December 5, 2010
Decorating the Christmas Tree

The kids love decorating the tree, and every year they get more independent in doing so. Although, I can be quite particular about certain things in my house and how things are organized - for some reason I let the kids have their way with the tree. I may adjust an ornament here or there, but for the most part - the tree is their tree.

The kids love finding ornaments from years past. The older they get, the more ornaments we find in the keepsake box. The keepsake box contains ornaments handmade by the kids or given to them by a teacher or friend. It is exciting for them to recall where the ornaments came from and remember making them. The recognize which ones belong to them almost immediately.

They even got our step stool out, so they could reach some of the higher up places on the tree. They thought this was pretty cool.

Allison's turn to put the star on the top - she is grinning from ear to ear.

After dinner that night, it was time for another window on the lego advent calendar.
Sam's turn ...

A little drummer boy - for our boy who loves drums.

November 21 - 25, 2010
Thanksgiving

Gabrielle had the annual 1st Grade Thanksgiving Program at school this week. The sang some silly songs, did a great job and then got to share in a Thanksgiving feast with their friends.

Holidays are always a good opportunity to take some pictures of the kids when they are cleaned up for church and family events. Some are better than others, but between Sunday after church and Thanksgiving day we managed to catch a few smiles.

Even had the opportunity to hand the camera over to my dad
to get a family picture for a change.

What's Thanksgiving without the wishbone?

Thanksgiving afternoon Melissa and Micah stopped over at my mom's home for a short visit.
A cute group out young ladies wouldn't you say?

November 19-20, 2010
Last Trip out with the Trailer for 2010

It was forecasted to be a dry but chilly weekend. The boys wanted to go camping, the girls wanted to stay home and go to a rollerskating party on Saturday. So - we split up for Friday night. Boys weekend camping and a girls weekend at home. The pictures I have to share are only from the boys perspective, because Paul had the camera with him.

We decided that this special weekend was a special case, and took Nicholas out of school for the day on Friday. Paul, Nicholas and Sam hit the road fairly early in the morning and spent much of the day up at Ludington State Park. Apparently, the wind was something else and literally knocked Sam off his feet down by the beach. The wind wasn't nearly so bad up at the campsite and they had a lot of fun together.

Paul had packed a rake and made a great leaf pile for the boys to jump in.

There was some bike riding....

....and of course some playing on the playground.

While the boys were away, I tried to make a special girls night too. I surprised the girls by picking them up at school, instead of them riding the bus. We then headed to the movie store to pick out a movie, stopped by Hobby Lobby to purchase a special craft and then had a great dinner out together. We then headed home for our craft and movie night. Saturday morning we vegged around the house, did another craft and spent the afternoon at the roller skating rink.

A great weekend was had by all, but sadly, the trailer has now been put away until spring.
May it come quickly.

November 6-7, 2010
Gabrielle's Birthday Celebration

Preparing for her party with Grandma, Grandpa and her aunts and uncles, we spent much of the day making her special cake. Her theme this year was princess glam and fancy things like make-up, etc.

Following with the theme of the party, she received a purse from us, a wallet from Uncle Cory and Aunt Catherine and lip gloss, lotions and other goodies from Uncle Shawn and Aunt Erin
and all of her cousins, of course.

She got a jewelry box and make you own necklace kit, as well a fashion design set from Grandma and Grandpa.

All of the kids playing tug of war again Grandma brought many laughs.

November 7, 2010 - Her Golden Birthday
7 on the 7th.

She was so excited to receive a dolphin Pillow Pet that she threw herself and the ground and started rolling around with it.

We also made a trip to Toys R Us for her to spend her birthday money from Uncle Bob and Grandma and Grandpa Van Wesep that she got in the mail. She picked out this Barbie Guitar - complete with headphones and microphone.

October 27-30, 2010
Halloween Festivities

Wednesday night we started our Halloween festivities with Trunk or Treat at church. Poor Allison was sick and couldn't go, so I took the other 3. They had a great time, but they didn't have nearly as many people handing out candy as they have had in years past and so it took us longer to get there that we spent going through the cars to collect candy. The kids didn't no any different though, and enjoyed their time.

Thursday morning, brought Sam's Halloween Party at school.
Our little fireman posing for a picture.

As luck would have it, fireman Sam was the flag holder today.
Thought this was a cool picture with a fireman and our flag.

Posing for a class picture before they got to parade through the school in front of the other classrooms. They did the best they could for each of the kids to get to walk through the classrooms of their siblings. We caught Nicholas on the way to library, and were able to walk through Allison's class.

Friday afternoon brought parties for the bigger kids and the annual Halloween parade through downtown Ravenna.
Here is Allison and her class before the parade.

The Kindergarteners first paraded down to the 3rd grade wing, where they were paired up with a 3rd grader for the remainder of the parade. Allison was able to be paired up with Nicholas.

Sam was a spectator for the actual parade, but was lucky because several kids shared their candy with him as they walked by.

Allison and her friend Hunter, after enjoying their cupcakes with black frosting.

That must have been some really sour candy.

Friday night we carved pumpkins.

Gotta get your hands dirty to get all the messy stuff cleaned out.

Planning your creation takes lots of concentration.

They all tried to help with their pumpkins, but still found it quite difficult to handle the carving knife. Gabrielle, however, stuck to her task the longest and really did complete most of her intricate pumpkin herself. Now that they are trying to do more themselves, we will have to remember to choose more straightforward designs next year.

This year's designs turned out pretty cool though.

Even though Saturday was the 30th, it was the designated night for trick or treating in our neighborhood. Ready to hit the road....

This is just a glimpse of the massive amounts of crowds that we get in our neighborhood each year. Trick or Treating is only open for certain hours of the evening. When the designated time arrives, the fire trucks pull onto our street and block of the entrance and exit to the subdivision. You can walk in, but you can't drive in - to protect the trick or treaters.
This year, the crowds were even heavier than previous years - we think it was because people could trick or treat here on Saturday and go somewhere else on Sunday night. Many of our neighbors ran out of candy within the first hour, including our next door neighbor who was very upset that she ran out of candy right before my kids got there. She was so upset that she brought the kids a special treat a little later in the evening.

After the kids finished trick or treating, we returned to the house, lit our jack-o-lanterns and the kids got to enjoy giving out some candy of our own.