It's November!

It's time for "It's November" - a classic Thanksgiving number.



"It's November, it's November.
Let's give thanks! Let's give thanks!
Pilgrims set the table, pilgrims set the table.
Turkey tastes great! Turkey tastes great!
Yum!"

It's September
It's October

Happy Thanksgiving!

Throughout the month of November I periodically asked Will and Hallie what they were thankful for. Here are a few of their answers:

Will
- I'm thankful for my mommy.
- I'm thankful for nothing. Except my daddy.
- I'm thankful for God.
- I'm thankful for Logan and his family. Even Kendra. (Kendra is Logan's older sister.)
- (While looking out the window of the car) I'm thankful for sun and clouds and rain and bushes and grass and streets and cement and acorns and pine cone trees. And rainbows - I'm thankful for rainbows.
- I'm thankful for when my whole family gets to be together, like on Thanksgiving.  (I swear he actually said that!)

Hallie (Hallie usually chose her answers - which were always exclamations - by looking around the room and selecting something in her field of view that she was fond of on that particular day.)
- Raisins!
- To be a butterfly!
- Pink octopus!
- I'm sankful for Jack! I'm sankful for Hudson! I'm sankful for Kate! I'm sankful for Zachary! I'm sankful for Ethan! I'm sankful for Jess! I'm sankful for Caroline! (All kids in her class at school.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Feasts

Will and Hallie's school hosts Thanksgiving Feasts for each class and their families the week before Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday I attended Hallie's Thanksgiving Feast. We made and brought carrot cupcakes decorated like turkeys, and enjoyed a meal of three grapes and a cracker (at least that's what Hallie consumed - she used the fact that the plates were not pink as an excuse not to eat anything else) together.

Showing off her Thanksgiving placemat.

Gobble gobble!

And on Thursday, my mom and I attended Will's Thanksgiving Feast. We made and brought (thank goodness they actually turned out, as it was our first attempt) cake pops decorated like pumpkins and presented on a piece of green styrofoam - a cake pop pumpkin patch!

Will Feast was a little more elaborate than Hallie's.  The "big kids" sang two songs and a prayer - all with sign language - before joining us at the table to eat.

Will's class as they took the stage.

The Pilgrim song.

The Native American song.

"Soaring Eagle" and his Grandma Brenda.

Handing out the cake pops that I refused to bring home.

Happy Thanksgiving, a few days early!

Another Future Badger?

A few years ago we took these photos of Will wearing his Wisconsin Badgers "Jump Around" t-shirt and frog Easter basket on his head. University of Wisconsin students are little crazy, and we figured that if Will included one of these photos with his application for admission to UW, the admissions panel would likely look at it and immediately think, "this kid was meant to be a Badger". (I'm not saying Will's necessarily meant to be a Badger. We just want him and Hallie to have options.)

Now the "Jump Around" shirt has been passed on to Hallie. And while it doesn't quite fit her as well as it fit Will when he was Hallie's age, she really likes it. Last weekend we took her University of Wisconsin application for admission photo - nothing says "I'm a Badger" like a red potty party while wearing the t-shirt and Minnie Mouse ears and hair bows.

Watch for their applications in 12 and 14 years, UW!

Hilarity

This conversation took place in the back seat of my car while I was driving Will, Hallie, and Will's best friend Logan home from school one afternoon. Though the conversation is written in a way that makes it look like the children took turns speaking, it's important to note that all three of them were talking over one another the entire time. I never had a chance to answer their questions because they so quickly moved on to something else; instead I took mental notes so that when I arrived home I could type up what they'd talked about. Enjoy!

Hallie: You’re sitting next to me, Logan!
Will: I’m sitting in the way back!
Logan: I don’t like this song. (The radio was off.) I like Jack Johnson.
Will: I have SO many cup holders back here!
Logan: My sister likes Justin Bieber.
Hallie: You’re sitting next to me, Logan!
Will: Justin Bieber sings Baby, Baby.
Logan: This is how you make a heart.
Will: Can we play the Wii?
Logan: I love my mom. I kiss her all over.
Hallie: You’re sitting next to me, Logan!
Will: Can we play the Wii?
Logan: I have two lunch boxes. One is a hot dog.
Will: I have a hotdog race car.
Logan: We did apple pie tasting at school today.
Hallie: You’re sitting next to me, Logan!
Will: Have I ever had pie?
Logan: It was made of cookies and marshmallows and chocolate syrup.
Will: How many kinds of pie have I had?
Logan: It was delicious.
Hallie: You’re sitting next to me, Logan!
Will: I’ve had apple pie, peach pie, banana pie, pumpkin pie…
Logan: My backpack is sitting next to Will.
Will: Baby, baby, baby ohhhhhh, like baby, baby, baby ohhhhh!
Logan: Where do you live?
Hallie: (Having given up on someone acknowledging that Logan was sitting next to her.) Miss Holly left me.
Will: Have you ever seen Tom and Jerry?
Logan: I live in CastlegateCollegeStationTexas
Will: I live in College Station too!
Logan: Do you have a Mario purse?
Hallie: Miss Holly left me to go to kinnergarnen (kindergarten).
Will: It might rain. We should play inside.
Logan: I don’t like tornadoes.
Will: What's a tornado?
Logan: I do like Storm Troopers.
Hallie: WHERE’S MY LUNCHBOX?!
Will: Lightening can electric your house.
Logan: Oh snap.
Will: Or your garage.
Logan: Baby, baby, baby ohhhh, like baby, baby, baby ohhhhh!
Hallie: I NOT WEARING ANY SHOES!

