Boys never played like this

Ivy in Grand Forks with her new Christmas dolly

Advent Day 14

And today's chain link = camp around the Christmas tree. Well, Ezra really got into it. Went up right away to sweep the floor and move his sleeping bag up. Later in the afternoon during quiet time he set up all his friends, a picture frame, his stars, and flashlight.

Levi was a little less enthused. He was right away concerned about what they would listen to going to sleep because he wanted talking and Ezra wants music.

It turned out OK. Levi decided to sleep on the couch nearby. I think deep down he enjoyed it but for some reason was a little scared with the new surroundings. (In retrospect, we can't help but wonder if today's news leaked in and was disturbing him.) That, or he just missed his bed. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

A few more highlights from the past week:

Tonight poor Ivy took a head first dive into the fireplace mantel. Very frustrated am I with my lack of getting to her in time and stopping the activity that was taking place before this happened. I was only a mere 6 feet away. Argh. Here's a picture of the damage:(

Advent activity for day 13: decorate a gingerbread house.
I thought it'd be fun to do them from scratch. Was not the best idea to start out - very difficult to make it work. But, I think they turned out quite fun.

Snow playing on the deck. 

  

Levi at The Grinch musical at the Children's Theater. He and I went last weekend thanks to our good friends at church who had extra tickets.

And finally, throw back - a third time around. Ivy actually started out the day wearing them, but for some reason they were uncomfortable and she took them off within 5 minutes. Roman definitely wears them well!

Not a very productive night for me for work (except for this). Can't concentrate at all. Tomorrow is play practice, Christmas shopping, b-day party for Levi to attend, work, and I'm sure more. Night-night.

Advent Day 10

What was the "to do" on the Advent chain for day 10? Bake a birthday cake for Jesus.

Here's some silly people decorating it.

 Here's the final product.

I think the big guys will think day 14 is pretty fun too...

Advent, ready or not

Allez cuizine! That's the words they use at the beginning of Iron Chef to start the Kitchen Stadium battle. That's kind of how I felt the day after Thanksgiving when everyone started Christmas shopping at the same time.

As with any good food network show, you have to have your ducks in a row. Ingredients set and a plan When getting ready for Christmas.

Now that parts pretty much underway. We have a tree with lights. We have an advent wreath. We have Kids who are starting to bounce off the walls. And we have traditions that we're getting underway.

There's just one ingredient missing - the secret ingredient. I'll let you know when I find it.



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Ezra (left) and Levi making a table wreath during OK Lutheran's Advent fair.

Thanksgiving

Yep. We have a lot to give thanks for here in the Black house. We have a beautiful family and a wonderful house and 8 tiny reindeer.

We got to go to Grand Forks this week for Thanksgiving. The trip up and back wasn't that bad for weather and the family was fun to see. I especially enjoyed hanging out with Isaac for a few days and seeing Kirby about to give birth to her first child. I also loved that Levi and Great Grandma Sue got to hang out together and play Monopoly. I sure wish we lived closer so that those visits were closer together.

A couple of quick church updates. A few weeks ago Sam got to speak in front of the church and give a testimony why we give. I'll share the entire message on Monday when I can upload it to the blog. It went well and I got a lot of nice feedback including a nice card from the new pastor, Jay.

We also had some sad news at Church this weekend when we found out that a husband and wife who were very involved in our church died from a house fire on Friday night. It was like 2 miles from our house and Christina saw the firetrucks and smoke when she was out running errands on Friday. Very sad story, and a reminder to us about the fragility of life. Here's the Star Tribune story about the fire.

What else. Sam hung some Christmas lights on Saturday. That was after he had already taken all the kids to the play area at the Eden Prairie Mall. 

Roman and Ivy are talking more, sitting on the potty some and playing with trains a lot. They also have certain things that they like to do (like brushing teeth) and don't like to do (like putting their pacifiers away). And believe me they let us know about it. Ivy has become very particular about her pink dishes and silverware and sheets - calling them "mine".

Ezra is still doing gymnastics and liking it. He's also enjoying preschool three times per week. His teacher is taking a new job (in a better paying career) and so her last week is this week. Its not clear who is going to take over once she's done, but I'm confident Ezra will roll with the change. He hasn't shown any stress about the switch yet at all and we've known for almost two weeks.

Levi is doing well at school. He's still taking Chess and actually beat his dad in a game a week ago. He also is reading very well and of course, really likes math class too. 

That's about all the updates for now. Here are some photos to check out.

Sam

At the Blackhawk concert together.

Self-portrait of Levi

Ezra at the downtown library w/daddy

Preschool thanksgiving feast

Ezra and Miss Debbie, his teacher

Roman and Ivy (right) pointing to a photo of Grandpa Black

Notice Roman's sweater - and the "ruff" he's playing with match

So excited for Kirby and Jake - days or hours from now we could have a new cousin

We've had a little snow on our patio

At the Eden Prairie Mall ... a lot of little blonde 1-3 year olds running around.

Thomas and Potty

Levi and Ezra took in their first full screen movie. We went to a free screening of Thomas - Blue Mountain Mystery at the movie theater on Saturday. It was pretty fun. They each had sprite and pop corn.

Also, another big first - Ivy went on the little potty two times this weekend (maybe three). I think we're still a long ways off, but it's something!

Here's a picture of Ezra with his chef's hat from preschool preparing his own feast downstairs. In about 15 minutes he and Sam will be having the feast at preschool.

Finally, here's a great picture of Ivy with grandpa.

Date night.

At the Medina Entertainment Center waiting for Rocket Club and Blackhawk

We had a great time at the concert Friday. We haven't heard Blackhawk for a long time but they sounded pretty much the same. We saw the group play at WeFest back in 95 I think.

