Graham Cracker Village

I finally had time this morning for a little blog update. I figured I'd better get it done before more fun stuff needs to be blogged about.

We got together this last weekend for our traditional graham cracker village creation

Teresa and I worked on the Up house together

Nathan wanted a tall roof on his this year

This is Ty's masterpiece - no really, it's a theater. Cool huh?

This is Serina's, she didn't get a chance to finish decorating it, so I helped her out

This is Ryan's

Nathan's

Ian's

Luke's

The whole thing. There weren't as many this year

Our UP house, with snow

Teresa made a Snipe and a hose, so cute!

Then we opened gifts. The girls in their tutu's

The boys with their hobby horses (I had the best time making these)

Let's catch up a lil'



Here's a little Thanksgiving fun. Nathan won tic-tac-toe



One of the many holiday projects





Nathan decorating the tree







Teresa and Jazzi decorating the tree -
 yes, she made the cat help




And the finished product.
They did a great job!
The kitty keeps trying to undo it.







A little time with Owen



There have been lots of germs too. One week Teresa had no voice, last week it was me - still recovering. Does this mean we'll be good for Christmas?!

We have a fun week ahead of us.

Teresa's Choir concert

Santa visit

Cookies with Grandma

Company Party(just the mom and dad)

and

Graham Cracker village creation

Native American Day

Friday was Native American Day at Nathan's school. It was a lot of fun, even though it was cold. There were 5 different centers. Oh wait, first they had to dress in their Native American attire.

We started at the pictograph center. The kids used pictographs to tell a story on there "animal hide".

Then on to the friendship ceremony where each child made a friendship necklace with noodles, then drew a friends name out of a bag and presented their necklace with a compliment. It was cute, and the kids did great. The teachers were worried they might not like giving their necklaces away, but we had no problems.

Then we had to learn to hunt with spears and then spear a turkey. Once the turkey was dead they broke it open and ate the "turkey meat" -popcorn and jerky. I don't have picture of that, mother nature called, but Nathan still got some popcorn.

Next they learned about how important corn was, and they planted a seed and added a prayer stick for rain to it. Then the kids went fishing in the stream and learned about how they would dry their food.

Lastly we were at the drum station - by far the kids favorite station(not the parents) Each child decorated a drum around the "campfire" and listened to music. Then they got up an danced around the fire.

It was a fun and informative day.

Thanksgiving Homework

Too Cute to not share

I asked him to tell me about it " It's you and me(mom) at our feast. Chicken, toast and beans"

Happy Brithday to my Mom

Saturday was my mom's birthday! But before that Nathan had a friends party at Pump it Up. What a fun day! No pictures from the party, I took the opportunity to rest, since I had made 2 birthday cakes that morning.
I was actually quite a slacker as far as pictures go. My brother, John, and nephew, Aidan, flew in from Utah on Friday and were here the whole weekend. It was really great to see them and hang out.

On to the few pictures I did take.

I made this lemon cake for everyone and decorated it nice.
I don't usually get to decorate a cake for my mom because it has to be sugar free
and up until now I didn't have a good sugar free frosting that would hold up to decorating

But as you can see, this new recipe was wonderful.
Can you believe I used the same violet food coloring on both cakes?
 It's a SF spice cake with cream cheese frosting
 (3 pcks cream cheese, one tub of cool whip and splenda)

Make a wish!

Sunday was another party for one of Nathan's friends. This one was seriously themed Mario - everything, it was awesome!
Then more hanging out, food and games at my folks. This time minus James and Amanda who were sick with the stomach flu

Monday morning brought us the stomach flu - luckily it's just a 24 hour thing, so Teresa is on about hour 20, Nathan is about 13 hours in. Now let's just hope it ends there.

Here they are watching Brother Bear Tues. Morning

Veteran's Day Parade

For some reason or another we've never made it to the Veteran's Parade here. The weather is usually too cold for my liking. But this year the weather was nice and we had lots of good reasons to be there.We had a good time.

Can you see Amanda?

Here's a better shot. They happened to stop right in front of us.

Nathan got bored after the 40th entry, we had to wait until 84 for Freedom Middle school and Hannah

There she is!

We saw 5 people we knew in 5 different entries. It was fun!

What's next?

Let's see,
               Thursday was the school Trunk-or -Treat
               Friday the kids went to my parents church Trunk-or-Treat - came home with lots of loot
               Saturday was the pumpkin patch and dinner
               Sunday? - Ah yes, Sunday was Nathan's last Soccer game. Against Ian's team again. This game was much less exciting than the others had been. Our team just wasn't in to it. I'm thinking soccer ended one week too late for them. Either way, they had fun, and after we went to Rusty's for a little pizza party and trophies. It was nice, good food, a little last time with the team and then we headed home...on to the next event. The kids put their costumes on and we went over to Rollerama West for Montano Orthodotcs Halloween Party. The kids had a great time! (no pics of this, I was beat by then)

I thought this was funny. Ian before the game.

A little practice before the game

This is what the games usually look like

And then, on to Monday - Halloween!
Jonathan and I took the day off, went to breakfast and a movie, it was very nice!
My mom was wonderful enough to get the kids from school.
That night we went Trick-or-Treating.
Here's a picture of the 3 of us, we were Ninja's