Thanksgiving with the Ruhes

We just got back from celebrating Thanksgiving with our family in Amherst. We got to see/meet the rest of the Ruhe family -my brother, Colin's father (Chris), step-mother (Janet), cousins (Jamal and Hussein), grandmother (Margaret), uncle (Doug)... as well as some of Britt's family (her sister Elena, aunt Claude and cousin Zoe). We spent a few days with them, and had a really fun time.
It was also a nice school break for the three of us.

Lots of watercolor painting

Sasha has been getting more and more into painting. Her teachers taught her how to clean her paint brush before selecting a new color, which she's very good at. She even learned a little song to remember what to do: Swishy swishy swashy, wipe, wipe check! (video posted on youtube)
At home she has been experimenting with mixing the colors in a separate dish. It's a lot of fun to watch her expression as she watches the two colors become one new one!
















Sasha's teachers send pictures every now and then. Here are some that came in today:

Emily!

James' cousin Emily moved to Massachusetts around the same time that we did, but unfortunately we haven't had the chance to see as much of her as we would like to. This evening we finally went out for dinner with her. Here are a few pics.. sorry a couple of them are blurry. :(

Connect the dots!

Sasha's new fun game is to draw things by connecting the dots, as shown in these videos:

Trick or Treating

On Friday we went trick or treating with our friends Ariana and Stephanie. Every year businesses open up their shops to trick or treaters, hand out candies or give them treats from their bakery. Police and volunteers come to make sure that the streets are safe for the hundreds of children that show up in the late afternoon. It was Sasha's first trick or treating experience and she loved it! We were a bit worried that because most of the little girls were wearing beautiful, dressy, princess outfits, Sasha would change her mind about wanting to wear her big, fat, grey, mouse costume! But thankfully this was not the case. She loved it.

She even had a run-in with another mouse... something about how there was only room for one...












We were also waiting for Sasha's friend Mariel to join us. However, she had a doctor's appointment and showed up late, after we had gone home. But since Mariel had been anxiously waiting all day to go trick or treating with Sasha, we didn't want to let her down. Sasha put her costume on and we went back. We went out for dinner afterwards with Mariel's mom, Karina, and her mom, doña Guadalupe, who's visiting from Puebla, Mexico. Karina and her family are returning to Mexico next week, so we hope to visit them this week again.