Well, we had an excellent Thanksgiving. It was great that the whole Donnelly side of the family could get together. The kids had a great time with all of their cousins (whom they don’t get to see very often). Lauren got to stay at Grandma’s house and played a lot with her cousins Joe & Mike, while the twins were at their Aunt Carole Uncle Dan’s house where they got to play with Kevin, Kelly & DJ. Jacob had a good time fragging aliens with the big boys, Beth got to think about whether or not she wants to have a dog. Right now we think she’s leaning towards not. They also got to see their cousins Amanda, Nicholas & Matthew.

The other big thing that happened was “the picture.” Mom finally got another chance to get a picture of all of her grandchildren together. About a hundred flashes went off between all the photographers and all the different poses that were attempted.

See lots more pictures in galleries 32 and 33.

We just had to share this picture of Jake & Beth from this morning:

Lauren’s Pre-K teacher selected her and another child in the pre-K class to start working on some advanced (kindergarten) work. She’s working on her letters and has about an hour of homework a night. She really likes it. Here is an example of what she’s been doing:

There is more of her work on Lauren’s Homepage.

Of course, Beth and Jake are not to be outdone, and they want to show of some of what they’ve been doing in school. Here are some turkeys that they made:

The kids’ favorite squirrel, Icksus, came by for a visit, so we took his picture and thought we’d share it with everyone.

Today was the last soccer game of the season. Lauren had a good game and had a lot of fun. She was very proud of her trophy:

Beth was upset about not getting enough attention, and after she threw a fit she got sent to “time out” at an adjacent picnic table.

Jacob didn’t care that he wasn’t getting attention, he just wanted to play on the playground.

It looks like we won’t have any more soccer until the spring. Lauren is hoping she can stay on the same team. Go Red Rockets.

Lauren has her last soccer game this weekend. The team pictures came in today:

It was a late night in Brentwood for Lauren, Jake & Beth. After we carved our pumpkins, we all went out trick or treating with our new neighbors and their kids Hannah & Matthew. They were serious trick or treaters who took us all around the new neighborhood.

See more pictures in Gallery 30