Party, Protest, Party, Party

We can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving!  We squished a lot of fun into this past week.

     

Nanna and Grandad often take Harper to Scouts on Monday nights.  This past Monday, they went out to dinner afterwards.  Harper was lucky to have some one-on-one grandparent time.

        

We went to the Panther's Stadium Christmas Tree Lighting event Tuesday night.  It was packed!

    

    

     

The tree is from Elkin, North Carolina and has forty thousand lights!

    

     

     

After the lighting, we were able to go inside the stadium for festive activities. 

     

You could decorate cookies and gingerbread houses, make ornaments and write letters to Santa.

   

   

    

      

After the picture, Ethan leaned in to Santa and told him what he wanted.  It was so cute.

         

     

    

    

     

     

    

    

     

          

We wanted to go to the anti-ICE protest at Manolo's bakery Friday night so we made signs in preparation.  The kids picked the sayings they wanted on their signs.

       

Harper's class had a Friendsgiving party Friday afternoon that I was able to go to.  It was cute!

       

Harper threw up on the way home from school so she was unable to go to the protest, sadly.  Ethan and I went and ran into my friend!  Michele and Dave also came to the protest.  We showed up early and there were already tons of people.

       

Ethan did an amazing job holding up his sign and blowing his whistle.  Everyone thought he was so cute.

     

      

    

     

          

There were hundreds of people lining the streets.  The cars driving by would honk in agreement.  It was amazing watching the community come together!

      

     

     

I found us in many posts online. 

         

We all headed to Fitz's birthday party Saturday morning in South Carolina.

     

    

      

The kids designed Lego minifigures and cars to race.

    

   

    

    

     

Fitz's car!

   

Evie's car!

     

    

    

Harper's car!

        

Harper had the most wins over all the heats!

      

Harper and I had to leave early to go to her end of season soccer party.

     

    

       

Harper's coach made a nice speech about her and gave her the "Unsung Hero" award for always challenging the other team, taking the ball and turning it around.  There were many games that they kept Harper in the entire game!

       

         

         

Next, we headed to Griffin's apartment to celebrate Uncle John's birthday.  John and Michele had driven down to Charlotte to go to a comedy show for John's birthday.  It was great to see everybody!

    

     

           

        

We did have to leave the celebration early to go back to South Carolina for Christmas mini golf with Kate and Sean.

     

We went here last year and loved it so we made sure to schedule it again this year.  Last year it was twenty degrees.  This year it was sixty and a million times better!

    

    

    

    

   

        

Eighteen holes with four crazy kids is pure chaos, but we had a blast.

      

   

    

    

    

    

     

    

    

     

    

    

    

    

     

    

    

    

    

    

I spy Evie!

    

I spy Harper!

    

    

    

    

     

   

     

        

    

    

     

    

     

Harper wanted a lot of photos.

    

    

    

        

   

   

   

    

        

Many balls went into the water.

    

    

          

    

After we got home, the kids lit lanterns they had picked up at a firework store in South Carolina.

     

They went so high!!

   

     

     

On Sunday, Harper went with Amelia and her mom to the Renaissance Festival.  The rest of us stayed around the house and did chores, luminary preparation and lounged.