November iPhone Dump

Some random pictures from the month of November and the memories that come along with it!

Their love for each other is so sweet to witness, although we are starting to get into the first brotherly fights over here and that part hasn't been too fun!

My dad was visiting from Germany for two weeks and Finn enjoyed all the extra attention. He is really into reading books these days and the one he is holding is his favorite (Moo, Baa, La La La). My dad doesn't speak any english, so him trying to read the book to Finn was hilarious, but Finn didn't seem to mind. 

Another month, another Home Depot workshop. 

We went to a tiny fair one afternoon with my dad and Fox had a lot of fun riding all their rides. It was a little janky in my opinion, but the kid had a blast.

Finn was helping grandpa with fixing the vacuum. They were both unsuccessful.

Well, now looking at this picture...maybe Finn DID mind the poor english pronunciation after all...haha!

$5 Goodwill find! I love that he is not too old yet to be excited about half broken toys from Goodwill, but I know my days are numbered. He actually asks to go there often, because we never know what we'll find and this toy was definitely worth its money, because both boys have been enjoying it every day since we bought it.

There is a vegan bakery near our house and sometimes we go there for a special treat after school, since Fox is able to eat there. 

Sweet boys!

At the Children's Museum. I always say that my kids get sick from that place and I have no idea why we renewed our membership. Well, I do, it's really fun there, but this visit also ended up getting Fox some kind of bug. 

Crafting in their art studio. Fox always tells me that art is his favorite subject at school.

He was so proud to paint his own face. My favorite part about it was that it was Katie's night and I didn't have to deal with the aftermath of getting that crap off his face...hahaha. 

I did have to deal with this mess though! I honestly don't remember that Fox was a messy eater, but this kid is a nightmare. He wants to do everything himself, so I let him and try not to stress about the messy floors or the messy baby. 

He wanted to buy this menorah at Target and light two candles. It wasn't Hanukkah yet, but we pretended it was and he was happy. He always tells me that he misses his old jewish school and to be honest, I miss it too. It was such an amazing place with amazing people.

Finn always looks so livingly at his brother, I have about 592 pictures like this. 

Fox has been asking me for months when he would be 5 1/2. And then we started to count down the days. He was so excited. So when the day finally arrived, we celebrated with a half cake, candle and a birthday song. He actually asked me to decorate the house like I always do for his birthday, but that's where I drew the line. I'm surprised he didn't ask for any presents...ha!

I went hiking for the first time in many years and absolutely loved it. I don't know why I don't do this more often.

We were waiting for Fox to come out of school and this guy can spot a puddle from a mile away. Since we didn't have any plans to go anywhere else afterwards I let him go to town and he was soaked within 3 minutes. But he had fun while it lasted. 

Fox's school hosted a Thanksgiving BBQ for the parents and he was super excited and proud that I came. I love that he is not embarrassed (YET) to sit next to me and even to kiss and hug me in front of his friends. I'll be sad when those days are over.

The Christmas tree kept Finn busy all month long. He would take the ornaments off, try to put them back on, use them as balls, rinse and repeat. I put all the non breakable ones on the bottom. We did lose a few in the process, but it's all good.

We were at a birthday party and had to skip nap time, so eventually he came to lay down on me and I enjoyed the snuggles.

One of my friends came over and told me to give her my phone so she could take a picture of this. She said no one ever does that for her (taking pictures of her with her kids, she's always the one taking the picture) and I can so relate to that and really appreciated her capturing the moment with my baby,

I guess I got double lucky on that day because another friend took this picture of us unknowingly and having candid pictures with my boys (that are not selfies) means a lot to me.

The party was at the Natural History Museum and Fox's BFF was there too.

After the party ended, we went to lunch with Kristy and Jake and then let the kids play at a playground until it got dark and cold. It was a perfect day.

Busted!

He always tries to steal my water bottle, it's hilarious when he tries to lug it around, because it's heavy. I guess it's time to get him his own hydroflask. 

You know he's proud when he asks me to take his picture. He worked very hard on this mask.

Fox was facetiming with grandpa and Finn was cracking up at them.

One morning we went to a play place with Fox's old school friends. Apparently this is the only picture I got. 

Picking out their ornaments for the year.

I picked out the Santa one for Finn because he loves the big Santa we have in front of the house and Fox picked Spiderman. 

I wasn't invited to spend Thanksgiving with Katie, her family and my boys, but Katie's grandma (who is the other side of the family) invited me to her house and I was very grateful to have a place to go and to be able to spend it with family. A lot of my friends invited me as well and I was very thankful that they did. Katie's mom and her husband were there as well and she brought some crafting projects for us to do and we played some games, which was fun, but this Thanksgiving still felt really weird and sad to me. 

This mischievous elf returned from the North Pole just in time for Christmas!

Building a fort together. Finn loves to be included and is so happy when Fox will let him play with him. Fox on the other hand was complaining the entire time that Finn was destroying his fort (totally valid point) and wanted him out. And so it begins...

A rare moment of them playing in the fort together and having fun. 

I left my dad with Finn for a few hours while I had an appointment and this is what I came home to.

Just looking at this gives me anxiety...I don't do good with messes, if you can't tell!

How did I get so lucky?