Thanksgiving

It was our final year for the Raintree Feast.  Cooper and the other 6th year students served the meal:

Baby loved the chocolate covered pretzels:

 Coop and Juliette helped clean out a pumpkin for pie-making:

Miss Ally came through!

Baby and I spent our actual Thanksgiving meal with some friends:

Cooper

Picked the last of the season's peppers and made them the Fab Four:

On his iPad when he had to come sit in on my class (his school was closed):

At a performance of Elf, the musical:

Getting an ultrasound.  We're going to have another hernia surgery soon....

The boys

Grandma Joan sent McDonald's gift cards for Halloween.  Everyone was quite happy!

Cooper folding laundry, in a laundry basket.

Singing and leaves

Cooper's school choir performed at an assisted living place:

(You can see Coop's head behind the boy with the blue suit jacket and bow tie.)

In between songs, they talked with residents about holiday traditions:

(Coop and his brown vest in the middle of the pic.)

Leaves in the driveway!

Voting and other important work

Baby went with me to vote:

Coop borrowed the "future voter" sticker for a photo op:

Using Halloween candy to bribe himself to do his math homework:

Cryptograms for fun:

Actual Halloween

The kids:  Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio!

 John Lennon (circa 1974):

Compare:

The cat pumpkin Cooper carved at school:

Baby Joe DiMaggio enjoying a Kit-Kat from Cooper's stash:

Halloween Prep

Coop practicing twirling in his Marilyn Monroe dress:

Baby's turn in a lion costume!!

To see Cooper in his lion costume ten years ago, click here.

Fall

Maple Leaf Parade:

And leaf pictures!

More Beatles love

An art installation in downtown Lawrence:

Coop and Juliette at a Beatles music show:

Coop won a prize (a CD) for the best request of a song:

 Not Beatles, but at least music.  Practicing his flute.  Each week, students have to record and then upload a short song for homework.  Nice way to make sure they're practicing!

Baby again

This was a surprisingly fun game for me.  It took a while for him to figure out how to get socks off of his hands.  Parenting win!

Crawling around at Raintree, watching the big kids.

Breakfast -- sausage and blueberries:

At KU Late Night!!!  He stayed with a sitter one night, and she took him to late night -- the first basketball practice at KU.  He's cooler than I am!

Cooper

Coop got accepted to be a junior volunteer at Pet World.  He goes in one hour a week and, as far as I can tell, his primary responsibility is to hold the cute fuzzy animals so they're used to people.  Not a bad gig!

New kicks:

Putting together a wooden model of a Da Vinci design: