A Full-filling Day

We had a busy Saturday and accomplished a lot! Started off with Santa's Workshop at church this morning...they didn't lay out all the projects this year like they've done in the past, so I didn't get to take a picture of all that was made. I know we finished two large mosaic pots, seven or eight baby blankets (five of which Jillian sewed! Thanks mom for teaching her to sew, she loves it!), several windchimes, birdfeeders, knitted hats, Christmas wreaths & ornaments, two large wooden benches, cards and letters to servicemen & women and 75 hygiene kits. These wonderful Christmas gifts go to various organizations like Helpline House, House of Hope, and LDS Humanitarian Services. I love this activity that our ward does every year. It's such a great way to start the holiday season. The kids were very involved. Nate said he did a little of everything and he was very helpful with Ben. Jillian and I sewed most of the time, Kylie and Brad worked mostly on the bird feeders and benches. I was too busy to take many pictures, but here are a few.

After we got home, Jillian, Ben and I (and one of their friends) raked leaves in the front yard. It was a beautiful, afternoon, warm for mid-November!

The kids have a "dig site" on the edge of the yard, basically a really big hole that they've dug, and they decided to fill it with the leaves so they could jump in to it and pretend they were swimming. I guess they didn't get to the swimming part, since Jillian said there were slugs on the leaves...

While we were raking, Brad and Nate went to Brad's parents and loaded up logs from a tree Brad cut up last week. More wood to split...yipee! When they returned and the kids were tired of raking, Brad and I were able to do some yard work together without interruption, which is a very rare occurance! It was nice to talk and spend time outside together cleaning off the sports court.

Then tonight was Nathan's first indoor soccer game. He's on a co-ed team, five girls, twelve boys, all freshmen, all rec-league players. They played another Bainbridge team which was a mix of grades, with most of the players from select teams. (Bainbridge has a rec-league and a select league, select being the more "serious" players.) They lost, 5 to 11, but I thought they did pretty well considering their competition. He hasn't played soccer for the past two years, so it was fun to watch him again. Sorry, no pictures, the action is way too fast paced for my camera!