Thanksgiving and a Preschool Update

Time for a little preschool update. We've had some really fun preschool days learning about corn and harvest and thanksgiving. The other kid who was barely too young for the deadline, dropped out and let me know the morning of the first preschool day in November. :( I don't feel like I can advertise the spot much knowing that theres just two weeks before Thanksgiving break and then I'll be so close to my due date that preschool could be put on pause any minute.  I am really sad and kinda annoyed at people dropping out last minute. I wish there was something I could do to make every kid love it as much as most of the kids seem to. Oh well. The rest of the kids have definitely settled into the typical routine just LOVE coming. Their parents say things like, "She wishes she could live at Preschool" or "She asks me every day if its Preschool" or when the kids cry because their parents come to pick them up and they don't want to go.  I kinda like that. 

I had contemplated not really cooking a Thanksgiving dinner this year since being a few weeks away from my due date. Chris and I were both intrigued with the idea of just going out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner like my sister, Tiffany did 2 years ago when she had a baby due in December. If this baby came as early as Freddy did, he would be born a few days after Thanksgiving Day. But then two of our favorite families here suggested doing Thanksgiving all together and mentioned how our house was the biggest one.  I also liked the idea of using our nice new kitchen to its fullest capacity. A few extra people were added last minute and we ended up hosting dinner for 22 people.  We did the turkey, jello, rolls, drinks and blueberry cream cheese pie.  Everything was delicious and seeing so many favorite people is always super fun.  I also love the extra push to get the house looking really clean and nice; although it was all pretty exhausting. They were really helpful and had everything cleaned up before the bulk of them left including the extra tables put away and the floor swept! It was lovely.   We are so grateful for good food, family recipes, and great friends.

Building a Built-in Bookshelf

One of the built-ins that we had planned on doing was in the space created in the landing when it was converted from a bedroom to a landing during the first remodel. Here's the space from way back then:

Where the wall is pink in the photo above was a perfect space for a built-in bookshelf. We used an old bookcase to house most of the books in the meantime. The problem was, we needed way more space for our children's books.

So with Thanksgiving break around the corner and us not going anywhere since baby #5 was due pretty soon after, we thought it was a perfect time for a project! (correction - I thought it was a perfect time... then again, I think almost ANY time is a perfect time for a project - I love projects!)

We've accumulated enough tools and some exposure to skills over the course of the last year or so and Chris is super sweet to delve into uncomfortable new worlds for me. We took a few weeks to plan it out and more than 1/2 of the wood was scraps from our remodels.  So the project only cost maybe $80?

By far the trickiest thing was getting the crown molding on the top with the angled ceilings. UGH. Glad that's behind us.  It has sooo much more space for books and we even have plans to put a small TV and Wii there during the Christmas break so when we have Thom and Brittany's family over we can send the kids up to the landing for some screen time and enjoy some quiet down by the couch in the family room.

Freddy's cute, an electrical ditch and a Robot Field Trip

Freddy is so adorable. He loves to snuggle still and is so quiet at nap time... he just doesn't like to sleep in his own bed upstairs for naps because its too far away from me. Which, kinda stinks sometimes. I can usually get him to go if I bribe him with a handful of marshmallows or some other treat to munch on as he falls asleep.  I love how he loves to dress up and its fun to see him wearing costumes I've made years ago... I just wish he'd stay in one costume at least longer than it takes me to put it on him! 

The wooded lot next to ours sold earlier this year to a nice family with two kids just older than Alec. They cleared some land and are building a house! I love that the neighborhood is getting some new families.  Apparently, the easiest way to get electrical power is to access it from the powerline on our property.  The electricity guy has come to talk to me about it a few times during business hours without notice so Chris has never been home. I hate making decisions on my own, I can never remember everything they say just right and its hard answering Chris' questions. But with Chris hating to make phone calls, we usually just get stuck with whatever I can remember. Anyway, this is just a long way of saying we now have an electrical ditch going across the side of our front yard. Apparently they hit 2 water lines as they dug.  That's crazy because its SO out of the way from where I would imagine our water lines went. So weird.

Chris and the MSU robotics team got to be involved with a big PEAK field trip that the 2nd graders went on... so Freddy and I tagged along and watched Chris give a presentation to Gwen and her PEAK friends and teachers. One of the things I love about living here is the unity and comradery  between the public schools and the university. Also with the small town feel of seeing people you know in most large group situations.  Chris is great with kids, I love watching him do the stuff he's good at.