November 29, 2009
Decorating for Christmas

Sam got really silly with the Santa Hat.

Listening to Christmas music and Decorating the tree

Sam, the prankster, thought the star
belonged on the the Little People stable

Gabrielle got to put the star on the top of the tree this year.

The best group picture I could get.
You would think as they get older they would get more cooperative.

November 26, 2009
Thanksgiving Day

Looks to me like we have a lot to be thankful for.
Between my kids and my nephews we have 8 healthy, growing, wonderful kids.

(left to right)
Nicholas (7), Gabrielle (6) holding Mathew (7 months),
Joshua (4) Allison (4) holding Aiden (4 1/2 months),
Owen (3), Sam (2)

November 20-22, 2009
Ludington State Park
One Last Trip of the Year

The view from our campsite.

Group picture at the beach house

A walk along the boardwalk

Grandma and Grandpa were headed out for a weekend away. They couldn't get into their hotel until later in the afternoon. Because it was such a beautiful day - they decided to drive up and spend part of the day with us. We ended up have a wonderful hike way up to the top of a dune where we could see all the way down to Lake Michigan.

I think that Sam's favorite spot the entire year has been up on his Papa's shoulders.

Allison decided she wanted her training wheels off.
She surprised us all by doing very well.
She'll need some refreshing in the spring -
but I don't think those training wheels will be going back on.

Pictures down on the beach.

Good-bye camping season 2009.
We are taking many memories with us - memories we'll never forget.

November 18, 2009
Destination Imagination Field Trip

As some of you may already know, Nicholas is involved in a program at school called Destination Imagination (D.I.) It combines science, problem solving, and drama. The team gets a "problem", for which they have to find a "solution". They have to create, write, and perform a skit about their topic PLUS they are responsible to build all of their props themselves - all while "solving the problem"

This year's problem is called WEIGHTY NEWS.
They have to write a skit in the form of a newscast.
In addition, their skit has to include a structure that must be built using only
newspaper and duct tape and must support weight.
Their skit must also include a commercial break.

In preparation for writing a skit involving a newscast, his coach arranged a special field trip for the kids involved in D.I. to go to TV8 to watch a newcast.

Nicholas and his friend Analiese

Checking out the green screen with Laura Valasquez

Matt Kirkwood explains how things work and what goes into doing the weather, how the cameras work, and the type of timelines involved in putting on a live newscast.

Gavin, Nicholas and Analiese at McDonald's on the way back to school

November 18, 2009
A.W.A.N.A.

Several weeks ago, our neighbor Luke, invited Nicholas and Gabrielle to attend the A.W.A.N.A. program at Ravenna Baptist Church with him. Being that our church is so far away, we haven't become involved in the Wednesday night program at our church - so we decided it was a wonderful idea. The A.W.A.N.A program at this church is a very large outreach and it's full of kids from the area, so our kids knew many of their fellow classmates from school.

Gabrielle was very proud tonight,
because she came home having received her A.W.A.N.A. vest to wear each week.

November 14, 2009

Gabrielle's Birthday Party

A gift from Aunt Melissa and Micah

Opening Presents

Barbie Cake

One of her presents was a bank that she could paint herself.
She wanted to do it - as soon as we returned from church the next day.
I think she did a great job.

November 10, 2009
Science Olympiad

Many of you, may have heard of Science Olympiad before. Our school doesn't participate in the formal Science Olympiad competition that others do - but they do run there own program resembling it once a year. They have several practices where they can experiment with the challenges - finding out what does and doesn't work, gather data and make notes. Then they come together for a "competition night" where several teams compete to see who can perform the tasks at hand the most successfully and/or the fastest. It was quite interesting to see.

The first event actually takes place in a dark room, but I took a picture when they brought the lights back up so you could actually see what it involves. A flashlight is placed on the ground - as well as a picture of a something. Then - in various places in the room are these pieces of paper, which they call islands. Each island holds 2 mirrors connected together. The lights are turned off and they need to move the mirrors in such a way so that the light from the flashlight reflects off from the mirrors until it hits the picture. The light has to touch every mirror before it reaches the picture and the time the team to see how quickly they can accomplish this.

The next event is patterning. 2 teammates sit opposite each other behind a screen. One of them has a piece of paper showing a pattern. The other teammate has a bucket full of tile pieces of various shapes, sizes and colors. The player with the paper has to describe to their teammate how to reproduce the pattern with the tiles, using nothing but words. Again, they are timed to see how quickly they could correctly reproduce the given pattern.

In the next event - they are given 100 mini marshmallows and toothpicks. They have to build a structure as high as they can - that can stay for at least 10 seconds before tipping and see how high they can build it.

In the final event, they are given 2 pieces of tin foil. With this foil - they need to build 2 "boats". The boats are then placed in a tub of water and they start putting pennies on the boat one at a time. The goal is to see how many pennies their boat will hold before it sinks.

At the end of the night - they have a small awards ceremony. Nicholas' team got 3rd place out of 3 teams for their age group this year but that's OK - they learned a lot and are learning how to work with others to accomplish a task.

A picture of all of the kids who participated in Science Olympiad this year.

November 6-8, 2009
Ludington State Park
Maiden Voyage with the new Trailer

Happy Birthday Gabrielle!

A new Barbie Scooter for her birthday

It was a beautiful weekend - actually got up near 70 on Saturday

Sam finds out that bikes don't ride real well through a pile of leaves.

Playing on the hill behind our trailer

Playing in a pile of leaves the made.
We don't have leaves at home, so this was a special treat.

Perfect Picture Posing tree stump for 4 kids.

We knew that my 2nd cousin Kevin and his wife would be at Ludington for this weekend. However, it wasn't looking like we could join them as Paul had a commitment on Friday night. Fortunately for us, the commitment was cancelled and we surprised them by showing up when they didn't expect it.

Gabrielle and Jillian having a little girl talk

Snack time - I think we were sharing some of Gabrielle's Birthday cake.

Nicholas found the perfect friends in Micah and Tyler -
3 boys who love Star Wars, what more could a boy want.

7 kid pile-up
(that's 7 kids - 7 and under)