November News!

November is always one of my favorite months mostly because it's Jake's birthday month. You can check out his birthday blog here.

I love how much Allie loves the Mustang class and Ms. Leslie!

For the last month or so they've been studying the solar system and when Ms. Leslie starts a lesson she goes all in!

Allie and Penelope doing "research."

Cutting out stars 

Making the planets from paper mache!

On a rocketship to the moon! Allie is wearing a jacket of Jake's, boots and a bicycle helmet for saftey!

Jake's class had a "Poetry Slam" in their class which was live streamed so parents could watch!

Jake was great! 

Allie and Ava presenting their "Study Buddy" reasearch to the class.

Show & Tell is still her favorite. Any chance to be on a stage!

Her show and tell this week is "Grandma Owl" which came from Aunt Judy.

Soccer season (almost) ends and basketball begins!

Pink Popsicles end-of-season party and trophy presentation!

Coach Alex with his favorite player!

Our awesome coaches!

Bubba is back for a visit! We picked up Jake at Hill and then headed to get Allie. Sadly, I missed the Allie/Bubba reunion. 

Practically Bubba's first stop was to go to Shabbat at Allie's school! I had attended an event the week before at the school and had two different teachers ask me when Bubba was coming back!

That Friday night Bubba with some help from Allie supervised Jake and BFF Dylan's sleepover. Seeing that they never moved from the couch and playing video games, there wasn't too much supervising to be done. The next day when Jake had a birthday party sleepover to go to Allie and Bubba took a belated birthday shopping trip to Toys-R-Us. She came home with "Dex" and several other toys that she was beyond excited about.

Sunday BFF Breakfast with Hailey! 

We try to get the girls together as often as we can.

Sometimes they're so darn sweet to each other. 

First basketball game for Jake and he scored 12 points in the first game and helped lead the Hornets to a win. 

As part of the solar system unit in the Mustangs class, 
they gave tours! 

Allie showed me all the planets and overwhelmed me with facts about each planet!

Then she went to her dance class and I got the chance to take a peek at her class. 

End of soccer season and nice words from the Coach about Jake.

Go Team Senegal! 

That weekend at the last soccer game of the season we had two very special visitors come and cheer for Jake!

Michael and Josh were in Austin to see friends and being very sweet cousins came by to see some soccer!

Jake had a great time playing defense and 

may have found a new position!

One last time...Go Team Senegal!

At Eli's birthday party

The President of my Foundation bought this for Jake (and a Wonder Woman for Allie) and he was begging us to play! 

So one random afternoon, we did!  

I was so glad that Alex and I were both able to go to the Thanksgiving Feast with the pre-k classes. 

With the fabulous Ms. Leslie!

We made it to Plano Thursday morning for a laid back and fun Thanksgiving with the Viviers and Toppells. 

Allie was devestated that she couldn't go swimming. 

 Jake gets some soccer tips from Talia

 Hanging out with Papa and Brenna

Love this picture!

 Jake was super excited to bring Pie Face to Dallas 

and especially to Pie Pippi!

Oh the Pie Face giggles...

Brenna's turn

Pippi and Jake!

Allie had the camera!
*Not pictured, the 87 pictures of furniture and the dogs!

All snuggled up in Pippi's office.

We went to watch Talia in a soccer tournement. 

It was cold but she was awesome!

When Michael was little and Alex would come to visit he would bring him McDonald's French Fries (why, I'm not sure) but on the celebration of his 21st birthday, Alex brought back the tradition!

How many 9 and 5 year olds get to go to a 21st Birthday Party!?!

Jake busts a move!

Jake learns beer pong (without the beer)

Sweet speeches for Michael and even one from Jake!

Nothing like Jello shots with our favorite babysitters and 

Michael's best friends!

We love this book and listening to Allie giggle her way through it 

is so wonderful! Thank you Noonie & Papa

Black Friday and Cyber Monday were good to us. Our dishwasher broke before we left for Thanksgiving so we were thankful for some great dishwasher deals! And on CyberMonday I found a great deal on a Birthday/Hanukkah present from Bubba to Jake! 

It's safe to say Jake loves his computer much more than the dishwasher!

Happy December! 

Jake is 9!

Happy 9th Birthday to our sweet guy!

How is he 9?

Jake is the most wonderful boy there is. He is sweet, thoughtful, smart, has a huge heart, is funny, is a snuggle bug, is a great big brother (when he wants to be) and the list goes on and on!

The birthday began with opening cards and

enjoying a birthday donut!

Jake's birthday celebration actually began with a sleepover the weekend before with BFF Dylan who was going to be out of town during his party. I didn't get any great pictures but here is a picture from earlier this Fall. 

The last soccer practice of the year was on Jake's birthday and he wanted to be there with his team. So after soccer we headed to one of our favorite birthday spots in Austin, Chez Zee. It was closed for a private party and the 2-3 other places we went next were all crazy busy! I guess everyone wanted to go out to celebrate Jake's birthday!

So after much debate we ended up at the Cheesecake Factory and Jake couldn't have been happier. After dinner when we were Facetiming with Auntie Rachel he told her all about dinner. 

"Auntie Rachel, we went to this really nice place for dinner. It's called the Cheesecake Factory. Have you been?"

Friday after school we took Jake and four friends to see "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" at the Alamo Draft House. They thought it was hysterical to write crazy things on the order cards for the server. Oh, 9 year old boys! They were mesmerized by the movie (as was I) and they may have eaten the theater out of popcorn!

After the movie we headed to pizza and met up with the parents who wanted to join us! Jake loved it and loved running around with his crew! I loved not having 40 people at my house!

Jake is really into Pro Wrestling/WWE. I'm told it is a phase which gives me hope but when he loves something he's all in. So for his birthday, Alex got him tickets to see a live show that happened to be in Austin. BFF Dylan is also super into it so he and his dad joined Jake and Alex. They had a great time and Jake thought it was super cool to be at the live version of what he watches on TV. 

And he was very excited about his gift from Bubba, a new laptop that is all his (although usuage is still based on mom & dad's rules!)

Happy Birthday! We love you, Jake!