Keeping up with Ella, Laney & Matthew

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Art Museum

I was able to go with Laney's Kindergarten class to the Art Museum. Yeah, 40+ 5 year olds at the art museum. This was not my idea :)

But it Turned out to be a great time and the kids were excellent (although the bus ride was ridiculously loud).

They all enjoyed doing a puzzle about the red rooster

Like herding cats I tell ya

This painting used to be in a hotel in Cincinnati but was donated to the museum.

The kids were oh so cute!

The past few years the girls have enjoyed ringing the Salvation Army Bell with my parents. This year, they included Matthew! I love this tradition and feel it is important for the kids to do. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

Monday, November 19, 2012

A rough night

On Friday night we had a night out supporting Kindervelt at the Recreation Outlet. The kids had a great time playing on all the equipment, eating and catching up with friends. We even bid on a birthday party package and won (so Laney is excited to have her birthday there).

But all good things come to an end. As I was having dinner, I turned around to see my friend, Jody, holding Matthew. Ella ran to get me saying Matthew was crying. Matthew fell off this small roller coaster thing (which many kids hurt themselves on) and landed on another boy. What came next? Cries, swelling and a black eye. In true boy fashion, he was back playing in about 5 minutes and you can see below, he was not fazed by this black eye at all during his school's Thanksgiving party on Monday.

Nothing says happy Thanksgiving like a pilgrim with a black eye :)

Monday, November 5, 2012

Halloween Night

After the hectic afternoon, we were excited to have some friends over for dinner and start trick or treating.

Laura, Steve and their kids, Amanda and Owen, joined us for dinner

Jason and the kids were in charge of the pumpkins...what a great job!

One last picture

And this is what I saw the whole night...the back of my kids :)

The freakishly real looking horse

Matthew trying to keep up with the kids

Blondie meets the horse

Ella was so good with Matthew

Our friend, Steve, set up his studio outside to take pictures of the neighborhood kids and families. It was so nice to have great pictures of our kiddos on this night.

It was so cold so you aren't able to see that Ella had a costume change.

She came home from school crying saying that everybody called her a bride, not a flower girl. She said her close friends said she looked like a flower girl but everybody else called her a bride. I thought be a bride would be awesome for a 2nd grader,she wasn't happy. But no worries, we came up with costume #2....a gymnast! Nana Kay had a medal she donated to the cause, Ella threw on her leggings and her leotard and the dilemma was solved. Phew!

Back to family pictures...how did the horse get in there?

What a great night!

My sugar plum fairy

Love, love, love this picture!

Nana Dean was a trooper and trick or treated with us the whole night! She even drove my van around so Matthew could stay inside and hop out when he wanted to. Like I said, it was cold :)

Thanks, Nana, for being such a huge help and to Pappy Stan for handing out our candy!!

Halloween Parties

Halloween is always such a fun holiday around Terrace Park but incredibly, incredibly hectic!

I was excited to be in charge of Matthew's Halloween Party at school. Plus, Jason was able to join us for a bit before he left to go pick the girls up for lunch. Matthew's class was so cute!