Another year older

Drake turned 11 Sept 30th.
He had a great birthday, full of Minecraft themed gifts, a Minecraft cake, and a NEW friend!

His first bestie, N, moved to FL a couple months ago, and while they still come up for homeschool group, visits are few and far between, as you can imagine with a 3 hour distance.  At my urging, Drake has been hanging out with R at homeschool, and we invited him to the party. He came, and Drake was thrilled. It was D, R, and D's cousin L. They got along pretty good, aside from it being hard to share a 2 controller game system amongst themselves.

Now, Drake is going to R's party next weekend! Apparently, R was so impressed with Drake's room setup, that he went home and closed himself in his own room, and went to work. His parents could hear him moving stuff around for a long time. Then he came out, went and got an old, unused tv of his dad's, asked permission, and carried that into his room, again shutting the door, lol.

When he was done, he kindly invited his parents to see his creation. He had copied Drake's room! He has, from what his dad says, a gaming section, book section, toy section. All neatly delineated and ready to go when Drake gets there. Drake was thrilled to hear that he had such influence on  his new friend. We are hopeful this will last a long time, and be good for both boys.

Back to N? He's coming in two weeks, for a sleepover. The second he's had with Drake, and it's the only ones either will have had. So lots of fun stuff going on for young ones.

Dh and I are dealing with the minefield that is private insurance. I hate this, so much. We are giving up our Cadillac ins for what amounts to Pinto ins, I'm afraid. Stupid preexisting conditions. We are apparently limited in our choice b/c of our area. Anyway, we are nearly done with it, I hope. We'll see how well it works out.

Nights are cooler here, but days continue to be in the 90s. Leaves are slowly changing, starting with wild grapevine. It will be Nov before we get the full 'fall effect' of color here. B/c this is pine tree country, it won't be overly stunning. Still, I"m ready for cooler temps. Not a summer girl, for sure!

I've decorated with fall stuff, and included Halloween as well. I'm not pulling it all out twice! We just have some jack o lanterns, scarecrows, and a little cat pillow with a witches hat on it head. The rest is regular pumpkins, acorns, Indian corn, fall colors. The cat pillow sits in an antique, homemade rocking chair that Dh used when he was small, that was used when his mama bought it for him! Very cute.

We have cut the cord on cable, to save money, but Dh isn't happy with the performance. Too much buffering. Not sure what we'll do. I don't care about tv, but it's his main entertainment. Sigh....

Up later this month is Dh's and MIL's bdays. Drake may choose to go t/t-ing, dressed as, Steve, from Minecraft, of course!

Hope you're having a great fall!