Valentine's Day 2024

This was Jack's last year doing valentines for his friends at school, as he will be moving up to the Middle School in the Fall.  It's the ending of an era and a sad one for me.  We have always 'stepped up our game' with the valentines and passed out something other than a small piece of candy and I have loved watching the kids work on them at the dining room table.  Jimmy will still continue doing valentines for another 3 years and I plan to savor those moments while I can.

This year, I printed out stickers to put on nice-sized bags of Sour Patch Kids that read, "Valentine, you make life less sour."  

These are one of the boys' favorite kinds of candy, so it was fitting to choose those to hand out to their classmates.

When the kids came home from school later that day, I made sure to have the table all set up for each of them.  Aunt Chris sent along special bags for each of them to celebrate the holiday and I made one of everyone's FAVORITE desserts: brookies.  

Those are a combination of a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie and are completely irresistible.  

Jimmy's 8th Birthday

On Jimmy's "real" birthday, he woke up to bunch of gifts all wrapped with dinosaur wrapping to complement his chosen birthday theme.  We had a basketball game to attend for Jack later in the morning so we made sure to start the day off early celebrating this 8-year-old.  

Of course, we had our traditional cinnamon rolls with a candle in them for breakfast and everyone sang 'happy birthday.'

Jimmy took turns opening gifts from all of us and one of his most favorite items was a gel blaster gun from his brother.

Later that evening, I surprised everyone with ice cream sundaes in waffle bowls ... and ALL the toppings!

Jimmy loaded up on chocolate syrup and gummy worms ...

And then I stuck a candle in the top and we sang 'happy birthday' again.  Such a great day celebrating the youngest member of our family!

Winter Dances

The girls each went to their respective Winter Dances this year with friends.  

Sophia's dance was at the Middle School and as a 7th grader, this was her first dance to be able to attend.  She chose her dress online and then I made a few modifications to it to make sure that it met her expectations.  Of course, it is the trend to wear comfortable shoes -- especially Converse -- with your fancy dress now.

A quick pic of Sophia and her dad before she left for the dance:

She has now officially surpassed me in height, even when she isn't wearing her platform Converse shoes, and I can't believe how grown up she looks.  She will be turning 13 in just a few weeks.

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Samantha also chose her dress online and then asked me to make a few modifications, as well.  I'm glad that she chose to go with a long-sleeve for the winter season and I think that the navy color was so stunning on her.  

Sam loves our cat so much and wanted to be sure that I captured a picture of them together.  I don't think that Mia was quite as thrilled for the photo shoot.

I say this every time -- her legs are SO long.  This is one of the reasons why she is so great at hurdles on the Track Team. 

I helped her with her hair and I think that it turned out pretty cute.  

I can't believe that her sophomore year is almost over already.  Time is really flying by!

Celebrating Jimmy's 8th Birthday with Friends

When I was planning Jimmy's 8th birthday, I looked ahead on the calendar and sighed.  This is always such a busy time of year in our household because of basketball season, Winter dances, Valentine's Day, ALL the February birthdays ... and the list goes on.  But -- I don't ever want to miss an opportunity to celebrate my kids up big for their birthdays either.  So, I shuffled some things around and reached out to the moms of some of Jimmy's friends so that we could be sure to find a day and time that worked for a party.  

Jimmy chose a dinosaur theme and I suggested a party at the bowling alley where we went for part of Jack's party last year.  Then, we set to work filling some party bags.

We included some dinosaur chapstick, dinosaur gummy candy, some squishy dinosaur eggs and one of our favorite things -- dinosaur eggs that you 'excavate.'

I made and decorated the cake and then made sure that we would be able to safely transport it to the bowling alley.  

The girls (and Ainsley) were a big help to me, loading up the van and then waiting in the vehicle while I picked up a few balloons from Meijer.  Steve was with Jack at his basketball game at the time and they planned to join us at the bowling alley after the game was over. 

One by one, the friends arrived and they were so excited to be able to see Jimmy, bowl and have lots of pizza, pop and cake.

I ended up adding on an extra lane after Jack arrived and the girls and Jack bowled on that lane.  

We took a small break to sing 'happy birthday' to this 8-year old and then the kids DEVOURED the cake.  Our server even surprised us by bringing out cups of ice cream for everyone.  It was such a thoughtful gesture because I knew that I wouldn't be able to transport ice cream to the bowling alley for the party and manage to keep it cold.

Jimmy is one loved little boy because he was spoiled by all of the gifts that he received.

They all know him SO well!

Build your own Lego car?  Yup, perfect.

Pokemon, Bakugan and football.  More favorites.

