Holiday Cheer

       Christmas is my favorite time of the year, yet also the busiest with 2 small children. Every weekend is pretty much jammed packed with holiday activities. It is only the beginning on December and we have already seen Santa multiple times, been to a Christmas parade, made a ginger bread house and the house is decorated....and we still have a few weeks left until Christmas! We also spent the night Thanksgiving weekend at a hotel in Perrysburg with friends and family and had a great time! We will be doing it again next year! The kids and adults had a fun time swimming, eating and hanging out.   

 

Kids Halloween Party

   Saturday was our annual children's Halloween Party!  Since the guest list grows every year, we opted to have the party outside and in the garage this year.  Aside from a few rain drops and chilly weather the kids had a great time!  Since we were outside, we were able to bob for apples, eat doughnuts off of a string, as well as the usual painting of pumpkins, decorate cookies, foam Halloween crafts and coloring.  Some of the guests also brought some delicious fall treats to eat as well! 

More Fall Festivities

October is our busiest month of the year! Every weekend is filled with one or more Halloween activities...Here are a few pictures from some of the things we have done this month!

Preschool 4 Field Trip to Plymouth Orchard

Camp Dearborn with the Bunse and Bailey Families

Halloween Nights at Greenfield Village

Boo Bash at St. Sebastian

K of C Halloween Party

 

Our first camping trip

The Stetz family experienced their first camping trip this past weekend at the Monroe KOA for their Halloween weekends. We joined the Bunse, Nori, Stetz and Henning families for a weekend of Halloween fun. We had great weather for the trip- 80 degrees and sunny! The kids had a great time carving pumpkins (well, for about 5 minutes), playing mini-golf, riding bikes, going on hayrides, and going to the magic show (which even included a little adult humor) as well as a costume party and of course trick or treating. The adults also had a fun time hanging out, playing games and enjoying the haunted house. Somehow I was even able to look past the dirt, bugs, gross water and the short, thin, plastic mattress and have a great time as well. We will definitely be back next year!



Learning to Skate

   As if soccer, ballet and tap wasn't enough, I decided to put Katelyn in ice skating lessons.  I wasn't really sure how well she would do, but felt now was the best time for her to learn.  I was actually quite surprised that she did well!  She was put into the group of kids who started right from the beginning without using the push bar for help.  She was actually able to march across the ice and do pretty well skating forward and backwards.  When we went back for our second lesson today, she did even better lifting her feet as she skates, skating backwards and even jumping on her skates....I can only hope she doesn't want to be a figure skater as well!

Annual Trip to Blake's Cider Mill

   At the end of September we took our yearly tip to Blake's Cider Mill.  This year the Derkos family joined us!  We had a great time picking apples, riding the train and watching the kids play in the children's area.  We also enjoyed cider and doughnuts before we started the long drive home.  Katelyn had a great time playing with Ryan!

Ready for Fall!

  On Sunday we took our first of many trips to the apple orchard, which was Ella's first trip! Mike, Krissy and Avery joined us as well.  We decided to try Three Cedar's Farm in Northville...we will definitely go back next year!  They had hayrides, farm animals and plenty of free activities for the kids!  Katelyn had a great time.  The cider and doughnuts were tasty as well!  We had a beautiful day to go. 

Good Bye Summer!

  Well, Katelyn started Pre-School 4 this week.  She was excited to go back to school and see all of her friends and teacher, as well as make some new friends.  She has quite a few new girls in her class this year.  Hopefully she will do just as well in school as she did last year. 
  Soccer is also getting started, as well as dance. For soccer this year she has moved up to the 5-7 age group, so hopefully her team can keep up with the bigger kids! Along with taking ballet, Katelyn wanted to add a tap class as well. She was very excited about tap and how she learned to "shovel, shovel, stomp!" She is taking dance with a few of her friends, so it should make for a fun year!
  Ella is growing by the day!  She is now over 18 lbs!!  She loves to eat, has already tried a variety of fruits and vegetable, and had her first rice cracker the other day.  Although she isn't crawling yet, she does a great job of scooting around on floor to turn herself around to see what is going on in the house.