Xmas in Lyons

 Watching movies with the cousins:

 And playing school:

I french-braided the girls' hair:

Supper with some of the cousins:

All of the kiddo generation at the Farm gathering:

The Burdettes and their grandkids (and dog):

My sisters and I:

Coop taking a break from the family to go shoot tin cans with his Grandpa and Dad.

Other pre-Christmas things

Gus and Eleanor came over and the kiddos made this marble run:

We saw Miss Linda, the cinnamon roll lady, at the holiday farmers market, so we spent a couple of hours working in her booth, helping to sell cinnamon rolls!

An army invasion, held off by nerf guns:

The presents Coop made for us at school came home with these decorations of things we each like:

 (netflix, wine, diet coke, the snake, sleeping)

(glasses, guns, cat, beer, iPad)

Getting ready for xmas

Coop and I enjoyed a Topeka production of It's a Wonderful Life:

New ornaments for this year:

Reading through the xmas books:

And the much beloved xmas village:

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed the 39th Annual Raintree Thanksgiving Feast, for which the kids make all of the dishes:

This year, Cooper recited a Thanksgiving poem that he had written:

For Thanksgiving itself, we hosted some law students (and one other law professor and her son) at the house for Indian food:

The Washburn Law crew:

November

One final Halloween / fall decoration:

Coop has taken to wearing ties lately.  Pretty cute:

And apparently cleaning windows!

And directly music on his iPad:

Gus and Eleanor

Cooper and I joined Gus and Eleanor for a sleepover one weekend.  Coop read to Eleanor:

And we took advantage of wonderful November weather to go biking.  Carrie took this picture and captioned it "One day, after grad school, when they declare their life-long love for each other, we will show them this picture:"

And this one: We all know who's in charge of this group:

We had lunch at Spin pizza, where Cooper ordered a giant meatball (and loved it!):

The start of November

Snazzy new shoes (with laces and not velcro!):

Dip cone.  Super messy:

Took Coop to the polls on election day.  Alas, no kids voting this year:

But we spent election night coloring in the electoral college map:

Until about 10pm, when I sent Coop to bed.... after the blue crayon broke:

Raintree was closed for a couple of days for conferences.  Coop spent the days at Baker with Alan:

Apparently, he had lots of "meetings" around campus, and also got promoted:

Halloween festivities

On Friday before Halloween, Raintree had its holiday party.  Kids wore costumes and carved pumpkins.  Coop took some accessories, so his pumpkin showed a window into Narnia, complete with a bench, snow-covered trees, and teddy bears:

The weekend before Halloween, he and I hosted a murder mystery party at the house for his friends.  He was Marvin the Millionaire, who was killed when a piano dropped on his head:

Decorating sugar cookies after solving the mystery:

On Halloween itself, Raintree was closed.  So John Wayne came to school with me:

He opened class with some John Wayne trivia questions:

Later that night, out for trick-or-treating with Darth Vader, and two Nikes, the goddesses of victory:

Grandma Margaret

Alan's Grandma Margaret turned 99 years old this month, and the family all converged in Iola for a big party!

Coop hugging her hello:

More hugs and stories:

Great grand kids:

Goofballs:

Everyone's exhausted on the drive home!

Maple Leaf

Cooper and I enjoyed another lovely Maple Leaf Festival this year.  We bought fudge and a cinnamon roll and a marionette puppet.  We saw the parade.  And for the most part, we avoided the crowds.

One of my favorite traditions of Maple Leaf is that on Sunday evening, when things are starting to shut down, Coop and I have been involved in taking a home-cooked meal to the carnival workers.  It's the same crew year after year, so we've gotten used to seeing some familiar faces.

But this year, the woman who usually was in charge (i.e. -- made buckets of soup and dinner rolls for the crew) wasn't going to be there.  So.... my turn.

I opted to make sloppy joes for 40 people:

THAT is a crapton of ground beef.

But we got everything set up -- sloppy joes, chips, apples, and cookies:

One of the carnival workers was talking with Coop and expressing his appreciation for Coop's help, and then he gave Coop this ginormous stuffed shark:

Coop was beyond thrilled!

AND THEN another worker offered him a hermit crab.  Which meant I had to run to the pet store the next day to be a "crabitat" for Hermie the hermit crab.  He seems quite happy now.  As does Cooper.