Morning with Santa

So I'm a little behind! We went to the morning with Santa event through the moms group I'm in. They did a FABULOUS job! The kids got to frost and decorate cookies, make Christmas cards for elderly people, color and of course sit on Santa's lap. The big boys could hardly contain themselves, Cole on the other hand was not thrilled. At least they were cute and matching thanks to Aunt Laura!!! The sweaters fit perfect!

Christmas Photo Shoot!

Our neighbor and very talented photographer friend had a special last week so we decided to try to get pictures of the boys....together! We had a mini 20 minute session so after she took about 80 of them together we decided to get some individuals too. Here's how they turned out!

Happy 4th Birthday Lance!!

Well his birthday started out on Monday the 24th at school. I was able to go with him to help out and just have a Lance day. Of course it snowed like the dickens that day!

Here he is playing outside at school



He was also signed up to be the special line leader that day. It is a huge thing for the kids!



After school Chris met us for lunch at Perkins where he got some chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate milk. He chose the restaurant of course! Then it was off to the toy store where he could pick out a toy with the money Aunt Jen sent to him! He chose a helicopter that really is a cool little toy! Cole and Nathan seemed to like it too!

Then on Wednesday he got the special treatment again. He didn't have school that day so we planned his birthday party. We invited all of his 'usual' friends and all of his classmates. So 25 kids in all! Thank goodness it wasn't at my house! I rented out a local gymnastics place and it was beyond awesome! I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time! and I didn't have to clean up a thing!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures!

First here is the much talked about Monster Truck cake. It took quite some time to finish but was well worth it!







Here's super Lance jumping into the foam pit! He was at this thing almost the whole time!



Once he finally left the foam pit he had a BLAST on the bungee!







Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Lance, happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuu

Our first snow family!

Well on Monday November 24th we got some GREAT snow! After Cole's nap we went outside with the neighbors to start a huge snow project! It started as just a snowman, but ended up as a whole snow family! The snow packed perfectly and this thing took both Lauren and I to put it's head on! All of the kids helped put his body parts on and the rest of the fixin's. Once that was done they wanted to build more so we ended up building a smaller snowman and Lauren had an idea to put together a snow dog! Cole and Avery had fun sitting on him!

A little update on Nathan

Well we had parent/teacher conferences on Monday and well they were interesting! While we were waiting we got to look through a few 'books' that the class had put together. One was the 'What I am thankful for' book and the other was the 'my favorite thing to eat is' book. Ironically Nathan's thing he's most thankful for and his favorite thing to eat are one in the same. CAKE! He's spells it 'cac'. Teacher said he loves that word since he can sound it out and spell it all by himself! So he throws it into any situation he can! He also loves math! Another engineer in the making I guess! but we got the dreaded 'he can't sit still or concentrate for too long' speech. All in all though, I'm completely thrilled with his progress and I absolutely love his teacher!

We also got his school picture back. What's not to love?

Halloween 2008

Well it started off pretty good. The whole school district had a half day so that meant Nathan could ride the bus home (usually I have to pick him up as there is no mid day bussing). So I wait at the bus stop and all of the kids get off except Nathan! Luckily the bus has to drive back through that stop on the way out of the subdivision so I stopped her then and Nathan got off! Little did I know that virtually every Kindergarten mom (except me) goes to the schools Halloween party and parade so none of his friends were on the bus.

So being such a beautiful day (and since Cole took a short nap earlier) we decided to rake leaves and jump in them. There were about 10 neighbor kids all playing and Cole started going down hill fast. Very whiny, clingy, and tired. So we went home, put him down for a nap, woke him up for dinner and he had a 102 temp. Poor thing was still dog tired. So needless to say he missed trick or treating. I don't think he was too upset as earlier in the week he was scared of his costume (an alligator) and refused to put it on!

Nathan and Lance on the other hand had a blast and made out like bandits!

