Pottery and November 30th

***Disclaimer ~ I am well aware that most/all of the pictures are not entirely in focus.  I'm workin on it :P ***

It's November 30th, which means that NaBloPoMo is coming to an end!  And, I blogged every day for a whole month!  Don't expect the same to continue, though I do have a new project picked out for December (which I will blog about next time...I know you're all waiting on pins and needles! :)).  I'm glad I did it ~ it forced me to take lots of pictures even when I wasn't feeling up to it, and blogging forces me to look at my days and weeks and pick out all the fun and exciting things we did, which really changes my outlook when my outlook needs changing!

Today, however, no outlook needed changing, cause today was FUN!  Jamie (a member of my village :)) planned an afternoon at the local pottery painting place, and we had a blast!  The girls liked painting their pottery and playing with friends.  It was a little terrifying to have so many toddlers in a pottery shop, but miraculously nothing was damaged!  All the kids got to paint at least one ornament, and we all have some great memories that will soon be glazed and fired and hanging on the tree! :)

It was hilarious to see how each child is so different in how they painted.  As you can imagine, Maya's painting was wild and creative, Isabella's was very VERY neat (dude, check out her palate!), Charlotte really just wanted to paint with the dirty paint water.  Eden was excited to paint several layers and dots and lines, Becca and Julia liked LOTS and LOTS of paint.  Sam loved that he got paint on his hands, and Eliza (and Charlotte) enjoyed sampling that paints.  With their tongues!  ***How did I leave out Kendall???  I blame that it was almost midnight when I was blogging.  Anyway, Miss Kendall really just wanted to run and dance around the pottery store! :)

Pictures of our day...

Isabella kept saying, "Maya!  You're a silly gingerbread cookie!" and laughing.  I couldn't figure out why, and thought it was some funny toddler insult thing (not a real insult, just like calling her a silly monkey or something).  Then I realized that toddlers think concretely.  Isabella was clearly talking about Maya's apron, which somehow didn't click until after Maya took it off and Isabella said, "Maya's not a gingerbread anymore!" :)

Contemplating which ornament to paint

Look at her palate!

Then compare it to Maya/Charlotte's

Little Isaac slept through the painting, but he is always willing to offer up a smile when awake! :)

These are the backs of our ornaments ~ I'll get a picture of the fronts once we get them back from the pottery place :)

Our Weekend In Pictures

Here is what we did this weekend :)

The girls "helped" make gingerbread trifle ~ Maya has the whipped cream beater and Charlotte has the pudding whisk.  They were big helpers, as you can see!

Breakfast time.

Do not adjust your monitor.  I actually caught Chris smiling!

Grandpa and Charlotte watching the Buckeyes destroy Michigan.

Charlotte had her hand in her mouth almost the entire weekend...I'm hoping that means these last 4 teeth are coming all at once and we'll be DONE with teething!

Maya hangin' with Uncle Chris

Notice the beer and the bunny ears.  Classy, Babe :)

Charlotte was fascinated by the crunchy bottle.

In this picture I believe she is trying to feed it to Chris! :)

Grandpa with the two youngest grandchildren (Charlotte and Unai)

Pre-photo-shoot

You can see Charlotte starting to inch away!

I don't know if you can tell, but that is Charlotte in the picture, not Katie.  I know.

I think Maya would have sat there holding Jacob all day!

Charlotte escaped the group shot!

Timmmmmmm-berrrrrrrr!

Maya was the only one who listened when Michael said "stick out your tongue!"

In this picture, you will notice two things ~ Charlotte trying to escape (again!) and Maya sticking her finger in Jacob's mouth.  She thought it was HILARIOUS that he did this at lunch on Friday, and told me probably 100 times that he was pretending her finger was ice cream :)  In this instance, we didn't realize it was going to happen!

The post-finger-in-mouth picture.  Notice Maya's laughter and my embarrassment! 

Mom singing her heart out in a trio at church (go Mom!!! :))

Charlotte being cute after church

Maya and Grandma.  Maya is wearing her amazing new hat.  I kinda want one :P

Charlotte and Grandma.  Charlotte is trying to figure out how to get the hood off ~ she kept saying "help!" :)

Charlotte, once again, trying to escape :)