Team Photo

Owen's team just finished up their first session of indoor soccer but they just received their trophies for getting first place in outdoor last season! Congratulations!!

Fun with Friends

We started the first day of vacation off right with friends at an indoor playground. Carpooling always adds an extra element of fun for everyone too. The kids pretended the hills were a rollercoaster and then we spent 3 hours at the playground. I didn't think the kids would last that long but it ended up being the perfect amount of time.

Whee!

Picture opportunity!

Friends

We had some friends in town recently and were able to meet up with them at Panera to catch up! We realized it had been about two years since we had seen each other (too long!) so we were really glad they got in touch while they were here. The kids all picked out a treat and colored while we talked but they were also really involved with the conversation because there was no where to escape to;)

I took this picture...

Paige took this picture...

Quinoa Bark

I found the recipe for Chocolate Caramel Bark with Quinoa in a magazine and was interested but also a little leery of quinoa in a dessert setting. I made it for a small get together at my house to try it out and loved it so much I made another batch to give to the kids teachers with their Christmas presents.

Birthday Baking

We celebrated my mom's birthday over the weekend and made some holiday treats! First up was the peanut brittle. It seemed fairly easy and we were closely monitoring it with the candy thermometer until it started smelling and looking burnt. I thought we would have to throw the whole thing out but it came out very tasty! Too tasty... Then we made an old cookie dough recipe of my grandmas that turned out to be very versatile. We made three different kinds from the one dough. The kids had a ton of fun hanging out with their cousins, who are much more mobile then they were last time! Paige wanted to be in charge of them but they were having none of it:)

Owen's Class Party

I went to Paige's class for Halloween so it was time to take a turn in Owen's class for the Christmas party! They played a game where they had balloons tied around their legs and had to pop the other peoples balloons and the kids loved it! They also had tons of treats and drank hot chocolate. 3rd graders don't actually need a lot of help at their parties but I'm still glad I got to go:)

Paige's Recital

Even though Paige had two mall performances under her belt, that didn't mean her recital was any less exciting! She still had a tap number that she hadn't performed publicly and costume changes to deal with. The girls did amazing. I'd seen these songs countless times and was still impressed with their performance. Good job Paige!

Owen's Christmas Concert!

I've been waiting to post about Owen's school concert because I thought I would figure out how to add the other pictures I took to this post but this was the best I could do! This picture is from the post-concert ice cream celebration! Owen had a speaking part again this year and did great. The first line of his part  was, "And French carols are also known as noels." When he practiced it at home it kept sounding like he was saying "French girls" but he fixed it before the big night:) The other big news was that a student threw up on stage two songs from the end of the show. They paused for a cleanup before they finished! 

Nutcracker!

Pat and Owen opted out of seeing the Nutcracker (remember how it went last year?) so it was just Paige and me! A lot of the performers were from Paige's dance studio so she recognized some friends and her teachers. I was really impressed with the job they did, it's crazy to think that Paige could be participating in something of that scale as soon as next year! We also ran into some friends in the audience which gave us a chance to pose for some pictures together:)

Before!

After!

Wreathy

I told Owen I needed a picture on my phone because I had just cleared them out and this is what I got:)

Hugs!

"Mom, can we play electronics?"
"Yes, but only if you hug each other first."
"Ok!"

Cousins!

The kids got a chance to hang out with their cousins a couple weeks ago and they looooved it! Paige especially was all about helping take care of the babies, even if they didn't need it;)

Dancing at the Mall!

Paige is in a new group at dance this year and got to perform at the malls for the christmas season! That means triple the number of performances by the end of the month compared to last year! She did an awesome job and I could tell she loved all of it!

Go Paige!

Paige has been playing indoor soccer once a week for the last month or so and the company put some pictures on Facebook. I found Paige in a few of them looking awesome! She's been doing a great job every week and loves keeping track of how many goals she's scored. So far, I think her record is 7 for one game!

Wizard of Oz

The kids had their first Wizard of Oz experience recently and I needed to document it! Owen liked it but thought it had too many songs and Paige thought it was great!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a blast this year! Pat had an ear infection but he was feeling much better than the previous day and weather was so nice that I wore shorts and a t-shirt on my run and Paige was able to join me on her bike! As per tradition, the turkey was ready an hour early and somehow the sweet potatoes were frozen (oops!) but other than that the food and desserts were great! After dinner we played a Pictionary-ish game on the WiiU that was a big hit!

Multi-tasking-Everyone watched the parade while Pat soothed his ear, Owen ate an apple and Paige worked on some place cards for the table!

The whole group minus my dad and Paige who was hiding behind Jamie.

The whole group minus me!

Something was hilarious here...maybe some tickling?

I made everyone pose again:)

My mom and I had a great team picture for the game!

So Thankful!

I have some catching up to do so I'll be posting once a day until I get it done! We continued the tradition of our thankful turkey this year. We started late and forgot to write our answers down a couple days but we still managed to get a lot of feathers up there. Just having this up is a good reminder to think about what we're thankful for even when we forget to put it up! We had some traditional answers (God, family, food, house) and some new answers too (Laney and Zsa Zsa, Community workers, Mrs. Blatnica, Sidney).

Visitors!

I was just talking about not having as much time to visit with friends as we would like in the last post and now I'm posting about some friends who made the trip up to see us! We get to see them about once a year and we're always glad when we do! The kids fall right into play-mode and emerge every once in awhile for food while the adults all get to catch up. It's never a long visit so we really concentrate on hanging out and staying close to home to minimize travel and maximize visiting time!

Friendsgiving!

With the kids and their friends getting older and busier we don't have as many opportunities to visit with friends but it's always nice when we figure out a way to make it happen. The week before Thanksgiving we made plans for dinner and playtime with one of our favorite families and the kids had a blast (adults too!). Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying a potty-words driven Mad Libs.