Thanksgiving and Elliott Turns 9

Well, we blew through another major holiday, and it went by in a blink. We celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend. 

On Thursday, we headed to Brookings to Dennie and Jenny's for Thanksgiving.  We had a nice day at Jenny's house. We ate some good food, played a couple games and watched football. It was a little weird because Katie had to work and Jeff and Samantha didn't come, so it was basically us, Malia and Andy, and Dennis, Jenny, Jim, Barb, and Jenny's parents. So, our kids were pretty bored. They did go in the basement for a while and watched TV and hung out down there when they got sick of all the adults. 

In the late afternoon, we left and headed to parent's house. Neither John or I had to work on Friday, so we decided to just head to Minnesota early. We got to my parent's house around 7:30pm and then had a pizza and watched some Home Improvement. 

Friday was Elliott's 9th Birthday. I really cannot believe he is 9 already, and he is getting so big! He is super into Pokemon and Legos right now, and that's pretty much what all his birthday gifts consisted of. John and I got him some Pokemon cards at the card store, an Advent Marvel Lego Calendar, and a Lego Meck. He loved all of it. He is also still very cuddly and lovey, and he can still be sensitive at times, which Emma can prey on at times. He loves spending time with his friends and having sleepovers, and he also loves to sleepover at Jim and Barb's house because he knows he will get spoiled there. He does well is school, eats like a horse, and has adult-sized farts now, which is great. But, we love him and he really is the best 9 year old boy around. 

On Friday, mom had to work and dad had some cooking to do, so all four of us headed to New Ulm. We went to the rec center and played some basketball. It was pretty fun to shoot around and burn off some energy. Once we got hungry, we headed to the Kaiserhoff for lunch. It was delicious. I had a Rueben and Chicken Spitzel soup, John had a brat burger, and Elliott had an adult sized cheeseburger and fries and Emma had chicken and fries. It was a good stop. We also went to Walmart to do some Black Friday shopping and then we stopped at the New Ulm Clinic to visit mom and see where she worked. 

After visiting mom, we went back to the Rec Center for open swim. We had a blast swimming there. Emma really liked the obstacle course, and Elliott liked the slides and the zip lines, and John and I liked the hot tub. We swam for a solid 2 hours, and then decided it was time to go back to my parent's house. We stopped at Caribou for a birthday drink celebration for Elliott, and then we headed back. 

We had some Spaghetti for supper, and then the kids stayed with my parents while Ryan, Emily. Cody, John and I went to Sleepy Eye to the brewery. We enjoyed some beers and visiting for a couple hours. It was really nice to be able to catch up in a smaller setting. 

Saturday was Thanksgiving with my family. We ate at noon and enjoyed some great food and wine. We also just visited, played some games, and Elliott opened some more gifts. It was a pretty chill holiday, but we all had a good time. 

We headed back home Saturday night, we were ready to be home again. We unpacked, settled in, and then called it a night. Sunday was a catch up day. We did laundry, cleaned, and got ready for another week. We did go to Bethel in the evening and played some more basketball, to give the kids some practice. We ended up scrimmaging with the Tomczaks for 2 hours, it was really fun. 

Emma had a basketball game Monday night, and they won by 2 points. It was really stressful at times, but it was a fun game. 

Now, we are getting ready to say goodbye to November, and we are in full Christmas mode around here. I love this time of year!

Elliott's 9th Birthday Party

 We celebrated Elliott's birthday a couple weeks ago. He wanted to have a couple close friends over and do some laser tag. So, he had Rachel and Jacob over, and then Emma joined them on their birthday adventures. 

We picked up the kids around 5:30 pm, and then headed to Triple Play Card Store. They were having a grand prize drawing event. So, the store was packed. The kids had a lot of fun looking through card and choosing some out. Then, they had some door prizes at 6:00pm. Elliott actually won a door prize, and of course he picked a Pokemon booster pack. But he was so excited he won something. We did not win the grand prize drawing, but each kid got a Pokemon Tin filled with some goodies, and they were pumped. 

After the card store, we went to Fizolis for supper. The kids enjoyed some pasta and breadsticks. Then, we headed home for presents and cookies. After all that excitement calmed down, John took the kids to Galaxy Gaming for 2 hours of laser tag. And I cleaned up and enjoyed a quiet evening at home. The kids loved the laser tag. I guess there were some teenagers there that were cheating, but overall the kids had fun. 

They all got home around 10:00pm. So we let the kids watch a little TV and settle down for the night. The next morning, Jacob had to leave at 7:30 am for hockey, so Rachel, Elliott, and Emma enjoyed some Nintendo and playing time. 

Overall, it was a great birthday party. Elliott really enjoyed himself, and says he wants to do the same thing again next year. We all had a lot of fun, and it was fun to watch Elliott have so much fun. 

November Catch Up

 Somehow, I've let another month pass by without any blogging. The days seem to just blur together and fly by, especially during this time of the year. We are in full busy season at work, and we seem to stay busy just about every evening at home. 

October was a pretty good month. We had great weather and enjoyed lot of football games in the yard, walks, and just trying to be outside as much as possible to enjoy the weather. 

Elliott wrapped up his soccer season a couple weeks ago. He had a lot of fun on his team, and the boys really improved over the season. There were some tough games to sit through, but overall, it was a fun season!

