Hanukkah

There were lots of festivities and fun family parties during Hanukkah this year!  The first was a party with the Samburs and Reisses on night #1.  With 8 kiddos between our 3 families, the seemingly small gathering gets pretty raucous pretty quickly! The kids were great though, and had lots of fun on the Gelt Hunt and playing with their Hanukkah Harry gifts before enjoying a delicious meal of matzoh ball soup, brisket and latkes. Here are some pics of the kiddos having fun playing, eating and lighting candles, and the boys having way too much fun cooking - Bill did the brisket sous vide with a blowtorch finish :)

During the few nights in between parties, we lit the candles as a family, and the kids got to assume the position (heads down, arms out) before getting small presents each night.  It was nice coming home from work to an audience so excited for my arrival "Yay, Mommy's home! Can we light candles and open presents now?"

Here's Caitlin teaching Rach how to play dreidel.  Rach surprised her with prior knowledge of the game, and a cool upside-down dreidel move she learned growing up :)

Papa Rich came to visit for the weekend, and we had a snow-filled weekend of QT.  Aunt Alli and Seb slept over, and we all stayed in our PJs all day, playing with new toys, and just hanging out.  We also got to FaceTime with Jen and the kids while they opened each others' presents, which was really fun.  Here's a pic of Papa beating Isaac at his new basketball game (it wont be long before Isaac wins though!) and enjoying a game of foosball  against all 3 kiddos.   

For the final night of Hanukkah, we went to Kristin's annual party. While we missed the Schrutts (a lot), it was a really fun party with marshmallow "dreidel" decorating, Hanukkah Harry presents, and delicious food.  Everyone had a really nice night - but beginning the following night, the victims fell one by one, until 16 of 19 came down with a violent stomach bug (including Bill who had to travel to DC for work!).  Somehow Isaac, Caitlin and I all avoided it, thankfully (we already had it a few weeks prior).

Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's already time for the holidays!  We had lots of gorgeous days in November, so it felt a lot more like early Fall then Thanksgiving.  In getting the house ready for the big dinner, we took advantage of the nice weather to "play outside." Bill convinced the kids that doing fall lawn cleanup was fun (and offered to pay them each $1), so they were psyched to help and they were actually helpful! Here are some pics of them gathering (and then jumping in) the leaves.

Now, on to the actual Turkey Day.  The weather changed the day before from 65 degrees to 8 and snowy.  With that change, our desire to run the Turkey Trot went out the window.  It worked out for the better though, because the Stamms moved in on Wednesday and we did a lot of cooking (and drinking) on Wednesday night and the kids woke up early to watch the Macy's Day Parade.

Grandma brought over an art project that the kids loved - they each made their own turkeys and helped me write name cards for the dinner table and hang up their paintings on the wall. They also helped Grandma make the pie batter (more accurately, lick the beaters).  All the while, Chad and Bill were continuing to prep the meal and spending lots of time outside in the snow tending to the fryer and the smoker.

Here's the table before everyone got there - 19 in total!

While we VERY MUCH missed Jen, Jaden, Talia and Ari, we were happy to have Max in town representing the Schrutt fam.  He also brought his extended family (who we were happy to have) - Zoe, Joey, Jack, Julia, Nora and Bruce! Everyone contributed to the meal, and it was amazing, as always.  Here are some pics of the ladies getting everything ready, Rach making her famous (delish) pecan pie, and everyone fitting (snugly) at the dinner table.  It's always a whirlwind when there are that many people, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  The kids and grown ups all seemed to have a blast, and there was plenty of amazing food.  In fact- one of the turkeys and the au gratin didnt even make it to the table!

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to see Lion King in Denver.  Kristin bought tickets for me and the kids for Hanukkah, and Grandma for her birthday.  I wasn't sure whether the kids would want to sit still for that long, but they were entranced.  It turns out they haven't seen the movie (mommy fail), and so they were at the edge of their seats waiting to see what happened.  It being their first real live show (other than disney ice shows), they kept asking questions about the costumes, actors and stage throughout - especially Caitlin!  At one point, when Simba's dad falls off the mountain, Cate asked loudly - "Umm, is someone going to take him to the hospital? Is he really dead??"  She couldn't separate the play from reality, and was genuinely concerned for the actors' safety - adorable.  Overall they loved the show (as did I!)

