Thanksgiving in Bloomington

Hiking

Can you find the salamander?

Dirty hands

Aunt Traci's salamander

Bonfire smoking us out

More salamanders

More salamanders

Bumper Boats

We traveled to Bloomington, Indiana to visit Trevor's Uncle Todd, Aunt Traci, and cousins: Broderick and Brittany for Thanksgiving. We left on Wednesday and returned home on Saturday morning. We had nice weather, great company, yummy food, and a fantastic time. They are all wonderful with our kids and even had some special activities planned for them. Some of the highlights of our trip include:

• Visiting with our family. 
• Hiking in the woods while hunting for salamanders. 
• Eating s'mores at our bonfire. 
• Playing tag with the paddle boats.
• Playing frisbee golf and corn hole.
• Making and decorating sugar cookies with Uncle Todd. 
• Eating our yummy Thanksgiving dinner.
• Seeing Woody in Downtown Bloomington at the annual Christmas Lighting Ceremony.  

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I want to take a moment to reflect on a few of the things I am thankful for this year:

• Good health- I think I often take this for granted but recently was reminded of the fragility of the human body. I am so thankful for my healthy family.
• Laughter- I need to take more time to enjoy the simple things of life and laugh more.
• Forgiveness- God's grace, patience, and love are amazing. I strive to be more like Him although I fail frequently... 
• The ability to learn from our mistakes.
• The warmth and safety of our home.
• Freedom to worship as I choose.
• Trevor- He is a wonderful husband, a dedicated father, an excellent provider, and a man of integrity. I love him dearly.
• Kaylee- She is such a sweet, innocent little girl who is everyone's friend.
• Kianna- She loves to be silly and sing songs, which makes me smile.
• Trace- He gives the best hugs and has begun telling me "I love you this much" as he spreads his arms out wide. How precious is my little guy!
• Friends and Family- We have wonderful people in our lives who love us and support us. We are blessed!

Kaylee's Thanksgiving Chapel

Pilgrims on the Mayflower

The Narrators

Signing the Song

Kaylee and Mommy

The two first grade classes were in charge of chapel this week. They reenacted a scene from one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations. It was pretty cute seeing the kids dressed up as pilgrims and indians. Kaylee was one of the narrators for the play. She did a great job. The kids told some silly jokes, which Kaylee is still quoting. They also performed a beautiful song doing sign language. The chapel ended with a slide show of all the kids. It was a fun service.

Here is the video so you can see Kaylee as the narrator:

Science Kits

Making the volcano

Letting the volcano dry

Ready to watch it erupt

Getting ready to dig for gold

Digging for gold

Two of Kaylee's birthday gifts were science kits and boy were they a hit. Kaylee had fun building the volcano, painting it, and erupting it. Unfortunately, the eruption was a bit weak, but still fun. Her other kit was a gold dig kit, which both she and Kianna had fun using. Kaylee LOVES these things.

Our Sweet Kaylee

It is hard to believe that our sweet little girl is 7 year's old already. She continues to be a very social little girl who makes friends easily. She seems to be everyone's friend. I told her that when I was in first grade I didn't have 10 friends to invite to a party, sad but true. Kaylee loves school and is very smart. She is an excellent reader and currently reads at a 3rd grade level despite only being in 1st grade. Kaylee is my little helper, especially when it comes to helping me cook. There have even been a couple of times when she has surprised me in the morning by getting Trace dressed. She is a good leader and really wants to do the right thing. She gets very sad when she does something wrong and has become a lot more sensitive recently. She is a very nice little girl.

Some of her interests include:

•  Crafts, crafts, and more crafts- she received lots of new craft projects from her friends and has already started working on several of them. One of them is a kit to make her own volcano. It takes a few days to complete, but once it is finished we'll share some pictures.
• Gymnastics- she started taking gymnastic again this Fall after a 2 year break. She is really enjoying them and has been making a lot of progress. We think she is beginning to get a bit more competitive, as she has been frustrated at times by her inability to perform a task. We view that as a good thing though, as it has motivated her to practice those skills outside of class, and she is seeing results. Her goals are currently to be able to do a cartwheel, a backwards somersault, and a controlled handstand.
•  Brady Bunch- she loves watching the old reruns and even dressed up as Cindy Brady for Halloween this year. 
• Video games-she loves playing her DS, the Wii, or computer games. She especially enjoys playing the New Super Mario Brothers game.
• Playing outside- she really likes playing freeze tag, jumping on the trampoline, and swimming in the summer. She loves to dive for things and swim under water. She is a little fish. Lately, Kaylee has been more interested in sports. She has been wanting to play soccer, volleyball, and even a little basketball with us, which makes Mommy and Daddy happy!
• Playing with Kianna and Trace- some days they play better together than others...
• Listening to Trevor and I tell her about when we were little.

