Here's some things we've been up to lately. Also, we've had an extended fall season which is both good and bad- the weather is great and we've had several nice walks on the trail, visits at Arbor Crest, or short stays in Wallace. At the same time, a little snow would be nice so we could finally break out the ski stuff. Anyway- enjoy the photos!

Evelyn and Addy were in a band concert. Ev is always very visible in these since she is running all over stage doing different percussion things.

Addy is not quite as visible

We've seen some performances recently. This was a funny one called "Thanksgiving Play" at Stage Left. They always do a great job and this was no exception.

Rach hosted a Bunko night at our house

The five of us went to the tour of Moulin Rouge for a fun evening out

Maren always draws elephants. Here is her recent drawing called "opening day." Silver Mountain has their first day scheduled on the 28th, so we'll see how accurate this ends up being.

As a family, we've had a few projects in the works for a while now, and this week two of them finally came to fruition. First of all, there are these two:

"Macy's Employee" and "New Yorker" (Maren) standing next to another "New Yorker" and "Charlotte Dennon," the news anchor (Lindsey)

Elf Jr. is a one-hour musical that Maren and Lindsey both played parts in. They have worked SO HARD on this- giving up virtually every weekend for practices, and going mid-week for skill development. It's been kind of a fun journey. This weekend they did three full productions- every one of which was completely sold out. And they both did great. It was fun watching them.

The other project that we finished was the "reflection garden" that Rachel has been working on at the church. At least she was kind-of the quarterback on this one for a committee that also includes me and Ev and a bunch of other people. We were really hoping to get things started before the snow came, and on Saturday morning a bunch of people showed up and we got it done. Phase two will be in the spring, and I think it's going to be very nice.

This used to all be grass. We have some benches and planters that will be installed in the spring, along with more landscaping.

Celebrations all around. It's been a big month for us. The garden, the play, college acceptances, jazz concerts, and lots of beautiful fall weather. Have a good week!

Halloween gets differenter and differenter as we grow up. This year we all spent about an hour hanging out together downtown. Then Evelyn went off to two different parties and was home at 2:00 in the morning. Adalie, Jack, and Lindsey went to different neighborhoods with friends. Maren hosted her own party at our house (well...in our gym) where she was in and out all night. Rach and I sort of had the night to ourselves, where we sat in the living room and talked while handing out candy when the doorbell rang.

Evelyn and her friends were clowns

Addy, the sheet ghost

Jackson was an airplane. He conceived of this costume all on his own, and then made it out of cardboard boxes on Halloween night. It even has flashing red and blue lights on the wings.

Maren and her friends were "old people." A little offensive? But in a funny way, so it's all good? My favorite was when we were walking downtown and there was a person passing out candy next to a skeleton, and she pointed to the skeleton and said "How did my Ex end up down here with you?!" That got a lot of laughs. She has a quick wit.

Lindsey- forever and always the princess

Also, readers of the blog will likely notice that we have been staying pretty close to home lately. That's a little off-brand for us, but I have actually really enjoyed it. Maren and Lindsey are in a play and they have practice every weekend, but it's kind of nice to have that excuse to remove the pressure on myself (imposed by myself) to do other things. Life has been quiet, and that has been good.

The play is coming up this weekend and we are looking forward to seeing them both perform. They had a little "showcase" thing last night where Lindsey was in a Wizard of Oz skit (Munchkin), and Maren was in a vocal ensemble and had a solo part. It's fun to see them doing these things.