Lance's Halloween sing

The morning of Halloween Lance's class sang a few songs for us! He had been practicing literally for weeks singing to us at home so we thought we would FINALLY have a child that participated in one of these things.....wrong! He pretty much coughed through the first half of it (self induced). We asked him why he didn't sing and he said it was because he was coughing. ugh! But they finally got to some of his favorite songs and he sang along a bit. Still no hand gestures like the rest of the kids but he did sing....at least you can see his mouth moving!! Here's a video for your Monday morning enjoyment.

The kids first marathon!

This morning the boys and I did the Grand Rapids kids marathon! We trained for 2 months and today finished the last 1.2 miles of it downtown. They had a blast! We started out strong, all holding hands while I still had one hand on the stroller (Cole didn't want to miss it either) and about a quarter of the way through Lance tripped and fell. They still finished and got their medals, bagels and gatorade! All in all an exciting morning!

Lance's first day of preschool!

The day has finally come! Lance has been begging to go to school for over a year now. His first day was Monday Sept. 8th. He has the same schedule and teachers that Nathan had last year so he is familiar with the school, classroom and teachers. He is the youngest in the class as he only meets the age cut off by 5 days and some days it shows...some days it doesn't. He is doing great so far though. He sits through story time wonderfully, listens, plays nicely with the other kids. The only thing we've had a 'problem' with so far is that sometimes there isn't a 'project' for him to take home in his bag. Either it was painted and is still wet, or the teachers are keeping it for display, etc. and this causes SERIOUS meltdowns! Embarrassing meltdowns! I'm used to it though :)

Nathan's first soccer game

We decided to sign Nathan up for soccer this fall. I also threw Chris under the bus and put him down as coach! Their first game was Saturday Sept. 6th......yes the same day as the triathlon! Chris pretty much had an hour and a half after his race to eat lunch and get ready to coach 6 five year olds! Nathan did great though. Within the first minute of play he took the ball down the entire field and scored a goal! I didn't even have time to pull my camera out yet! The rest of the game however he thought it was fun to continually stop game play by touching the ball with his hands....apparently that draws far more attention than scoring a goal? He had his second game the 13th and scored yet another goal so he's quite the star!

Reeds Lake Triathlon Results!

Well Saturday was the big day! Chris completed his second triathlon (1/2 mile swim, 18 mile bike, 5 mile run).....2 minutes faster than last years time! He finished this year at 2:12:28 stomping on his last years swim time and still running under a 10 minute mile!

Unfortunately the boys and I did not get to see him at the bike turn. I was under the impression that the first swim heat took off at 8am when in fact they started at 7:30. We showed up to cheer him on and missed him by a good half hour. I'm not sure we would have even been out of the house in time to see him taking off that early!!!

Overall, a great time and still room for improvement. Who knows maybe next year I'll join in?!

Subscribe to the blog

I've become even more computer savvy I guess and added an email subscription to the blog. If you forget to check it often for updates or lost the link, etc. type in your email to the right and each week I believe if I've added a post you will be sent an email with the updates. Just an easier way to keep up with the family!!

First day of kindergarten success!

The morning wasn't too different here except that at 8am we started our treck to the bus stop! I could tell Nathan was a bit nervous but once he saw his friends and finally saw the bus pull into the sub his eyes lit up! He was the 3rd one on the bus and tried to fight in to be first! The bus took him to school and his teacher met him and the others at the entrance. Since our district went through budget cuts the parents have to pick up the kindergarteners at 11:55am in a so called 'pick up line'. OH MY GOSH! What a nightmare! We arrived at 11:50am and were so far back in the line we were actually parked on the side road in front of the school. We got there at 11:50 and Nathan finally got in the van at 12:15. Thankfully Cole fell asleep as soon as we parked! Crisis averted! But you figure 2 kindy classes @ 20 kids each = 40 cars trying to pick up their kids. Hopefully tomorrow goes a bit better since we have a magic tag that goes in the van to alert everyone who we will pick up. I imagine car pooling will start soon as well.

