The start of November...

Lucius played with four of his buddies at a grade level chess tournament. He didn't win a trophy this time around because the competition is getting tougher. But he had good spirits and had fun which is more important to me than him winning. The four third grades were able to score enough points to win the third place of the third grade division, which they were all excited about.

Oliver and I worked on a gingerbread house for the Norway House gingerbread display this year. We made one for the first time last year but we made it too late to turn it in. This year we made a plan and started construction just after Halloween. We spent HOURS creating this house (well in theory "we" was the both of us, but really- I spent a vast majority of time cutting and baking with a little help from Oliver who really just wanted to play outside in his left pile). This was our first time ever making a caramel syrup to use as "glue" but we both ended up with a few burnt fingers. After four attempts, one was partially successful, at least we tried.

We filled some of the construction gaps with royal icing to hide the imperfections. Shh... don't tell.

It started to look really cool once we added all the candy. We used all candies that we had received from Halloween, which meant we didn't have to go to the store to buy anything new. 

I turned it a few days before it was due. We're hoping to get to the Norway House to see it before Christmas. We've already got a few ideas for next years creation.

In early November my sisters and I went with my Mom to a craft show in the US bank stadium. My sister's only brought one of their kiddos and I brought both of mine. Mom had won tickets for free entry to the craft show. It was a fun time, even if we did miss dinner and were hangry toward the end. We ended up eating dinner at 8pm when we finally got home, where typically we eat early dinners around 5-5:30 range.

So here we are, almost ready for Thanksgiving...