Fun with Wedding dress

The girls were asking to see my wedding dress...Kylie thought it was great!

Kylie--almost 7

 The boys stood for a picture, but didn't care to much about the dress.

Avery--age 4

Avery thought it was itchy:)

Kylie again.:)

Kylie Turns 7 Rainbow style!

  Kylie Dee turned 7 this year.  She lost her 2 bottom teeth just recently during her 1st grade year and she was so proud.  She continues to love to laugh, and desires to mother the young children we care for in our house (Thorin, Rowan, Logan, Owen and Charlotte).  She tries with Avery, but Avery ALWAYS lets her know that is not acceptable!  Kylie wants to have playdates non-stop and has asked to have a playdate with every single person in her class!  Although she loves her teacher and her classmates, she does not love rushed school mornings!!!  She prefers to relax and play a while and gets rather flustered when rushed.  She is SUPER creative in playing and loves to pretend to play babies, school, store, barbies etc.  She has become quite a good reader, but doesn't enjoy reading for her minutes for school when asked to do it.  She loves to run and be active!  She played fall soccer and is excited to do spring soccer soon.  She has been asking to do gymnastics too.  She went running with me the other day and we went 3 miles!!!  We walked some, but she was amazing!

 On the day of her birthday, Dan and I took her on a date to DQ and she chose a cherry dilly bar!  She was so excited to be alone with us and we all enjoyed the time together. 

 The next night we took her to Disney on Ice as our birthday present to her and she could hardly contain her excitement!  The show began with cars, then Ariel, next was Tinkerbell and the final half of the show was Toy Story.  The girls had a great time and the boys stayed back with my niece Maria.    

 She wanted a "Rainbow" themed birthday party and it was fun to be creative with this theme.   Instead of a sleepover, like she asked for, we had a pajama party.  We invited all the girls from her section, had rainbow of fruit, veggies, rainbow jello, pizza and rainbow cake.  We enjoyed pin the pot of gold on the rainbow and a rainbow scavenger hunt for the pot of gold!  Then the girls played "Just dance for kids" on the Wii--all the girls were dancing in the basement regardless if they had a remote--it was pretty cute.  We ended the evening by snuggling up and watching a movie. 

  The girls in her class were so sweet, polite and QUIET compared to the boy parties we have had:)  We feel blessed God has put her in a class with such great kids!

Caleb and Bennet are 9

Caleb and Bennet's birthday morning!  Tradition has it that we have carmel rolls in bed on your birthday...at 6:30 am, they came roaring upstairs convinced that I had forgotten to make their carmel rolls this year because they had waited FOREVER!!!  Their bday day felt a little uneventful to them and a bit too normal for most of the day.  Our gift to them this year was Dan took them to the monster truck rally in the Metrodome.  They had a great time and enjoyed the daddy time!

 We celebrated their birthday with their friends on Monday, since it was a holiday.  We invited all the boys out of the class.  The boys chose a "skylander" theme.   Caleb of course loves green, so "tree rex" was his pick of skylanders.  I created the portal of power out of two "big cookies" with ice cream in the middle and fondant frosting on top.  Sometimes I wonder why I put that stress on myself...but when Caleb saw the cake, he gave me a high five and said, "Wow, mom, that is awesome.  I owe you one."  I guess that is why I do it.

 Bennet of course is the red lover, so his sylander is called "eruptor".  The sign although hard to read, says "Skylanders, Bennet's adventure."  Clever pinterest!

 

 Bennet and one of his buddies--the boys thought of creative names for all the games they wanted to play in the gym.  These creative names were after different skylander's abilities/talents...they might love that game.  So they played kickball, dodgeball, dodgeball medic and lightning.  It was a great day to play in the gym with all 14 boys and get some energy out because it was a SUPER cold day!!!  I can't remember for sure but around 0 degrees actual temperature.

 We sat the boys according to their class.  So, here are all Caleb's friends from 3C (Mrs. Cagney)

 Caleb opening his first gift.

 Here are the boys from 3 T (Mrs. Tewinkel).

