Two goals of Thanksgiving weekend each year are to rest and play. This year, we achieved both goals.

It was so good to have Jake with us. He had not been home in five months, and consequently did experience a bit of a culture shock. Just being able to wear “civies” (civilian clothes) was a first. He spent much of the weekend catching up on sleep. The little guys were eager to play with him, but alas, had to wait until he awakened.

While on the subject of Jake, he evidently has adopted a new habit while at USAFA: sleeping on the floor. Due to the strict room requirements at school, most of the cadets end up sleeping on the floor so they don’t mess up their beds. Jake now has a hard time sleeping on a bed because “it’s too soft”.

Thanks to my brother and his family, we were able to bring Molly up to Michigan with us. Jake enjoyed the extra time with her, and Molly was the object of much affection from the cousins.

We played lots of games, both electronic

and otherwise.

We kickstarted our Thanksgiving Thursday with a 5K organized by my mom. It’s as official as it gets, with bib numbers, medals…and for the first time this year: t-shirts.

But before the running comes the fueling. Mom and Peter work together to make french breakfast puffs: 60% sugar, 35% butter, 5% everything else.

After loading up on the delicious breakfast, we laced up our shoes…or in Ruthie’s case, put the shoes on while someone else laced them for you.

These guys were happy to be together for the weekend.

We got our game faces on

then stepped up to the start line.

Ellie and Ruth–who ran the “short course”–teamed up to hand out medals.

The 5K organizer and commissioner pausing for a pose.

A great (healthy) way to start the day!

The beginning of this week has been full of preparation. We prepared for two exciting events: Jake’s first homecoming in five months, and Thanksgiving in Michigan.

First, we broke out the paints and made posters:

Even Molly participated, by providing moral support.

Meanwhile, Peter was a baking machine, making acorn-shaped cake pops

and pumpkin and apple pies for Thanksgiving dinner.

Now we are all together as a family for the weekend–dog included!

WA football officially wrapped up its season by holding a celebratory banquet last week. Derek really bonded with the offensive line, known as “the team within the team”.

They love their coach…

…almost as much as they love getting into a three-point stance!

Throughout the season, a group of moms prayed each week for the team. It was such a joy getting to know these dear women and regularly getting together for a common purpose.

It was a late night, and Derek’s “reward” was an extra dose of homework which cut his night to 4 hours of sleep.

Ask him if it’s worth it? He’d respond with a resounding YES.

Over the past two and a half months, the kids learned about the U.S. elections process and completed projects related to it. All along the way, we kept our eyes on the real-life presidential race, which made the learning more interesting and applicable.

Yesterday, the study culminated in the actual presidential election as well as the putting together of the final project.

As I–and my entourage–walked into the polling place, the volunteers were making conversation with the kids, asking various questions. They heartily laughed when I told them that I brought my advisors along. The kids looked over my shoulder with interest (and newly-acquired background knowledge) as I filled in the bubbles.

Our nation is far from perfect, but throughout our study, I remarked to the kids that our freedom is a gift and something to be very thankful for. Freedom to vote, and above all freedom to worship our God.

Another football season has come to a bittersweet end. Bitter because of the final losses for both Derek and Peter. Sweet because we are able to reclaim a couple weeknights.

The first words out of Peter’s mouth when he woke up Tuesday morning were, “I’m so happy we don’t have to be anywhere tonight!” Fast forward two hours later, when Jim calls after a meeting and exclaims, “Drop everything, we’re going to the Hawks game tonight!”

I told the kids I had good news and bad news. The bad news: we have somewhere to be this night. The good news: we are going to the United Center! Someone generously donated their sky box tickets, so we were also able to invite others.

Peter brought his buddy Luke,

a family from our small group joined us, which made Ruth’s night, as she had a shadow-buddy all night.

She was also quite interested in the game.

My parents joined us as well. My mom tried a couple times to get the attention of the jumbo-tron camera, sadly to no avail.

While the rest of the world was watching baseball, we watched an exciting hockey game (AND baseball, thanks to the TV in our suite).

We couldn’t have gone to a better game. The Hawks won big, and their opponent tallied many penalties. Because of this, our fun Hawks experience carried over several days.

Because they scored more than two goals, we got 1/2 off Papa John’s pizza for lunch one day.

And because the opposing team scored more than five penalties, we ate six free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches for lunch another day.

All this from “sacrificing” our first free weeknight since the beginning of football season!

The end of October is a whirlwind in this household, between football season, birthdays and trick-or-treating.

We celebrated Ruthie’s seventh birthday.

Peter made her birthday pancakes.

Because she ate the “R” upside-down, she thought he had made her a rabbit. When she asked for another rabbit pancake, it took us a few minutes to catch on.

We then celebrated with family, and the best gift of all for Ruthie was having cousin time, as all the cousins came down for the weekend.

Jake even joined us for a portion of the party via Face Time!

He gave us a mini-tour of his room.

The next morning, Peter and Hannah dished up delicious blueberry cheese crepes.

They served the adults first, then the kids. As it should be.

After such a full weekend, we hadn’t given much thought to the fact that halloween was the next day. Jeremy and Ruth pulled it off well, though, dressed as Doc McStuffins and a Colonial guy.

Part of Ruth’s costume was Jake’s old lab coat, recycled. Because they had BSF that night, they had one hour to hustle and collect as much candy as they could.

They did better than expected, and I had a chance to catch up with some neighbors. Here is what greeted us when we returned home:

Jim donned the army guy costume and thus became the photo opportunity of the neighborhood.