Chicken Noodle Soup

About a month ago, Brian took on a very onerous task. One that a lot of "experts" cautioned against. Nonetheless, Brian did his research (of course) and as a result of his preparation, discipline, and dedication, I am very happy to report he was 100% successful in this endeavor. I would like to introduce the newest member of our chicken family. Noodle. Full Name, Chicken Noodle Soup, but we call her Noodle.

It may be a surprise to know (it was for me), that chickens do not take well to new additions to their flock. It is not recommended to introduce a lone new chicken because the others will often gang up and "hen-peck" it. But, Brian pulled it off by controlling the environment. He built a separate mini-coop with a run just for Noodle. Then, he slowly introduced her to our other chickens. And now, a month later they are in the same coop and are living together as happy as 3 chickens could ever be. Our little chicken family, Potpie, Blitz, and Noodle.

Thankful

This is officially my favorite time of year!! We had such a great Thanksgiving break. On Thanksgiving, a bunch of neighborhood families got together and we played a morning soccer game. It was super fun even though we aren't a soccer family. We hung out with our friends for a few hours before heading home to eat the amazing dinner from Whole Foods that I did not have to prepare. The past few days we have completely decorated the house and have our tree and lights up. We even managed to do some Christmas shopping. Oh and obviously Christmas music has been playing non-stop for weeks. 

I think my favorite part is seeing how excited Addy and Cameron are when its time to bring up the Christmas bins. They love it and they spent hours helping me decorate everything. They are so helpful and it makes the decorating even more special, even if Addy has too many opinions about where things should or should not go. 

Portland

It was a 3 day weekend for the kids so we planned a last minute trip to Portland last weekend. The weather was absolutely amazing and we had a great time visiting our friends. We went on an awesome hike, the leaves were so beautiful, it was just perfect. We saw every mountain possible from the city. We also ate at some great food trucks and the kids got to play their first game of Ms. Pac Man at the arcade. It was a perfect getaway weekend.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Last week was parent teacher conferences and as usual it made Brian and I incredibly proud to hear the wonderful things their teachers had to say. Cameron's teacher said that he is the best reader in the grade and has the rare ability to both read accurately and quickly. They had a test of sight words and the teacher was hoping kids would know 1-5 words and Cameron got all 42 correct! Even better was that she said he is a great leader in the class and a good friend who is kind and helpful to his classmates. We are so proud of him.

Adelyn has a brand new teacher to the school this year and she said that having Adelyn in her class is one of her true joys because she knows she can rely on her to be ready to learn and set an example for the rest of the class. Addy continues to excel in reading and reads at a level a few years beyond her grade. She continues to thrive in other subjects as well and the teacher said she can tell she is coming out of her shell and showing a lot of her personality. We really couldn't ask for anything more from her and are so proud of the wonderful students our children have become. Not sure how we got so lucky, but we'll take it!

Halloween!

Another Halloween has come and gone. October is just a blur every year. This was one of our best Octobers ever as far as weather goes and even though it was supposed to rain on Halloween it held off so we stayed dry while trick or treating. Cameron continues his super hero trend and was the Incredible Hulk this year and Addy was a witch. We continued our tradition of going to the downtown businesses and then our street. I continue to be amazed by how much candy they get in such a short time. They of course organized all of their candy into categories and Addy even wrote down all of the laffy taffy jokes (Q: Why can't you have a nose 12 inces long? A: Because then it would be a foot). I tried to get them to give all of of their candy up for $10 each, but they wouldn't budge. They were nice enough to give me their least favorites to bring to work, such generous children I have.