Birthday Boy!

We are celebrating a great boy.  It is one of those years that a party and the actual birthday fell on the same day.  Timothy was not up too early, but he was eager to open gifts when he did get up.  When Troy got home from the gym, it was right into a scavenger hunt to find his first present.  The hunt led him to the garage to discover a new gear bike with some good shocks.  He was pretty happy about that!

The theme for his cake this year was Fortnite--the video game that is the in game for many boys his age.  I managed to make the image of drift on the cake.  Not too hard compared to some I have attempted.

 Grandma Judy gave a Fortnite t-shirt which quickly became the shirt for the day!

 By 10:30 friends were arriving and the party began.  We did several minute to win it games again this year.  The pictures below are of balancing blocks on their heads, trying to move a cookie to their mouths, and using chopsticks to move whoppers.  All the games were pretty fun and kept the crew busy for a good 2 hours!

 Soon enough it was present opening time and time for a pizza lunch.

 Six friends made it this year--one forgot the party was today.  They are all great kids and had fun playing the silly games.

 Timothy chose to have the relighting candles which added some fun to blowing them out and caused a good share of smoke!  After lunch and cake the boys played some video games and the girls did some ultra dash.

The only bummer is that the party had to end.  Timothy commented on how fast it went and wished it was still happening.  We are glad we could celebrate our boy.  He is growing so fast.  He loves video games, playing outdoor games, chess club, learning tricks on his bike and being with friends.  He is kind, and thoughtful and starting to figure out who he is.  We are proud him! Happy Birthday!

A birthday post could not be complete without the Happy Joe's birthday sundae picture.  We had a fun dinner out celebrating our favorite boy!

Where the time has gone...

Well, it has nearly been two months since I last posted pictures.  A lot has changed in that time, but I have few pictures to document it.  

November went by in a blur as my dad faced doctor appointment after appointment and ultimately ended up in the hospital fighting Mesothelioma.  He passed away on Thanksgiving morning.  Thankfully we got to spend the whole week of Thanksgiving with family and we all had time with my dad before he died.

 I stayed a few extra days with mom before heading back home.  Then it was home for a few days and back up for the funeral.  The funeral was a lovely service honoring dad, and many people came out to celebrate his life.  We are missing him so much.

 Then it was back home and right back into the real world of daily life.  I had church work to organize, Christmas shopping to do, a birthday to plan, and it was not easy to jump back in.  I felt numb and just tried to focus on a day at a time.  Some days were easier and some more fun.  I enjoyed getting to go to Timothy's Living History Museum at school.  He presented on trade in Williamsburg.

 We also had a fun, but quick trip up to Aunt Mary's house.  There were pictures to decorate for the pizza delivery person, and gifts to open by the tree.  We also happened upon a tree lighting ceremony that got us a spot on the local news!
We took part of a few of the hometown celebration activities on Saturday like seeing Santa, getting face painted and trying samples at Millers! There was lots of fun we had to miss because we had to get back home.  Maybe next year!

 My sadness still lingers, but I try to find the little things that bring joy in each day.  This week Troy and I got to hear Timothy's school band play Christmas music.  That was a fun treat and they all sounded pretty good.

Now we await the coming celebrations with joy and sorrow as we miss one so dear to us.

Halloween night

Halloween was a fun night.  Troy, the Storm-trooper went out with Leia.  They met up with a Luke and another Storm-trooper.  Timothy, the unknown Phantom, hooked up with some classmates and went without a parent this year.  I had the candy duty, or in our case the pretzel and cheese ball duty!  They went long and hard, both lasting the whole 1.5 hours for the first time.  And they were certainly pleased with their stash of candy!

Happy Halloween!

Carving pumpkins

It is pumpkin carving time of year.  We had a family night over the weekend and created jack o lanterns.  Teresa and Timothy helped scoop out there pumpkins for the first time this year.  They both did a good job!

 I thought maybe they would try carving this year too.  I bought a set of little carving knifes.  But they decided carving was still mom and dad's job!  So we carved and the kids colored.

 Teresa picked a stencil of a cat from the carving kit and that was my job.  The carving knifes made it it super easy.  Troy had to draw Mimikyu (a Pokemon) from the computer picture, then draw it on the pumpkin, and finally carve a bunch of detailed parts.  His job was much harder and that was why he was carving by himself.

 I went on to wash the pumpkin seeds and get them ready for roasting.  Yum!

 The final product and two happy kids!

The pumpkins look great all lit up.