Finally, we continued our Friday night after Thanksgiving leftover tradition with Uncle Evan, Aunt Adrienne, and Aunt Rach.  Since the Stamms continued taking up residence at our house, they joined in the festivities as well.  It's always great to have an opportunity to do the meal again with less people in a more relaxed setting - and actually get to taste our food (as well as Evan's leftovers).  Alice was center stage (literally) and is growing and changing fast!

The kids watched Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer on their last night together - none of us wanted the Stamms to leave when they finally did on Saturday.  Overall, a great holiday weekend with lots to be thankful for.

NJ Trip

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we got in a quick trip to NJ to visit Bill's family.  It's been awhile since our last visit, so everyone was excited for the trip.  We spent the whole weekend in Spring Lake, because we wanted to limit the driving during the short trip, and be able to spend lots of time with Grandma Jo.  It was also a bonus that Uncle Jim and Rox's house (where we stayed) had a pool table, pinball machine, and old-school milkshake maker to ensure the kids never wanted to leave!  We ate well, as always -- we were able to get in two delicious family dinners: the first was Grandma Jo's meatballs and rice pudding (both to die for!), and the second was Uncle Jim's famous ham and Aunt Janet's flourless fudgecake - also amazing, in addition to a trip to lunch at the Shrimp Box by the beach for Jersey style fried seafood (Bill's craving).  We also got lots of QT with the whole fam, but especially with Grandma Jo, as well as a stroll on the (freezing) beach to collect shells.  Here are some pictures from the weekend, it was a great trip!

Busy kids - Fall 2015

Wanted to post a catch-up blog on the kids' activities during the Fall.  Isaac played soccer, and made amazing improvement this year.  Bill was assistant coach again, and enjoyed it a lot more this year because you could really see the difference in the skill level of the kids, and Isaac was really focused on performing well in the games.  Isaac was lucky enough to have someone special (besides me and Caitlin) cheer him on at almost every game.  Here are some pics from the season:

Isaac started his second (wolf) year in Cub Scouts this year, with Bill agreeing to be the "den master" again (I think he just likes the title).  The boys meet at our house once a month, and do various activities on other days.  Their fall fundraising drive was a popcorn sale - here's Isaac creatively using Caitlin's baby carriage to help in his door-to-door sales.  He actually did great, with some help from the folks at my office, and his den got to win a pizza party and throw a pie in Bill's face for selling the most popcorn in the Pack.  Here are some pics from that as well as a Den hike (with Cate tagging along)

Both kids are taking gymnastics - but they have aged out of taking classes together, so we had to find a gym that offered boy and girl classes for the right ages at the same time (no easy feat!).  The gym where they offer it is a real gymnastics gym, and the kids have learned a lot.  Both are picking up technical skills, and the teachers run them around with calisthenics, scoring extra points with us for exhausting them :)  Here are some pics - Cate is easier to capture because her stuff is toward the front, but we got a pic of Isaac free climbing the rope all the way to the ceiling and ringing the bell, for which he was very proud.  

Caitlin is doing dance again - but this season she opted to go back to ballet and tap. She's enjoying it, but says Hip-Hop was more fun, and will definitely switch back in the Spring.

Finally, Cate started Girl Scouts this year - as a Daisy.  I agreed to co-lead the troop, and we have 12 girls, most of whom are in Cate's class and all of whom are adorably excited and happy to wear their little tunics and earn patches.  Here are the girls at their first meeting getting their Daisy certificates, and doing some art projects.  The first troop activity was a fundraiser for the high school cheerleaders - our girls got to spend a day with them learning to cheer, and then went out to the field with them during their first football game to do a cheer in front of the crowd.  Our girls were awestruck by the cheerleaders, and had a blast hanging with them and learning to cheer.