Barq's

Brady, pointing at the Barq's Root Beer slogan:  It's good. Since 1898

He asked in all seriousness,  "Is that when they started making it, or is that just when it started tasting good? "

Gingerbread House

We got a special invitation from Cindy to join Ben and Bella at a gingerbread house workshop at Monticello.  Of course, it wasn't just any gingerbread house...it was a gingerbread Monticello! The kids divided the house in half, with Brady and Bella taking the "front" and Rudy and Ben designing the "back."  Each pair worked well together, and dividing it up that way avoided sibling issues!  

Ready and waiting:

Teamwork:

The melted snowman:

Rudy and Ben's finished product:

Brady and Bella's design:

We had extra time after the workshop to come back and work on some Christmas crafts at home.  The little boys preferred football, but I talked the big kids into crafts.

Pretty close to the action

One of James' coworkers gave him tickets to a UVA basketball game.  Brady got to go to a game last year, so it was Rudy's turn this time.  

Battleship

Rudy's OM practice was cancelled, but Brady's was still on.  It was nice to have some unplanned  quiet time with Rudy.  I wasn't planning on snapping any pictures, but Ru insisted on one with his cat...

Read aloud

Rudy was reading a Magic Treehouse book to James this morning.  He got stuck on a word, and I could hear him trying to sound it out: 

pah-toe-toe
pah-two-toe
pah-tah-tah

Finally, through his laughter, James managed to tell him it was...potato.

A minute later, I overheard what sounded like, "What are you building, jackass?"

It was in fact:  "'What are you building,' Jack asked."

Overheard...

In the car on the way to school Friday morning, after we passed roadkill:

Brady:   I'm glad we didn't hit that. 
Jacob:  The bus on Sam's field trip hit a deer on the way home.
Brady:  My mom almost hit a squirrel on a bike once.
Reagan:  BRADY!  You saw a squirrel riding a bike?!?

Maybe you had to be there...

Piano recital

The boys had their first piano recital on Sunday afternoon.  They felt a little bit of pressure, but it was a pretty low key affair with several of their friends.   

Mary Emma isn't taking lessons yet, but she was Rudy's loyal admirer!

Gavin may have been Brady's biggest admirer; he really loves Brady!

We didn't want to try to get a video during the recital, so we filmed their renditions at home before we left:

Trick or Treat!

We are way off schedule this week...it was a challenge getting the boys up and out the door this morning!   School was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday because of Hurricane Sandy, which for us was thankfully nothing more than some light wind and rain.  Yesterday, their first day back after a 4 day weekend, was a Halloween candy fest at school.  And last night was a late night after trick-or-treating!

We went to a different section of the neighborhood, where the houses are closer together and a lot of their friends live.  The boys love going door to door with their buddies.

 

The total:  over 8 pounds of candy.  That should last a while!