The Coswan's Blog....NOW News from the South: Thanksgiving, the Fox, and Skating Lessons....

As the last post stated, fall has definitely arrived in FMM. While we're still seeing decent temperatures during the day, the evenings are coming early, getting cool, and we dipped to almost -5 this last night. With fall, comes the loss of all leaves....which turned the front yard into a pretty good playground for the kids.

Kate & Katherine

Throw them like this Kate.....

Now THIS is a rake, Kate!!!

We also had guests for Thanksgiving......my brother Corey came up for a week of work, and brought along "The Fox", or our Uncle Ed to keep him company. The Fox was greeted by Kate tearing across the lawn and almost knocking him down with a flying hug - a sign of what his week was to hold! Everyone had a great week - the kids LOVE having company, and were all over Fox. Whether it was bedtime, playtime, or suppertime, the kids were hanging off of him. Maybe it was his charm.....maybe it was the comb that he keeps in his front shirt pocket that Kate kept pulling out and combing his hair with. Either way, fun was had by all. We also had a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner - no turkey this year, but a good ham was cooked, perogies were made, and I think we even threw in corn on the cob for good measure.

Uncle Corey & Kate

Fox and the Girls

The past week was also Kate's first field trip for school.....off the the firehouse! So, the Dad's took the kids for the hour and witnessed the chaos that is Preschool! It was a good tour thru the entire firehouse, with a quick safety video, truck tours, and gear inspections. Kate wanted NOTHING to do with the fireman in the mask......not happy about him at all. The rest was ok......but if he came around in that mask, that was it!!!!

Fireman+Mask=NO KATE

Fireman with NO mask=Kate (but only with Dad)

Driving the Pumper Truck

Inspecting the Jaws of Life

We also had Kate's first "official" skating lesson......we'll call it slightly less than successful, but she did have fun, and she did go out with the teacher/other kids and no mom/dad. We did have her out skating a fair bit last year, but used the "sliders" to assist her. The lesson was a tad different.......straight out on the ice to get used to it. The teacher had a few smaller girls helping her out, so Kate pretty much clung to one of them for the most part, but she is starting to get around on the ice. We won't call it skating as of yet......slow walking on the ice with skates on is likely a better term.....