The Dresses

While visiting my parents over Thanksgiving, we looked through my mother's cedar chest.  We found my old First Communion Dress and had to give it life again.  Anna will wear her sister's First Communion Dress for the real day (since styles have changed a bit and a rust stain has appeared), but I love seeing Anna in my old dress.  She also is taller than I was at her age, so it is SHORT!  I remember being one of the smallest in my 2nd grade class, but clearly I caught up.

 Anna 12/2014

Betsy Spring 1977

Carolyn (in this generation's dress) Spring 2010....a bit longer  (Carolyn is older than Anna at the same grade level, so I may need to shorten this dress for Anna.)

Biggest Change for our Family (member) this year

Here is Matthew the day he interviewed for his job at HyVee grocery store.  He got offered the job on the spot which made his day!  He is a hard worker, which is good because he is sacking groceries and bringing in carts from the parking lot....manual labor.  He makes great money for a 16 year old ($9/hour).  Even I, his mother, would pay his inexperienced self only minimum wage, but HyVee is employee owned and CLEARLY takes care of its employees.

Extra picture is Matthew in his first tux.  In "the world is crazy" fashion, our high school provides these concert band uniforms for the 10-12th graders.  He also is in the Jazz band, which is great practice.  I think he is very motivated to earn a Band letter, which you can't get without extra work (like Jazz band).  It requires him to be at school at 7:00 am 2 days a week, so I give him a lot of credit.

Anna is Anna!

This is all I have for Halloween this year.  In case it isn't obvious Anna is the the princess Anna from Frozen.  Costume design by Aunt Debbie (reusing a dress she handed down), Carolyn (created the cape) and me (the blue gauze like sash that made the outfit seem more princessish to me).

It was Joel's last year of trick or treating and he wore some mask of Ken's, not really wanting to dress-up.

Carolyn, Matthew and I went trick-or-treating for canned goods again this year, easily one of my favorite events of our Youth Ministry.  (Carolyn was a cat, Matthew was Mine-craft dude again, although he mentioned that "it was getting stale" or something like that.)

There are pictures, just none at my finger-tips and this is a power-blogging moment.  (Someone sent me a photo and someone else has a shot on their phone....they may never see the light of day.)  Oh well, Anna loved it best of all anyway!

True confessions - I have misplaced the flashdrive with our vacation pictures.  2nd confession - we didn't get that great of pictures anyway.  I might find them soon, but it really isn't a top priority - so here you go.

Wisconsin Dells - July 2014 - without the personal photos (at least for now)

We stayed in NE Iowa on our way to the Dells.  Our accommodations do not deserve a picture, but here is the river we canoed.  If it doesn't look scary - it should - I got stuck on a tree, and under a tree and Ken had to yell "duck" more than once as we crashed into the side of the river.  Lesson - don't canoe a river, especially a fast flowing river.  (Yellow river is located in the only part of Iowa that isn't flat.)  We should have waited and canoed at Devil's Lake - which despite its name was quite calm.

We stayed at Wilderness Lodge - did you know Wisconsin is the water park capital of the USA?  (I am not sure that is official)  It was interesting to note that Anna had the best time swimming at our [normal] hotel pool where we stayed the last night....I think because it wasn't crowded and she got to swim for a long time.....funny when you look at the other places she swam.

Tommy Bartlett Show - something Ken saw as a child and wanted the kids to see.  It was pretty amazing.

Here is a picture of Devil's lake - we also should have waited to fish here, as fishing on Yellow lake was unsuccessful and we noticed people catching while we hiked around Devil's Lake and climbed rocks (not this one)

 Last, but not least, we road in a DUCK ("amphibious land and water tour") .  Ken did this as a kid too, it was pretty cool...the littles got to steer a bit.  It was a pretty tour.

Back to School 2014-2015

2nd grade

 7th grade

 Hey hey the gangs all here (which is a bit of a surprise since they go to 3 different schools now....4 next year - don't get me started)

 5th grade

 Sophomore! 

Carolyn is a teen

We planned Carolyn's birthday at about 4:15 on Friday.  

Here she is the next day....at the party!

 She and her friends got together for pizza and ice cream cake at Godfather's

I love that she is flexible, since it was WAY too hot for our original plans.  We had fun putting together a last minute party.

