thanksgiving photos, of course

We now have neighbors with boys Blake's age! Blake and Graham are hunkered down in our bark mulch pile with NERF guns and binoculars, playing "Battle Wars."

The second-graders learned about the life cycle of the darkling beetle, from egg to larva (mealworms) to pupa to adult. He brought home this baggie of instant oats that had two darkling pupae in it. They both hatched. For a few weeks, I had two black beetles in a baggie on my counter, unsure of what to do with them, as it was far too cold to set them loose outside. Then I saw them mating, and I threw the bag away. They can fend for themselves in the landfill, while I STILL get the creepy-crawlies just looking at the photo!

While we were in Idaho for Thanksgiving, we zipped over the state line to see Rob's family. Vesper and Nonna got a good eyeful of each other before Aislynn woke up.

Rather than the possessive territorial behavior we expected, Aislynn LOVED Vesper (Besber) and just wanted to hold her and sing to her. And carry her. And kiss her. And hug her. And teach her all the ways of the Dark Side of being a ridiculously adorable little girl in order to get her own way. We may have to stage an intervention at some point.

LEGOs and Uno: no one wanted to play outside.

This year's Christmas Stroll was the best yet, though Vesper was conked out for most of it. The weather was warm (it drizzled rather than snowed), compared to years past, where it has been sub-zero. We wandered Main Street, buying whatever street food looked good, sipping our hot cocoa, seeing people we knew and many we didn't. As one friend observed, she saw more babies than dogs and took it as a good sign for Bozeman!

Look! Here we are too! I tried to get the downtown Christmas spiders in there, but somehow managed not to. Oh, well!

Finally, here's Aislynn's song for Vesper. She is very precise in her pronunciation.