Wild Lights at the Zoo

Tonight we went to Wild Lights at the zoo for the first time.  I had bought a Groupon-type deal which was good for 4 tickets and 4 hot chocolates.  The weather was perfect - just a light jacket was needed, which meant that the rest of STL was there as well.  I was very impressed with the light display, but the girls were disappointed that none of the animals were out, except for the penguins.  The Busch family joined us and we had a really nice time strolling around the zoo catching up on what has been going on in each other's lives.  We took tons of family pictures (more than I normally would do) because I was trying to get a good one to be the main picture on my blog page for the winter.  I think we managed to capture one in front of my favorite tree near the entrance:

Delaney's First Book!

Delaney read her first whole book today!  Yay!

Thanksgiving with Boo and Grams

We spent the afternoon at Boo and Grams' house to celebrate Thanksgiving and were blessed with yet another beautiful day.  It's been way too long since we got out to St. Clair and the girls were anxious to see the horses, yet ironically timid when it came to riding them.  All of us had a great visit and spent most of the time outdoors shooting the air rifle, riding the four wheeler, playing in the leaves, and feeding the horses their carrots.  Great day!

Love this picture.

Poor Trevor gets no attention!

I was a HORRIBLE shot, but Allan hit the target every single time.  I guess I should watch my back!

When we go to Dad's I just have to put my own fear of dirt aside and let the girls have a good time :)

Harper striking a pose in the barn.  This face pretty much sums up her attitude lately.

Boo and his great-grandson

Even Harper shot the air rifle!  Delaney did not.

Very classy, Cody :)

Love this picture, too.

Boo and Grams

Since we have no mature trees and no leaves to speak of, the girls had a blast playing in the leaf pile here.

Allan's favorite picture

T-Rev in the House

We got to watch Trevor for a couple of hours today!  I think I'm on my way to becoming his favorite great-aunt :)

 Trevor spent most of his time with his back arched trying to see Harper behind him - even if Delaney or I were right beside him.

I love this video that shoes how excited he gets when he see his bottle:

Harper took a minute to read her favorite baby book to Trev:

 

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving from the Cochrans!

We have so much to be thankful for this year - a loving Savior, family, health, good jobs - and this beautiful, 67 degree day just added to the blessings!  Our family had a semi-lazy morning (Allan and I both ran 3 miles while the girls got to lay in our bed watching the parade).  After showers, we rode our bikes to Cracker Barrel which is only 2 miles away.  Since Honey is still recovering from her foot surgery and can't cook a big meal, we all met for brunch.  We had a nice time, but it is hard to visit at a long table, so we all came back to our house to hang out and do the drawing for the Christmas gift exchange.  I was so happy to finally get Trevor down on a blanket and see him play and kick.  Honey and he played "Itsy Bitsy Turkey" 100 times and he cooed and giggled every time :)

After the crowd left, Harper took a nap and Allan, Delaney and I just relaxed until it was time to get ready to go to cousin Lori's.  She had a huge crowd this year because all of Doug's family was there as well.  Our girls were the only little ones there, but they had a blast because they got all of the attention from the adults.  The food was delicious as always at Lori's house!

Both girls are big enough to ride the tag-a-longs.

Isn't this outfit too cute?

Sleepy boy

Honey and Trevor

Delaney entertained Trevor by making the turkey on her shirt talk to him.

I love this picture of the girls in their turkey shirts and Trevor's turkey bottom!

First Parent/Teacher Conference

I was both nervous and excited to attend Delaney's kindergarten parent/teacher conference - my first one on the other side of the table.  Allan was able to take off work early to come with me.  As a teacher, I am always impressed when both parents attend a conference.  It sends a message to both the teacher and the child that education is valued and is a team effort.

Mrs. Roney had nothing but good things to say about Delaney.  She "exceeds" in all areas of letter recognition, motor skills, social skills, and emergent literacy.  Delaney is not involved in any girl drama at school and has a good group of friends that she plays with.  Mrs. Roney said that she does not have any attention problems and can focus on the task at hand unless distracted by a silly classmate.

The only area of weakness that was mentioned was Delaney's "lack of self-confidence".  What the teacher meant was that if Delaney doesn't think she can do something right the first time, she doesn't want to try.  Unfortunately, that is something she gets from me and I'm very sorry about that.  It is one of the traits I don't like about myself.

Mrs. Roney encouraged us to keep doing what we're doing in regards to working with Delaney on her number sense and reading skills.  We left feeling very proud!

Box-Packing Party

Our small group participated in a "box-packing party" for Operation Christmas Child tonight at church.  Tables were set up like an assembly line with countless items to pack for less-fortunate boys and girls in other countries.  We packed school supplies, toiletries, toys, candy, socks, clothes, and stuffed animals into shoe boxes and labeled each one for a boy or girl in a specific age range.  At first, it felt like there were so many items that we would be there all night, but we were able to get over 200 boxes packed in just a couple of hours.  Both girls were big helpers, but Delaney did an especially good job.  I walked through the line the first time with her as she chose items for a 5-year old girl like herself, then she proceeded to pack 6 boxes on her own.  We were so proud of her!

After we were finished, Erin took a minute with the kids to show them pictures of children who were given boxes in the past.  It was a great idea to give the kids a concrete image of who would be receiving them.