Play Date with Friends

It makes my heart sing to see Will and Hallie with their friends. I am so proud of how well they (Will especially) adjusted to their new school, and how they've made friends - good friends - since we've been here.

A couple of Fridays back (there's no school on Fridays, so everyone is free on Friday mornings) we met up with lots of these friends at a nearby park for a large-scale play date. Here are a few highlights:

Will, Matt (Ali's little brother, who's Hallie's age), Ali, and Kennedy jumping rope

Will, Kaylie, Mason, Logan, Ali, and Madison heading for the stairs 

(WAY more fun than the playground, right?)

Hallie following Kennedy around (while everyone else plays on the stairs)

Matt, Kennedy, Logan, and Will rigging up their jump rope elevator

Kaylie, Ali, Kennedy, Madison, Logan, Will, and Hallie feeding the turtles

Will chasing Kennedy with his claw

Kandace (Kennedy's little sister, who is Hallie's age), Matt, Kaylie, Madison, Connor, Ali, 

Kennedy, Hallie, Logan, and Will having a picnic lunch

We're lucky that so many people have welcomed us into the School for Little People and College Station families.

A Little Light Reading

Happy Halloween

I missed out on quite a bit of the Halloween weekend because I was shopping with my mom and sister in Chicago. (My apologies, Chicago friends - my trip was short and I didn't call/text/email because I knew I wouldn't have time to get together while I was in town. Boo.) Tom held his own at home though, managing to get the kids ready for both their school Halloween parties on Thursday (he had help with Hallie's hair from another child's mother in the school parking lot though) and an unofficial, out-of-school school trip to the pumpkin patch on Friday.

Here's Will's class at their Halloween party. Will chose to wear his glow-in-the-dark skeleton shirt and gloves instead of his Batman costume to school - something about not being able to adequately play on the playground dressed as a super hero.

Unfortunately, Tom had to work late on Halloween and missed trick-or-treating. I could have used his help mostly at the beginning of the evening, when I was trying to take pictures of the kids (I needed someone to stand behind me and get them to smile/not frown/not cry and JUST LOOK AT THE CAMERA AND STOP HITTING YOUR BROTHER FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!). Fortunately, once we started trick-or-treating, both kids were angelic and had the time of their lives. I stopped counting after Will said, "this is just so much fun!" six times.

Here are a few pics of my Pink Octopus and Batman pre-trick-or-treating.

Notice that Hallie's wearing sandals and only tiny shorts leggings under her costume - Halloween in Texas is quite warm, and both kids sweat through their costumes by the time we arrived home.

And here's me and my little octopus, picture courtesy of Batman.

Here are a couple of pics of the trick-or-treating experience.

Once we arrived home, both kids stripped down and dug into their candy. (Well, they dug in after I confiscated nearly 2/3 of what they'd collected because of peanuts, dairy, and the Hallie-potential-mess factor.) Hallie never lost interest in her candy, but Will quickly moved on from his own candy to handing out candy at the door. We had 113 (?!) trick-or-treaters - more than we've ever had - and gave away all of the candy I'd purchased as well as nearly all of what I confiscated from the kids just a few minutes earlier in the evening. Don't tell them, please.

Happy Halloween from the four Ferri!

Thoughtful Thursday

 

It's October!

Last month an Oreo-faced Hallie performed "It's September", and this month she learned "It's October". I know today is November 1st and therefore I'm a day late in posting this video, but late is better than never, right?

I love that Hallie's teachers write these little songs for the kids to sing each month!



"It's October, it's October.
Trick-or-treat! Trick-or-treat!
Jack-o-lantern's glowing, jack-lantern's glowing.
Halloween, Halloween.
Boo!"