November

November has been full of small little activities at the kids' schools.  The girls ran in the Turkey Trot at their school, which was a short race against the other girls in their grade level.  Both Avery and Kendall ran the whole way and gave it their best effort.  We will find out what places they came in after Thanksgiving Break, but I was really proud of them for giving it their all.  Avery recently joined the running club at her school, which meets for about an hour after school on Wednesdays.  Hopefully we will get to do some kind of fun run sometime this year to let her practice running in a real race.

Avery with friends and classmates after the race

Avery and her good friend Maelyn

Avery, Maelyn and Abby.  These girls were in Avery's class last year.

Miss Henderson (Avery's teacher) and Mrs. Ottman's (her science and math teacher) classes

The kindergarten girls getting warmed up for the race

Kendall- about halfway through the course

Kendall on the home stretch!

having some water after the race

Another fun activity this month was the Thanksgiving Feast at Judson's preschool, where families get to join their kids for a special lunch.  We had chicken and biscuits from Chicken Express, plus salad, grapes, carrots, and desserts.  It was fun getting to have lunch with Jud and see all the parents with their kids. 

And the last thing before Thanksgiving Break was 2nd six weeks Wrangler Round Up for the girls.  They both received Good Citizenship awards, High Attendance Awards, and the Bell to Bell Award for being there every day with no tardies and no days where they left early.  All the kids who receive this award get their nnames entered into a drawing for a free iPad mini! Avery also received an award for "A" Honor Roll.  Kindergarten doesn't give letter grades, so Kendall wasn't eligible for any academic awards.  I was so proud of both my girls!  They are great students, are well behaved, and their teachers brag on them all the time.  Way to go Avery and Kendall!

Kendall standing up for the Good Citizenship award.  It's hard to see in this picture, but she is near the middle and has a turquoise and yellow bow.

Kendall being recognized for the Bell to Bell award.

Not sure which award Avery was standing for in this one.  I took a picture all four times she stood up just trying to get one decent shot.  I can never get a good picture at these award programs for some reason!

 

Halloween- The OU Crew

 Halloween 2013 began with Hero Day at the girls' school and a costume parade and fall party at Judson's preschool.  The girls both dressed as vets for Hero Day and Judson wore his OU football uniform,complete with helmet, to school.

Veterinarian Avery

Showing off her puppy and the pumpkins we painted

Veterinarian Kendall

Listening to her puppy's heart

My football player

He insisted that I take a picture of the back of his helmet

For Halloween evening, we added some eye-black to Judson's OU uniform and the girls changed into OU cheerleader uniforms.  Our neighbors and friends across the street had a Halloween garage party again this year.  We all congregated in their garage and driveway while we ate pizza, and then the moms took the kids around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  Most of the Dads stayed in the driveway and handed out candy.  They were joking that with the 4 or 5 candy bowls brought by all the families that came to the party, it was like a candy buffet for the trick-or-treaters.  It was a lot of fun for the kids to run from house to house with some of their friends, although it wasn't exactly easy for me to try to keep up with the group of Moms and older kids while trying to help Judson trick-or-treat.  I think if they do it the same way next year, Scott will have to come along for the trick-or-treating and help me out:)  Once their bags and buckets were overflowing, we headed back to the Childresses' house. Then the kids all dumped their candy out in piles in the garage and chose a few treats to eat.  It was a fun, crazy night!

The OU Crew- Go Sooners!

Judson loved trick-or-treating and was so sad it was over.  But he did enjoy having lots of candy to eat!

Philadelphia

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel, we took the staff over to Reading Terminal Market for lunch.  It was filled with food vendors, produce stands, butchers, florists and vendors selling locally made items like soaps, jams, crafts, etc.  We took the advice of our concierge and ate cheese steaks at Carmen's.

We sat right at the counter to eat our cheese steaks.  At Carmen's, they use melted cheese sauce instead of provolone and you can pick sweet or spicy peppers.

Next on the agenda was a double decker bus tour to see all the sights.  The guide was great and told us several bits of trivia and history that we didn't know. 

City Hall, which was the first stop on the bus tour.  It was just down the street from our hotel.

