Thanksgiving 2013

We gathered with Andy's family at Mike and Sherri's for Thanksgiving--one of the major perks of moving back to California. 

The girls love being back with their cousins. 

Cousin Chase got some love too. We missed seeing Hannah. 

Bonding over smartphones.

Back at Stacey and Steve's in Roseville, Amalia predictably found a canine friend.

And just as predictably, Lily made a Rainbow Loom friend.

 Then we ventured out ice skating. And by we, I mean the girls and their cousins.

 Nice save!

  Getting the hang of it. 

 Joey and Lily

  Lily and Ryan 

Ryan, Joey, and Amalia 

Skater girl

 Amalia even found a car that matched her dress.

Sounds of the season

Here is a sampling of Lily's latest violin playing, including a couple of Christmas songs she's working on. 

 Joy to the World

 Beethoven's 9th

 Jingle Bells

Blue Feather

 

Wide-eyed Amalia (aka Blue Feather) and her kindergarten class just finished a unit on Native Americans.

 

They worked very hard on their dioramas.

 Here is Blue Feather to explain her diorama.

Demanding children

This very official-looking Lily manifesto is from a few weeks ago, but Andy just found it again so I thought I'd document it.

"Constitution of Kids of Pierce's"

Dear Pierce Members,
No coupons or fireworks. No grocery stores or flu shots. No bees.
Sincerely,
Lilith Marin Pierce

I love that in the list of things she does not like and does not want more of "coupons" is first. 

Cat people

 

See how comfy this cat looks on our couch, how at home he seems? Amalia seemed to pick up on it too. Here's a snippet of conversation from our walk to school the other day. 

Amalia: I'm so glad we're cat people now!

Me: I'm not. 

Amalia: Oh, you are. YOU ARE. 

(Her last line was in the exact same tone as Yoda's "Oh, you will be. You will be." when Luke insists he's not afraid.)

Bizarro world

A couple of somewhat odd and amusing excerpts from the past couple of days at the Pierce house:

Last night for dinner, we had pork tenderloin, noodles and Brussels sprouts. Having eaten all of her Brussels sprouts, plus seconds, Amalia walked around the table trying to steal Lily's off her plate. It got even more bizarre when Lily said, "No" and wouldn't let Amalia take them.  

On Sunday, Amalia was running around gleefully shouting, "M-O-G! M-O-G!" in reaction to things. Almost as amusing was Lily's knowing smirk and her starting to correct Amalia to tell her that it should be "OMG," and then deciding better of it, figuring it would be more fun to try to get Amalia to say it her way a whole bunch of times the rest of the afternoon. 

Supply chain

Amalia's class is learning about Native Americans and will be having a trading day in a few weeks to learn about bartering. Everything must be natural--nothing plastic or metal. Amalia engaged Lily (and me) in the production of God's Eyes. She's also planning to take in some of her less-favorite rocks from her collection. I'm trying to convince her to trade some of the limes from our yard. (Seriously, who can eat so many limes?)

Amalia also thought her friends would like a "spooky Thanksgiving story" to trade, so she had Lily write one. Text is below:

Chapter 1
Once upon a time there was a turkey. But it wasn't any ordinary turkey. It was a creepy one.

Chapter 2
One day, the Creepy Turkey took a walk. It saw a girl and it scared the girl. The Creepy Turkey never got caught! The next day a boy tried to catch him but he bit the boy!

Chapter 3
On Thanksgiving, the Creepy Turkey risked his life. Everybody tried to kill and eat him. One day, the boy's parents got mad and killed the Creepy Turkey!

Chapter 4
After they killed him, they had a Thanksgiving party and they ate the Creepy Turkey. They were so happy they finally got rid of the Creepy Turkey!

The End

(P.S. And he was delicious!)