Today, Saturday, was pretty fun. Sam got the van tires rotated - Tires Plus in Plymouth has great service.

Also today Ezra had gymnastics, he did great - really got active and even practiced backwards somersaults.

We had Madison and Joey come and visit for a while. In the middle afternoon Christina, Levi and Ezra went to a free screening of the latest Thomas the Train movie. Ezra got a little frightened I guess, but they all said they had fun.  Tonight was bath night. Sam put Roman and Ivy and Ezra in the tub  at the same time..it was much harder than I thought it would be.

Roman and Ivy and Dad all played at the park. I'll post a photo or to.

Thats all for now. I have laundry and groceries and some cleaning up to to tonight.

Sam out.

What do you get when you cross...

Q. What do you get when you cross a Tigger, with a dragon and a strawberry and a cowboy?

A. You get Halloween.

This was from the Gopher's game that Christina and Sam went to  Oct. 27.  They did a Bond half time show, but somehow forgot to have Queen Elizabeth jump to the field from a plane. 

Cousins Madison and Ivy.

Baby shower pic for Wyatt. It was at the local Legion club. A great turnout of Wyatt and Stars friends.
It was so fun to celebrate the baby on the way.

Some fall pictures

Missing poster

The pumpkin fairy sprinkled some small pumpkins on the ground for us to 'pick'

Ezra in the popcorn field

Ezra making a corn angel.

Mama holding Ivy next to baby goat (Roman is in bottom right corner)

Levi checking the crop behind him

Mission accomplished.

Best smiles

Quick Catch Up

Well, again it's been awhile. Almost the end of October. What's happened? Not in chronological order:
We had another trip to the ER exactly a week after the first one. This time just mama and Roman went. He cut his forehead on Levi's bed post while running in and jumping on the bean bag. Here we are before the stitches:

And then there was a week of Roman being sick with the flu or mild case of rota virus. Ivy got a little bit too, but not nearly as bad. Poor little guy was so weak - just laid around most of the days.

Now they are both back to their regular, smiley selves.

Their vocabulary is still pretty much the same - not too many words. They'll sneak a new one in there here and there like Ivy saying baby or now. But, not too much talking yet. Mostly just crying and babble.

We helped rescue a cat a few weeks ago. One evening I was downstairs I saw a big furry cat walk by the window. I thought it may have been a raccoon. I called up to tell Sam and that was that. The next day I went out to the mailbox and there was a flyer with a picture of the cat (Mr. Tinkles). Now I felt bad that I didn't get the flyer the previous afternoon when I saw it delivered. (I figured it was a service flyer or political flyer when I saw it.) Anyway, I called the family to let them know that I saw their cat the night before and that it was still alive. I told them I would keep an eye out for it. That night I even went out with a flash light, but no luck. The family bought a humane trap and put it behind our shed. The next morning, Sam went to check the trap and came walking back to the house carrying it with Mr. Tinkles inside. He stayed in our house for about a half hour until his owners came. Later that night they came back with Target gifts cards for the kids in thanks for helping them. We didn't do much really. Sam and I both thought we should pay it forward - buy some cat food or something for the shelter.

Ezra had his Kindergarten pre-screen today. He did fantastic. 61 out of 62 items correct. She said he is very smart and great. She definitely thinks he's ready to go to kindergarten. When I asked him what he thought, he said he wanted to go to kindergarten. We'll see I guess.

Levi continues to go to school and cross the street by himself. He's in the math challenge program which he likes. He totally aced a recent spelling test - all words, sentence, and challenge words correct. Also has been going to Spanish and chess. Last week was MEA so he had a play date at one his friends' (twin boy and girl) house. Seemed to have a good time.

We went to the orchard last weekend. The same one I've been taking the kids to since Levi was 2. This time instead of with mom's club, it was a family affair. Pretty fun - rode the tractor, picked some gourds and corn, played in the corn, fed the goats, bought some yummy apples. I don't think we got the traditional Christmas card photo from here though which is a bummer. I guess we have a mission in the next month.

Ivy learned to eat a whole apple by herself yesterday. Took it out of the fridge and started chomping.

Will have to add more photos in a bit.
That's it for now.
Oh, and it's windy, cloudy, rainy/snowy/ right now. ICK!

Levi started chess

Levi started chess club. It meets on Monday's at 8am at library.

I took out the bobble head for Homecoming week. Then put him away.

Friday night Levi (left) and Ezra (right) and daddy went to U of M parade. Ski-U-Mah - the Band marched near us, but barely played when we saw them. We also never saw Goldy. We liked the men's gymnastics team, the candy was neat, the Winter Carnival King threw a gold "coin" to Levi which was cool and the floats were fun. Best part though? Free parking!

Beginning of Homecoming Parade has a star like Macy's T-Giving parade. 

Look closely for the squirrel

Here's the critter now; he's got a walnut.

Dinner. Yum.

James (neighbor) - 8:13 and Levi 8:33 both ran XC on Sat.; got Personal Best records. 

 Ivy, River and Roman, making some delish dish during church in the nursery. 

Before we left on the hay ride in Blaine Sunday with our church. Levi in back, Ezra in middle and friend Sky in front.

Attn NFL scouts: I know what you're thinking; this kid's Wonderlic is off the charts too.

Kids up front.

Ezra said later talking about his highs of the day: "Mama even runned"

Kids ran behind the wagon a lot; seemed to think it was cool they could keep up.

Hot dogs (veggie pups for our family) and smores made w/Fudge Stripe cookies as the sandwich - yum.