As Jimmy was finishing up with gifts and the boys were competing to see who the final winner of their bowling games would be, our server did one more amazing thing for us.  She went into the back of the alley, where all of the pins are stored, and brought out a bowling pin as a souvenir.  She wrote, "Happy 8th Birthday, Jimmy!" on it and signed her name.  And then she left sharpies for the rest of the guests to write on it.  

Jimmy proudly posed with it and his balloons when we got back home and I am pretty sure that he did not stop smiling for the rest of the day!

 

Kicking Off the New Year

Celebrating Grandpa's birthday on New Year's Day with his dessert of choice: homemade key lime pie.  Jack must have blinked just as I was taking the picture, ha!

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While we often think of winter here in Michigan as being cold, blustery and full of snow, this winter has been quite mild so far.  We have still taken advantage of the warmer indoors to work on Legos and puzzles.  

I love being able to set up a card table in any random place in the house and have a puzzle going for anyone that wants to stop by and put a few pieces in.  

 

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We often have a wood fire going in fireplace in our back family room and Steve surprised the boys by offering to let them roast their hotdogs in it one night.

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The local American Legion, which Steve and I are both members of, hosts an Annual Squirrel and Rabbit Hunt each year in January.  The boys both participated this year and were happy to be able to turn in some squirrels to earn tickets toward prizes.  

Even Sam joined in and helped add to the collection.

Steve and the boys originally had other plans to stay overnight in a neighbor's hunting cabin and begin hunting early the morning of the event and then head back to our woods and finish in the afternoon.  But, with the impending snowstorm -- you can tell that it was definitely snowing hard in this picture with Steve -- they changed their minds and chose to stay home and hunt here.  It was a good choice because the storm knocked out the power for a few hours.  Thank goodness for a generator and a crockpot of chili going in the fire-heated garage to keep everyone dry and warm.

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Sam invited one of her best friends, Lillian, to come over and hang out.  I hope that the kids never get tired of building snowmen in the front yard!

Jimmy set to work making his own snowman farther away from the girls.  It was definitely great 'packing' snow.

Even Jack and Sophia joined in on the fun!

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Another winter-day activity: drawing and coloring with his art set.  Sometimes I draw the pictures for him, but lately, he has been doing most of the drawing himself and I love seeing his budding artistic side.

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End of the Year Randoms

Taken in November, after our first snowfall of the season.  The boys were excited to see the snow so they headed out to the back deck to shovel it that morning before the bus arrived to pick them up for school:

Smiles on their faces!

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Jack threw some extra apple peels out by the woods (leftover from a batch of applesauce that I had made) and the deer were excited to come up and indulge.

Pretty soon, Jack will set up his corn feeder in the same location for the deer:

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Looking sharp for his Christmas concert at school:

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Any time I can get one of the kids to help in the kitchen, I do so.  There are so many valuable skills to learn in there and on this particular day, Jack was eager to assist.

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The last week of school before Christmas Break was filled with special memories and theme days.  Jack needed a holiday hat so I took one out of the Halloween bin and told him that he could mimic Frosty the Snowman and Jimmy needed to take in a stocking to his classroom for each of his classmates to fill.  A little glitter glue and a cheap stocking and it turned out great!

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I had not made Monkey Bread in quite some time, so I surprised the kids with some on a dreary afternoon.  Add in some festive plates and it was cheery in our household in no time!

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Jimmy received a lego set as a gift and set to work right away putting it together at the dining room table.

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Jack found Steve's old motorcycle shirt in the basement and came upstairs wearing it -- along with the picture taken of Steve wearing it when he was about Jack's age.

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The day after Christmas, we took an impromptu trip as a family up to Frankenmuth.  We had not been there in FOREVER -- in fact, I am not sure that we have ever gone with all 4 of the kids -- so we visited some shops and walked around, taking in the sites.

This picture turned out so great, that I am considering it for our Christmas Card Picture next year!  Ha!

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Another impromptu trip that we took was a few days before the holiday when we packed up and headed to Traverse City to Great Wolf Lodge.  

We checked into our hotel room (which had a nice fireplace), donned some wolf ears and snapped a quick picture before the kids took off for the water park.

We were here earlier this year and decided that it would make for a great getaway again before Christmas.  We only stayed one night this time, but the kids certainly enjoyed it.

On our way home, we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant and allowed the kids to all get a special Mexican pop in their favorite flavor.  The toasted the occasion!

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Late November/early December means the beginning of basketball season for Jack and Jimmy and they are excited to play again this year.

Jimmy will be on a more competitive team next year (in 3rd grade) and is definitely ready to play more structured games.  Jack plays point guard most of the time on his 5th grade team and so far, they are off to a great season.

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