Bertha's Birthday Party

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed cake and ice cream for Grandma Bertha's birthday party.  It was fun to see all the family.  Bertha turned 88 this year.

Matt and I playing:

 Gracie and Allison keeping each other company:

 Singing to the birthday girl:

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So far, this winter has been great.  We've had warm weather, and just two snow storms, both of which have actually melted! But before it did, we spent some time outside.  Since there was such little snow, we were only able to make little snowmen, but Joey was still very proud.

Children's Museum Fundraiser

Our city, even though it is the biggest in the region, does not have a children's museum. Several smaller cities around us do, and we've visited them, but we do not.  But we're hoping for one soon, and we attended a fundraiser a few weeks ago on a snowy, cold Saturday afternoon.

There was an arts and crafts station, a dinosaur dig, a building corner, trains, a news station, imagination walk, a stage and microphone, and a reading station.  The kids loved all of them, although the dinosaur dig kept Grace busy the longest, and the building station was Joey and Matt's favorite.  We tried almost all of them, and stayed busy for a good hour.  It was a fun time, and hopefully we'll be getting our very own museum soon!

The last thing Grace did at the fundraiser was make a bag at the art station. It started off okay, and then she decided to draw man being "scrambled up" in the lava.  There was a grandma sitting next to us with her grandson, and the best part of the whole thing was seeing the look on her face as Grace explained her drawing. I mentioned that Grace has a lot of brothers, but I don't think it helped.

Halloween, Part 2

We like to celebrate everything twice around here. With both sets of grandparents here in the city, we get to have 2 Thanksgivings, 2 Christmases, etc.  We've just decided to roll that way with every celebration, including Halloween.  Two days after Trunk or Treat, it was the actual Halloween. The cowboys and the secret agents (complete with their ear pieces that ACTUALLY worked!) set out to make the rounds.

We stopped at the Manleys house for some pictures and candy, and then made our way to Grandma Bertha's place.  Grace was on a candy mission all night, and she was of course, the first one in the door. Before we even made it inside, she came back out and exclaimed, "I just got CANDY from an OLD LADY!"  We then proceeded to get candy from lots of old people.  We worked all night on our manners (which were sadly lacking, for some reason), and then went upstairs to Grandma Bertha's apartment -- where we got MORE candy, and more hugs.

Our next stop was Momma Harris and Katie's house.  We always have time to stop by our other Momma's house.  The kids were extra pleased that they had a special bucket full of treats just for us!  We just LOVE these guys!

After Momma's, we raced back home to get ready for Reece and Ryan to come over and go trick or treating in our neighborhood.

 The fun began just before 7 PM. We all had to race to keep up with Grace, who by 7:30 declared that her legs were tired and it was time to go home. During that half hour, there were so many trick or treaters that Haley could hardly shut the door between offerings. But by the time we got home, everyone else had apparently gone home, too.

Grace kept her post, though, and diligently waited for nobody to hand candy to. She even checked the door every once in a while, just to be sure. But everybody had gone home. We didn't even get the late night teenagers scavenging for leftovers.  We had A LOT of candy left over, so Ben thankfully took it to his office where he and his assistants took care of it for us!

Trunk or Treat

Our first Halloween activity happened on Saturday, Oct. 29 at the church. The annual Trunk or Treat was the biggest I've ever seen it. The kids filled their buckets with tons of candy, which we used to give out to neighborhood kids on Halloween. It saved us lots of money, and we got rid of the candy quickly! Just don't tell the kids. They didn't know that was their candy.

The football star and the secret agent: (although in the car on the way over he was calling self my lawyer)

Grace getting candy from Handsome Rob (he insists on being called that)

Joey, who was a secret agent, saw many of his (girl)friends that day. Brekklen is one of his favorite friends, so I just had to snap this picture.  Joey had his "cool" face on.

Haley was in charge of handing out candy from our trunk. Although I heard later reports that she was actually throwing the candy.

And costume of the year goes to: Buddy the Elf! (Otherwise known as Carter W.)

Horseback Riding Continued...

As we waited for our turn in the arena, the kids got distracted by the pig roaming around, dogs, horses, and, of course -- poop.



This was a really funny moment: This poor little kid just walked by the horse, who grabbed the kid's bucket and wouldn't let go. They had quite the tug-of-war going for awhile. The kid won.

When it was our turn to ride, Matthew was a natural. He moved right along with the horse (good genes, I think), and was totally at ease up there.  He loved riding around the arena, and especially loved looking and listening to all the other horses. He spent the rest of the week demonstrating his horse sounds.

While the other kids were riding, we waited our turn in line.  Matt and Emily are in nursery together, and they had a really fun time in the dirt!

The Dog Lover

A few weeks ago, we went with some of Matt's friends to the stables for some horseback riding.  Before we got into the arena, Matt found several canine friends.  He rubbed their ears (which dogs either seem to love, or they bite him when he tries it).  Luckily, all of these dogs loved it, and Matt made lots of new friends.

He couldn't reach this guy's ears, but they were both very interested in each other: