A good soup

The boys have been doing great these days.
Here's Henry the morning we brought his first school project to school for him to present.  He had to make a poster about himself so he put photos of his family and of Bangladesh as well as 'snow flakes' because winter is his favorite season.

Today after Elliot sang "Happy Birthday" in the car on the way home and I had asked them what they wanted for dinner, I asked them what they would want for dinner if today were their birthday and they could pick any food.  Elliot "CAKE! and then cookies!"  Henry "I would want zucchini soup. Zucchini, water, lima beans, chicken, and the noodles you use for macaroni and cheese."  Hmmm, can we have them share a birthday dinner?

We spent Thanksgiving with Scott's family.  After the big meal Bob made his famous turkey soup for us to enjoy on Friday.  Here are some photos from Brazos Bend park:

Visitor and visits

A few weeks ago my dad's sister, Bonnie, passed through town for one night.  Within minutes the boys were (re)bonded with Bonnie and showing off all of their crazy skills.  Scott was out of town, so we spent a moment looking at our map so Henry could show Bonnie where he was (Bangladesh).  One skill they showed off was making hearts with their hands.  Bonnie was a quick learner and joined in.

We were really happy to have one of my high school friends pass through for a weekend.  He also visited us in Bangladesh a few times so the boys know him well and were excited to have him around.  So excited that they attacked him when they were wormy worm monsters.

and he and Scott brewed up a batch of beer

We then had a fantastic weekend on Tybee Island with our good friends from Bangladesh.  We rented a little cottage and spent the days exploring on the beach and visiting the historic sites.









Although it was a bit too cold to swim we had fun in the waves and building with the sand.

 We asked Elliot to show us a "feeling cold" face

We spent some time on the playground and climbing in a super cool tree.

 And then went to the historic Tybee Island Lighthouse to...
Find a lizzard

then climb the stairs:

 to the windy top

And what beach trip is complete without a trip to an ice cream shop - even if you have to wear jackets during the outing

On the last day we went to Savannah where we visited a train museum and had lunch

When we first stopped in Savannah the kids waved to the pilot of a passing boat who then decided to put on a show by turning towards them, tooting his horn a few times, and doing a turn around before heading back on down the river. The kids loved it!

Stone Mountain Jr

The other day we discovered a great park just a few minutes away.  We spent the morning hiking up a Stone Mountain Jr.  Elliot and Henry hiked the whole way barely taking a break before we stopped for a snack at the top.

Halloween

For halloween the boys transformed into Chris and Martin Kratt from Wild Kratts (a PBS show about animals).  The boys just love that the Kratts brothers can get creature power and become a wide variety of animals.  When they tried on the costumes they both looked up at us quizzically and asked us as they pushed the creature power button "How do we get there?" and sadness set in. It took me a second to figure out what they meant but then it clicked. They thought that by wearing the costume they'd be able to use creature power to become a white shark, for example.  After going through a painful, and luckily brief, acceptance process, they began tapping in to their imagination and creating all sorts of of role plays.

I realize now that I don't have photos from trick or treating but I do have photos of:
First trying on their costumes the night before Halloween.

And their school parade.  I don't know how well you can tell through the photo below, but Elliot lets the gloves hover on his hands which just cracks me up.

I think these costumes will be worn for many days to come.

Field trips

I recently chaperoned Henry's first ever field trip and had so much fun doing so.  Since he is now in a Pre-K program, based at their daycare, this field trip, to the zoo, was through the regular school system, which meant we got to ride a bus.  I had not ridden a yellow school bus in so long!  

 Henry had mentioned a few times over the previous weeks that he didn't want to go to Kindergarten (next year) because he didn't want to ride the bus alone.  Well, when presented with the option on his field trip Henry marched right up to the bus, got on, sat down, and then said I could sit with him if I wanted to. Hmmm, if this experience were any indication, I think he won't have a problem with the school bus next year.

He was so stoked!

 Here they all are:

 I posted this one because I thought it was funny that the photo captured the fact that Henry wanted to be the team navigator, using the zoo map, throughout the morning.

Another fun adventure we recently went on was to a corn maze with some friends.  One of the families we went with is from Kenya and Haiti and had not only never done a corn maze but were intrigued the whole time why we were paying to traipse through a corn field especially since no one would end up eating the corn. It was really interesting to talk with them about these topics and other funny cultural practices namely as Halloween approached.

 Figuring out the clues to solve the imbedded mystery

 Determining our next direction in hopes that we'd make it out before too long.

And then that family that found the corn maze so peculiar (and fun) treated us all to our first fried oreos.