Cookie Decorating

Yesterday, Joshua, Caleb, Wyatt and I iced and decorated the gingerbread boys.

I was surprised by how well Wyatt did. 

He had a lot of fun with the red and green M&M's.

Abvoe, some of the cookies Wyatt decorated.

Boys...

 Andrew has re-named himself.  "Zoo"

 "Caleb"

Caleb & Joshua made this very cool Santa and sleigh from Lego. 

Unfortunately, the youngest boy destroyed it. 

 Yay, a new Santa!

Joshua and his Mini-me.

Wyatt & Birthday Cakes

 My baby is now 3 years old!

And so, he got to enjoy birthday cake 3 times this past week!!

Birthday cake #1 above was supposed to be a hedgehog...but that failed,

so it ended up being a trifle.  Still yummy, but not so esthetically pleasing.

Wyatt didn't care.  It was still delicious.

(He looks hesitant because he was just waiting for the o.k. to blow out the candles.)

 Blowing out candles in his birthday pudding/cake (#2).

Wyatt totally had the whole birthday cake/singing/blowing out

candles routine down pat this year.

 All right, now THIS is a cake!!!

 Worth the wait! (Cake #3)

Wyatt's 3rd birthday was brought to you by...Sesame Street. 

The other children have liked Sesame Street, but Wyatt is by far the

most devoted SS fan in the family.

Remembrance Day

 Natalee outside enjoying the first real snow of the season!

 On Remembrance Day, the children and I went up to Bird's Hill Park.

The boys were thrilled that they were able to feed the birds from their hands!

 Waiting...

I tried several times to capture Andrew with a bird eating from his hand, but this was the closest I got.

Veggie Art & Wyatt Ruins Christmas

 Joshua's veggie skeleton.

 Andrew's veggie art.

 Natalee's vegetables.

 Caleb's Veggie Skeleton.

Oh oh.

Halloween 2011

No school for the children today, so they are busy looking at their candy, sorting it, drooling over it, maybe a little trading, maybe a little sneaky snacking...

Yesterday, the children were allowed to wear their costumes to school in the afternoon. 

I only managed to take one picture as they headed out the door.  Here is one of my nerds.

 And the rest of them, ready to go trick-or-treating.

It was such a nice evening to be outside.  I can't remember a nicer October 31st.

We are all toasty warm when we got home.

I stumbled upon an idea to make Advent Calendar's from Halloween candy. 

So this morning, each child picked out 31 candy's, and stuck them to a calendar that we made.

They are eagerly looking forward to December!

Caleb definitely worked the hardest on his. 

Check out the detail at the top of his calendar above.

Natalee started trick-or-treating off strong, but quickly tired, so she rode in the wagon.

If there was a really "good" house, I'd make her get out to go beg for candy. 

So many people commented on how cute she was in her pumpkin costume,

but she is definitely more reserved than her older brothers.

(Do you see how she has learned how to smile? 

"Smile" used to mean "open your eyes really big" to her.)

Wyatt enjoyed trick-or-treating, but it took him a while to really understand the whole concept. 

About half an hour in, he began to run from house to house yelling

"trink or treat" and then he said "bye, see you later" as we left.

Family Pictures

I don't quite know why, but family pictures make me very happy. 

 The girls.

 The dudes.

We are pretty gorgeous.  :)

Jo (our photographer), you did an amazing job once again!!!

October

The last entry here in Andrew's agenda says, "I am thankful for Mom."

Today, as we were working in the kitchen after supper, he said to me, "I was thinking of staying at home and doing the work for you when I was at school today.  Then you could just sit down." 

That made my day.

The other comment that I don't want to forget was made a couple of weeks ago by Joshua. 

I had made peanut butter balls for their lunch dessert and he said,

"We're so lucky we have a Mom that makes such good food for us." 

Good memories.

Below, Wyatt napping after Thanksgiving weekend at Grandpa & Grandma Voth's.

 Natalee made a turkey in Nursery School. 

Below, a sample of her very colorful coloring.

 First snow!

You can see it on the brown table & BBQ. 

October 19, 2011

September Long Weekend

We began the weekend with a wiener roast on Friday night.

 Everyone was HUNGRY!

 S'mores!!

On Saturday, we headed west out of town...

 caterpillars

 Watching TV.

 On Sunday, we headed south to the International Peace Garden. 

We picnicked at an insanely quiet spot.

It was so quiet.

And peaceful.

And then the Bergmann's came along.

The frogs and turtles hid...

 The longest undefended border between two countries!

The Peace Towers.

 

 I love the flowers at the Peace Gardens!