Happy Thanksgiving!

We've been enjoying a visit from Aimee's parents!

The coolest kids table ever!

It was nice to see Cousin Tiffany's Aunt Sherry!

Mama and the Girls!

Pets in the Sun

Cousins on the Couch!

We hosted dinner about a week ago at our house, and the cousins had so much fun playing! In order from left to right: Serena, Lily, Shilah, Sam, and Emory. Cute!

Luke's Farm

Serena's preschool recently took a field trip to a local farm. She had a lot of fun with her friends! It was the annual Fall Festival where the kids can wear their Halloween costumes.

Shanti's Award

Shanti and his work group accepted an environmental quality award at the White House last week! Here are excerpts from the press release: "The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today announced Federal winners of the 2011 GreenGov Presidential Awards for exceptional efforts to promote sustainability in agency operations. The eight winners, in six award categ...ories, represent Federal agency teams and individual employees from across the country." "The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab designed a data center in pursuit of net-zero energy goals by using the climate as a natural coolant; capturing waste heat to ventilate in the cooler months; and employing advanced equipment to minimize energy usage. Due to these efforts and employee education, the data center is expected to save $200,000 annually in electricity costs and reduce carbon emissions by nearly 5 million pounds per year."

One more Halloween pic...

Mismatched costumes:

Halloween!

For their costumes, Shilah was Princess Belle (from 'Beauty and the Beast') and Serena was a puppy. The festivities started Friday with Shilah's school's costume parade & class party:

Friday night Shilah's school hosted 'Trunk or Treat,' and we decorated our VW van!

I had fun teaching some Halloween themed Jazzercise classes. Shilah joined me for one of them!

On Saturday we had a kids party in the morning, then went to a pumpkin party that night. The pumpkin party was also a surprise birthday party for my friend Deb! I had fun dressing as Marilyn Monroe ;)

Our carved pumpkins: