Sweet Six

With the self designed cake.

Opening gifts.

Opening her eyes to her bike.

It fits!

Although it's hard to believe Lydia is already six! We celebrated with a day at the Fond du Lac Children's Museum. Hands on exploring is always fun. We also spent some time working on her cake. Lydia drew a picture of what she wanted ("flowers that are the kind I draw and a Christmas tree on top") and we worked with her design. She was very pleased with it. She was THRILLED to receive a big bike and even had the chance to take it for a test drive the next day.

  Happy Sixth Birthday Lydia. You add so much spunk and spice to our family. We love you so very much and are so pleased God gave us you as our dear daughter.

Christmas Morning

Happy Hikers~all three guys got hiking backpacks and Lydia too can travel in style.

Hans trying to figure out paddle ball

Rock out man!

A joyful Lydia

Little Levi

Marveling at the newness of this little person

Awed by his tiny fingers and features

Arms full of boys and heart full of love

Baptized into the family of God. Congratulations Michael & Tammy.

Live Nativity

Nathan, Evan, and Hans as shepherds at Martin Luther's Live Nativity

Shepherds in the fields nearby keeping watch over their sheep at night.

Love the little sheep

Our church tried something new this December, we put on a Live Nativity. Church's property is nearly perfect for such a event as the parking lot is the length of our property with the main entrance on a busy city street and a back exit onto the block behind in the rear. Attendees were greeted by Roman centurions taking a census, passed a crowded inn and were urged on by the inn keeper and his wife, heard the angel announcing to shepherds in the fields, listened to choirs of angels singing, saw infant Jesus with his parents in a lowly stable, and were wished a Merry Christmas by members of our church. The whole drive was lit with luminaries and there were seven banners with the words of Luke 2 to tell the true Christmas story. Our monetary budget was tiny but the volunteer hours were many between building, painting, sewing, and setting up the entire event. It was so much fun to be part of this and to see it's success. In the three hours over 600 people drove through making our first try a huge success! The plan is to do it all over again next year.

Hide and Seek

This fall the kids have fallen in love with playing hide and seek. One night Lydia was nearly impossible to find as she hid in the kitchen cupboard. The boys walked past it at least a dozen times before finally opening it to find her inside. She was thrilled to have come up with such a great hiding spot.

Ordinary Night

I never get tired of listening to our kids read aloud especially to each other.

Nutcracker

Pumpkins & Trick or Treating

Cleaning out pumpkin guts.

Nathan the expert carver and Lydia as advisor

Hans, Lydia, Joanna, Evan

Joanna came to visit us just before Halloween so she helped with pumpkin gutting and carving. Then on Halloween the pumpkins decorated out steps while we trick-or-treated with a bag of Jelly Bellies (Hans), a pumpkin (Lydia), and a smurf (Evan).

First Flight

On a sunny Saturday Nate, the kids, and Joanna found their way over to the hangar to check out some airplanes and play for a little bit. While they were there Nate's co-worker Al was getting ready to taking his plane out for a jaunt around the Oshkosh skies and he generously offered to take everyone up for a ride. Everyone was happy to take him up on his offer and the kids all enjoyed their first flight in a general aviation aircraft, Evan even got to sit in the front seat and control the plane while it was in the air. Enjoy the slideshow!

Monsters

The kids had some time off from school during October. One thing that we did during this time was make monsters. Each of the kids drew a picture of a monster they'd like to make. Then we went through my fabric stash and they found fabrics that would work for their designs. We cut them out, sewed them together, stuffed them, and, voila', we have three little monsters.

Monarch

While biking home from school one day on the bike trail that runs along the river we peddled past a patch of milkweed. Evan, being Mr. Bug-Man himself, spotted a monarch caterpillar and begged to take it home with us. We housed it in an empty aquarium until it wove its cocoon. After waiting what seemed an eternity, the butterfly emerged ready to take flight.  It was released in the backyard and flew off into the wild blue yonder. A little science lesson right at home.

Bay Beach

Since moving here over three years ago we have talked about taking the kids to Bay Beach Amusement Park up in Green Bay. Nathan remembers going with his grandparents years ago and I think it's something of a right of passage if you live in north east Wisconsin. Tickets are a quarter and most rides are one or two tickets so it's a very reasonable family outing. After exhausting the rides we had lunch and then explored the Bay Beach Nature Center which is nearby. We all had enough fun that I'm sure we'll go back again sometime.

These are the moments...

Evan reading aloud to Lydia & Hans. Children's laughter=one of the best sounds ever.

Labor Day Weekend

Feeding the chickens is a favorite Grandma's house activity.

Who doesn't love a fish fry? Mmm, mmm, good.

R&R around the campfire.

The kid table! Almost all the cousins.

A frog, just one of the many critters caught.

Another critter, a salamander.

This Labor Day weekend found us vacationing at my parents' house. I say vacationing because we set up camp in their camper and set up our kitchen around the fire ring. Much of our weekend was caught in pictures. One highlight that wasn't was a paddle Dad, Brian, Nathan, and I took up Horse Creek on Saturday morning. Dad and Brian teamed up in the canoe while Nathan and I each hit the water in our kayaks. We saw songbirds, a muskrat, an otter, a family of swans, and discovered paddies of wild rice. Add family, friends, and food for the remainder of our visit and it was just about perfect. Thank, Mom and Dad for a fabulous weekend.

First Day of School 2011-2012

First day of Kindergarten for Miss Lydia.

Second Grade here I come!

Headed to Third Grade!

Walking to the van through the road construction and fog.

On August 24th the kids headed to school for the year. I'm not sure where the time went but Lydia is a kindergartner this year. Here there is only all day kindergarten so she's a full time student. She was ready and eager to join her brothers at school. We had a wonderful summer of adventures and memory making but it was time for them to hit the books again.

Pool Pass

Hans about to splash down.

Evan taking the plunge.

Lydia's turn.

Nathan demonstrating a dive.

This summer we decided to purchase a pool pass for the community pool here in Oshkosh. The pool has lots of extras such as slides, a lazy river, sandbox, a zero depth area, basketball hoops, and a diving board. The plunge slide and diving board were the last things to be conquered this summer. Both boys went off the diving board and Hans even likes it. All three kids have discovered that they like the plunge slide and that they can swim even when the water is over their head. During the hottest stretches of summer we went often, even twice a day a few times. It was a hit and we're looking forward to swimming here again next summer.