Here is what we've been up to since the new year started last week:
January 1: Casey and his mom continued the New Year's Day tradition of making Ollie Bolen...
January 2: Somebody got braces! I also had to work because my school went back for Thursday and Friday. The kids got to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma W.
January 3 was my 39th birthday. It was probably the best birthday I've ever had! It started with these 3 sweeties bringing me breakfast in bed (Grape Nuts and orange juice), along with cards and a special homemade gift that Esther made. They did this on their own since Casey was already at work!
Later in the morning we went to Tim Horton's for donuts with my parents and Karen.
On the way back, my sister took her car through the car wash. Peter and Miriam pretended to be scared. These pictures cracked me up!
In the afternoon, Karen, Peter, Miriam and I hung out and played some games. I thought Esther had gone with Casey to his office because they told me his boss had some filing for her to do to earn some extra money. In reality, she was helping him prepare for my surprise party for later that night!
We had planned to go out for dinner with my parents and Karen, and that did go as expected. We had a nice dinner
Twisted Rooster and then I thought we were going to go back to my parents' house for cake. When we left the restaurant, Casey pulled into a Meijer parking lot and made me get out of the car for a minute so he could fill Peter and Miriam in on what was happening. Then he blindfolded me and drove me around for about 35 minutes (apparently dinner went too quickly and we were going to be too early!) I got completely lost as to where we were, other than that I knew we were mostly on highways. I didn't know which direction we were going or have any clue as to where we were.
We finally arrived and I still didn't know where we were until I heard the sound of a familiar door closing behind me. Just as I said that I knew where we were (my parents' house), Casey pulled the blindfold off and everyone yelled, "Surprise!" I was completely shocked and overwhelmed by all the people that were there. Neighbors and friends who are all special people in our lives had come for the celebration. It was so much fun to have all those people there, and I'm so thankful to Casey, my family, Casey's family and some good friends who did a lot of work to make it all happen.
There was plenty of delicious food!
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| Chocolate fountain and cake! |
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| Casey's mom's cake--yum! |
The kids got to hang out for a while, and then my parents took them home and put them to bed so that we could relax and visit with our guests. I just think it's so funny that Casey did this for my 39th birthday--he totally caught me off guard by NOT doing it on a milestone year!
The next day we played "Trading Post" which is a game the girls made up where we bring our rainbow loom bracelets and trade them with each other.
We also went bowling with some friends and had them over for pizza afterwards.
On Sunday, we went to Casey's parents' house for lunch after church to celebrate my birthday (again!) My niece Cassie picked out this awesome necklace for me which says, "Another year of fabulous" on the pendant.
Sunday (yesterday) afternoon/evening a major winter storm moved in and we have had lots of snow, blowing, drifting and crazy cold temperatures and windchills. All the schools were cancelled by last night, so it was nice to know ahead of time that Christmas break would be extended! We decided to have a neighbor coffee time/play date at our house this morning.
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The moms and some of the kids left by lunch time,
but a couple girls stayed into the afternoon
and they had fun building a fort under the kitchen table. |
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Peter was excited to have a couple boys to play with!
They built a fort with couch cushions. |
School was already cancelled for tomorrow by this afternoon, so we get one more day to sleep in and relax before reality hits and we have to go back to school! This is definitely the longest Christmas break we've ever had!
