Thanksgiving

We varied our Thanksgiving traditions some this year and went to a local restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner with my dad and Paul's mom. They offered a buffet with traditional and some non-traditional food that was very good.
Here is Rudy pre-meal.

And then part way through - notice the tie has been turned around and is no longer under the collar.

Rudy and his grandparents.

The anatomy of picture taking with Rudy. The silly face...

 

the innocent face...

the serious face.

For dessert Rudy got part of a turkey cake. Here he's eating the head of the turkey.

The whole gang.

 

On Friday we had Thanksgiving at our house as usual. The group was smaller, since Chris and Patti and kids were away.

We also celebrated Rudy's birthday.

 

A new bell for his bike.

Let's go put the bell on the bike...

 

Look! A new bike, too!

He was so excited to get a new bike and he showed off his skills by jumping right on and riding down the street.

This year's cake request was easy- a baseball cake.

Since Max, Lucy and Charlie weren't here, Rudy and Paige were the only kids. Rudy did an amazing job with Paige. Right from the time she arrived he showed her his toys, shared what he was playing with, and if he snagged a marshmallow from Grandpa, he made sure to get one for Paige. When it came time to open gifts, he even told Paige she could help him. It was such a nice thing to see Rudy growing up and being so patient with her.

Paige had fun trying out Rudy's various instruments.

Once Paige had her pajamas on, Rudy had to run upstairs and put his on, too. So then we took a few cousin pictures.

So sweet. So thankful for family time and to see Rudy interact so well with his younger cousin. Maybe he is ready to be a big brother!

Halloween and Zombies

Halloween Part 1- School parade. Indiana Jones.

 

Halloween Part 2. Getting ready to trick or treat and posing like Indiana Jones in action.

 

 

For the first time, Rudy trick or treated on our street with the other kids. They were all anxiously standing outside at about 5:45 just waiting for 6:00 to arrive.

 

Rudy and his first grade buddy, A.

 

After walking our street with his friends, we headed over to  Grandmom's house. Every year we hate driving through her neighborhood because there are no sidewalks and so many people walking around. So we decided to walk over this year and it was much easier (although colder).

There were a few houses with lights and scary decorations that Rudy braved.

 

Cool picture where you can see the sun setting in the distance.

 

 Halloween Part 3. Zombie Walk at Smithville. We weren't sure what to expect so we went just to watch, but I think next year at least one of us will be in costume as a zombie.

Following the Zombies.

A zombie directing the walkers.

A chef zombie (I'm going to blame the picture quality on the fact that since zombies aren't alive, they are hard to photograph. It surely  has nothing to do with the photographer!).

There was even a baby zombie.