Holiday Parade

We braved the cold for another Chapel Hill-Carrboro Holiday parade earlier this month. (it wasn't that cold).

Here are some pictures:

Guillermo, fighting off his friend to get candy.

Maya and one of her bffs.

Lego Fest

Will took Guillermo to Lego Fest. They came back tired, but armed with goodies.

Ninjago

With a storm trooper

Can you find them?

This is one of my favorite fall activities: Hiding the kids in the leaves. Unfortunately, I missed it this year, but Will snapped up these cute pictures.

He's in there

I see an arm

UNC Gymnastics

Guillermo's forward roll

Maya on the bar

Maya has been taking gymnastics since the past summer and loves it. The UNC Gymnastics team hosted a day day of gymnastics for the children of faculty and staff so we took the kids. Maya's eyes lit up when she saw the UNC team practicing and warming up. We didn't tell Guillermo where were going when we loaded him up in the car and even when we walked across campus, knowing he'd rebel against the opportunity. He wasn't too thrilled when he walked into the gym, but he quickly spotted a few friends and then spent the next 90 minutes having a great time on the gym floor. He didn't take one break and left the floor only after he collected the autographs of each one of the female gymnasts. He insists, though, that he doesn't want to go back next year :)

She's a Daisy!

She's a Daisy

Maya and her good friend, Sophia

Maya joined a Daisy Troop this year. The group meets once a month and she counts down the days starting with the Sunday before her next meeting. Most of the girls in her troop are from the neighborhood or from her preschool. It is a really cute troop and my friends are the leaders, which makes it more fun for me. I like it for another reason. I like mindless sewing. I don't like sewing that requires thought or skill, but I love sewing on her badges, and man does she have a lot of them.

Merry Christmas, I mean Happy Halloween

Maya and Guillermo

It's nearly Christmas, and I have been lax, too lax, about updating this blog. This fall has been fun, watching Maya jump right in to kindergarten and Guillermo, well, be Guillermo. We've had a great time, but I haven't been very good about documenting that fun here. So, the next few posts are catch-up posts, starting with, of course, Halloween.

Indiana Jones

Maya, a princess

Thankful for Intertwined Hands

Maya, showing off her little apple pie with the daisy she made out of extra crust on top.

Guillermo preparing to make chutney for the lamb

Happy Thanksgiving!

The four of us celebrated at home and had a nice, relaxing day. We divided up the chores: Guillermo was in charge of deorations; Maya had pies; I had turkey and the sides; and Will was in charge of the lamb. It was quite a feast: tukey and gravy, lamb with pear and blackberry chutney; sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls and apple and pumpkin pie.

We attended a breakfast feast in Maya's class the other day and that night we talked about Thanksgiving. She determined that Native Americans were thankful for bears, because bears gave their lives so the Native Americans could use their fur. Yesterday, however, she looked at me and said: "I just don't know what it means to be thankful. What does that mean?" At Thanksgiving today, she was too shy to say what she was thankful for, but echoed Will when he said he was thankful for the Cardinals. Guillermo said he was thankful for animals.

The best part of today, for me anyway, was the walk in the woods after dinner. Guillermo and Maya pretended I was a monster chasing them and when I would get close, Guillermo would pretend to blast a grappling hook with an attached rope to a faraway tree. He then grabbed Maya's hand and they flew off, together, to the next section of the woods. Pure sweetness!