Thanksgiving Day

Nine children lined up in the snow ready to run, it must be Thanksgiving morning and time for the 2nd annual turkey trot.  Last year Kathy held a turkey trot that started at her front door. Adults that wanted to ran a 5K and the kids ran a fun run loop around the circle Kathy and Dale live on. This year the tradition continued. Kathy, Dale, Sara and Eric ran the 5K. Lined up ready to start the fun run is(oldest to youngest) Alex, Max, Sophia, Oliver, Henry, Timmy, Parker, Julia and Lucas.

Ready, set, go!

Timmy made it to the finish line and received his prize from Aunt Kathy. Each kid got a character cup filled with candy.

Sophia at the finish line.

Parker and Uncle Eric made it!

Here come the littlest runners. These little troopers ran the entire race! Julia's almost to the finish line, with Lukey behind, and Randy and Sara cheering them on.

Lukey made it to the finish line and the run is done!

Now on to the feast! Here is the kids' table, plates full, hands folded, praying before they dig in.

Last year we fed the kids before the adults, and it worked really well. The adults got hot food with just a few interruptions. So we repeated it this year. And here are the kids digging in to all kinds of kid food. Alex and Max didn't join the kids but waited for the traditional meal.

Yikes! Max has a knife! Don't worry he's just helping me cut up fruit.

George and Luke just chillin'.  George is our friend and works with Randy.  He's great with our kids, always brings really good dessert and likes to play Scrabble. What's not to like, right?

Well once I ate, I was much to full to take any more pictures. Until Lukey hit. He snuck away and quietly started picking the keys right off our computer!! That boy gets into everything. Good thing he's so darn cute and lovable. I asked Randy to take a picture without Lukey seeing. Thankfully the keys snapped right back into place and work just fine.

What Luke likes to do.

This picture was taken sometime in November. But Luke still likes to do this - line things up. He loves to line up trucks and cars, or his fruit snacks, or crayons when he's coloring. All things must have order it seems - right now anyway.

Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta

Each year the cub scouts do what they call the rain gutter regatta. Every scout makes a boat, then they race them in rain gutters full of water, by blowing on the sail with a straw.  Here's the night they were being made.  Timmy and Lukey really wanted to make a boat too.

Here's Max with his boat the night of the race.

Henry with his boat. Both boys had a good time racing. They won some and lost some but had fun.

Sophia turned 8 !

This year the birthday girl had an Olaf cake.

To celebrate turning 8, Sophia and her friend Maddie, who lives down the street, went and got pedicures. Here they are enjoying their feet being pampered as they eat smarties with the back massager on. If you look closely you can see the little crowns they also got.

Ta-da! Sophia's feet are the one with pants. Everyone is pink and sparkely!

Sophia and Madisen before opening presents. Even Uncle Dale and Aunt Kathy are in the background. They joined us for cake and presents.

The gang surrounding the birthday girl. We tried to get Lukey in their but he was not cooperating.

Everyone wrestling, to celebrate I guess?

After cake and ice cream the 2 girls and a few of the boys watched Frozen. The next day their wasn't a lot of snow, but the girls were determined and made quite the snowman.

And here's everyone on Sophia's actual birthday. Luke, Henry, Sophia with her doll from Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale, wearing the birthday crown from school, then Timmy and in the back Max, and Alex. 

Halloween (2014)

The weekend before Halloween there was a Halloween school party on Saturday. We did a few crafts, had a couple Halloween goodies and played lots of games in the gym. I took Henry, Sophia, and Timmy. Lukey stayed home this time and Max and Alex decided they were too big. :) Henry got a flame painted on his cheek.

Here's Elsa, a football player and fireman ready for Halloween fun!

Three trick-or-treaters making treat bags, for the treats they got from playing any of the Halloween game in the gym.

Halloween was also Grandparents/special person at St. Rose and a 1/2 day. We were so glad to have Aunt Kathy at school, helping with jack-o-lanterns and having lunch together. Here's Luke decided how we'll carve his pumpkin, or something like that.

Max, Sophia and Henry figuring out what their pumpkins will look like. (Max ended up not carving his or decorating it at all.)

Brave Timmy scooping out the guts with his bare hands.

From left to right, Max as a burglar, Max's friend Jason as Jason from Friday the 13th, Sophia as Elsa (shooting snow at you from her left hand), Henry as a football player, Lukey as Tigger, Timmy as Spiderman.

Alex and Max opted out of the whole pumpkin carving thing. But left to right are Luke's, Sophia's with a big S, Henry's mindcraft jack-o-lantern, and Timmy's.

Off to trick-or-treat. We only had to make one bathroom stop. We were too far away from the house to go back home and Timmy said, "Have to go potty!" Luckily,at  the next house a young mom answered the door with a little girl on her hip, she welcomed us in and a gaggle of sister or cousins came and gushed over the kids, even asking Sophia to sing Let it Go, since she was Elsa. And our last stop as always was a trip to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale's, where we watched "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".

Randy turned 40 this year! His cake you see Max holding is a gravestone and reads, "Here Lies Randy's Youth 1974 - 2014".

Lukey's Birthday

Luke turned 2, September 27.  We celebrated on his actual birthday this year. Here he is with his Daniel Tiger cake. ( Daniel Tiger is a cartoon spin off of Mr. Rogers).

He blew his candle out all by himself this year and cheered and clapped after everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

Here's the gang with the birthday boy.

He wasn't a speedy present opener for his birthday, which made some of his siblings crazy, but they waited and he opened them, mostly on his own.

He really was that excited about everything he opened. It was a great birthday!