Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was amazing. Food was great, company was awesome and we got a some new haircuts (not by choice). We had our meal at our good friends the Bookstabers. I love hanging out with these guys and our kids get along great. Here's Chris carving his golden turkey (the next three pictures were taken by Keily)

Miles before his haircut:)

Playing Ticket to Ride with Dan, Keily, and their friend Levi.

Spencer stole the camera for a portion and took a lot of pictures. Here's one of Jared and Mia. He really likes Mia, I'm not sure if he has a crush like but he likes her:). The last time we were at their house they watched Pocahantas and he said to her, "She likes him because he's so strong huh?"

The day was great and we had an unexpected activity take place. At one point I noticed a lot of what I thought to be cat hair on me. I couldn't figure out where it would have come from. Eventually I noticed Miles looked a little different and realized his hair had been cut. Because he's so blonde it wasn't too bad but it was definitely cut right on top down the left side and in back in a few places. Then I noticed Spencer's hair was cut in the back and a little on the side. And then... the Bookstabers noticed Addy's hair had been cut as well. I was laughing up to this point. Cutting a girl's hair just isn't as funny. Who cares if you buzz a boys hair but girl, no thanks. At first we thought just bangs were cut right below the eye, not too bad, but later we learned some hair was cut in the back so a haircut was needed. Who was the culprit. We were told Jared and Addy. I think Jared did the majority of it. When I tell people about it I have to point out their hair so it must not have been too bad. Only one stranger pointed it out while at a store once.

Below are pictures I took on Jared's birthday trying to capture the cut hair. It's not horribly noticeable so I decided not to cut their hair and keep it long for the winter. But this past Saturday I decided I needed to touch up the sides of Miles' hair and I cut it way shorter than I wanted to:( and now I think the chunks of hair are more noticeable and it looks like I gave them a bad haircut. I haven't taken recent pictures of their new haircuts but here's some pictures of Jared's work:

Spencer lost hair on the left and in the back.Miles' hair was cut on the left side, from the temple to the crown of his head, and in the back.

I Have a Five-Year-Old?!

And it's fun to have a five-year-old. Jared and Spencer played well before but these past few months their relationship has blossomed even more and they are inseperable, making for a long morning for me till Jared is done with school so Spencer can play with him. I originally like to decorate their cakes in private and surprise them but this year for Spencer and Jared they were part of it and it was kind of fun. Here's Jared the night before his birthday, Spencer and Jared were playing with the cake food coloring: Jared's holding things to his neck making him Frankenstein.

Before going to bed I gave him a big hug and excitedly told him this would be his last day being four. this made him really sad and he cried. Oops! Since then he occasionally tells me he's still four. If only I could freeze time. Mothering may be hard right now with three busy boys but I have a feeling these are the "easy" times. I'm already missing it and it's still here... and yet there are days I call Chris begging him to trade me spots for a day. Jared's favorite present was a new Star Wars Wii game and a book from his Grandma M. Skippy Jon Jones. Way cute book and I highly recommend it! Here's the group early morning playing the new game:

For his birthday we took Jared a little early from school after dropping off treats and headed to the Kohl Chrildren's Museum. Our neighbor Julie works there and spent a lot of time with us. It was really fun. Future VetFuture Cashiers or spenders? They had a ball painting their faces.

The next day was Jared's birthday party. It was a huge success but I learned a few things:

• If you're going to invite the whole class don't put "no presents". More come when they don't have to bring a gift, which is fine just chaos!
• If there are going to be more than seven kids maybe I should do it at another venu besides our home.
• Make sure Chris or another friend will be present to help and take charge or find a sitter for the baby. Thank goodness I had a few moms help take charge
• Try to encourage parents not to stay. Way too many bodies in the house (13 kids and 7-8 parents and about 3 additional younger siblings

As pessimistic as I sounded above the party really was great and I know I was more critical than anyone. The kids had A BlAsT. The party was a cubs baseball theme party (really only in decoration). We played Musical chairs, Pass the parcel (a gift is wrapped layer by layer and each kid gets to open one layer and keep the present), pop the balloon (balloon tied to ankle), and a pinata.

As simple as the pinata looks it took me a long time to trace the lines before I felt like a baseball. It paid off in the end.

Cake was easy enough. Only tricky part was the red frosting trying to get red not pink. (Brown and pink worked like a charm.)

Later Aunt Terri came over to give her gift and then we went to her house for her "tree trimming" party