November!

Happy November!

11/1: Katelyn's 2nd Grade Patriotic Performance.  It was not too convenient that this was the day after Halloween, which meant taking more time off work.  Good thing I only have another week left after this one!  KK was front and center for this performance, and I was front and center taking pictures too!  I found myself really watching her for this performance, and missing the baby that she used to be.  She really is the light of my life!

11/3 Dinner with my parents before their trip.  We headed up to Diamond Bar earlier than usual to have dinner with my parents.  They're heading off to India for 2+ weeks so its always good to see them before they go (especially since we were going to be in the area for violin lessons!). 

11/4 Jadon's 11th Birthday Party!  Love Tyler's little group of friends - the parents are good people and the kids are good kids.  Hopefully this little village will keep our boys all on the right track.  KK's on her own - she didn't have the luxury of having a stay at home mom planning all her playdates for her!  

11/5 THOR Ragnarok!  I'm definitely going to miss our opening-weekend tradition for Superhero/Sci-fi movies.  I think we'll be able to squeeze Justice League in before the baby arrives, but I'll have to sit out on the next Star Wars movie! 

11/6 Tyler's Journalism class teacher sent us a video of Tyler they made for the Woodbury Weekly.  It seriously cracked me up.  

11/8 Katelyn's 2nd Grade Award Ceremony.  2nd grade is pretty easy at our elementary - there are no grades just effort letters on their report card.  I fully expected KK to receive both awards - and she did, of course!

Tue 11/14.  Tyler's 5th Grade Award Ceremony.  Woodbury starts giving real letter grades on report cards in 4th Grade.  I remember it being no sweat to get Straight A's, but apparently things are more challenging now.  Not sure if its the school or the kid? (haha!).  Tyler has always gotten Straight A's but missed a couple 'Outstanding Citizenship' awards back in 3rd and 4th grade.  I always thought those were no-brainers but apparently they are not.  He's really matured last year and I am really so proud of him!  I know he has to work hard to focus in class and set a good example for Class President.  He received both the Outstanding Citizenship as well as the Principle's Honor Roll awards (Straight A's).  There is always a 3rd award that 3 kids in each class receive.  This is chosen by their peers through secret nominations so no one knows.  And.. Tyler got it!- for showing Integrity!  When Ms. Blanco (his teacher) read out the things his classmates had said about him, I almost teared up.  They weren't your standard generic comments, but actual examples of Tyler standing up for his friends/classmates when he saw something that wasn't right.  That made me SO proud.  So proud that we even got to watch TV during dinner that night.  Haha!  (I prefaced dinner with 'don't think this will be a normal thing!')

 Misc pictures!  Most of these were taken by a friend who volunteers a lot at school and loves to take photos!

Tyler with some friends before his Cello class.  

Giant backpack twins!

Waiting with his friends for the little sisters (ACE after school class).

Red Ribbon Week photos!

Impromptu playdate after school one day!

Tyler's teacher posted the video from his Journalism class.  Love that Tyler is confident enough to be silly in a video in front of his friends!

No school on Veterans' Day - and my FIRST DAY OF MATERNITY LEAVE!  That warranted all caps because I REALLY needed to take the time off.  I've had this bad cough that has been leaving me so tired and every time I cough I worry the baby is going to come. It's been going on 2 weeks now and I hope its starting to subside.  The kids were happy to run around outside at Beacon Park!

Nesting in full mode!  Moved the couch around and got some new stools.  Stools that I had wanted for so long but finally saw someone selling them for cheap on Irvine Mom to Moms! 

11/10 Spelling Bee!  Tyler worked hard to study for his written in-class spelling bee, but then forgot to say a word was capitalized in the oral finals in his class.  He was bummed!

11/16 Thur.  With me on maternity leave now, Will and I can have breakfast/lunch dates! Hope we get a few more weeks of this.

Christmas lights are up!  We got our windows cleaned and some pressure washing of the doorway.  Love the Xmas season!

37 weeks!

11/17 Fri: Went to watch one of Tyler's BFF's championship flag football game.  Tyler has been asking to play flag football with his friends forever but I've been really hesitant since he broke his thumb right in the beginning of Summer catching a football.  I may let him in the Spring though.

New beanbag (ok, foam).  Kids love it and I think it might be the most comfortable piece of furniture in the house.

Xmas Decor is going up!

Had a wonderful brunch with my good friend Mimi! (11/17)

KK playing violin - 12 lessons in!

11/21 Tuesday - Miracles for Kids Volunteer Event! We pulled the kids out of school the last day before break to join a volunteer event where we delivered Thanksgiving meals to critically ill children.  

Cozying up with the kids in the beanbag!

Wed 11/22 Sender One Fun!  KK is not as brave as Tyler but they still had fun!

Every meal we have now seems like it might be the last before the baby comes. Haha!

Flag Football on Thanksgiving morning with friends!

Thanksgiving!  Yay, Kareen is visiting! KK happily passed down her Disney princess dolls to Karisa.

Thanksgiving dinner at All That BBQ (Da-Da was closed).  Love that the kids can sit on their own table. :)

Prepping the house for our family get together on Friday.  We moved the couch permanently and had Will (with Andy's help!) install a full mount on the TV that allows it to come out and face the corner.  Perfect solution and it totally opened up the room!

Some food pool time for the kids while Kareen/I picked up all the catered foods from Whole Foods.  

Whole Foods (although expensive) really came through!  Quite tasty, especially the turkey!

Impromptu cello/violin performances.  Pardon the mistakes!  

And of course some Hamilton Karaoke, haha!

11/26 Sun: Took the kids to see Coco!  May be the last movie we see together for a while!

11/29 Dentist appointments - no cavities!  We celebrated with YogurtLand.  Even KK was surprised that she didn't have any cavities!

Did I mention that we started KK on some group tennis lessons with her friends?  She loves it!  This is very exciting since this is the first thing that she enjoys where she may sweat.  Haha!  I can't wait to play with her!

Consolation prize for missing out on Bruno's crazy concert - watching his Apollo special at home.  It'll have to do...