Surprise Box

Every few weeks Jackson gets to bring home the "Surprise Box" from school. They get to pick something to put in the box and write down clues for the kids to guess what it is. It is a great inference activity.

Here are the rules:

Jason helped Jackson to write the clues. He wanted to do it all by himself. Mr. Independent!

Here are the clues:

Can you guess what it is?

 A transformer! Great job, Jackson! Can't wait to hear if anybody guessed what it is.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a busy, busy Thanksgiving weekend!

We started out with having friends over for a great meal and hanging out after. There were 10 adults and 9 kids...so a house full!

The kid table

 Now that the kids are taken care of the adults dive into the food!

On Friday we did the Christmas decorations. I love this time of year!

Jason working on the kids Christmas tree.

 Jackson was busy looking through the toy ads and picking out a few things.

 Big mess and all!

Grace loved dancing to the Christmas music all morning...with her tutu on of course!

On Saturday morning our elf, Micah, came back!

He brought them hot chocolate and donuts for breakfast. Micah also brought them a gum ball machine from the north pole.

 The kids were so excited to see him!

What you can't see in the picture is they are eating by candlelight. For some reason we were without electricity for the first few hours of the morning. They thought that was funny!

 The Yost's came over for the annual Michigan vs. Ohio State football game. As usual it was fun having them over. We also had a friend who Jason and Tom worked with in Okinawa and now lives in Italy come for a visit while she was in the area. It was great to see her and catch up. We will definitely be making a trip to Italy to visit her.

By the way, Michigan won for the first time in 7 years. Go Blue!!

 The kids had so much fun together. Grace and Ella were stuck together like glue. It's so cute to see them grow up with each other. Jackson and Cooper hung out some too. One day they will be buds playing boy toys. 

 Right before the kids went to bed. Ella had her kimono jammies and I remembered that I had some for Grace from Okinawa. 

We have so much to be thankful for! God is good!

Mornings with Grace

I have been enjoying my time off this week from work. Grace and I have been having fun playing together in the mornings while I am in my robe and drinking coffee.

Classic...pushing a Walmart stroller with babies inside on Barbie rollerskates!

 We took Emma on a walk and she got her babies all bundled up and ready. She was so proud of how they looked.

 We got all ready for the ride and out the door when I realized that the tire was flat. I tried to fix it, but instead ended up busting the tire. So...we switched to a smaller stroller and headed out for a great walk in the woods with Emma.

 This is Grace's tea party for Thanksgiving. She has it all ready and set up for our company coming over on Thursday. She said I have to leave it there until then...so we will see. Eventually they all got books to read and pillows/blankets put under the table for when they were ready for a nap.

I am loving these times with her. I know they will too quickly pass!

Preschool Thanksgiving Performance

Our preschool department had a Thanksgiving performance for the 3 and 4 year olds.

It was so cute to see Grace perform her song and be up on stage. She was so excited!

After the performance we had huge Thanksgiving feast. After preparing for it for many weeks it was nice to see it all come together.

Herrstein Hike

      Today we drove to a little village about 45 minutes from home called Herrstein with some friends from church. The village was so quaint and only had one restaurant...which was amazing! They are famous for their dumplings and now I know why. While we were eating lunch we met the owner's father and he told us of a great hiking path to go on. It started and ended at the church making a full circle around other villages. The total hike was 8.4 kilometers (about 6 miles) and it was probably one of the best hikes we have been on around here. I know we will be back here in the future. We are so proud of Jackson. He hiked the entire way and was in front for a majority of it. Guess that forest kindergarten really payed off!
Herrstein is one of the few villages that stayed intact during WWII. So everything we saw was hundreds of years old. Very neat!

Inside of the restaurant. Yes, even dogs get to come inside the restaurants!

I love this place...so beautiful!

Bridget, Jaimie, Ben and Jason

Audrey, Jackson and Grace

This is the top floor of the restaurant.

This was my lunch. Rollbraten, dumpling and rotkrauten.

Jason's amazing dumpling! 

We had this for lunch, went on a 6 mile hike and still aren't that hungry! I'm sure it was full of a ton of calories, but oh so worth it!

They had these great big benches along the hiking path. We pretended that we were taking a nap. It was so comfy!

Ben, Audrey and Jaimie...soon to be a family of 4! Yay!

 Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees, but it was still so beautiful and peaceful.

I loved all the moss along the trails. 

Of course I had to get the door picture. Looked like a little hobbit's door. The opening is so narrow!

The opening of the tunnel leading into the walled city.

Jewelry Organizer

So my new love is Pinterest these days. I love all the ideas they have for an array of items.

I saw this and knew that I had to make it for my jewelry. Up until now I just had my jewelry laying on my dresser and bathroom cabinet. It was starting to drive me crazy not having it organized.

After about 15 minutes of assembly...viola! I love how organized it is and now I can really see what I have.

This is just the beginning of the things Pinterest will inspire me to do.