Christmas fun

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Our celebration started on Saturday when Baranie's siblings came in town to exchange presents and go ice skating with extended family as a present from great grandparents. Christmas Eve we were with Mike's family, Christmas Day at our house. The kids enjoyed their cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and presents. Jonas' favorite gift was his pirate ship and Star Wars Attactix from Santa. Clara loved her MP3 player, lip gloss, pink cowgirl boots and new headbands. Greta was very excited about her pet doctor kit and scooter with accessories. I had a print made of Jay's face put into a portrait of a General- it was a very cool effect. Mike loved his Guitar Hero III. Baranie liked her foot massager and mint M&M's. She is 38 weeks pregnant and waiting... Check back soon- the next post will be the birth announcement. Is it a girl or a boy? Can Mike and Baranie agree on a name for the 4th child? Details soon.

December so far

We have had fun this month. It finally got cold and has felt like winter was here. The leaves fell off our tree, so Mike spent a Saturday raking with the kids help. We bought our tree and have even been able to put presents under the tree that haven't been unwrapped. We went to a Christmas party at church to see Santa. The kids had holiday parties at school. We have made ornaments for the tree and been shopping. We have been making our favorite treats like caramels, puppy chow, and scotch o roos. Last week, we enjoyed decorating a gingerbread house which lasted a few days without being munched on.

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Clara's First Lost Tooth

 

Clara came home from school today with a loose bottom tooth. She was very excited since many friends in her kindergarten class have lost teeth already. Later that evening, she was eating some banana bread and her tooth hurt and was bleeding. I had a Kleenex and rolled it just a bit, so it came out. She put it in a small ring box and into her backpack to show her teacher tomorrow before letting the tooth fairy take it. She does love her teacher. She is doing really well in class. She has me sit down everyday after school to look at each of her papers. I am not allowed to peek first.

Apple Valley School

Jonas and his cousin Jaimee just finished a six week social study about the pilgrims called Apple Valley School. They learned about school in a one room school house and had the opportunity to do projects to learn more. Jonas interviewed his great-grandfather, chopped wood, prepared a typical meal, and learned about quilting for some of his. The video includes the graduation ceremony where he performed some songs and received his diploma.

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Flowers and pumpkins

This year we planted morning glories and pumpkins instead in our garden. Something got the pumpkins although they looked great for a while. We had visions of a pumpkin patch to invite friends over to pick from, but it didn't work out. The morning glories surprised us and just took off in the last month. They were marked red, white, and blue. I expected them around July 4th. We even had some smaller wild pick ones take spill over the fence onto the deck. Jonas planted the ones on the birdhouse on the back hill. Clara and Greta planted the blue ones in the garden that went over the light pole and filled up the bucket by the fence. They are such a nice complement to our breakfast view.

Since we didn't succeed in growing a pumpkin patch- Greta and met up with Aunt Amy, James and our playgroup friends at Owen's Farm. We were able to feed goats, sheep, longhorns, baby buffalo. We saw donkeys, chickens, a big turkey, ponies, ducks, and pigs. We had a hay ride and picked pumpkins.

Greta turns 3!!

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Greta had a great birthday last Saturday. She was very excited to turn 3 years old. We celebrated as a family by going to Chuck E. Cheese, spending her birthday money on a magnet Mickey Mouse book, and eating at On the Border. She had a Mickey Mouse cake.

Oklahoma & Missouri trip

We went on a trip north to Vinita, OK where we met friends, the Androsko's at their high school home coming football game. It was fun to catch up and watch the band march. We toured the huge dam outside Disney, OK. We drove through Afton, OK and saw the old car museum where they had models from the movie, Cars. Then we headed to Springfield, Missouri where we went to the Discovery Museum and the Bass Pro store. Next stop was a civil war battlefield where we hiked and saw where battles were fought in a cornfield. We ate at Lambert's Cafe and had hot rolls thrown at us! One of Missouri's trout fish hatchery is in Branson and we saw lots of fish, could pet a snake, and feed the fish. We then enjoyed Branson's boardwalk with its water and fire fountain. We toured Bass Pro's resort and the kids had horse rides. We enjoyed the car ride as much as possible with books on tape, junk food, and silly songs.

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