Beauty and the Beast

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving! We have had a lovely long weekend this weekend and I am very sad that Tim has to go back to work tomorrow! Still the girls have only 3 more weeks of school before they break up for Christmas, which will go very fast I am sure.

We spent Thanksgiving (Thursday) with Victoria and James, their children and Victoria's parents. We had a delicious dinner which Victoria and family had cooked followed by pear crumble and pumpkin pie which I made. When I made the pear crumble I thought we would be eating it all week but it almost all went, which was a good sign! It was very tasty. The pumpkin pie was nice too, a bit like an egg custard in flavour, but I suppose that is the nutmeg.

We had fun playing silly games like 'stick the tail on the turkey' and the chocolate game, where you have to throw a six, get dressed up and eat a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork! Naomi really got into the swing of that game although she hadn't played it before and was giggling as she saw the funny side of it! Esther ate some chocolate and then gave up! I spent the game trying hard to stop Silas from just picking up the whole bar and munching away!!

Later on we played picture consequences where you draw a section and then pass the paper onto the next person for them to continue the drawing. Again, it was interesting to see Naomi's development as she was able to realise that the fun in that game was to draw silly heads and bodies and things which was what she was doing. That game is fun though because even Esther can join in and participate as well as the adults, so that is good.

Reluctantly, we left at around 7:45 and got the children into bed quickly. They had all done so well and we had had such a lovely time but Silas in particular was tired and we knew that we were wanting to go out on Friday night too.

We had a quiet morning on Friday morning (in fact all our mornings except today were quiet and at home, which was good) and in the afternoon drove over to Melinda and Chad's house. We then all caught the bus into Seattle to watch the lighting of the Christmas Tree, the lighting of the Macy's star and fireworks off the top of the Macy's store roof. It was cold and very busy but we had a good time although i was glad that the children were all small enough still to be transported in some way. Silas was in the buggy of course, Esther was on Tim's shoulders and Naomi rode on Chad's knee on his scooter which she really enjoyed!!

There was singing prior to the lighting of the tree and star and guest appearances by celebrities which was completely lost on us of course! A celebrity is only a celebrity if you have the foggiest idea of who they are!! The adults enjoyed the fireworks more than the children but that was mainly because they produced quite a lot of soot that fell into our eyes.

After this we walked slowly up to another of the malls to watch a 'snow fall' at 6pm, which the children were amazed by! Then we went to get something to eat. By this time it was very late and I was trying hard not to look at the time! Eventually we caught the bus back and then drove home. The children were finally in bed by about 9:20! Melinda and Chad came home and stayed with us and it was good to catch up with them.

Yesterday afternoon we met up with some other friends, Gordon and Stacy with their son Desmond, at the Cougar Mountain Zoo. They live in Issaquah too and Desmond is only three months older than Silas (although smaller!!). We had a lovely time with them; they came back home with us for dinner which was fun - I was amazed at Desmond's appetite for a small boy! He ate 2 plates of spaghetti bolognaise!

Today we had church in the morning. I was due to be doing nursery but it was very quiet and only Silas would have been in nursery, so I decided to take him upstairs with me. He was very entertaining and alternatively tried to crawl down to see Pastor Eugene at teh front or would stand and bang on the glass door to get people's attention! In the end I gave up trying to participate and went downstairs where he could cause less mischief!

After church we went straight to teh Bellevue Youth Theater to watch a play of Beauty and the Beast. The girls loved it but were very curious to know if the people were real! They were so funny! I think what was upsetting them was that the beast and one of the men fight with fencing swords and they look as if they are stabbing each other which upset the girls as they thought that they were really hurt! They all (even Silas) sat and watched it with great attention and were delighted to go and speak to Belle at the end!

On the way home, Tim took them to the park for half an hour or so and I had a little bit of time on my own to read my book which was very nice! Tim started to put up the outdoor Christmas lights this evening and certainly the neighbourhood is looking very twinkly!

Well, that is about it for now. I hope that this finds you all well.