New November Routines and Experiments

Short entry this week. We filled it up with routine acts of school, work, and play at home. We do have pictures, this week, though. Enjoy!

To start, the kids received their school pictures. Cuties! 

We played a lot in the front yard, riding around on bikes and scooters, kicking around the soccer ball, and drawing on the sidewalks.

The kids' depiction of their father in peach-colored sidewalk chalk. Note that in Landon's version, Dad has all ten fingers. 

We also made it to the park. The kids wanted to climb trees, so Dad obliged them.

Speaking of trees, this is fall in SoCal. Note the flowering bush, the bright leaves on the maple, and the palms swaying in the breeze. For our friends in northern climes experiencing the first snow of the season, we send our love. Please keep the snow! Send rain, though, lots of rain. We're getting milder temperatures and occasional clouds and drizzle, but we wouldn't mind more of the wet stuff.

The door-frame bar swing is getting plenty of use.

Landon is proving himself even more a Doctor Who fan than his father. The nerdlet is designing sonic screwdrivers for his dear ol' Dad.

We had an Elders Quorum Pie Fest tonight (Sunday), and here is what Mike made to share. Following Hallie's lead in matters culinary, he decided to experiment. What you see are pumpkin cocoa brownie pies baked with the puree he made last week, freshly ground whole-wheat flour, and maple syrup. As you might expect, they aren't particularly sweet. Hearty might be a good way to describe them. They need more chocolate. And sugar. And chocolate.

In other news, Hallie started a job at Nautica in the Camarillo Outlet Mall, the kids had doctors appointments, and Fergus (who ran away again last Thursday) has still not returned home. Mike has set on the daunting task of converting his handwritten journal from scanned .pdf format (scanning the pages was a task in itself mostly completed over several years). This involves reading each and every word via the Dragon app and then proofreading the result. Let's just say that the walk down memory lane has been (at times painfully) enlightening. He has one year down at this point and over two decades to go.