The princess and the toothless

Ellie loves playing dress up.  We usually see 5-10 wardrobe changes before noon.  The more the skirt flares out, the better!

Sam lost another tooth yesterday.  Thats 2 in the last week.  The best part was he pulled it out himself!

More dodgeball

The boys just finished their first session of dodge ball for home schoolers and are already signed up for the next round. They are loving it!

Sam in dodge ball jail.

Plotting and scheming!

Happy birthday Papa

Random

Headbandz has become Ellies favorite game night game.

After enjoying the one 60 degree day in the middle of February, you just need to relax on the couch with some snacks.

2 front teeth = gone!

Sky Zone

The kids got some gift cards to Sky Zone for Christmas. Here is a quick look at some of the fun they had:

Really?

Who needs a nice, comfy bed when you have the floor!

Dodgeball

Ellie finished up her gymnastics class last week and Ben and Sam started a dodge ball class.

Its not really a class, its more like free time where a bunch of homeschoolers get together to play dodge ball.

They had a blast!  They definitely love playing and I love that they are getting to meet a new group of home schooled kids.

Birthday boy

Yesterday was Jons birthday.  It kinda stinks having a birthday on a Wednesday.  Jon worked from home so we all got to have breakfast and lunch together.  He requested chocolate chip cookies instead of cake or ice cream.  The kids had Royal Rangers last night so we took advantage and went out for Hibachi for dinner with Corrie.  We haven't done that in over a year and it was so good!  It was definitely a low key day, but hopefully he felt loved. Happy birthday baby!

Winter Days

We checked out the Vermilion Metro Park Winter Days event over the weekend.  They had sled dogs, ice fishing, ice rescue demonstrations, music, arts and crafts and more!

The sled dogs were a big hit for the kids.  Unfortunately, it was 50 degrees and no snow so they couldn't do a demonstration, but they we're still cool to see and pet.

The rescue demonstration was cool, but I think it would have been more fun to see them throw some random guy in the water and rescue him rather than a trained professional in a suit.

Of course, we can't go anywhere without stopping at the play ground.

Rainforest

The Rainforest was one of the January activities on our Christmas activity calendar.  We got it in just under the wire.  We went Friday afternoon which seems to be the time to go. We saw one other couple in one section.  Other than that, we had the place to ourselves.

As usual, they were way more excited to climb on rocks than they were to see most of the animals.

Ellie found her Christmas present for this year!

Week 3

We're half way through her gymnastics class and she's still loving it!

Game night

We made up an activity calendar for the kids for Christmas.  Each month we planned out 3 activities to do as a family.  Some are pretty basic like going swimming or a movie night.  Some are a little more "exotic" like going to a baseball game or rock climbing at the light house.  Between Bible study, Royal Rangers, errands and every day things, we spend a lot of time with 1 person out trying to get everything done or we're split 3 and 3.  This ensures we'll slow down at least 3 times a month to enjoy doing something we all like and enjoy doing it together.

Friday night we crossed off one of the activities on our January list of pizza and game night.  Corrie came over and we made some home made pizza.  We had an exciting game of Headbands, Hi Ho Cheerio, Sorry and Trouble.

The kids did a great job of taking turns and suggesting games everyone liked to play.  I think everyone had a great time!

Presents

Ellie got some money for Christmas and her birthday from Momo and Papa, Gram and Pap.  She finally got to spend most of it today.  She picked out a Sophia the First vanity and a puppy stuffed animal.  The vanity was one of the first things she saw and she didn't forget about it the whole time we were in the store, which was a really, really long time! So far she is very happy with her purchase and I am very happy that daddy neglected to tell her that the vanity actually talks!

Gymnastics, week 2

Wordless Wednesday: Silly

Date night

One of our Christmas presents from Gram was a date day/night.  We left the house for almost 10 full hours...with no kids!  We had lunch and dinner out, did some shopping, went to the lake (and froze) and ended the night by seeing Elf the musical.  I can't remember the last time we were away from the kids for that long.  It was awesome!  Thanks for babysitting and the tickets Gram!

Gymnastics

Ellie has been asking to take a gymnastics class for a couple months.  I've been hesitant because when we signed her up for a class after we moved it didn't go well. My parents got her a session for her birthday and we went for it. This one started slow.  We had a lot of folded arms and the teacher had to hold her hand and walk her around for a while.  Half way through it seemed to click and she went for it.  She tried everything her teachers asked her to do and she had a blast.  She's been talking non stop about the class and she's counting down the days until we go back next week.   

Jump Yard

Ellie also wanted to go to the Jump Yard for her birthday.  Here are some of the highlights:

Cake

We ended Ellies birthday with the dinner of her choice, steak and asparagus and cake.  Aunt Corrie decorated a Lambie cake from Doc McStuffins.  It turned out adorable.

One of Ellies presents was a Doc nightgown thats just a tiny bit too big!

Happy birthday baby girl!

Happy New Year!

We ended 2015 by celebrating Ellies birthday.  We bundled up for a morning at the zoo.  

The kids showed off the hats and scarves aunt Corrie made for Christmas.

We all picked an animal we wanted to see, but the highlight was the tram.  Its the little things!

It was cold, but I think everyone had a good time.