A Second Thanksgiving Dinner...

We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal on Friday evening at my dear mother-in-law's house. It was a wonderful time spent with family. Baby Aloe just gets cuter every time we see her.

A Surprise Wedding...

The Friday after Thanksgiving, my brother got married in a surprise ceremony at my mother's home. We wish Andy and his new bride, Linda, the best.

Thanksgiving Day...

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with Lee's aunt and uncle. The girls had their own beautifully decorated kids' table. After dinner, they enjoyed playing out in the yard. They climbed trees, played with leaves, and went through the "jungle trail" (a thicket) about 50 times.

Pre-Thanksgiving Fun at the Farm...

Our dear friends own 180 acres in Northeast Arkansas almost to the Missouri border. We had the pleasure of spending the day with them, riding horses and hiking around their land. Mariele did suffer a minor wrist fracture when the saddle slipped on the horse she was riding. We still had a fantastic time, though. It was a beautifully sunny day, and the setting lent itself quite nicely to beautiful photos. We drove up from Little Rock early Wednesday morning while the girls were still in their jammies. They were not interested in changing clothes when we got to the farm, and they ended up wearing their jammies all day long.

Schoolgirls...

The girls are having a great school year. Analese loves to read to Mariele in bed at night and early in the morning.







Mariele drew a picture of the things for which she is thankful. Her family and home.
Mariele is learning her phonics this year. She is also going to "speech school." She is receiving speech therapy services through our neighborhood elementary school. Hopefully she will learn to say some of the sounds that are giving her trouble.


Analese had to do an ad for a product invention as a composition assignment. All of this came straight from her creative brain. I was very proud of her finished assignment.

Dancers...

Another big change this year involves the girls and ballet. They are no longer going to The Little Gym. They are now enrolled in the Payne Academy of Performing Arts as pre-ballet students. So far they really love it. I love that it is closer to our home and the times are better. I don't have to fight the traffic as much to get them to class. The first photo below is of the girls on Halloween. They dressed as ballerinas. I literally gave zero thought to Halloween or Halloween costumes this year, so it did work out. In the rest of the photos they are wearing their dress code dance leotards for their Payne classes. I figured out a pretty easy way to get Analese's hair into the ballet bun she is supposed to wear for class. Mariele's hair is so short, she just wears a ponytail on top.

Tennessee...

We went out to visit our friends in Eastern Tennessee in October. The girls got to enjoy a taste of country, mountain living. They enjoyed feeding, brushing, and playing with the miniature horse, Ginger. And they both love eleven year old Allyson. It was a nice, relaxing trip


 

Adventurers...

This is the first of a series of blog catch-up posts. We have been very pleasantly busy this school year. There have been some big changes also. Mariele is now an Adventurer! She watched Analese go through Adventurers all last year. She wanted to be an Adventurer very badly, and this year she has finally been inducted into the club! She is a Little Lamb this year, and Analese is a Busy Bee. Here are a few pictures from the Investiture/Induction ceremony that was held the end of October.