A Song of Thanksgiving

 November went by really fast. 

We got to hang out with Tirzah, Griffin and Gwen one Friday evening.  Some of them disappeared to the basement and we only heard from them when they needed the sewing maching re-threaded.... yeah.  They were busy sewing and dress designing. 😂

These two spent the evening playing switch games.

Awwww... they get along so well sometimes...

And Kenna got to hang out with us on Sunday evening.  :) 

We brought home our final 1/2 a hog from  Wyss Farms.  Sad day.  😥 (Also, I'm not sure why I got the neck bones, or what I'm supposed to do with them.) 

We had homemade apple cider, so I really needed to make apple cider donuts!  It was not my best day in the kitchen: first I burned the cider instead of reducing it, then the oil was too hot so half of the donuts were still gooey in the middle. Mur.  The rest of them were great, thankfully.

Perrin likes to mow the leaves. 

Dang came over for supper and the boys built a tall tower.

We took the two littles out to the woods one afternoon just to see what was going on.  :)  It was pretty quiet.

We could not figure out why Perrin was being so whiny- until we tried to leave and he got so mad and pointed at the skidder.  Put him in the seat and he was happy as a clam and didn't want to get down.  😂

Cecily raised a meal worm in science class and they got to bring it home.  Woot.  Just what I've always wanted!

The kids were all outside playing in the leaves, and putting them in Perrin's shirt and pants. *sigh*  So he was full of leaves and we stripped him down and shook his clothes out.  He was not sad.  Ha.

My youngest cousin got baptized so we spent the weekend in W-ton. (I keep saying last cousin... but we're still waiting on one.)  My mom was serving lunch and I really didn't help her at all, but we were there for once.  Cliff is friends with some of my former students so it was fun to see them.  Also, it made me laugh a lot- "greetings Mrs. Koch" just sounds weird.  😁

As I was trimming up and getting ready to put the binding on our quilt, the knots all started untying themselves.  Gah.  The thread we used was too slippery or something, so I got some new, non-slippery thread and we re-knotted the whole thing.  *sigh*  But then it was time to quilt the center block!  Hooray!  I remember Grandma Wyss showing me how to quilt long ago at World Relief sewing.  

We all did a little bit, even Bob.  (He would not let me take his picture)

 

Miriel's technique was interesting... haha.  She also made the tiniest stitches.  

 

One day my brain was gone and I thought I was making two pans of cookie bars for Bob to take to work, instead I had inadvertently doubled a chocolate chip cookie recipe.  That makes about 6 doz a batch.  I don't know how I had enough ingredients.  So I baked all through piano lessons instead of my quick pans of bars.  And we put a few dozen dough balls in the freezer for later.   😜

Busy little helpers.

More quilting. 

Add replacing a trike axel to the four new bike tires- it might have been cheaper to get new riding toys. 

He is not supposed to be on the road, but they were filling Emmy's bike basket with leaves or something. 

 

I went to the dress rehearsal for Messiah on Saturday morning, which is always really fun.  Then I came home and made everyone work.  

 

I was so close to getting my spring cleaning list mostly checked off (yes, I know it's not spring anymore) so we finally tackled the kitchen.  Some were more enthused than others.  Some just wanted to crawl into the bottom cabinets.  I'm not sure it's as clean as if I'd have done it all by myself, but it's cleaner than it was.  😜

 

Sunday was the performance and I was a little nervous.  I haven't been able to sing Messiah for the last five years, and it's been a very long time since I've even been up in front of a crowd.  I made it through with minimal mistakes though, and I think we sounded ok.  My favorite parts are when we finish the louder, most joyous choruses- everybody is at forte and you can feel this wave of sound projecting out into the audience.  Then we all cut off and there is a split second of silence before it bounces back to us.  So cool.   

 

Oh Buddy.

Bob and the girls all had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off.  We invited my grandma for lunch, which is a little bit more complicated than it used to be, but Erika was able to bring her over.  (...and I feel old because her aunt is my age.)  It was really good to have her at our house; we showed her our quilt progress (we brought it upstairs) but she didn't think she wanted to put any stitches in. 

We finished up the last little bit of quilting and took it off the frame!!  So exciting to have it all done! It's so big- queen size, and pieced front and back.  😲  I don't think the girls have any idea how big of a project this really was.  

Perrin just thinks it's snuggly. 

We got the fabric in January, sewed all spring and summer, knotted and quilted all fall, and 11 months later we all signed our names on the finished quilt label. 

Then Emmy and I made pies for Thanksgiving.  We baked the little bit of extra pumpkin filling in a tart pan and made the teeniest cutest pie slices for Miri and Perrin.  😍  They both just ate the whipped cream.  ha.  

I love Thanksgiving food.  Perrin ate a roll.  hehe.  Also a bunch of other food- he likes to eat. :)

These two are a pair. 

There were cars, so Perrin was happy.

Aunt Amy showed us pictures from her Safari trip to Africa (so cool!) and then we ate pie.  Perrin ate chocolate pie.

Friday we cleaned and I about froze to death mowing the rest of the leaves.  We went out to Bob's parents for supper since Matt is home.

