Thanksgiving

 We had a very nice Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, Reed was dethroned in the Turkey Trot by an Iron Man and came in 5th overall (out of about 700 runners). 

But I think he's ok since he caught a big fish.

And here's my mom and me posing with all the food we didn't cook, so that always makes everything taste better!

Double Nickel

 Jason celebrated his double-nickel birthday yesterday, and we did lots of celebrating.

We had a party with our friends last weekend.

Clearly, I think Jason and or his cake are absolutely hysterical.

Then Grandpa took the family to dinner to celebrate, and this is the only picture I took.

And last night, Jason and I went out.  I, being the amazing wife I am, was so excited about going to eat dinner I couldn't think of anything else, and completely forgot to give him his present...the entire day!

We are doing our favorite thing next week, so the celebration can continue! 

Fancy Pants

 It was a fancy week last week.

Jason and I were invited to a black tie event and we looked like this

And then I had a charity fashion show I modeled in.

The make-up artist posing with his handywork.

And my outfit 

Renaissance Festival

 We spent all of our life's savings at the Renaissance Festival this weekend.  We haven't been since the kids were little because we've been having to save up to afford to go again. 

As usual, they ate all the food: 3 turkey legs, a sausage on a stick, an order of empanadas, a fried chicken on a stick, an order of fried Oreos, and an ice cream sandwich. 

They played all the usual games.

One guess who was the only one able to pop a balloon in archery.

No, you're wrong.  It was this one!

I made them all recreate photos from when they were little.

And they all beat each other up in the pillow slapping game, so enjoy....

Kyle and Jason won a sticker for their victories

Shooting Things

 Kyle is doing shooting sports this year and he had his first tournament on Sunday.  I'm not exactly sure what the events are called, but I went and watched and I thought Kyle did a good job.  (Jason confirmed that, yes, he did well for his first tournament ever.)

Balloon Post

 The reason Reed was wearing a Yale T-shirt is because Wednesday was National Signing Day and one of Reed's best friends signed at Yale. 

Guess who made his balloons? 

I think Reed is giving his stamp of approval on the balloons.

4 1/2

 So yes, 4 college acceptances have come in, but yesterday I checked the mail in the afternoon and there was a big envelope.  I didn't really look at it closely and just put it on the counter with the other mail.  Reed came home from school, took a nap, had a zoom meeting, ate dinner and told me he was going to work out.  I causally said, "Oh, open that envelope and see what they sent" really not thinking about it much at all.  Reed started excitedly saying "I got in! I got in!"  (Well, excitedly for Reed, which is pretty calm for the rest of us.)  I thought I was keeping my emotions calm, but Jason still thought someone had died when I called. 

It looks like he's going to have some really big choices.  

And yes, I know he's wearing a Yale t-shirt.  I'll explain that in the next post. 

More JR on TV

 Jason and I got a text last night of a picture of JR on Jesse Waters. Jesse was doing his sit down interview with Erika Kirk.

And I was able to find the video today.  If you listen closely, you can hear JR screaming "I love you.." I asked him about it and he said he was screaming "I love you Paw-Paw" because he knew Paw-Paw would be watching Fox News. 

After Halloween Fish

 One of Kyle's friends got a new boat (because what high school kid doesn't have a boat?) 

They took it down to Rock Port to go fly fishing, and caught some nice (and big) fish!

Halloween

 We survived another Halloween! 

I literally came up with Jason's costume Thursday night and mine about 5 minutes before we walked out the door. 

I knew I could make Jason into the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride since I'd done it for Reed back in 2nd grade.  I was just going to try and find a red dress or robe and go as Princess Buttercup, but I just couldn't make it work, so after finding a set of ears while frantically digging in the closet I became a ROUS (rodent of unusual size) from the fire swamp.

Jason and I had 2 parties to go to, so we bribed Reed and his friends with dinner if they would stay home and pass out candy.

The reason someone had to stay home...

Kyle also pulled his costume together about 5 minutes before he walked out the door.

But JR's definitely required some preplanning.