Besties

We've had the chance to spend time with close friends each November when Yuani comes back to Iowa for Thanksgiving.  This year he brought along his new wife, Karen.  Our families enjoyed dinner and a game of Settlers after the kids went to bed.  I love spending time with friends...especially when I've known them since high school.

Drake's Dedication

Our extended family joined us in November as we dedicated Drake William Broffitt to the Lord during a service at Parkview.  We're so thankful for a wonderful family and church to help us raise our children.  It's a challenging task but one that God has entrusted to us.

Thanksgiving Feast

Sylvia's preschool class celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast.  They ate turkey, cranberry jello, mashed potatoes, rolls, carrots, a turkey cookie (made during centers) and a piece of cake (from their HyVee field trip).  I volunteered in the kitchen and got to attend the feast with my little turkey.

 

Fall Wee Dance

Sylvia participated in dance again this fall with Miss Aubrey at Parkview.  She loves it and it has been wonderful to see her grow in so many ways because of it.  A few of the girls were able to dance at a recital with some of Aubrey's other students.  You can check it out in the last video.

HyVee Field Trip

Sylvia's preschool class took a field trip to HyVee.  They were learning about food and preparing for their Thanksgiving Feast.  They got samples of apple, pizza, cheese & meat, cookies and hot cocoa while they were there.  Touching the lobster was a highlight as well as watching a cake be decorate and a flower arrangement made.  I drove the bus and got to tag along on the field trip.

Halloween

Sylvia helped me gut the pumpkins this year.  She goes back and forth each year about whether or not she likes the pumpkin guts.  She wasn't sure at first so she used our salad tongs but she eventually stuck her arm in and said she liked it.  She drew her face (and arms) and then took pictures of me carving it.

 

Eric also helped gut and decorate his pumpkin.  The salad tongs came in handy again.  He told me the shape, size and location of his pumpkin's eyes, noes and ears so I could draw them on.  You can see that he likes big circles and wanted a sad face with teeth.

 

Sylvia decided a while back that she wanted to be a clown.  I showed Eric some different costumes but I think he heard Sylvia talking so much about being a clown that he wanted to be one too.  I had a baby clown costume so Drake got to wear that on our visit to Great Nana.  My aunt made Sylvia and Eric's costumes many years ago.

 

A friend from our old neighborhood joined us trick-or-treating this year.

 

Drake's clown costume wasn't warm enough for Halloween night so he got to be a dragon.  We set our candy out on the front porch so we could all go trick-or-treating together.

 

The clowns were both very excited about all the candy.

 

I wore my dad's "Dodo the Clown" costume out.  I put together a ring master costume for Dan but it will only be seen by those of you that visit the blog.  He did not wear it trick-or-treating.

Rock Falls

The Hoefer family spent a weekend in Rock Falls, Illinois at the end of October.  My parents rented a nine bedroom house on the Rock River for the 19 of us to stay in.  Dan and I stayed in the servants quarters with our kids.

 

The kids spent lots of time playing outside even though it was a little chilly.   

 

We took a walk across the Rock River to get a closer look at all the trains we could hear passing by.  Drake fell asleep while we were out but the other boys enjoyed seeing the big engine on display.

 

Grandpa got to sit at the kids table.

 There was a farm nearby with Halloween activities.  We did the corn maze, tractor ride and kid's haunted house. 

 

 

 The neighbor's had a train track in their yard that we'd been eyeing all weekend.  Grandpa met the owners and the kids got to ride around the yard many many times.  They even got train whistles and hats.

 

We had a wonderful weekend spending time with family.  It's so fun to see our kids playing with their cousins.