Fall getaway

Wow what a weekend!  It was a long drive, but it was a fun few days for the kids and me.  The weather was beautiful when we got there, so we had to make a trip to the ropes park which was finally open again!  It was crazy busy as all the MN kids have off of school too.  But Timothy and Teresa still had fun.  There were a couple of new swings that were a lot of fun!

Friday was apple orchard day with most of the cousins (missing Tate and Henrik), Grandma and Grandpa and Jeff and Lisa.  Just like the playground, the orchard was busy, but that did not stop our fun!

We did not actually pick apples, but we got this nice photo as if we did!  This was right before we released all the kids into the corn maze on there own!

 
Here are two sassy girls who ditched the rest of the crew in the corn maze!  Not sure the leader of the crew, Abby, was too pleased with that.

The rest of the group made there way out too and headed to the next activity.
 

Next up was the corn pit.  Nothing like burying yourself in a whole bunch of corn!

And last it was the big jumping pillow.  You can't beat a big pile of cousins!  The kids all had so much fun.  The adults were all chilled from the blustery wind, but the kids, who were playing hard, kept shedding all their layers!

It was a busy time at the orchard and the youngest cousin crew member took a bit of a snooze on the way home!

 

 Good thing Cal rested in the car, because back at home it was time for a pumpkin party.  The kids dressed up and we played hide the pumpkin, pumpkin ball toss, Halloween bingo, Halloween pictionary, and guess the character.  The day ended with a nice family dinner!

 On Saturday, we had the chance to be with cousins even more.  On this day it was time to get outside and enjoy the leaves a little bit.  As you can tell from the pictures, it was a very fun time.  We don't have enough trees in our yard to have leaf piles anymore.  It was a treat!

 

But of course we eventually had to go home.  Teresa was especially sad and spent much of Sunday morning crying about having to go.  I am thankful for the chance to be with family and for all the great memories that were made.

Birthday Bash

We celebrated Troy's birthday over the weekend.  We had a low key day at home on his birthday, but we did other things to honor him too.  Instead of a dinner out, Troy and I had a late dinner on Friday night with his usual favorites...bread, seasoned olive oil, good cheese and wine.

On Saturday he began the day with a yummy breakfast.  Timothy also had a scavenger hunt he had made.  Teresa had a poem book and gifts from her birthday box to share. Throughout the day he opened cards and gifts from family and friends.  

 The kids were most excited about the gift that the helped decide on--a stromtrooper costume.  There will be more pics of this at Halloween!  In the afternoon we all joined Troy to watch a little Cubs baseball, and Timothy wanted to play Minecraft with Troy.

 We had an early dinner at home and then sent Troy off to play music downtown.  The kids and I surprised him shortly after he started playing.  We brought cupcakes and had everyone sing Happy birthday to him.  It was fun to make his night a little more special.

On Sunday we had the third annual Troy birthday bash.  We had some friends and neighbors over for dinner.  It was rainy and cold, so we were all inside and it was quite a crowd of people, with lots of kids.  Despite filling cozy, it was a good time and a fine way to honor a wonderful man!

Baptism day!

Teresa often wishes her baptism day was during the summer so we could go swimming like we do for Timothy.  But we find other ways to make for a fun and memorable day that usually involves water.  She started the day with homemade chocolate donuts and the lighting of her baptismal candle.  Then it was off to school for the day.

 For dinner Teresa picked Freddy's just like Timothy did.  Dessert was chocolate cream pie (recipe from the book Pie by Sarah Weeks).  Everyone was pretty happy with these choices!

And even though it was a overcast day, and not too warm, we made a water activity happen for the evening.  It had stopped rainy, so the kids put on swimsuits and invited a couple neighbors over for water balloons.  After the water balloons, the water gun fight began.  It was lots of fun and a great way to celebrate Teresa, Child of God!

Starting school!

The first day of school came upon us even though Timothy and Teresa were hoping that it would not!

Yesterday we had orientation at school.  We got to meet both teachers and unload all the school supplies in the desks.  I thought being in school again would increase at least a little excitement.  I think the most exciting part of orientation for the kids was seeing their new flexible seating in their rooms.  But it was still fun to see their rooms and desks and get a feel of where they will spend their time.

 Teresa at her desk.

Posing outside of school.

 After the orientation we stopped at church to set up a photo booth for the upcoming weekend.  We had some fun trying out the props.

I did not have to wake anyone up this morning for school.  They were done with breakfast and ready to head out by 7:50.  We had a Star Wars boy and Chihuahua girl!

 We also got the usual bus stop pic.  The crew is a bit heavy on the girls, but a good bunch once again!