Officially Starting the Christmas Season

Happy Thanksgiving!

Banana Cream Pie

Alstan picked banana cream pie for our Thanksgiving pie this year. Elsie did an amazing job of making it!

Putting up the Christmas Lights

Mom and Elsie wanted to get the lights put up outside on a warmer day, but Alstan didn’t want to do anything Christmas related yet. The temptation of a hot cocoa out of his new mug was more than he could resist. We had to promise not to turn them on until after Thanksgiving though.

Hanging Out with Mom in the Art Room

Mom had a teacher work day, but the kids had off. Elsie packed up some things to entertain her and spent the day at her desk next to mom’s.

Halloween Celebration

Alstan and Elsie were missing their cousins, so we decided to head up to the farm for a “Halloween Celebration”.

Pumpkin Mishap

So, it was pretty windy this morning. When we drove up Elsie noticed her pumpkin was gone. She found it on the porch, but it was cracked pretty bad. Mom had to play pumpkin doctor.

You can hardly tell, right?

Pumpkin Carving

The Night is Not Over

Still time for a pit fire!

Pumpkin Patch

It ended up being a beautiful fall day today, so we decided to take advantage and get out to a pumpkin patch!

Visit to the Farm

Elsie has always enjoyed going to the American Girl Doll Benefit sale each year. This year she bought her two little cousins each a Bitty Baby. Due to COVID the sale was online and pick up happened this weekend. Fortunately, we we were already planning to visit Grandma and Grandpa Zielicke, so she was able to give the girls their dolls right away.



Grandpa had the kids picking apples from the air.



Alstan always finds a little time for drawing. His cousins enjoyed their art time too.

A Day at the Apple Orchards

A sunflower/corn maze!

Hair Donation Day!

Today Elsie donated her hair for the third time. We made it into a girls day with shopping and lunch before and coffee with chat time after.

Elsie’s First Day of School

This is not a very good picture of Elsie , because she is kinda tucked behind Alstan. Sadly this is the only picture we got of her on her first day. They were being recognized for decorating the groundbreaking shovels for the renovation. Since the 2020 shutdown happened before the groundbreaking ceremony, they were being recognized on the opening day of the school.

Alstan’s First Day of School

Elsie enjoyed helping Alstan pack up his backpack.

The renovation on the elementary building was not quite ready, so Elsie’s first day of school got move back to Sept. 7. Alstan was bummed because he had to go back to school before Elsie, and Elsie was bummed because Alstan was able to go back before she did. 

So while Alstan had his first day of school, Elsie helped mom move back into the art room. 

Yes, the guy from the construction crew that was cleaning up told her she could just drop the boxes over the edge. That may have been her highlight.