Year 8!

Going through  the pics from this blog and last year, I found that many look similar.  The same Ninja turtle pajamas, the same pics at Happy Joes...but if it makes for a happy boy, why not!

 Timothy was up bright and early once again.  I think it was 5 am this time!  But he was very patient waiting for his gifts and hardly even asked about them.  When he did open, he was delighted to receive some things he had wished for!

 I love the joy on his face in this picture!

 Since he had to go to school for the first time on his birthday, I offered to join him for lunch.  He was pretty happy to have me with him and all the other kids were intrigued with an adult at the lunch table.

 And of course the evening had to include a trip to Happy Joes for pizza and ice cream--and a few quarter games.

Overall it was a great day for our 8 year old.  It is so hard to believe that Timothy is getting this old.  We see ways in which he is maturing and leaving little boyhood behind.  That is fun to see, but also a little sad.  We are proud of who he is and look forward to seeing the coming years unfold.

Party time!

It was birthday party day! Timothy was certainly excited.  He was up at 1 am ready to start the day and wondered why he could not get up and read. He was able to sleep in until 5:20 am.  The early wake up made the wait until 10:30 seem like forever!

This years theme was rocks and gems.  His cake was decorated with chocolate rocks to spell out happy birthday.

A highlight of the party was breaking some geodes.  The kids got the chance to hammer away at the rocks in hopes of finding a sparkly center.  A few of the rocks were hard to crack.  One of Timothy's friends loved hammer away.  Troy moved the kids outside to protect our tile floor from the eager hammerers!  Eventually all the geodes were opened and all were quite pretty inside!

Next we did a scavenger hunt around the house. The kids found 10 clues that led them to a bag of homemade baking soda geodes.  To open these geodes we used vinegar and got some fizzy fun!  They discovered some bouncy balls inside these geodes.

Another rock activity was digging for rocks in the sand.  They all had fun finding some new rocks to add to there collections.  I believe all the kids said they had rock collections, so a perfect party favor.

We played a few balloon bopping games to get us all up and moving.  And please notice the little girl in a skirt in the picture below.  Yes that is Teresa in a skirt.  She chose it to honor the special day we were celebrating.  What a nice sis! (She did, however have a few jealous little sis moments, wishing for gifts, and wanting Timothy's new things.)

And of course there was the fun of opening gifts.  Everyone is excited to see what the surprises are.

And for the second year in a row, Santa came through on his fire truck adding a bit of extra fun to the celebration.

After a pizza lunch it was time to have the rock cake.  Timothy opted to have a couple relighting candles on his cake which delighted everyone!

It was a very fun party, with some great kids.  Timothy had fun and as he went to bed, he wished he could go back in time and have his party again and not know what his surprises were.  A special day for a special boy!

Christmas time

The feeling of Christmas is in the air.  There are gingerbread houses being decorated Christmas programs being preformed.  Yesterday it rained all day so I got out the goods to make some graham cracker houses.  After a bit of a struggle to get our frosting to harden, the decorating was pretty fun.  Teresa was pretty excited to eat hers.  Timothy worked hard on his too.  He was careful to use just about every piece of candy I put out!

Last night was our church Christmas program.  Due to construction at our church, it was held at Heritage Manor, a senior center.  Both Timothy and Teresa had speaking parts and did super.  Troy was the main accompanist on the guitar.  I was a microphone holder and kid positioner.  Overall it went well and was a fun evening.  Despite not wanting to go, Timothy even said it was fun.  Teresa looked forward to the program all afternoon!

After the program we had a quick family picture.  Turned out pretty cute!!

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving was a good time for the most part. We had a nice time visiting family.  It was only some sickness that dampened the trip.  Troy got sick on Friday, but recovered quickly by Saturday morning.  My dad was a bit sick too, Cal got the croup, and Teresa was fighting a cold.  For Christmas we need to be healthier!

We spent Thanksgiving day with my family.  We had a nice day and dinner.  The kids enjoyed their favorite toys (dalmatians for Teresa!) and time with cousins.  Jeff got the kids and Troy to join in snowy football game.

And we are certainly a family of readers.  Many times all the cousins could be found reading together.  Here they all read comics over dinner.

Next it was on to Susan's place on Friday for another dinner.  Timothy discovered the candy canes on the tree and Teresa loved the reindeer.  The kids had fun planning with Ari and Vanessa and kept busy.  It was good to visit with Judy, and Susie and other family.

And of course there was lots of reading going on here too.  Grandma Judy was Teresa's favorite story partner!