And today we got to put the carol books in the church benches for the very first time.  I also am "picturing your girls 50 years from now reminiscing about the time they remember putting Christmas caroling books in the benches for the first time...because they're Wysses and they like history and they're Kochs so they won't forget!"  Miri was slightly confused about what was happening, so if she tells you she was decorating the church, this is what she means.  😂

Blessings.

Autumn fun

Certain of the girls have decided that a fall tea party is a family tradition and we must have apple cider doughnut cake and apple cider in tea cups. 

Impatiently waiting to go get sisters from school...

 

Such excitement! 

I gave Perrin a little bit of cider in his little tin cup and he drank and drank and drank.  Hehe.  I had to refill his cup more than any one else's.

We love china tea cups.

Ha.

Such fun.

Then we began wiener roast season... woot.  First up was a rainy night in John and Jamie's shed with the Kochs.  The girls came home soaked from the trampoline and then Miriel stuck her whole leg in the stream in the landscaping.  *sigh*

Sarah has a daughter in the MHS band, and we went to their community performance the next day.  It was chilly and misting on us, but their band is phenomenal.  It might have convinced them all to be in marching band some day.  :)  (Mission accomplished)

While we were watching the band, Perrin and Bob went shopping and Perrin brought home a new 'Car!' 'Car.'

 Perrin was eating raspberries as fast as we were picking them.  😆

We all went out to Gridley for another wiener roast with the Schlipfs the same weekend. 'Oh! Car!' And also lots of balls.  :) 

The trampoline was a little full.

Perrin played a little croquet. 

 We borrowed Dianne's quilt frame so we could start knotting our quilt.  I was sure we could make it work upstairs.... but.... it would have made it impossible to walk anywhere so we moved it to the basement instead.

We moved a bunch of stuff out of the way and it still takes up basically the entire width of the room.  😆  You have to crawl under it to get to the other side of the basement.  (Shout out to my mom for making us help her put in comforters for world relief sewing.... putting our quilt in was just like riding a bike.)

We had a few days off of school for parent/teacher conferences.  They all behave perfectly and are doing just fine academically... ha.  So we took them to Red Robin.

Little Mr. likes to eat.  He ate all of his food and some of his sisters.

Then we went to Bass Pro.  There were many engine noises made.

And all of the animal sounds.

So fun.

Everybody got to tie knots.

Even Bob!

And then Emmy took it upon herself to finish it.  She and Cadence got up early Saturday morning and did just that.  They even rolled it!  (My work here is done.)

The kids and I took grandpa lunch in the field.

Perrin was pretty pleased.

Impatiently waiting for their turn to ride.

Someone found a dirt pile.

The semi was pretty exciting.

Mr. Perrin liked the combine once we got up in it.  😄

And then we went to the sewing club wiener roast.  The kids had a great time running around and playing on the play set.  I don't think Perrin stopped moving all evening. 😋

Such helpful helpers... I was trying to trim up the quilt edges, Miri was dancing, and Perrin was driving cars up and down the strips.

He knows he's not supposed to be on the road so he's staying right on the edge. 

We went to get pumpkins and see the animals one afternoon.

Oh! Maaaa!

He had some pretty serious bedhead after a nap.  😁

After Logan broke his leg, aaaalllll of the dolls had broken legs and had to get casts on. 

Sundays are hard for the littlest mister.  He doesn't like his church shoes and he really didn't like his church coat.  But he's sooo cute. 😍

We went to the farm for the evening and made some apple cider in the cold and wind. 

The kids had a blast and it always tastes soooooo good. 

One of our neighbors trees needed to come down and they had a crew next door.  Tree guys are insane.  Perrin loved it and didn't want to go inside.

Ah, carving pumpkins.... such a delightful activity that doesn't try my patience at all.... not. 

Look! Pumpkin guts!

The results- a horse (she says), a smiling face, a unicorn, and a zebra (I don't think I managed to make it look like a zebra, but Miri didn't care, so we'll call it a zebra).

And then there was Trick or Treating!  The weather forecast was cold and windy. Woot.  Trick or treat hours were during someone's usual nap time and it was too cold to even want to try to take him along.   We dressed him up so we could take some cute pictures and then put him to bed.  Guess who didn't want to take pictures.  ha.  Perrin, say cheese!  No.

Isn't he just the cutest little hobbit tho? 

Oh Miriel.  The first time I asked what she wanted to dress up as, she said "a Swedish fish!" (candy)  But then she and Cadence argued multiple times over which fairy dress they were going to wear and I figured she had changed her mind.  Nope, asked her again two days before and she said "Swedish Fish" again.  Um... ok then.  We had a red stocking hat, a red shirt, and letter stickers and she was so. excited. to be a Swedish Fish. 😂

 

Emmy wanted to be a cowgirl and she was pretty excited to wear the vest she sewed.

Cadence was Titania, Queen of the Fairies. 

Cecily kept telling people she was a "Mom handing out candy."  The idea I'd seen was for someone to dress as an old lady and carry around a door; when you knocked on the door, they fawned over your costume and handed you candy.  So we made a cardboard door that said 'please knock' and she had a container of *cough* old people wrapped hard candies to offer people.   

What a crew.  :)  It was really cold and windy out.  We went to Grandma B's, Mrs. A's, a few houses on the blue lagoon, a few people on our street and then we were frozen and came home for chili and cocoa. 

Blessings.