayley, Miriam and Sharika before the trophy ceremony
Last Saturday was the Hayley's first UIL tournament. Trevor had competed in these for the last 2 years and I have had a lot of fun coaching the 4th and 5th grade Oral Reading group over the last few years. This year Hayley is involved in 3 different areas - Oral Reading, Music Memory & Impromptu Speaking. Saturday Hayley competed in all 3 areas and did a great job! Part of the fun is hanging out with your friends in between events.
4 of my Oral Reading Girls
They have also opened some events up to 1st graders, so Jake is joining in the fun with Impromptu Speaking and Solo Acting. The principal is actually the coach this year for Impromptu Speaking and she stopped me in the hall the other day to talk about how much she is enjoying Jake and his "enthusiasm". I think he has found a good niche for his creativity! Only a couple kids from each school can enter each event and Solo Acting didn't get up and running in time for this first tournment, so Jake just came to the awards ceremony to cheer on his school. We came in a close 2nd place for the tournment, not bad for just a week or 2 of practices. Looking forward to another great year of UIL!
A few weeks ago some of the kids participated in the annual Primary Sacrament Meeting Program at church. The theme the children have been learning about this year is "I Know the Scriptures are True". Hayley and Jake both did great on their parts and Trevor was a fabulous narrator throughout the program. After church I snapped a couple of quick pictures before the ties came flying off.
Pirates are all the rage around these parts, so it wasn't too hard to come up with Halloween costumes this year.
Our Pirates
Michael joined us at the church trunk or treat, dressing up a little on his own...nice glasses!
The whole gang
We spent Halloween at the church's trunk or treat, then went real trick or treating to a couple of neighbor's houses. Everyone had gotten enough candy pretty early and were ready to call it a night.
Trevor and his stash
Jake and his pillowcase of candy
Luke and Hayley
Luke taking a break to enjoy some of his candy
Luke and Jake chilling out after getting candy
So we headed home to sort candy while watching "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", one of our favorite yearly traditions.