When we returned home, Timothy and Teresa decided to play Santa.  Teresa changed into a red shirt and borrowed my hat for her costume.  The laundry basket was the sleigh!

November recap

The month of November has gone quickly and as seems the case these days, I have not kept up with blogging. So here are some highlights in pictures!

One Saturday morning we headed off to Swiss Valley Park for a little hiking.  It is hard to get the kids to want to go, but once we are hiking we have fun.  Playing by the creek is always a hit.  Timothy was throwing things in the water and Teresa was stirring up fairy dust in the sand.  We all had some hiking sticks to help us along the way.

We had another Iowa Thanksgiving this year.  It was a beautiful day.  We went for a family walk after lunch.  This was the only picture from the day, but it was a great day.  After dinner we walked around the neighborhood again to see some Christmas lights.

I checked out a few Christmas books from the library.  One book had a cookie recipe, so we decided to make some.  Teresa painted a few cookies with an egg yolk glaze.  Later Timothy and his friend Michael did some decorating too.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we got 11.7 inches of snow!  This was delightful for the kids.  They have been fort building, sledding and having a blast outside!!

And now that Thanksgiving is only a day away, our house is fully decorated for Christmas.  The kids and I did most of the decorating over the weekend.  We saved the tree for last night when Troy was home from SBL.  Timothy and Teresa love to see the ornaments again and hang their own special ones.  It is always a magical night to get out the tree!

Halloween

I was a little worried how this year's Halloween would play out. The day before, Teresa ended up at the doctor with what I thought was pink eye.  It ended up being pink eye and a sinus infection.  Then the night before Timothy complained of feeling like he would throw up.  Not a great way to head in to a holiday, but it turned out to be a fine day.

Timothy and Teresa were excited to trick or treat and did a little pretend trick or treating to start the day.  The went to all the rooms in our house and Troy and I handed out our pretzel bags.  Then it was time to do some pumpkin carving.  I helped scoop out seeds, but Troy was the carver this year.

Timothy went for a mad/scary face.  He tends to like the spooky part of Halloween.

Teresa requested a puppy.  With a little guidance from a sketch from me, Troy came up with a pretty good puppy for the animal lover.

Teresa even tried dressing up her kitty.  She was Queen Daisy.  The picture does not show it well, but the kitty has on several of Teresa's rings and bracelets.

Timothy did not want to be left out, so he gave Beaver a Frankenstien mask!

In the afternoon we went to Lego club at the library.  It helped pass the time as we waited for the hour to finally go trick or treating.  Timothy was Jango Fett from Star wars and Teresa was a cheetah.  I went as a dalmatian and Troy was an elephant or a Vikings fan!  The kids had fun.  Teresa went around with her buddy Sophie and Timothy went with another neighbor boy.  It was a Happy Halloween!

A leaf jumping getaway!

It was conferences week around here which means a few days off from school.  (Conferences were thumbs up for both kids, by the way!)  Since we had not been up to my aunt's house since August, it was time for a getaway.  Plus, she has leaves and we don't.  It does not seem like fall unless one can do some serious leaf jumping!!

 Posing while they waited for the pile to grow bigger and bigger.  I am working hard in the background!

 A successful jump right into the middle.

 And almost completely buried in the pile.  The leaves kept us busy for at least an hour of fun.  Jumping, sliding, hiding, throwing, raking...there is so much one can do with leaves.  The kids actually were a good help moving the pile of leaves onto the tarp so we could pull it to the front of the house.

 Besides leaf jumping, we enjoyed a trip to the dollar store to help pack Operation Christmas child shoe boxes, a trip to the indoor playground, watching some Halloween shows, and decorating a little bit for Christmas!  It is always fun to hang out with Aunt Mary (or Grandma, as Timothy calls her!)

The only bummer was Teresa coming down with pink eye and what we later found out was a sinus infection.  But despite that, it was a great couple of days!

Pumpkin Patch

We made the trip to a pumpkin patch this weekend. It was another new one this year and it was lots of fun!  One of the main attractions was the corn maze.  We made it through the maze with ease with the help of Troy's excellent sense of direction.  We were given maps, but there were many people wandering around and not finding the hidden stations in the maze.  We found all 8! (Or I should really say Troy found all 8!)

We also rode on a wagon out to the pumpkin patch.  It was a bumpy, but fun ride. We did not pick out a pumpkin as we had bought some already at the grocery store.  We were just there for the fun!

There were some inflatables to jump in and a ball toss and big ring toss game to play.  All in all, it was a lovely fall, family afternoon.  Great memories!