Pilgrim's and Native Americans

The week of Thanksgiving Jacob's class had a Thanksgiving Feast. Ethan and I were able to stick around and help with the party.

Mrs. Brail had some of the students dress up as Native American Indians. They made the costumes out of large rolls of paper and each student was able to decorate his or her own.

Some of the kids were pilgrims.

Ethan did more partying that helping, but it is fun to see him interact with Jacob and his friends in the classroom. They all feasted on shaved turkey lunchmeat, carrot sticks, corn bread, apple slices and pumpkin pie. It was a fun afternoon. I am so thankful that I get to participate in Jacob's school activities. I feel very blessed to be able to stay home with my boys.

Frankenmuth

This past saturday (hey, my blog is catching up!!) Curt, Jacob, Ethan and I went to Frankenmuth with my Mom and Dad. We stopped in Grand Ledge at a place called Sophia's for breakfast. It was great! I had a ham and cheese omelet that was huge, it was made with five eggs. I shared some of it with Ethan and still left thinking I wouldn't need any lunch. After our yummy and very filling breakfast we drove to Frankenmuth. We stopped at Bronner's first. I hadn't been there for a very long time and had forgotten just how big Bronner's is. I loved looking at all the decorations they had hanging from the ceiling and so did the boys.

Of all the decorations they had my favorite by far was the gingerbread house. I seriously felt like I had jumped into the game Candyland.

This was us over by the christmas trees. It was a great place for a family picture. Look how happy Ethan is!

After we left Bronner's we drove into the town. It was packed with people. Our first stop was the restrooms at the Bavarian Inn and then we were looking for food because Jacob was hungry. We were all still full from breakfast, but he was hungry. He must be growing. Anyway, the wait for the all-famous chicken dinner was close to an hour so we decided to try and find something else. When we walked outside we saw the horse and buggies and Ethan was excited. He wanted to ride that horse and buggie.

This is Spirit and he was kind enough (along with the wonderful driver) to take us on a ride around town. Thank you Nana and Papa for treating us to this.

This is Ethan during the ride in the buggie. I'm not sure I have ever seen him so happy. He loved every minute of it.

After Frankenmuth we found some lunch over at Birch Run which we had to go to because of the Nascar store that Curt wanted to visit. That pretty much rounded out our visit so we headed home. Once we reached Nana and Papa's house Jacob was all about the food again. After some cheese and crackers and a few peanut butter M&M's we headed home for a good dose of sleep!

Bubble Baths

I always thought that bubble baths were for girls, but my boys have proven me wrong. Jacob won a bottle of Transformer bubble bath at my nephew Cameron's birthday party and that was all it took. Jacob and Ethan loved taking bubble baths, so much so that the bubble bath is already all gone.


Bubble on boys, bubble on!!

Halloween Party

Jacob's class had a Halloween party and Ethan and I were invited to participate. It was such a fun time. The kids dressed up in there costumes and then rotated around the room to different stations. I worked at the food station where the kids enjoyed crackers with cheese, finger jello, cookies and juice. The station that Jacob and Ethan are at was the craft station. Ms. Biddix and Mrs. Martin (another mom) helped out the kids there. Mrs Brail ran the game station. It was a lot of fun.

The kids made bats using there hands as the template for the wings. Ethan was very excited to do all the things Jacob was doing. He felt like such a big boy.

This is Ethan gluing down his bats bow tie. Every bat has to have a purple bow tie.

After the fun inside the whole school went outside for a costume parade. This is Jacob's whole class (including Ethan).

The Great Boo Zoo

Every year in October Ralph (my dad) and Kevin (by brother-in-law) take a hunting trip out to South Dakota. During the week that Ralph is away, my Mom comes and spends a night with us. This year we decided to take her out for a fun evening so we went to the Boo Zoo at Binder Park Zoo.

We dressed the boys up in their costumes on a misty friday evening and headed out for some treating. It was one of those nights where you figure that at any moment the downpour is going to happen, but it never did.

We enjoyed a "magic" show that was definately for the kids, did a little treating with the pirates, rode the carousel, and played games at the kids carnival.

This is my Mom (Nana) and the boys.

The hayride was my favorite part. They pulled a big hay covered wagon with a tractor all the way back to the African safari part of the zoo where they had a bunch of light decorations set up. It was very pretty. We all had a good time, especially the boys.

The Country Mill

The last several years we have gone to the Country Mill in Charlotte to get our pumpkins and to sample the cider and donuts. It seems that whenever we plan to go the weather turns cold. I don't mean chilly, I mean freezing. The last three years that we've gone we chose the coldest day of the month and would have to run to the patch, grab our pumpkins and then run inside to warm up. We were really hoping that this year it wouldn't be so cold and we could enjoy the outside.

Well, we picked a great day. It was windy and that added to the chill factor, but it was manageable. We had a lot of fun, but Ethan did not enjoy the Headless Horseman that they had riding around. He talked about that for days afterward.

Once we got inside the store we had to go to the antique music maker. The boys love this thing. You put in a quarter and then it starts playing music. Not like a record, but actual music makers. Inside this wooden case is a xylophone, tambourine, drum, cymbals, triangle, and other instruments and you can see them all working. The boys love it and would stand there forever (if the donuts weren't calling to them from across the store).

Of course we sampled the cider and donuts before we left. The donuts here are wonderful. They make them fresh every day and go through so many that you often get them warm. I love it.