I picked up Sophia and Avery at school on Tuesday, then took Sophia to her ortho appointment. Sophia’s homework tonight was to complete a project for the Witch of Blackbird Pond: baking one of 3 recipes, taking 3 pictures and getting them printed, due on Thursday. She chose an apple tart. Thais found an easier recipe online, but didn’t have a couple of the ingredients. I asked if I could run to the store for her – yes!




As a retired teacher, I can not imagine the negative feedback I would have received to have made an assignment like this.

This morning, everyone came over for brunch, then we opened gifts.

Avery goes to gymnastics at Tricks every Saturday. Today all similar classes got together to show families all the skills students have learned.

We filled up one entire pew at St Ignatius plus a few seats along the aisle.

Sophia’s 5th grade class (she is in the front row, second from left):

Avery’s 2nd grade class (he is in the front row, center, his face partially hidden by a cellphone):

This little girl kept escaping to run down the aisle until her mom found an effective strategy.

Sophia is the best puppy caretaker, but after a couple of hours, she insisted it was Avery’s turn. Avery’s preferred arrangement for playing with Charlie:
That didn’t last long, however. He decided he needed to do his homework – where Charlie couldn’t bother him.

Go #3! St Ignatius won their first game in today’s tournament.

During the break between games, Carson went to gymnastics.

In the afternoon, the girls from St John’s the Evangelist won the tournament.

Carson:

Hans was in charge of the fried turkey:


Charlie is a new addition to the family:

with Carol and Jerry,

Greg,

Justin and Jennifer.

Carson was sick this morning and couldn’t go to school. I watched him in the morning. We put together puzzles and played Bird Bingo and Dog Bingo. He picks out which cards each of us should have. We both need to have a “Carter” – a golden retriever – on our cards. He was peeking inside the bag to select a dog that was on his card but not mine (lol):

When he knows you’re going to take his picture, this is the look he gives you:

After EVERY turn we had to individually count how many dots each of us had to determine who was ahead. Despite the fact that there are just 25 spaces on each card, Carson had 38 dots! And he was always winning. LOL.