  Bennet was excited for gifts:)

9, really?  How can it be?  Caleb and Bennet are both great readers now and excellent at math facts!  Most subjects in school come fairly easily to them and I am so thankful for that!  We rarely need to study for things...perhaps we should more just to get into the "habit."  Writing/punctuation is what is a bit more difficult for them both--probably Caleb and bit more than Bennet.

This is the first year they have been in separate classes and I think it has been great for them.  They have been able to enjoy their own "space" without the competition in math facts or other areas of school.  The teachers do many subjects together, so they are learning the same things.  They still love many of the same things and still squeeze into the same bed at night (single bed I might add) and I wonder how long that will last.  It is a precious sight to see:)  We are so proud of them and are so thankful to have had the last 9 years with them!

Playing Catch up!

Seriously? I haven't blogged since Avery's birthday?  Well, here is tricker treating!  My beautiful pricess Avery and Mermaid, Kylie!

The crew!  We had fun with the Dekams and the Vis's!

 Kylie was super thrilled to pull her own first tooth out!  A little gagging from the blood taste, but mostly flying high with excitement!!

Watching a thanksgiving movie during their thanksgiving (taco) feast!

Then the boys had a 3rd grade thanksgiving feast in a huge t-pee (sp?) in their room!  3rd grade rocks!!

 Kylie's class had a big pilgrim unit that ended by dressing up as a pilgrim and presenting info to parents/grandparents.  Here she is with the doll they made like the pilgrims would have!

 Kylie and her friend Molly feeling the oats!

 Showing off her pilgrim's house she made.

 next was Dan's big 34th birthday:)  We made his favorite--strombolli and of course we gave him egg nog!  (Good thing he didn't ask for filet mignon!) and Maddie was able to celebrate with us!

Avery had too much target shopping so she decided to nap:)

Dan and the boys finished their basketball season.

 

Wow a lot has happened in the last 2 months!  Hopefully over break, I will do our Christmas update and let you see all the cute pictures of our Christmas programs!:)





No More Toddlers; Avery turned 4!

Breakfast in Bed for birthdays!

 Her Gumball cake!

The star for the day!  She wouldn't stop long enough to pose for me.

 The day her friends came.

 The extent of the gumballs theme--gumball guessing jar (winner took it home); we had guesses ranging from 3 to 300:)  Correct answer was 136--closest winner 128! (with a little help from the father:) )  gumball flowers were sent home with each guest--thanks pinterest for the idea.

 My excited girl!

Present from the family on her birthday morning.

 Our last gymnastics class was on her birthday. 

This past weekend, we celebrated Avery's 4 years of life with us!  She is a dynamic, smart girl who daily adds excitement to our life.  She loves to make jokes and is the only one of our kids that laughs when we tease her.  She LOVES puzzles and games and plays them nearly every day.  She misses her sister for playing Barbies since Kylie is gone to school all day and will cry if Kylie doesn't want to play them with her when she gets home.  Avery is inquisitive about God, loves to read Bible stories and likes to remind me that Satan will be locked up one day and we only die 1 time and then never again (her little mind really is working!).  She also tells me that she does NOT want to grow up to be a mommy because she does NOT want to have babies!  At this point she does not want to adopt either:)  She is determined and gets frustrated when she can't do things "perfect" the first time (with writing her name, or other coloring activities) and she is continues to be extremely determined!  She talks big about only sucking her fingers when she is in bed, but unfortunately, if we don't continually remind her, her fingers are in their a LOT during the day...I am seeing a big big bill at the dentist office in our future:) Avery is tall for her age and has grown 3 inches since last year--she is about 1.5to 2 inches tall than Kylie was at age 4. We love you Avery!!!

Apple orchard

 It was such a gorgeous day that after the SW event, we decided to head to an apple orchard.  Many people thought it was a good day to pick apples, so we waited in line a lot:) 

   The kids got 2 tickets when we entered the orchard for face painting and balloon things--this is a puppy on a lease.

  Their tough apple picking faces. 

Riding the hay ride to the orchards.

 Picking some Harrelsons.

 My baby seems to be growing taller every day!

  Right after taking this picture on the hay pile, a nice dog climbed the pile and "marked his territory" on it...we got the kids to come down the other side.

  Waiting for the tractor to come pick us up!  We were really hot and thirsty!  80 plus degrees on Sept. 29--wow!