Parker's Piano Recital

This cute boy had his Christmas piano recital Tuesday evening.  They performed at a memory care center not far from our home, just like last year.  

First Parker played a few songs by himself.  Here is a short clip from one of them.  He did pretty well, even though he was nervous.  The residents sang along with any tune they recognized, which flustered many of the kids but Parker hung in there!

At the end a couple of the kids each did a duet with their teacher.  I moved to where I could see Parker better to make the video, and I was highly amused to see Parker with his tongue hanging out in concentration!  He does that all the time when he's really thinking!

Parker is a sweet kid.  He sure loves Diane and enjoys visiting with her each week at his lesson.  He always leaves with a big smile and a little candy.   After Parker very nervously helped pass out cookies to the residents, he then helped himself to a well earned treat and exclaimed, "I think I did well!"  We agreed!

Happy Pie Day!

The day before Thanksgiving Kenzie and I have dubbed "Pie Day."  We made six pies and a cheesecake this year.  Here Kenzie was about to start pumpkin brownie pie, which she made all by herself.

Here she had just finished decorating the Oreo pie and the pumpkin brownie was cooling.  She also made a regular pumpkin pie all on her own, too!

For Thanksgiving we went to Wes and Hannah's.  I had to take a picture of the three brothers as the Plaid Panel.  They are so alike that they dress alike.

Cameron getting ready to eat.  He was beyond thrilled for the canned cranberry sauce, and told anyone and everyone, "My mom made the cranberry sauce!"  He was also proud that we had brought pop.  (He did eat a homemade roll, but didn't brag to everyone that I made those!  It was just the pop and cranberry sauce that he loudly told everyone I had made.  We all thought it was funny).

Cute Kenzers ready to eat her dinner (and who knows what Cameron was up to!).

Parker was super excited for some turkey and mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.  Maybe I should just give them all a can of cranberry sauce for Christmas (it is my specialty, after all!). 

Nobody can agree if it's make-a-silly-face or not, so this was the best one I got.

 The evening finished off with a large assortment of pies (this isn't even quite all of them!).  I kept going back and forth from the van to bring all our pies in, and jokingly said, "This is my last trip - I expect applause when I return."  Of course everyone took that as a challenge, and I entered the house again to much fanfare and lots of clapping.  I am related to a bunch of goofballs!  Besides pie, there were lots of games played throughout the house, and even though we had been there for six hours, Cameron was still disappointed to go home, so it must have been a fun day for him playing with his cousins!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Pinewood Derby

Cute Parker and his car, ready to head to the Pinewood Derby this morning.  His cool design this year (idea courtesy of Dad) was a lightning bolt on a blue car.  Parker was quite happy.

Parker proudly displaying his "Greased Lightning" award.

Cameron was happy to cheer for Parker and his friends, but he was really looking forward to racing against Parker.  He brought along Parker's car from last year, and they raced when everything was over.  Cameron won, and it made his day!  Parker's new car wasn't as fast as last year's, but he still came in first or second in each of his races, so he was grinning the whole time!

Halloween

Cameron in the school's Halloween parade yesterday morning.  He was a little disappointed not to wear his Pikachu costume to school, but it wasn't feasible for him to be wearing that huge thing, plus it covered his face and masks weren't allowed.  He wore Parker's old Batman costume, which was too big but at least made him happy that he was dressed up at school.

Parker was Link from Zelda - and so were two other boys in his class!  They all went by together (so quickly that the picture was a blur).

After the parade I helped the 1st graders decorate cookies during their class party.  Here's Cameron and his friend, Sawyer.  

I promised Parker I'd help in his class the next time there's a party, since I couldn't be two places at once, but a friend texted me this picture since her son is in Parker's class. 

Ready to go trick-or-treating!  Kenzers is getting older, and didn't even dress up at school, but she did dress up as Dr. Who, and had her psychic paper and sonic screwdriver.  She went trick-or-treating with her friends and hung out at their house.

 Parker getting ready to go trick-or-treating!

 He carried the flashlight and knocked on all the doors, since Cameron couldn't traverse stairs well in his costume.  Even though I think Parker would have liked to trick-or-treat more (or at least faster) he was pretty patient waiting for his little brother.

A daytime shot from the day before on the way to Dad's work party.  That Pikachu costume got so many laughs! 

 Cameron got really tired since he had to waddle rather than walk, and it took us a long time just to make it down the street to our house, but he did love the attention.  Everywhere he went kids were excited to see him, and all the adults giggled as he sauntered by.  It was not a practical costume by any means, but I still think it was worth it!