November in a nutshell

As I mentioned in a previous post November wasn't a huge month for us.  It was fairly quiet.  However, there were a few events that I would hate to skip over completely, so here is our month in a nice little nutshell!

Ajay won an award at school for being such a good kid.  He won a pass to go to 5 different locations around town (the zoo, museums and such).  He gets to take his family of 4 to these places and we all get in free - the pass is valued at around $100!  We have to use the pass by the end of December and so far we haven't used it at all.  Eeks!  We're going to try to tackle at least two of the places this weekend.  I just wish we had warmer weather to enjoy the places that are outdoors. 

Accepting the award, then bringing it to Mommy so it doesn't get lost!

Ajay brought a pumpkin home from school that he'd received at his class's pumpkin party.  Even though the helper spelled his name "Agay" he still accepted it.  :)   Once that puppy was home, he started begging to make pumpkin seeds.  So we did. 

Daddy did the honors of cutting it up for us - lopping off the top, then slicing it down the middle.

This was probably the part he was looking forward to the most - getting his hands into the sloppy mess and pulling out the seeds.

Pumpkins de-seeded.  Seeds in the pan for a quick rinse.  I also kept some seeds and guts with the hopes of growing our own pumpkins next year.  Probably won't work, but it's worth a shot. 

I mixed the seeds with butter then split them in half.  On the left is just plain salt.  On the right was a bit of Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder.  And maybe a touch of salt, too, I can't remember.  Slid into the oven to toast up.

Yummy, healthy snack!   (Plain salt on the right, Worcestershire on the left.)

And just for fun, a shot of our little bath monster - complete with goggles suction cupped to his eyes, and a straw for blowing bubbles.

Of course, we can't forget about Thanksgiving! 

I have no pics, so you'll just have to deal with my commentary alone.  We went to my parents on Wed. night and on Thursday we started working on the food.  Family started trickling in and we were ready to eat by 4ish.  The kids, of course, loved playing with their cousins.  Silly me figured it would be too cold to go outside to play so I only packed good clothes.  I should have known, though, to pack some play clothes because kids typically don't care about weather.  They even found a puddle to jump in! 

After dinner, the adults played some board games (Wits and Wagers, just like last Thanksgiving, and the card game 7 1/2).  It's a good thing my parents have french doors to divide the house up.  We could be loud in one room and shut the doors so those in the living room could still enjoy their tv watching (I believe they were watching the Pumpkin Chuckin' contest?).  The kids tried to be as loud as the adults so it was very chaotic - but certainly fun!! And we're looking forward to the same type of chaos at Christmas!