Yesterday when I picked June and Mason after school, they helped me make the icing and frost a red velvet cake I’d made earlier in the day.  June loves baking, and she said that it was the first time she’d ever made homemade icing, so both were excited.  Here they are showing off their finished product, and feasting on the leftovers 🙂

We got a couple of group pictures after the concert Tuesday – this one of Mallory and her family:

And this one of all our crew, except for Jackson, who was taking the picture:

Last night we were at the auditorium for their performance.  Alas, the pictures I took of June in the sixth grade portion of the program just didn’t turn out at all :-(.  I got this one of Mallory before I left their house, when she had dressed in her pj’s for the first part of the program.  That was the Summit Singers, which is the honors chorus at the high school.  They all looked so cute in their pajamas!

And here she is during the 8th grade portion of the program. They all did a really good job.

We always have some non-family-members join us for our festivities, and for the second year in a row Sherri’s friend Erin joined us with her kids.  We made a family picture of them, too, and then the two kids wanted me to get a silly picture of them.  So I did. 🙂 Instead of exchanging presents or drawing names, we collect the money we would have spent and donate it to charity, taking turns choosing the charity. This year it was Zollie and Renee’s turn, and they chose Feed Stokes, their local food bank in Stokes County, NC – a cause near and dear to their hearts. Here is Zollie telling us about it, and we collected over $500, which I thought was really good.

Saturday we celebrated our annual Saturday after Thanksgiving Christmas party with my extended family.  Such a great time.  Many of the kids shared their talent, including Adam who demonstrated his scooter riding prowess 🙂

Got a few family group pictures. I thought this one of Andy’s family turned out really good.  Front is Amy and Mia in Andy’s lap.  Back are Amy’s sister Martha, Liz, Diane holding Marissa, and Nathan holding a shy Daniel 🙂

Thursday we had our Thanksgiving lunch here at the house, eating at 2:00 so Lindee could get here when she got off work.  We got our traditional picture of the front steps.  From bottom are Mike, Clara holding Hal, Jackson, Meg, Mallory, Amy, McKenzie, Cinnamon, Elise, Shea, Boo, Dennis, Lindee, Liz, Martha, Andy, & Jeff. 

Our traditional after-lunch walk was around the path of the Haunted Trail. The stocks are a permanent addition out there, and Cinnamon decided to give them a try 🙂

Last night we went into town to the monthly Clover School Board meeting, to be there when Mallory and her teammate Matthew Setzer were recognized for winning the Design Award at the first robotics meet of the year.  There is a bigger one of these trophies that is in the trophy case at the middle school, but last night they were each surprised with one of their own.  So proud!

Here they are with their teacher, Mrs. Russell. She has taught Mallory all three years that she’s been at the middle school in her Gateway to Technology class, and is so dear to us all.

Sunday afternoon her buddies helped her husband Dennis and her daughter Elizabeth surprise Evie for her 60th birthday.  The actual day is still a week away, but this was just what worked best in everyone’s schedule.  Lindee took  this group photo during the festivities.

Saturday Jeff & I were off to Mooresville to watch Clara play in her final soccer tournament of the season.  It really was the best I think I’ve seen her play – so proud.  They won this game 2-0, & then Jeff & I came on home instead of hanging around and waiting for the night game.  They won that one, too, though, 5-0, but came up short in the Sunday game by that same score, so didn’t make it to the championship game.  They’ve had such a great season – we were proud.  This would’ve been a great action shot of Clara & her teammates if the ref hadn’t stepped right in front of me as I took the picture :-).  She’s the one you can see on the right in the picture.

So proud of this girl and all the Clover team.