The Goose made a turkey.
I started a Girl Scout Troop.
The Goose and her friend practicing the official GS handshake.
My troop, my girls. Learning the GS Promise.
Ugh. There are three things wrong with this picture.
We shifted around some furniture. Oscar B ended up with a lovely reading nook.
THANKSGIVING! We were grateful for grandparents.
The Goose and Gretta at the Grove.
The Goose and Gretta are on that bridge.
The Goose and Papa Jim.
The Goose dancing along with the NY Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
Obligatory Holderle picture of the table.
My inherited turkey platter from my paternal grandmother. It is gigantic and unwieldy and treasured.
My husband grilled the turkey. It was gorgeous and delicious.
5yo Goose drawing her daddy. Please note the shirt.
Rain! The first time in months.
Lovely Thanksgiving with lovely family.
Oscar and his pals got their OSS sweatshirts. OSS (Outdoor Science School) is a CA 5th grade rite of passage. Four days up in the (potentially snowy!) mountains with your classmates and teachers, doing science experiments and living in cabins.
I've been told by other moms that the boys basically wear the same underpants and socks for four days straight and emit a serious funk when they come home. Oscar leaves in two weeks.
Arlo turned eight. I picked him up at school and presented him with some balloons. It went over well.
He tore open his presents and was happy.
He got a new bike helmet from his Gretta and Papa Jim and gamely posed for a picture.
And then he realized that his new bike helmet came with a new bike from mama and daddy and Gretta and Pape Jim and he made this face. It was worth it!
More Girl Scouts.
Arlo's birthday party! The bounce house was a paltry $70. It turned out to be a family from school (with 5 kids!) and the dad, when picking up the bounce house, happily accepted some leftover ribs along with his cash tip.
I've been a little blue since we moved -- didja notice? But there's nothing like a table crammed with kids that you love to make you think, "dang, we should entertain more often."
The menu was our famous ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers, an awesome kale and brussel sprouts salad from Costco, and decadent Costco mac-n-cheese.
And a Costco sheet cake for my snuggle puppy.
Arlo will get every wish he ever wanted.
(Please note, residents of the San Fernando Valley: you might get crushed by a giant kaiju sometime in the near future. Be forewarned.)
My sweet husband, hiding behind a tower of Arlo's presents. Legos! Monsters! Robots! Sharks! Our friends know us well.
My friend Kristin and I spent a delightful evening tie-dying bandanas for the PTA's gift boutique. I would like to use this picture as proof to my mom that I still know how to iron.
We decorated this tree for the boutique and had enough craft supplies left over to do another one. The PTA supplies the trees and lights and families decorate them and the kids buy them at the boutique.
And then I went to work at the Beetique. (we are the Bret Harte Bees, hence the endless bee puns)
This was a 1/4 of the line to get in.
I worked three days of the Beetique. It was the most exhausting and rewarding hours of the year. I helped out my Girl Scouts, my boys' friends, and random kids. I'm so grateful I could have these fleeting days of helping out at the school.
When Arlo was shopping at the Beetique, someone brought out a Minecraft-themed tree. And we looked at it, and looked at each other. And I snatched it out of the hands of the volunteer that was putting it out and said "I'll take that." We had it sent to Oscar B's classroom as a surprise.
(ps: if you have any connection to Bret Harte school and you received a back scratcher, you have me to thank.)
This is a picture of my children watching the Godzilla preview. Trust me when I say that Arlo, my Godzilla-obsessed kid, MIGHT see this movie after Evan and I have vetted it. At 10am in a well-lighted theater. We learned our lesson from taking Oscar to Pacific Rim at 4pm in IMAX 3D.
Girl Scout Cookie Exchange! One of the grandmas that attended asked me if I was a teacher. I said, nope, I'm an under-employed designer that can channel her dad pretty well when needed.
Took Oscar B out for breakfast. He discovered rice+beans+eggs+salsa+chips.
I might get some skin on his bones.
Cookie exchange at a girlfriend's fabulous house. Lots of awesome women with connections in comics, movies, studios, and good references for doctors and fishmongers.
Oscar was on top of the Rainbow Loom fad -- I saw lots of references to it on my East Coast Facebook feed and ran out and got him one. He was a good week or two ahead of the curve. And of course, Arlo was mad at him, and upturned his carefully curated Rainbow Loom bin. And I spent a straight three hours re-organizing them (in my PJs and watching Nashville.)
Oscar's GATE group went on a trip to the Reagan Library and role-played the Grenada Conflict. I am no fan of the Reagan administration (although the man and his wife are pretty awe-inspiring). Oscar role-played the vice admiral of the navy, who was significant because he was a Metcalf and he's got some strong Navy men in his background (his Brockway grandpa and uncle Brian).
More tomorrow.
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