Christmas Incoming

As we rapidly move into the end of the year, here's a quick update on what we've been up to. The Mayor collected all the tokens for a work contest.

The hobbitlings finished school and are enjoying a well-deserved Christmas break.

And the hobbitlings decorated their gingerbread house (almost) all by themselves. The Mayor helped with some structural modifications and remodeling when the roof broke, but the rest was all hobbitling.

All cozy and ready for Christmas!

Introducing Bob Ross

We got the last of our Christmas decorations up tonight and decorated our tree. We decided the tree is named "Bob Ross," because somebody missed a spot when shearing the tree, so Bob Ross has his own happy little tree.

The towering hobbitlings with their tree.

For reference, here are the same hobbitlings only two short years ago.

Moving Day!

Friday was moving day for Eejee. Here he is proudly sitting in his new spot down in the Bunker!

November Recap

Over Thanksgiving, the hobbitlings got to meet their cousin. So cute is Mr. M that we have no photos from Thanksgiving that do not feature him!

This last weekend, Boookie went and did a service project with some of his friends, building a bench.

Seimi getting cozy with Lee.

Eejee getting cozy with stuffed animals at his pretend fireplace.

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday we went for a walk to scout out the neighborhood.

Last year's scouting expedition (for comparison)

The scouting expedition may have discovered pie...

This year we went with more glow sticks, to excellent effect.

Greek hoplite buddies (spears were left at home for trick-or-treating, for obvious reasons).

Ready to head out! Ela created her own Egytian princess costume as the Mayor and lads were working on the other costumes.

Happy Halloween! We accomplished our goal for this year, which was to scale back the candy haul from last year. We collected only a modest 11.5 pounds of candy. UPDATE: Grammy stopped by the day after Halloween to give us the rest of her candy, bringing us up to 12.5 pounds.

Workshop Work

The Mayor's workshop has been busy lately as hobbitlings stay out of the rain and complete preparations for Halloween.

Seimi is all ready for Halloween, so he has been busy drawing monsters.

Boookie was last to decide on a costume, but the cardboard-duct tape workshop produced a fine set of Roman legionnaire armor.

The Mayor has been using the workshop for work. The 10-second commute is much nicer than the walking in the rain to take a long, crowded bus ride.

PDZ

On Friday we took our first homeschool field trip of the school year, heading down to Point Defiance Zoo to check out their new Pacific Seas Aquarium.

Seimi was all kinds of excited by the sharks and rays.

Seimi's favorite shark, the Sandtiger Shark.

And here are the four hobbitlings.

For reference, here are the same hobbitlings two years ago, bundling up to head down to PDZ.

First time seeing an elephant in real life for most of the hobbitlings.

A handsome tiger.

Two otters!

A cute arctic fox

Two yaks!

Hobbitlings consumed by education.

Bonus picture of hobbitlings posing by their Hogwarts house banners. Not pictured are Daddy Slytherin and Mommie Ravenclaw.

Fall Family

Here is our (apparently) biannual candid family portrait.

Here is 2016's portrait for comparison.

New punching bag

The new punching bag doesn’t stand a chance against the onslaught of attacking hobbits!

Greek Hoplites

Seimi and Eejee want to be Greek hoplites for Halloween this year, so the Mayor got started early with the costume-making to allow the hoplites to train up. Here's Eejee helping sketch up some preliminary concepts.

Seimi reading up on Alexander the Great while his Corinthian-style helmet is being worked on.

Ela testing the helmet fit.

Ela helping with the hot gluing for the chest armor.

Greek armor finished and ready for the Sons of Thunder!

Phalanx formation!

The young hoplites.

The small blue hoplite in his treehouse.

Greek shipmates

Addendum: Ela helped Seimi decorate his treehouse, so here it is in full Greek galley splendor. Notice the ram at the bow, the painted eyes, and the row of oars.