 At the end of September, Scott and I and his entire staff went to the AAP meeting in Philadelphia over a long weekend. We left early on Friday morning and returned late Tuesday morning.  We did a lot of sightseeing and got to spend lots of time with our friends Jacob and Kelly from dental school and perio residency.  It worked out perfectly for Kelly and I because we got to shop and have lunch and do a little extra sightseeing while the guys were at their classes.  Scott and I really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time together and with friends, and seeing all the historical sights and beautiful parks and museums in the City of Brotherly Love (or Brotherly Shove as Scott calls it).  It was a great trip!

"The Thinker".  Unfortunately I can't remember which museum this was in front of.  I didn't realize until we took this tour that Philadelphia had so many!

View of downtown as we crossed the Schuylkill River.

the Modern Museum of Art

Scott with the "Rocky" statue on the backside of the Modern Museum of Art.

the famous "Rocky" steps at the Modern

I was surprised to learn that Philadelphia was ranked the second most Parisian city in America behind New Orleans because of all its beautiful museums, parks, and fountains.

St. Peter's Basilica

For many, many years this statue of William Penn on top of City Hall was the tallest thing in Philadelphia.  When they finally built a skyscraper that was taller, it was rather scandalous and there were all sorts of legends about William Penn being angry and cursing the city's sports teams.

Penn's landing.  This was one area that I wanted to check out up closer, but we never did find the time. There were several old ships that were so pretty.

Betsy Ross's house.  We weren't allowed to stand up on the bus, so I couldn't really get a picture of the whole thing.

The Liberty Bell

We went out to dinner with Jacob and Kelly just about every night we were there.  The first night we went to a really good steakhouse right across from City Hall and the Ritz Carlton.  The lighting didn't make for a very good picture though and I had demon eyes in every shot that Jacob took!

On Saturday we toured the Eastern State Penitentiary, which was the first of its kind when it was built.  It was designed by the Quakers and was the first to have individual cells for the prisoners.  The early prisoners were in solitary confinement 23 hours a day and were allowed 2 thirty minute breaks in their own personal exercise yard, which was just a little bigger than the cell.  They worked at a trade inside their cell and were expected to be silent so as to encourage true penitence for their crimes.

Eastern State Penitentiary was a working prison up until the 1970's.  It housed some famous prisoners over the years including Al Capone.  It was beautiful, but at the same time, kind of creepy.

There was one area where you could stand in the middle of the room and see down each of the cell blocks since it was designed like a wagon wheel.

While the guys were in class on Sunday, Kelly and I toured Independence Hall.  It was very pretty and very educational.

The court room inside Independence Hall where people would literally "stand trial" behind the gate at the far right.

The Declaration of Independence was written and signed in this room. The chair at the very back of the photo (between the fireplaces) was an original and was called the rising sun chair because it had a sun on it.  Because he was so old, Ben Franklin had to be carried in every day to work on the Declaration.  It was said that he had tears rolling down his face when they finally signed it.

Beautiful area between the courtroom and the room where the Declaration was signed.

Pretty clocks from the back of Independence Hall

This was where Congress met when Philadelphia was the capital.

One of the committee rooms upstairs

Our last night in Philadelphia we took the staff out to an Italian Supper Club where all the waiters and waitresses took turns singing.  The food was great and the songs were a lot of fun.  We had one of the office girls take our picture in the hotel lobby when we got back from dinner.

a close-up

View of the city at night from the top floor of our hotel

Judson's 1st Day at SCP

Judson's 1st day at Southlake Christian Preschool- Sept. 2013 (2 yrs 3 mo)

This year I moved Judson to the Southlake campus of The Hills C of C for preschool because it is much closer to our house and because I had also heard that they had a great program.  It was a little hard to make the change since we had been going to the NRH campus for so long (6 yrs!), but I was pretty confident that Judson would do well and I felt like it was the right decision for our family.  Minus the fact that he usually doesn't take a nap at school, he has done great and goes in with a smile every time.  He has two super sweet teachers both named Lisa (ha, ha!), they do lots of neat activities, and the shorter drive is SO nice!  It has significantly cut down the amount we spend on gas every month, and I love being right there in Southlake when I drop him off to go shop and run errands if I want.  He is having a great year already and I am so glad we made the switch to SCP!

I had to bribe him with playing ball to get him to come outside for pictures, and then he insisted on holding my camera while I took pictures with my phone