November photo dump

Poof! Eli turned 6!

When the birthday boys asks for an owl cake, you bake that boy an owl cake!

A surprise tea party with cousins! The Phelps came down just for the day to help Jonathan's mom and step-dad paint their new house. They moved just a couple blocks away... AFTER Kari and Jonathan had already moved to Denver! Saaaaaad. 

                                

Warm fall days are best enjoyed in the leaves, with cousins. Isn't life magical when the leaf pile is big enough to swallow you whole?

I just got Gaffiganed - I turned the kids down from eating those chocolate cupcakes in the back, in order to serve them "fried cake, with syrup on it!" "Pancakes.... how did those slip through?"

While observing the elementary school Halloween parade, I enjoyed random kindergarten projects on the wall. This particular project made me laugh! 

Patrick (with his art teacher) was awarded 3rd place in the Pueblo City School District-wide contest for a peice of art on patriotism, and given this plaque in recognition for his placement in their First-annual Pride and Patriotism night. What a night! What a kid!

This was not Patrick's art, but he seemed to enjoy practicing his eagle at home. On a scale of One to America, how free are you tonight?

Chop chop! We just shortened our morning routine by 10 minutes and infinite amounts of whining.

Cleaning out behind the boys bed, these socks are straight-up stuck to the wall with sweat and foot funk. Grossss!!!

6:30 am. orange slices. Safety first!

Watching a movie with grandpa. Safety first!

Home sweet House Paint

We've never been crazy about the outside of our house, but painting a house is a big and kinda pricey job (I am always boggled by the price of paint!) so we've put it off. Until now! After participating against his will in yet another Project Paintbrush Joe, where people come together to paint a house in one day, Joe was raring to paint our house! But then he was hunting two weekends in a row, then I had some crazy busy weekends, and then we found ourselves closing in on the end of November but still! Determination and a lucky few days of nice weather won out.

Our beginning. The paint scheme was fine... but dated. And the paint was old and chipping so it needed new paint anyway. We came up with THIS:

 Two people. Two weekends. Two coats of paint, and a wholes new house!

 We like it.