Ten on Tuesday.

1. I had a little brunch here on Sunday and my favorite eat from the shindig were the bacon-wrapped dates. I've made them again since, and have plans for them tomorrow as well. Yum.

2. In other food goodness, I made bacon and brussels sprouts salad yesterday and it was amazing. I definitely did not use a mandolin, but rather the pre-shredded bag from TJs and cut the recipe in half.

3. Just finished Counting By 7s. Wonderful.

4. It's going to be a quiet Thanksgiving around here. I'm very much looking forward to doing lots of reading.

5. We got started on the cooking today. The kids and I made the [paleo] cranberry sauce. Yum!

6. The kids and I are reading Ramona Quimby.

7. They are reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe with Daddy.

8. We went to a workshop at the library on Saturday given by local author David Larochelle, who spoke of the importance of writing letters and showed dozens of creative ways to write and send them. The kids have since been on a letter writing kick and have each written 2-3 letters. I remember sending and receiving lots of letters as a kid, and it's a bummer that kids these days probably won't have quite the stash.

9. I am a sucker for end of the year book lists, and we are headed into that time of year. I will mostly likely add way too many of them to my to-read list for 2014.

10. I am guilty of forgetting all the other meals leading up to and following Thanksgiving. So tonight it was taco shells filled with refried beans and cheese, baked in the oven. Side of peas. Kids thought it was the best dinner ever.

10 Things: Fisher.

Fisher's turn!

1. You are kind to others.

2. Today you read me The Cat in the Hat.

3. You love to be outside. Running around with all the neighborhood friends, biking, playing Zombie Tag, football, tennis, baseball, Frisbee, soccer, swinging while screaming singing "Footloose."

4. Today's breakfast was a waffle-sausage sandwich.

5. You love Legos.

6. When you come out of school, you are always playing Rock Paper Scissors Shoe with your friend Colton. All the way to the car. This better change as the temperatures approach single digits, buddy.

7. You've started saying that awesome things are epic.

8. There's a 50-50 chance that you'll get your undies on the right way each night after shower. You just don't really give a hoot.

9. Holy bagumba, you have one heck of a duck (pouty) face.

10. You tell me I love you to infinity and beyond!

10 Things: Alla.

I am directly stealing this from Kristina's blog, because it is just such a great idea to do every now and then. Without further ado, 10 Things About Alla...

 

1. You are always humming or singing or whistling. I wonder if you do it in class!

2. You are still wearing that bracelet on your ankle, and this picture was taken almost a month ago.

3. You are 2/3 of the way through all of the Maud Hart Lovelace books.

4. You looked through both the Toys R Us and Target toy catalogs this weekend and declared that there was nothing in there you wanted. Except maybe a giant stuffed panda. Right.

5. You are going to be Star of the Week in your class next week, and you have been looking forward to this immensely.

6. You love granola, sugar snap peas, ice cream sundaes on Sunday, Pizza Friday, and pomegranates.

7. You sleep with Lily and White Bear, and, most recently, your "pocket bear."

8. It's been awhile since you've lost a tooth, but you did manage to chip one in gym a few weeks ago.

9. You come up with some crazy outfits, which I love.

10. Your heart is very very big.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Did you miss the Halloween post?

2. It's the most exciting time of the year! The Goodreads Best Books of the year voting has begun. I generally haven't read the majority of the books in any one category, but I do love to vote for something I did particularly enjoy reading, and also it's a great list of stuff to put on my to-read list. Go vote!

3. I am currently in the middle of a memoir about a girl growing up in a house with a father who hoarded. Wow.

4. The kids and I are in the middle of Flora and Ulysses, which is also Wow.

5. Snow is forecasted for later today, piling up a few inches on our green grass. We're not too worried.

6. When should it snow here in these northern parts, on average, though, you ask? Well typically we have a white Christmas (otherwise, BOO). And also typically, our family members like to guess the date of the first plowable snow. The littles have dates in November, and the more sensible grown-ups picked December dates. We shall see.

7. Alla saw our guest room all cleaned out and bed made extra prettily and made a wish that we'd have a Thanksgiving guest to sleep there. Any takers?

8. Our living room ceiling finally has lights, after almost seven and a half years in this house! It is my most favorite house upgrade ever.

9. Alla made her bean soup for dinner on Sunday and is so excited that she has a thermos now to take leftovers for lunch. Everyone is curious about what she has in there, and she had to bring two copies of her recipe today for people who thought it looked delicious yesterday!

10. I better get in a run this morning while the kids are at school and before the snow comes!

Halloween 2013.

I know you were wondering, so here it is. What the kids wore for Halloween this year. 

The one on the right. sure, he is wearing the same firefighter costume for the third year in a row. Score! The one on the left basically wanted something that involved a wig, so she created her own and called it Luna Lovegood. I love it. They lasted an hour or so with Daddy, then came home to sort their haul into safe/not safe piles. We ended the night with Charlie Brown!