Nathan didn't say much on the way home, except that he sat by his neighbor friend Maddie and played with her on the playground. We'll see if I can get more out of him tomorrow!

Here are a couple of pictures!

Waiting at the bus stop with his friends


The last wave goodbye!


FINALLY in the van at noon and still smiling...SUCCESS!

A special camping trip

Chris decided to take Lance camping on Saturday night for a special bonding night. I think he's been itching to go anyway! He originally asked Nathan if he wanted to go first but being the apprehensive kid that he is, he suggested Lance go first! They went to a local place and had a blast! They picked the perfect night, a sky full of stars and a full moon. Lance got to go swimming, fishing, play on a play ground, search for fire wood, help build a fire, make smores, help set up the tent, and take a train ride through the camp ground. Chris said the majority of the time Lance just wanted to play in the tent with his toys!

Gymnastics Camp

Last week the big boys had gymnastics camp from each morning for 3 hours. They had an absolute blast! They got to tumble, play on a small and large trampoline and then they swam for the last hour of camp. All the while they were also working on a program that they performed for us at the end of their Friday session. We decided to bring Nathan's friend Hannah with us to watch the program and Nathan was on cloud 9. As you'll see in some of the pictures and videos he was being quite the show off! They also both got certificates for completing the course. Take a look :)



Nathan giving a thumbs up to Hannah during the set up of the pyramid.

The tooth fairy made a visit!

Nathan lost his very first tooth! I can't believe it! We first noticed it about a month ago while flossing and he was so excited! We were wiggling it ever since and finally noticed on Monday August 11th that the new adult tooth was coming in right behind it. He already had a dentist appointment scheduled for that Thursday and we were afraid he was going to pull it anyway! So after a few wiggles the bottom left baby tooth came out and man I didn't realize how much blood comes with it! YIKES! That night the tooth fairy came and dropped off $5! Come to find out at the dentist appointment that his other bottom tooth is a smidge loose too!

Adamstown, Pennsylvania

What a great vacation! We took a road trip to the Amish country and met up with all of the kids' aunts, uncles and cousins. On the way we decided to make a stop in Ohio to visit some of our friends. The kids LOVED seeing their old neighbors and friends and had a great sleep over. Here's a shot of the kids.



Saturday morning we had breakfast and left for PA late morning. We got to the vacation rental house just after 4pm on Saturday, unpacked and claimed rooms. 6 adults, 6 kids and 2 dogs in a 5 bedroom house for a week was a pretty interesting time!

Sunday we decided to take a family day, spend some time at the local playground and community pool. Here are a couple of pictures from the playground.







Monday we all decided to treck to Hershey Park. It was an interesting experience. The boys loved the rides but unfortunately the rides were spread out all over the HUGE park! We did manage to hit the water park at the end of the day.







Tuesday the guys let the girls hit the outlets to do some shopping while they took the kids to Cherry Crest Farms. This place sounded so cool! It had a hay maze, a bunch of inflatables, a petting zoo, a rope maze, and a tractor ride!





Wednesday the guys again took only the big kids (Cassandra, David and Nathan) fishing. All of the kids actually had a chance to catch a fish!!



and Aunt Laura and I took the little ones (Lance, Anneliese and Cole) to the Hands on House which is basically a childrens museum. Here the kids got to play with all kinds on hands on activities and Lance's favorite part was painting his face!





Thursday Aunt Vicki and Uncle Mike took the big kids to Chocolate World (a part of Hershey Park). They got a tour of the factory and made a label for a chocolate bar for us!







While the big kids were at the Chocolate Factory, Aunt Laura and I took the little ones to Dutch Wonderland, an amusement park JUST FOR KIDS! Anneliese and Lance were dare devils too! They went on just about everything!





Friday Chris and I got to have massages at the Hershey Hotel and then we had a nice big FAMILY dinner. Saturday we all went our separate ways and it was sad to say good bye to everyone. But we did manage to get one family picture (minus Michael who took it)