Thomas school birthday

Dave brought cupcakes and celebrated Thomas' birthday at his school. This was on Dec. 8th, his actual birthday. However, we're calling it his "school" birthday to excuse the fact that Mommy had to leave early that morning to speak at a conference. His "home" birthday is this Sunday for those of you who, like Mommy, might need a second chance to send birthday wishes.


The boy sitting next to Thomas on the right is our neighbor Devon. He's great. Last year he had leukemia but he seems to have recovered pretty well. His mom is a journalist just like Daddy!


Here are Thomas' teachers Ms. Basil . . .

and Mrs. Bilbao, behind Thomas below.


They are very nice. Once they moved the sand table when Thomas didn't want them to and he told them he was going to destroy their lives. But most of the time, we really like them.


Thomas is amazed at how much taller he is now that he's four. And now here is a rare picture of two honey bees in their hive. The queen bee is supervising.



And here's Emmett illustrating his pull-up skills. This isn't actually a new trick, but somehow we've failed to document it here before. Go E!

Scenes from a Baptism

We didn't pack the right outfit for Emmett, but luckily there was a fine consignment shop just round the corner. Emmett couldn't have looked any handsomer:

Thanksgiving I and Table!

We had almost a century represented at the Thanksgiving table, between Grandma Ethel, 99, and Emmett, 8 months. They seemed to get along notwithstanding the age gap.






Thomas looked sharp and had love to spare.





Clare enjoyed her first Thanksgiving, especially the pumpkin pie. Aunt Lola was the chief chef and she put out quite a spread. Even Emmett had some turkey and yams!

And on the list of things to be thankful for was the surprise delivery of the table we ordered two years ago. Just in time for Houston Christmas! Here is some documentation below.



We haven't gotten the matching chairs yet, but Dean Perkins says they'll be here soon. And he asked for a small deposit to cover the cost of ordering them. It wasn't foolish of us to give it to him was it?

We really love it. However, there is one aspect that is slightly controversial. It's difficult to see but to the left of the black chairs in the picture below is a small knob where a tree branch used to be. Dean says he'll file it off if we want, but he thinks it makes the table. Dave and Clare love the knob. Thomas hates it. Mommy isn't sure. So we're asking for your opinion! (See poll to the right.)



Here's what we''ll look like eating around the table:




And stay tuned: next up, Niagara Falls and a Baptism!

Thomas dance

Posted in homage to Elsie: