Fall 2024

Since today is officially the first day of spring, seems like a good time to finally post some fall pictures. The fall went by full of the "normal" things. School, violin, piano, and scouts, among other random things like me having knee surgery.

We all went to the Safari park one day and had a good time. I was recently post surgery, but sitting in the car feeding animals was something that could be done. They especially loved petting the animals and seeing the birds.

Corban got a couple of new friends. Meet Nourishing and Pip Squeak.

Dayspring presentation:

Eating out with Dad:

Police officer visits 4th grade

Scouts added a lot of fun things to the fall. Having Corban in Cub Scouts every other Tuesday evening and Gabriel in Scouts on Thursday evenings has led to a lot of activities. So far this year (meaning fall until spring) Gabriel has enjoyed weekly meetings where he learns new skills, a couple of camping trips, a lock-in at a climbing gym, selling the most popcorn in his troop, and attending "Merit Badge College" at VT. Corban has enjoyed camping, the pack Halloween party, selling popcorn, collecting donations for the local food pantry, pinewood derby, having a swimming night, and attending a school board meeting and talking to a member of the board. They both enjoyed the "Trout-O-Ree" and a tour of the drone delivery company that's very close to our house.

First night back at Cub Scouts for Webelo Corban

 

One of Gabriel's first meetings of the year

Webelo hike

Trout-O-Ree

Gabriel especially enjoyed fishing

Webelo led flag ceremony

Pack Halloween carnival

Drone delivery tour and demonstration. Gabriel particular enjoyed the
command center where they keep track of drones and chart flights.

Webelos all coming together to cook a meal to share

Fall is not complete without carving pumpkins and going to a fall festival. It works out well that Gabriel's friend Aiden has a fall birthday and always invites everyone to join him at a fun local pumpkin patch/festival.

The boys worked so hard to carve their pumpkins and they both did an amazing job. Unfortunately only a few days after they were put on the porch some very hungry squirrels ate the front (where the design is) off of both pumpkins

Corban's Deathly Hallows

Gabriel's Snoopy in the pumpkin patch

Spirit week at school always leads to some craziness:

Hawaiian Day

Silly Hat Day

Not quite sure what Corban is doing here

Corban doing a presentation at school. He's done several this year including a
"Christmas around the world" presentation (he was assigned Italy) and a Bible presentation

Piano lessons on Wednesdays at the church with a new teacher. One exciting thing that happened in the fall was his new teacher alerting us to someone at her church selling a used piano at a very reasonable price. Moving it was a pain (for Taylor), but Corban really enjoys having the piano in the living room and it's nice to be able to hear him practicing.

"Caturday" at the library

For Halloween we took the boys Trick-or-Treating in downtown Blacksburg. Gabriel wanted to be the Mad Hatter from the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" movie. He found the hair to be annoying and itchy but the overall look was fun. Corban wanted to be Metal Sonic, the only Sonic character for which there was no pre-made costume available. The only mask that I could find ending up being a little small, but he wanted to wear that with his ninja costume from last year. We got some dark arm sleeves and metal fingers, but these ended up irritating him as he was trying to do things.

When Gabriel was going to go Trick-or-Treating with a couple kids from school (who were in 5th grade so both boys knew them) Corban really wanted to stay home and pass out candy. He set up a spot for himself on the porch with a pillow and blanket and turned on his audio book. He really enjoyed hanging out there and giving all the other kids candy when they came by.

And here is just another random picture of daily life around here. Corban, some kind of cool shooting Wild Kratt, riding on Gabriel dressed as a reindeer. Seems about right. They both end of doing some very creative things, usually involving Legos or some sort of running around/wrestling. They also love to play games both together and as a family.