Monday, October 23, 2023

Fall Fun

 Our Fall has been filled with sports, weekend trips, activities, co-op fun, and lots of memory making. 

Nathan is playing his last season of flag football. He usually plays defense but has subbed in on offense occasionally as center. He even caught a pass when he was playing offense. He's very proud of that!




Recently, Katherine asked Matt if he'd work with her on riding her bike again. She tried several months ago but gave up pretty easily. She hopped right up there this time though and figured it out very quickly. 






She's been asking to ride her bike almost daily since she learned. She's a persistent hard worker, that girl. 

We spent a perfect Fall evening with some of our all-time favorite people. We grilled burgers for dinner, played board games, and roasted marshmallows for s'mores for dessert. It was perfection. 



These girls got super silly at the end of the night and were playing silly restaurant. They always play so well together and come up with the most creative ideas. 

We visited Shepherd's Fold Ranch with our co-op group and spent a delightful Fall morning petting animals, playing games and learning about pumpkins and farms. 






The boys are taking a mock trial class this year, and one week they learned about questioning witnesses. They read fairy tales and brainstormed ideas for which witnesses to call and what questions to ask them. That sparked their imagination and that night they put on their own trial and were prosecuting the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs. It was a big family affair, and everyone got into character. 


Our co-op day is everyone's favorite day of the week. The elementary history class learns geography through songs (middle school does too), and they were all swaying to the songs as they did their map practice in class. 


The songs are cheesy, but they are learning so much geography through the cheesiness. 





Samuel and Elisabeth made lion masks in science class. 

And I thought Elisabeth's fun fact for the week was so fitting of her bold personality. 



She's also using her creativity in her wild animal craft class. She painted a watercolor parrot one week. 



We're in a good school routine, and Katherine's reading continues to improve. She's learning so much this year through the short, daily lessons. 




We met the Newcombs at the Gathering Place one day over Fall Break. The weather was gorgeous, and the kids had the best time playing. We had to drag them away after three hours. 










Samuel has been working on his Rubik's cube skills lately and was able to solve it (with the help of YouTube).  

The Millers invited us over for a Fall watercolor class over Fall Break. The kids did great with it. 
We've nicknamed Hannah, Hannah Houdini, because she has been escaping from our backyard. We let her out of her pen to explore our backyard while we were outside for group time, and when we were finished and Samuel was going to put her back in her pen, she had disappeared. We looked for her and worried about her for several hours, and then I randomly looked outside later and saw her back in her pen just chilling. I'm just glad she always comes back home after her adventures. We still haven't figured out where she goes. The kids need to write a book about her adventures!
For Matt's birthday I surprised him with tickets to Nate Bargatze, and several months later he finally got to redeem them. We turned it into a fun double date with Matt and Erica and went to dinner together before the show. 
And out of the giant arena and thousands of people, we ended up sitting directly in front of the Newcombs. So crazy and fun! Nate was HILARIOUS. My cheeks were so sore from laughing so hard all night long. So, so good! 
The next day after the show, we drove to Edmond to celebrate Abby's fourth birthday and take family pictures. 

The girls were adorable for pictures. 
Samuel was so sweet to spend the evening playing drink restaurant with Abby. 


The next day we celebrated Abby at a gymnastics gym. My kids were in heaven. 

Katherine showed off all of her tricks. She's taking gymnastics and dance classes this year and is a born performer. I'm excited to see what she does when she's older. 














We had a wonderful weekend celebrating sweet Abby. 

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Weekend In Kansas City

 This Fall, we met my brother's family in Kansas City for a fun, long weekend. We arrived in Kansas City a little early, so we visited the outlet shops until we could check into our house for the weekend. We spent most of the time at a toy/book store, and not at my favorite shops, but that's life with kids. They were silly walking along this yellow brick road on our way to the shops. 




One of our favorite things to do when we're together with my brother and Anna is play board games. I had to snap a picture of the board games both of our families brought for a three-day weekend. We might have gone a little overboard, but we did end up playing most of them!
The kids were excited about the hot tub at our rental. That helped keep them occupied.
We made no real plans for the weekend. We got takeout for meals and stayed inside almost all weekend playing games and letting the cousins play. It was relaxing and wonderful.
These girls play so well together despite the three year age difference. 
All the cousins shared one big bunk room with allll the electronics. 

We were liberal with screen time over the weekend, so the adults could play games. We played multiple rounds of Dice Forge, Star Wars Panic, Bunny Kingdom, Tokaido, and Everdell. 


These girls were inseparable all weekend. They even slept together on a twin size mattress.  
They're adorable. 
They played (a slightly dangerous game of the stairs are lava one morning)


Our rental also had an awesome basement with a billiard table and arcade games. 


We did leave our hibernation hole for dinner on Sunday night, because my kids are obsessed with Culvers and were dying to eat there. 
The big kids asked to have an "all nighter" on the last night of our trip. We let them- memories, right?
They were up with us until 1:00am. After our last game of Everdell ended at 11:30pm, Anna suggested playing Jack Box. The kids had been playing together that weekend (and during our last visit to Iowa), and when they caught us playing, they asked to join in. It was so fun to play all together even if we were up way too late. 

The adults went to bed, and I found my children like this the next morning (Amelia was the only smart one who went to sleep in her bed). They said they watched Dude Perfect until 3:00 in the morning and then most of them fell asleep. 
Fun memories, right?!
Monday morning after we packed up, we played one last round of Jack Box together before saying goodbye. 
Elisabeth insisted we all sign the whiteboard before we left. 
We were so happy Papa joined us for the weekend, and always, always grateful for the role he plays in the lives of his grandkids. 

We're always missing my mom and wondering what it would have been like with her with us, but I'm also so proud of us for intentionally putting in the effort to strengthen our family even without her. 

We're already looking forward to being all together again in March. 
We stopped for lunch in Carthage on the way home, and the kids asked if we could stop at the Precious Moments chapel before we drove the rest of the way home. Matt was kind enough to indulge them, so we took a little detour. 


I had brought Elisabeth to the chapel a couple of years ago, but the other kids had never visited. I'd also visited with my grandparents when I was a kid and with Mom and Barry as a college student. 
I think the kids were happy we stopped. The artwork is beautiful. 
My precious Katherine insisted on writing a tribute to Grammy in the tribute room.  She's trying so hard to process her grief and remember the Grammy she lost too soon. And I love her for that. Whew, it led to some emotions, as Barry and I were also remembering our visit with Grammy to the chapel.




After the tour, the kids browsed the gift shop for a bit, before we drove back home ready for a new week.