Emma has started basketball for the year. This year, Hannah T and Hannah P are on the same team as Emma, as well as most of the girls from last year. Emma's basketball team is pretty fun to watch, and they have improved a lot since last year. They already played in a tournament at Jefferson High School a couple weekends ago. They did pretty well. They lost all three games, but they were playing against travel teams and pretty tough competition. They've had some practices, and then they started their regular season last week, and lost their game by 2 points. It was a heartbreaker, but they played pretty well. They still have room for improvement, but they are holding their own. 

We had another good Halloween this year. Jim and Barb came over like they usually do, and we had Taco Soup and ice cream. Hannah T came over to trick or treat with Emma. They dressed up as Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball Players and they ran around the neighborhood together trick or treating. John and I went around with Elliott, who randomly dressed up as a vampire. It was cold-like 32 degrees and breezy, but we had fun. We went around for a solid hour and a half, and Elliott got a huge haul of candy. We had fun. 

I randomly got today off from work, so I've had a nice catch up day at home. I've been to the gym, paid some bills, cleaned, made a ham and potato soup, and caught up on blogging. I also have to make some tater tot hotdishes for the kids hot lunch at school tomorrow. It's been a busy, but productive day. 

Next week is Thanksgiving already, and I really can't believe it. Time is just going to fly from now until January. We have plans to go to Dennis and Jenny's house on Thanksgiving, and then we are heading to Minnesota for the rest of the weekend. 

Speaking of plans, we have Elliott's birthday party tomorrow with his friends. He is inviting Rachel and Jacob over, and we are going to go to Fazoli's and then Laser Tag at Galaxy Gaming. Then, they are both sleeping over. It should be fun, Elliott's going to love it. 

So, that's what's new around here. We are in the busy season. The Christmas Tree and decorations are up, and we are feeling the holiday spirit. 

Homework in costume 

Emma's artwork 

Football evenings 

Baseball cards 

Vampire costume 

Basketball Ball Girls 

Mercy Me, Zach Williams, and Toby Mac Concert 

Camping at Lake Vermillion

 We wrapped up our camping season this past weekend. With all the weddings we had in September, we couldn't make fall camping work until October, which is always a risk. But, luckily, we ended up with some pretty good weather and we had a really good weekend. 

We camped with Jim and Barb, and Katie, and Travis and Heather. And then we added in Sam, Hannah, and Rachel, so we had a nice little crew of people to camp with. 

We headed out on Friday after work. Jim was nice and hauled and set our camper up for us, so when we arrived, our camper was ready to go. We got unpacked and settled, and then we bundled up and got a fire going. Friday was definitely the worst day of our camping weekend. It was really windy and cold. We had stocking caps, gloves, coats and blankets and it was still on the chilly side. But, we had some beef stew for supper, so that really hit the spot, and then we enjoyed a nice big fire and visited around the fire. Everyone was pretty tired from the week, so by 9:30pm we were all back in our own campers, with the heaters on. 

It froze hard overnight, and it was 34 degrees when we woke up the next morning. Brr. But it wasn't windy, and the sun was shining, and it warmed up to 62 degrees, so it ended up being a perfect day. After some breakfast in the camper, the adults went on a nice walk down to the water and on the hiking trails. Then, we did some shore fishing. Nobody caught anything, but it was nice and the kids really enjoyed fishing. 

After fishing, we had some burgers and brats for lunch. Then, we painted and decorated pumpkins. Everyone had fun with this, and Emma and Hannah especially enjoyed themselves and sat there for quite a while painting pumpkins. I also enjoyed myself. I even made a Twins pumpkin for good luck. By the way, the Twins are in the playoffs and they actually have won some games. They won the Wild Card series in 2 games (which were very stressful to watch). And now they are playing the Houston Astros (boo!!). They are tied in the series 1-1, and now the games come to Minnesota and they play this afternoon. It is so stressful, but fun, to have the Twins still be in the playoffs. I hope they can keep working their magic. We even got the game on at the campground, so that was pretty fun!!

After painting, the girls wanted to make cupcakes, so we mixed up some batter and got the cupcake maker out. The cupcakes turned out great, and then they decorated them with frosting and Halloween sprinkles. Somehow all 24 cupcakes got eaten in like 2 hours, so I'm not sure how that happened. After the baking session, we started playing catch with a football. That lead to a full game of two-hand touch football with all the kids (and some of the adults). It was really fun, and only a couple kids cried, so I call that a success. 

Finally, it was supper time. We enjoyed some chili, garlic bread, apples and dip, and chips. We ate good all weekend. We bundled up and enjoyed another fire. This time the kids joined us, and we were singing songs and telling jokes around the fire, it was pretty fun. We stayed up until around 10:30pm, and then finally put some tired kids to bed. 

Sunday was a pack up and go home day. We went on some walks, had some breakfast sandwiches for breakfast, and then spend a lot of the time packing. Since it was our last camping trip of the season, we had to strip all the beds, clean, and take out everything that can't freeze. So, it was a lot of packing and cleaning. Then we packed up and left. 

I took Hannah and Rachel home, and Emma and Elliott went to Jim and Barb's house since they don't have school again until Wednesday. They wanted to spend a couple nights at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so we let them. John and I spent the afternoon doing laundry, cleaning, unpacking, and mowing the lawn. We decided to try out the new Tinner's Bar for supper since the kids were gone. The food was really good, and we got to watch the Vikings lose to the Chiefs, so that was exciting. 

Then, we went home, watched the Twins beat the Astros (yay!!) and then called it a day so we could be ready for work the next day. 

Today, I have off from work. So, I have been catching up on blogging, a little cleaning, and the gym is calling my name. The kids will be back home after lunch, and then I think we will just enjoy a day at home together. Fall just keeps racing by!!