Here is Carolyn on the same day as an "Angel in the Outfield", helping with our local Miracle League baseball team.  

Joel is in double digits! delayed post from February

Here is Joel around his birthday (February) with his basketball team.

 Celebrating the big day!  (also took his best buddy and sibs to Sky Zone, but I didn't get a good photo - will have to ask Ken....but we take what we can get....I stayed with Anna most of the time, so I have a great photo of her, but that would be out of place in this post!)

 Totally out of chronological order, but here is Joel shooting off his one of his last Rocket as a Cub scout.  (2 weeks ago)

Getting this blog post ready made me realize I haven't printed pictures since Christmas - oh no!  The task is really overwhelming now since my camera needs a new battery and new cord, but since we really just want to replace it totally I haven't done anything!

More favorites

I know this may shock no one, but I love crafts.  We did one this summer that I LOVED and we just started something new to give to the kids religious ed teachers and maybe a few of their friends at Christmas.

First the summer fun....

 Something similar to this will also be Anna and Joel's Valentines!  I can't wait to make more!

Now the newest craft

 This craft involves a HARD surface and a bit of power!

Here is Anna with her washer keychain (and earplugs)

Faith Hope Love

This cutie will go to one of Anna's RE teachers!  Joel, Anna and Carolyn each have a keychain with their name.  I think Matthew would like one that says Centennial (or CHS BAND) (Centennial is his schools name.)

I think Carolyn would like to make these for her friends since now they do mostly "no gift" birthday celebrations....this wouldn't count since it is handmade.

There is one other craft recently, but I don't have pictures yet.  Also I am charging my camera battery to share Carolyn's birthday pics!

Things I love and others....not so much

Anna spent some of her Christmas/Birthday money to buy this great new activity.  She had first played it at her YMCA day camp and loved it....now I know why - best building toy since sliced bread (which of course means Legos)

My niece Leslie lived in Des Moines for a year as a Focus Minister on the Drake campus.  We sewed several pillows like this one....sorry if I actually did a post about this before....I am not sure which is more likely - that I did a post or that I forgot about it :0)

Ok - now that I covered 2 "I love" things....here are two things that fell into the "not so much" category.

Matthew had to keep an amphibian or reptile for a MONTH to complete a Boy Scout Merit badge.....There were 6 tiny frogs in that bowl and the net in the picture was used to catch bugs to feed same frogs...enough said.

See the hole in our fence....BAD bunnies chewed through the fence multiple places and multiple times!  Now the fence is metal covered in plastic....Ken thinks we are safe until they take a running leap and jump the fence......not gonna happen my friend - but too late for the soybeans!

Guess who passed the swim test!

(Anna is pointing to her hand "stamp", indicating her new status.)

This is our very motivated swimmer....at our pool you have to swim the length of the pool without stopping or touching the side to be able to dive off the board or go down the "deep-end" slide.

For Anna (who isn't quite ready to do either) it was more about "passing the test" then what it allows her to do!

Way to go Anna!......really by the time she passed the test on Monday, she had swam 5 or 6 lengths of the pool practicing!

If you had asked me if she could pass the test THIS summer I would have said, "no way", but she was ready on Monday to try.

She continues to measure herself at the lily-pads to see if she is tall enough......but of that I am certain - she will not grow 4 inches in the next 2 weeks.....but I still let her go and check each day we go to that pool.  On vacation she was able to do the lily-pads at the Wisconsin Dell's pool and she stayed at that activity for over an hour.  For the record - it is harder than it looks....which I know from experience.

Cousin Cubes.....Merry Christmas 2014......a little early for once

First....let's give credit where credit is due.  I did not think of this idea on my own and these ladies (see website below) had great instructions.......I was looking for a simple craft the kids could make for their cousins for Christmas and boy did we find it.

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2012/04/diy-photo-cube.html

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Anna and I started painting blocks last night.  

Carolyn jumped in to help glue the pictures on today.

Later Joel came with me to the store (to pick up a few more blocks) and thought he might like a cube (Anna and Carolyn each had one by this time while making the cousin’s gifts)…..and then we decided it wasn’t fair that the focus was on the girl cousins, so we bought some neon paint to make some blocks for the older boy cousins.  

