the brower hour: November highlights

the beginning of November brings us Owen's birthday! he turned 7 this year!

he had a little party with some friends and went bowling!the little guy in the orange jacket has been in Owen's class for a couple years and they are the sweetest, best friends! plus, his other friends are pretty amazing too. every time I meet with a teacher the first thing they say about Owen is that "he is everyone's best friend! if I asked each kid in class who their best friend is, they'd all say Owen!".

he asked grandma Linda last year if she could make him a blanket like the other kids and boy did she deliver!

having a Sunday birthday could be hard, but Owen handled it like a champ!

he wanted a Frenchie cake this year.

good thing I had Ellie's help!

the start of November marked the end of a very long fall sports season.

Owen had a great baseball season with an amazing coach that taught him so much! Charlie's soccer team made it thru two rounds of the championship, the only 5th& 6th grade team in Granville to do it! and jack's team didn't necessarily do all that great, they only won a handful of games, but Jack personally had a phenomenal season.

they had an end of season party for the high school soccer boys. at the end of the night, the coaches handed out a bunch of awards for the seniors and the varsity team. last, they gave out the Sportsmanship award and said that this player is the one that worked the hardest, both on and, more importantly, off the field, built up the team, was consistently polite and respectful, and is the kid that every coach wants on their team. and they gave it to our Jack!!!

as he walked up to get it, all the players from both teams were cheering for him and saying "yup, yup, that's jack, yup!"

I guess when you're a star soccer player in high school, its time to start shaving!

one huge highlight from November was when we had 5 of the giant, 80 foot pine trees lining our driveway cut down! we have so many more, but this is a start. these beasts have giant roots that are creating massive speed bumps in our driveway and they could potentially be messing with the foundation of our house. plus, if the wind blew hard enough, these bad boys would come down right on the house. chris has been wanting them gone since we moved in, so this was an exciting day!

we have some good friends who own a photography business. she has had Owen model in the past for her and she asked a couple weeks ago if any of the kids would be willing to help her out for some ads she was making for her holiday studio shoots. jack was on a hunting trip and Charlie had Lego Robotics Club, so Ellie and Owen said they would do it. it was done in about 15 minutes and they got to pick out a couple bottles of soda (these friends also own the soda shop in Newark that we love to visit) and she also gave us the pics she took as well. very fun!

our friends, the Little's, invited jack to go with them to their extended family's property for the youth hunt. he got a doe and two of the Little boys got deer as well, a buck and a doe. they process the meat themselves and use it, so they get as much as they can each year. jack was thrilled to go along and get a deer for them.

his first shot, his scope was blocking his view directly below his line of sight and he didn't realize there was a branch in the way hahahaha luckily it didn't spook the doe and he got another shot on her and got her. the rest of the trip they called jack, Limb Killer (and also SJJ for Skinny Jean Jack).

since mike helped jack with his first deer gutting in September, he let jack gut this deer completely on his own.

they had him over a few days later to help process the deer. he's pretty confident he could do it himself now if needed.

last but not least, November brought us Thanksgiving, one of the best days of the year!

we hosted the ward turkey bowl this year and I think we might make it a tradition! we had a great turn out and some of the wives and little kids came too. even Amy and Tyler's family came for it! we had a fire going and some hot cocoa, but it was sprinkling, so the ladies and kids ended up going inside while the guys played ball.

then all the Brower's came for the rest of the day and man, it might have been the best food we've ever had for thanksgiving!