Gingerbread Castle!

This weekend was the 5th annual building of the gingerbread creation by Casey and the kids.  This year Esther got to pick, and she chose a castle!  The kids each decorated a side and even let mom help this year.  The perfect finishing touch is the jello moat, complete with drawbridge, sharks and fish!

Past years' creations:
2009 Fire Station
2008 Farm
2007 Church
2006 House

Party, Party, Party!

Today we celebrated Tyler, Miriam and Peter's birthdays all together with Casey's family.  It was fun watching all 3 kids open gifts, singing Happy Birthday 3 times, and having 3 of Grandma's awesome cakes!

Miriam got another outfit (purple) for Ella the bunny, a pink remote controlled car, and a Leapfrog Tag Junior.  Peter was very excited to get a Hess truck which Jeff and Renee picked up in New Jersey.  He also got another outfit for his Build-a-Bear animal, Thomas the Tiger, as well as a hot wheels set, a Geo Trax Tow Mater, and a little Lego car set.

Happy birthday to 2 great three-year-olds and an awesome five-year-old!

Happy 3rd Birthday Miriam!

Our beautiful, sweet, funny little girl turned 3 today!  She had a super fun day and thoroughly enjoyed being the birthday girl.  I had to work this morning, so she went with Casey to take the kids to school, and then Casey's mom picked her up at his office.  They stopped at Marge's Donut Den to pick up donuts and then spent the morning together.  I met them at Build-a-Bear right after lunch and Miriam adopted her new friend Ella the bunny!  For those who know that Miriam has been frequently calling herself Ella for the past few months, we think this has ended that stage.  She kept saying, "This is my bunny Ella, so I'm not Ella anymore, I'm just Miriam."  You'll also be shocked to see that she picked out a "purple-just-like-my-bedroom" colored dress for Ella.

After a carousel ride and some ice cream, Miriam, Ella and I went to pick up the kids from school.  When Casey got home we had dinner (she requested chicken cordon bleu and broccoli), she opened her gifts, and we had cake and ice cream.  She also got a card in the mail from Grandpa and Grandma W. and a couple phone calls which made her day extra-special.

Things we love about Miriam:
* She can name most of the songs on WCSG, almost as quickly as Peter
* She loves to sing
* She loves to do whatever Peter and Esther are doing and truly adores them
* She's a great snuggler and is very into saying that she loves various people that she knows
* She has a great laugh and giggle
* She has one knock-knock joke in her repertoire
* She likes to ask "why?" (ok maybe we don't always love this one...)
* She wants to do everything by herself because she's big now

 Here are some pictures from her big day of celebrating!

The stuffing process

Checking for softness--approved!

Kissing the heart before it is sewn into the bunny

Fluffing the fur

Grandma, Miriam and Ella the Bunny

Esther and Peter each picked out

their own gifts to give to Miriam

Gifts from Mom and Dad: 

pajamas for Ella, a game, and a "fur real" dog set



Thanksgiving in New Jersey

For Thanksgiving this year we made the trek out to Sussex, NJ, which is where Casey lived until he was in middle school.  He still has some relatives who live there, so his parents, Nick, Renee and Jeff and the kids, and we all drove out to celebrate Thanksgiving there.  It was wonderful to be with Casey's family and his relatives, and we enjoyed our time very much.

We arrived Wednesday night and had dinner with Casey's cousin Sharon, her husband Jon and their kids Katelyn and Jon.  We stayed with them while we were there, and our kids had a great time with them.  On Thanksgiving morning we went to church and then had Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Casey and Aunt Henny's house.  It was a group of about 24 and we had a delicious dinner and a nice time catching up with everyone.

On Friday we spent a little time with Casey's cousin Rich and his wife Kim and their kids.  They own a bakery/deli, so we picked up some goodies from there as well!  We went to High Point State Park to enjoy the beautiful view and see the monument, which is the highest point in NJ.  We spent the rest of the day just hanging out, going to a park, and also getting a tour of Jon's fire station (definitely a highlight for Peter!).

We are thankful for safe travels, for Casey's wonderful family and for a very blessed Thanksgiving!

I forgot to take any pictures on Thanksgiving, so these are all from our Friday activities:

New Job!

HA! Nope it's not me!

Peter and Miriam stopped by the office yesterday. Peter proceeded to kick me out of my chair and interview me for a job.....just like Daddy does.

Amazingly, he told me he thought he could place me in a fire department or possibly in a "bed building" business.

Looks like Peter has a recruiting job waiting for him.

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

Today I was able to go on a field trip to the zoo with Esther.  We had a nice group with her friends Megan and Makayla and we had lots of fun finding different animals and classifying them.  They have been studying animal classification, so they taught me a few things!

Here are some pictures of them having fun and working hard too!

                    

My Dad is Awesome!

Esther was singing a little ditty today that went something like, "My bed is awesome, my dad is awesome..."

You'd be singing that too if your dad built this for you:

Since Esther is the oldest, but has the smallest bedroom, Casey told her in late spring or early summer that he'd build her a loft bed.  He had a few other things to attend to before he could get to this project, but a few weeks ago he got started and in all his "spare time" he finished it relatively quickly.  Esther was SUPER excited to sleep in it last night and thinks her room and her dad are pretty cool!

Next project... something for Miriam!