Kindergarten Christmas Party

Along with Alyssa's birthday celebration at school, we also had Ethan's class Christmas party. It was fun to finally make it to one of his class parties.

Earlier in the day, the class had made Christmas tree headbands to wear during their party. The room mom had put together some great things for the kids to do during the party and it was fun to be a part of. Our first project was to put together Snowman soup bags (bags that had a package of hot chocolate, a few marshmallows, a few chocolate chips, a candy cane, and a little poem).

Our second project was to make melting snowman cookies. We frosted cookies with white frosting, added a marshmallow for the head, used chocolate chips for the eyes, black frosting to finish the face and for arms, candies for buttons and a piece of fruit roll-up for a scarf.

The last project was a snowman sucker. We put three marshmallows on a stick and used frosting for a face and pretzels for his arms.

It was a fun time being with all the students and parents.

Happy 10th Birthday!!

It's hard to believe 10 years ago we welcomed our precious Christmas gift!! Alyssa wasn't suppose to born until the new year but God blessed us with her birth just 10 days before Christmas in 2001. Having a newborn at Christmas that year made everything about Christmas a little more special!

We started her birthday with our annual "waking up the birthday child with Happy Birthday". From there, we sent her off to school and joined her later that day for a little celebration with her class. Her class plays a little trivia game with questions regarding the birthday student. It was fun because we got to come up with some of our own questions for the class.

Later that evening we celebrated her birthday with family. She was so surprised with her gift that many of us went in on for her. She got her new American Girl "look like me" doll and named it Noelle (Alyssa's middle name).

It was a great day and we had fun celebrating with her!

First Band Concert

Brenna decided that she wanted to take band this year. I was thrilled when she said this and thought for sure she would want to play my clarinet. Nope, she decided she wanted to play the flute. We borrowed a flute over the summer, got her a fingering chart, and set her free. She was really picking up on it fast so we went ahead and researched on Amazon and found a great deal on a flute for her. She was so committed to learning this instrument that she volunteered to take after school tutoring with her band teacher. It has been so fun to listen to her play. Every once in awhile she will play along with Jason while he is playing the piano. He pulls the hymn book out and away they go.

When we met with her band teacher for conferences he said that nobody would ever be able to guess that she was a first year flute player. She has caught up to those who started last year in 6th grade!

December 8th was her first band concert. It was fun to hear the difference in each of the bands. The kids advance so much each year and you can really hear it in the music that they each played.

4th Grade Christmas Party

Friday was the last day of school before Christmas. I love that our school lets the kids wear their pajamas to school and then the secretaries make hot chocolate for all of the kids and, with a little bit of learning, they all have a fun day together.

Both of the 4th grade classes started their morning out together in the cafeteria for a brunch put on by all of the room moms. Getting both classrooms together is rare so the kids were pretty excited about the idea. Between all of us room moms, we had quite the spread of food.

Later in the afternoon, Alyssa's class had a gift exchange. It was a very fun way to end the day.

Ice Cream fun in the COLD

On Sunday, our Children's Pastor announced a spur of the moment ice cream night at Edaleen Dairy in Sumas...his treat! Our kids reminded us every day that Thursday night was ice cream night. They were not going to miss out no matter how cold it was outside. It ended up being a fun night even in the cold!

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year was a little different for us. Brenna and the Jr. High Youth Group were working at Noah Nite and they had to be there early. So, that meant that we took Alyssa and Ethan trick-or-treating without her. It was weird only have the two younger ones. They had fun visiting the grandparents and then going to Noah Nite and playing all the games there. Things are really changing for our family...WOW!

Pumpkin fun and last Volleyball game

Friday, the 28th, was Ethan's very first Halloween party at school. The kids didn't dress up but they made Pumpkin headbands to wear during their party. I wasn't able to go to the party because I had been asked to work in the Preschool but Jason had the day off so he went and spent time with Ethan and his class. I'm so glad he was able to get some pictures for me.

Saturday was Brenna's final volleyball game. We ended the season taking 2nd place. Brenna did a great job this season and her team was a lot of fun to watch. They really came together as a team and played hard. We were so proud of each of them.

 

Later that evening we went to the neighbors and carved pumpkins with them. It's always fun to get together with friends. The kids had a great time and had fun coming up with ideas for their pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

This year was this mommy's last year for a Pumpkin Patch field trip. Ethan and his class went to Stoney Ridge...something that only the Kindergarten classes do. The kids all had so much fun riding the wagon out to the pumpkin patch, exploring the corn maze, going through the hay maze, seeing all the animals, learning about how apples grow and how the bees help pollinate the apple trees and pumpkins.