Thanksgiving 2016

We always enjoy hosting Thanksgiving.  

This year Aunt Ellen, Nathan and Andrew came over from Illinois for the long weekend.  

The Basile family also joined us on Thanksgiving day.  

Tory and the pups.

Eric deep fried a turkey and I roasted a stuffed turkey, just like my mom does and her mom did!  

After stuffing ourselves with turkey and all of the fixings, the guys played a rousing game of football.

The day after thanksgiving we ventured to downtown Indy to catch the lights on Monument Circle and then headed to a Pacers game.
The Pacers won pretty handily, which is always fun!
The rest of the weekend was spent jumping on trampolines at Sky Zone, doing a little black Friday shopping, eating chicken wings, and just hanging out at home enjoying each others company!

Double Digits

Happy 10th Birthday Nick!  

We celebrated Nick by having a couple of friends over after school for tacos and cake, then we were off to the Pacers vs. the Phoenix Suns basketball game!  

Nick requested that I make his cake this year, I happily obliged, an orange Illini football helmet chocolate and red velvet cake.  

Our Arizona boy, ready to root for his favorite team the Suns.

Those boys always seem to find their way onto the jumbo tron!

At halftime the players from the team Hickory, in the movie Hoosiers, were recognized in honor of the 30 year anniversary of the movie.

Nick was happy that the Suns won.  After the game the kids were invited down to the court to shoot a free throw. 

At age 10 Nick's favorite things still revolve around sports.  He loves to play on a team of whatever sport is in season.  He enjoys Cub Scouts, does well in school, and is a good big brother to Sam and Ben.

Adult nephews

We had 2 of our nephews come visit recently.  

It's fun getting to know our nieces and nephews on an adult level. 

Daniel and my sister Ellen made a visit for senior pictures of Daniel!  I'm not sure how it's possible that Daniel is a senior in high school!   He asked if I would take a few pictures of him,  I was honored to do so.  We had a fun time with our photo shoot, which was so much easier for me than my usual subject of 3 crazy boys! 

The following week Alex came to celebrate Veteran's Day with us.  We were honored for him to attend the Veteran's Day program at the boys' school as their special guest.  The boys loved being able to come to the reception and have a doughnut with Alex before the program began.  All of the grades sang patriotic songs, Nick was part of the color guard with the Cub Scouts, and each of the boys carried the American flag for their class as they entered the assembly.  

Alex happened do be in Indianapolis for special training with the National Guard.  On his off weekend he chose to spend the weekend with us.  

We took a long hike through Eagle Creek reservoir with the dogs.   It was another beautiful sunny Sunday!

We came across a playground that everyone loved, including Ruby and Louise!

Earlier in the weekend we took Alex bowling and to play laser tag!  He was also a good sport to go along with us to the high school football game!

Fall hikes

We've had a beautiful fall in central Indiana this year and we've taken advantage of it as much as possible by going on Sunday hikes, just before the NFL games begin for the day!

Ben always seems to find the largest leaf!

Brothers.  

Right after this picture was taken Ben socked Nick in the chin.  You can see his fist forming in this picture.  

Ah, brotherly love at it's finest!

Halloween 2016

Halloween 2016 produced a Penguins' hockey player, the Whither from Minecraft, and a Cardinals' football player.  

The boys had a ball racing around our neighborhood with the fellow neighborhood kids, collecting lots of candy.

We have been celebrating Hallowen all week. 

Ben found his Minecraft buddy at the local shopping center's trick or treat night.

His favorite game right now is Minecraft.  He loves to play it on the iPod.  It's a game that I don't quite understand but it involves building cities and then interacting with them with people and animals that are created on the game.  

Eric took the lead with the boys on carving our pumpkin.  I neglected in getting a pumpkin until the last minute and this was the only one left.  Literally!  It was a sad excuse for a pumpkin but the boys made the best of it and carved it in a unique way!

A Halloween season isn't complete without a spooky piano concert!  The boys used to wear their Halloween costumes for their recital.  Sadly, they no longer care to dress up, but they still play their music and enjoy the special cupcakes afterward!

Eric and I got into the spirit of the season as well!  We were invited to a Halloween costume party.  Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein.

We had so much fun dressing up.

It's no wonder the boys are so deliriously crazy the last 2 weeks of October!