Matthew was gone all afternoon and evening at marching band camp, but pitched in at the end of the night when I thought I couldn’t possible finish the last couple of pictures.  He indicated that he and Mike (similar aged cousin) probably wouldn’t appreciate the gesture...so we skipped them.  

 

So all in all we made 22 cubes….132 pictures….and only 3 pictures left over and the need to search for one extra shot to be appropriate for the right person (we made cubes for both Grandmothers and my sister as well).

Before you give me too much credit for being the early bird....please know the gift (photos later) I am making for the sisters/nieces was supposed to be given in 2012.....but is only now getting finished.  I started in January thinking if I just made one a month I could get done....I am ahead of schedule, but know the fall is a busy time!

The kids and I have a 3rd craft of the summer, but its great reveal will only be after a few packages are delivered......

VBS

This year was the family's 9th year celebrating at Vacation Bible School.  (last year we missed because of vacation and I think we did every other year since Matthew finished kindergarten.  I will have to look to see if we started a year earlier....I am not sure!)  This year's theme was Weird Animals.  Matthew, Carolyn and I were crew leaders with kids going into 1st grade.  (I didn't want Anna having a sibling leading her group, but my older kids are best leading younger kids.)  Next year Joel will be a crew leader....I can hardly believe it!

Game Days

Our family is the perfect age for board games.  Everyone can play and we have some pretty good ones.  

My personal favorite "Blokus"

Matthew got this from us 2 years ago after I saw my freshman year college room-mate (also Ken's sister's sister-in-law) playing it our niece's wedding.  Regarding that connection...let's just say "it's a small world after all".  You should agree...especially when you add the twist that 10 years before I was a freshman, my sister was assigned to be her sister's room-mate.....ok I digress.

I love Blokus and everyone in my family loves Blokus....if you don't own it you should....which is why I have bought this game to give as a gift 4 times.  If you lived in Iowa, I would probably be giving your kid this game at their next birthday party....ha ha!

Anna loves: 

Carolyn loves: 

Joel's favorite (although he hasn't played it much).....I am guessing it is Ken's favorite too:

Matthew's favorite:

So I am writing this post for 2 reasons.  

#1 to remember our favorite games in 2014

#2 to tell a funny story about today's game "Wits and Wages"

ok - 3 reasons - to encourage you to share your family's favorite game with me!

 ok - so back to #2.  Today we were playing Wits and Wages for the first time.  This s a game recommended by Dave Ramsey, although I am not sure exactly why since it isn't really about budgeting.  I think Dave would be extremely happy though as I bought this game for < $5 ....so I was even budget conscious, which makes me laugh because I have been completely ignoring any concept of a budget for months.

Here is our funny picture playing this game.  

The first 2 rounds were without Carolyn as she had a baby-sitting job.......can you believe it.  This was her 3rd gig!  She really likes it and loves earning money.  So here is a picture when Carolyn joined us for the game later.  We had to get it quick as people were in good spirits and were trying to "photo bomb" the picture.....thank goodness for digital!

Wits and Wagers is a cool game because you don't need to know the right answer....you just need to bet on the person's answer who you think is right.

Anna stated several times, "I don't know what you mean" for the questions (like "when was the movie Casablanca released?")....but she still could enjoy the game.

One question was "when was the first winter Olympics?"  I was off by 100 years and Matthew thought it was since I was born.....I am not that old!  Joel however guessed the exact year. (1924 by the way)  We were amazed.

The best question was "how many cards are there in a deck of Uno cards"?  We all bet on Matthew's answer because he made an UNO/Jenga mix game this spring.  (112 I think...)  It was funny because we all piled our chips on Matthew's answer....guess you had to be there....it was hysterical!

Anyway - fun was had by all!

Joel was the big winner

I realized as I posted Anna’s birthday pictures that I hadn’t posted Joel’s birthday pictures.  I do have some, but they must be in the normal camera ……  so here is a picture of Joel after he learned he won the Easter Basket from Village Inn!  Have you ever seen a happy kid?  You would have thought it was an IPAD - his smile was so large.

I will try to post birthday pictures once I have some time to spend with the camera….but we already discussed my bad blogging habits.  I am just happy to have a cute picture of Joel readily available on MY IPAD!