Kaylee's 7th Birthday

Cara and Kaylee, their friends keep telling them they look alike.

Group Picture

Silly Faces

Present time

Slumber party

Singing karaoke

Ready for the tea party...

The birthday festivities began on Friday with Kaylee's friend party. She wanted to have a slumber party this year and not wanting to exclude anyone we ended up with 10 little girls are our house, not counting our 3 kids. The evening was spent playing freeze tag outdoors, eating dinner (tortellini, carrots, grapes, and puppy chow), opening presents, doing a craft, watching "Mary Poppins" while eating popcorn with M&Ms, and singing karaoke in the morning. The girls went to bed at 10:00 PM and woke up at 6:35 AM. I was impressed that all the kids made it without having to call their parents. It was pretty comical listening to their conversations first thing in the morning. It began with one child talking and within minutes everyone was awake, although you could still hear "shhhhhh" from those that weren't happy about being woken up early after a late night. Then I would hear them one by one get up to check the clock. One would announce, "It is 6:35 AM". Another would get up to verify the time. Then several minutes later another would announce the new time, "It is 6:14 AM". Another child would get up to verify and say no it isn't, it is 6:41 AM. This continued until close to 7:00 AM when I finally went and told them they could turn the lights on as long as they were all quiet. It was a fun party and Kaylee should be in craft heaven with all of her new gifts. Her friends must know her well. 

After her friends had left, the birthday fun continued with present time with our family. Kaylee's big gift from us was her American Girl doll, Molly, which she received back in September during our trip to Chicago. I wrapped Molly up just for fun even though she has had her for awhile. Other gifts included new clothes for Molly and several matching dresses for Kaylee, some new magazines, pajamas and a few smaller items. Then some more fun times came in the version of an American Girl Tea Party, or at least they were supposed to. The girls got all dressed up and drove 30 minutes away to go to this tea party with two of their friends, Reed and Ruthie. Unfortunately, as soon as they arrived Kianna vomited all over herself while still in the car. That ended up being a tea party stopper as you can imagine. There were definitely some tears as the girls arrived back home unable to go to their tea party. Thankfully, Kianna seems to be feeling okay today. It appears the vomiting was due to her being motion sick, which unfortunately I passed onto her. The girls are hoping to reschedule their tea party with their friends in the near future. 

The day concluded with a fun evening spent at home where Kaylee enjoyed her favorite pasta dish and Wii night. We had some good laughs as we got out our Wii Fit Board for the first time in 997 days. I was apparently pregnant with Trace the last time we played. I was happy to learn that I am no longer "obese" just "overweight" as reported by my game. Kaylee's Wii fit age is 31. Kianna's is 40. Trace's is 22. Mine is 44 and Trevor's is 28. You can imagine the bragging that brought about by my beloved husband. Trace rocked at the soccer head butting game and ski jump. He is so cute. Kaylee did a great job with the ski jump and had fun with the tightrope walking. Kianna enjoyed the ski jump, although she was rolled into a snowball quite a few times. Fun times. Hopefully we will use the board a little more frequently now that we were reminded how much fun it is!!!

Halloween 2011

Trace the cowboy riding a horse. This cutie deserves 1st prize for sure!

Cindy Brady, our girls are hooked on The Brady Bunch reruns.

Kids at the Barnyard Bash

Rapunzel

Kids excited to go trick-or-treating

Our sweet dragon

Our Halloween festivities began on Friday evening with The Centre's annual Fall Fest. The kids had a great time getting dressed up, playing games, doing crafts, jumping in the bouncy house, and spending time with their friends. We attempted to watch the movie "Mars Needs Moms", but it was a little too intense for our crew. They declared it too scary and we left midway through. It was a fun evening nevertheless. Oh and did I mention that Trace won the costume contest for kids 2 and under. He dressed up as a cowboy riding a horse that night. I say "that night" because the kids changed costumes depending on the event. The first night Kianna was a penguin and Kaylee was Cindy Brady. I guess that is part of the fun of having a good dress up bin!

On Saturday evening, our church hosted their annual Barnyard Bash. The kids again had fun getting dressed up, playing games, petting some animals, decorating cookies, and eating popcorn. Trace and I even won the cake walk, which was pretty exciting! That night Kaylee was Cindy Brady again, Kianna was Rapunzel, and Trace was a dragon.

On Sunday, we rested.

On Monday evening, we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and took our longest route to date. The kids started off strong, especially Kianna and Trace who were sprinting from house to house. They petered out a bit towards the end, but not before getting a ton of loot! Our treat bags were already full from Friday and Saturday's events, so we are working on finding a new location for the rest of our stash. The table has been today's location. Kaylee decided to be a doctor and Kianna and Trace remained Rapunzel and a dragon. We had a fun weekend of playing dress-up!