The E Journey

Time to celebrate

Maria asked if she could have the girls in her class for a playdate in honor of her birthday. I don't do birthday parties, no party favors, no cake, but playdates and ice cream I can handle. A local business has inflatables and was offering a cheap Thursday night special, so for less than $20, I picked up six little girls from school (that would be all the girls in her class, heaven help that teacher), come to our house for ice cream, a little Just Dance for Kids Wii and off to bounce for an hour. Whew! done with that one.

A few days later, Matt took Brandon and four boys to an indoor arena/arcade. They played laser tag, arcade games, ate pizza etc. Its called the Three Mile Project and it is run on donations by a group of Christians that want a safe, fun place for teens to hang out. Only certain ages are allowed in on different nights. Matt got on the volunteer list, so he is allowed in, but otherwise parents aren't even allowed in the door. Of course that means there are no pictures of the event, because I wasn't allowed!

Art work from the fair

With the arrival of my parents, came the kid's school art work. Every year we send the art work from school to MN to be entered in the Freeborn County Fair. Every year the kids make out like bandits - getting paid to do their art homework - who knew. This year we had a ridiculous amount of reserved champions and grand champions and now I have four new pieces of art work hanging in my living room!

Grandparents Day

This year, Grandparents Day and Matt's mom's birthday happened to be on the same day. The kiddos were blessed enough to have all four grandparents in school with them and come home to celebrate Mimi.
We love how much our kids enjoy their grandparents. Thanks for coming and making this day all that much more special for each of them!

A trip to the Big House

Our friends received four extra tickets to a U of MI game on Homecoming weekend and asked us to come along. Brandon decided to stay home and play in his indoor soccer game and a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, so only 3 of the 4 tickets were used. Thanks to friends who watched the girls and another friend who took care of getting Brandon where he needed to be.

Michigan football is horrible this year, but we still had a great time. Our friends graduated from the dental school, so we tailgated with a bunch of their classmates. We ate well, relaxed, and did our best to stay warm! And Michigan even decided to win. It was fun to experience it all with them. The stadium is HUGE and a big hole in the ground. You walk in the stadium at row 70! How crazy is that? Only in the land of the sand can you keep digging down! Brandon said he gets to go next year. We'll see what happens!

And she's 8

Our little one isn't so little. Somehow, she continues to make herself known and not be left behind. She loves to color, can be very helpful, and is almost fluent in Spanish. She is discovering that reading is pretty good when you have the right book and she loves dogs. In fact, she runs outside whenever any of our neighbors are out walking theirs. She chose doughnuts for breakfast, chocolate bundt cake for dessert, and chicken patties for supper. True health that one. There is still a stubborn streak in this one that you can't believe, but she can also be the sweetest thing ever. She and Jessica still share a room and are best of friends and worst of enemies. She also loves owls.
We love you little girl, and can't wait to see what the next years bring!

Time for pumpkins

Once again, pumpkin carving time was upon us. Maria's was the big one this year. Each year my dad has a pumpkin patch and when the pumpkins are young, he carves the kids' names in them. The pumpkin heals over the carve like a scab and you can clearly read the kids name. Maria's grew quite large. Brandon went for teeth, Maria's is a cat looking at the moon, Anika is all about Ninja Turtles lately, and Jessica always has to have a mustache and googly eyes. Good times. Each of the kids made one at church with GEMS and youth group. Maria (with Matt's help) made one that said 'Boo' and won third prize. I think it helped it was her birthday that night!