The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What a busy couple of weeks it has been!

A couple weeks ago we headed out to cut down our Christmas tree.  It has become one of our favorite holiday traditions.  Last year the trees weren't so great, but we had a few options this year before settling on this little guy.

After we get our tree, we always head inside for donuts and cider.

The lowlight this year was some drunk guy who was on a rampage rear ending us.  He hit one guy, rear-ended us twice, drove away, rear ended two more people before rolling his car.  It was one of the scariest things eve to happen to us.  Luckily, we have very little damage to the car and we are all safe.

Here's an article about it.

We were totally freaked out about the whole situation.  We stayed close to home the rest of the weekend, but we did find plenty to do!

We decorated our little tree.  It totally reminded me of decorating our tree at home when we were little.  My mom would always move the ornaments around after we went to bed or after we were done decorating.

The kids also had the chance to sit on Santa's lap.  We went up to the library this year.  It was crazy and we had to wait awhile, but it was free and the kids were really good this year.  Lincoln told him he wants a Zoomer Dino and Isadora an Elsa doll.

At the end of the day, we went up the rec center where they were having a cute little Christmas party called Rec the Halls.  The kids sent letters to Santa (he even sent a letter back!), went on a train ride and walked through the decorated trees they have at the rec center.  It was the first year for this event, but we thought it was super fun.

Just like everyone else with small kids, we have a crazy little elf around the house.  Punkin showed up on Saint Nicholas Day and filled the kids' boots up with candy and other small goodies.  He has been a little stinker and finding the craziest places to hide.  Lincoln loves looking for him every morning and Isa is a little weirded out by him.  She grips me every morning while looking for him.  It is a little creepy he finds new places to hide while we're all sleeping.

I think every single year I comment how great it is to have kids this age during the Christmas season.  I can't say it enough.  It's so fantastic seeing how excited the kids are every single day.  I absolutely LOVE it. Lincoln had a couple elves in his classroom this year so that made it even more fun for him.  I cannot wait to see the kids on Christmas morning.  I may get less sleep then them.  :)

I will be sure to get plenty of pictures Christmas morning.  I will be sure to update the blog...eventually!

Merriest of Christmases to you!

Playing Ketchup

I couldn't resist "playing ketchup". Isadora loves ketchup. She was actually dipping waffles in ketchup a couple weeks ago. Gag. 

Anywho, it's been months!

I missed Isa's birthday. Our sweet little monster turned 3!  3!  Can you believe it? Where in the world has the time gone?

All Isa said she wanted to do on her birthday was go to the playground. So,  we took the kids to the same playground we took Lincoln on his 3rd birthday. The kids had a blast and it was a beautiful day!

Kirk's parents met us there and we had cake and Isa opened more presents. Her fave, of course. The cake, that is. The presents are a close second. 

And dance!  Isadora started dance class. It's a parent/tot class so I go in with her. They faze out the parents so that just the kids go in on their own without us. There will be a recital in the summer. I love going with her and seeing her dance moves. She's getting better!

Lincoln had a day off school in October so we took advantage of the day and headed to Frankenmuth for the night. So much fun! We hadn't been with both the kids. We had a great time. 

Halloween was a success!  I tried my hand at semi-homemade costumes this year. Meet my skeleton and "bad witchhhhh".

We've had some random adventures over the last three months. Walks, pumpkin picking, playing in the pop up. 

Lincoln loves school!  We can't believe how well he is doing. Kirk and I are both so happy we opted for pre-k. It has been the perfect fit for him. I've had the chance to volunteer at his Halloween party, at the school book fair and this week I am volunteering at Santa's Workshop. 

Lincoln lost a tooth!  Giant sad face from me!

There has been more happening seeing as it is Christmas and all. Our family is in the full swing of things and I am LOVING Christmas this year!  Loving it!  I will write again in the next few days about the holidays thus far and include photos. 

Here's to making more of an effort to keep the blog up to date!

Lincoln turns 5!

Lincoln's 5.  5!  I know...I cannot believe it either!

Lincoln started the day opening his gifts from us.  He got a lot of fun stuff including a new fishing pole and a puppet theater.  Hopefully he will have a chance to use the new pole on our fall camping trip.

(Confession: I totally see my 3 year old self in the above picture!)

After opening presents and breakfast, we went to the Great Lakes Zoological Society in Ann Arbor where we met Kirk's mom and my sister-in-law and her two girls.  What a fun place to take the kids!  They had all kinds of crazy reptiles and amphibians.  One of the girls who worked there was kind enough to take a blue tongue skink out of his cage and let the kids touch him.  That was awesome and really nice of her. 

After GLZS, we went to Olga's (where else?) for lunch.  I think Lincoln finished a basket of snackers on his own. It amazes me how much kids love those things!  He opened up his presents while we waited for a table. The present he was most excited about?  Party in the Tub.  Needless to say, there have been parties in our bathtub since Friday.

We had cake and ice cream for dinner.  I loved this cake from Mom and Pop's Bakery.  They did a nice job with the dinosaur on the cake and it was really good!

Saturday, Lincoln's friend Alex came over and they played with his new toys.  Lincoln had used some of his birthday money to buy a fossil finding kit.  It kept the boys busy, quiet and outside for more than 2 hours. Perfect.

Yesterday, we met my family at one of our favorite places, Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park.  It was incredibly hot and humid and busy, but we were still able to feed the giraffes and the camel and ridge the safari bus.  Gigi and Papa got Lincoln a dinosaur packed birthday gift.  Lincoln woke me up this morning asking me why pterodactyls ate fish.  Oye.

I missed last year, but this year I asked LJ 20 questions about himself.  His answers make me smile.

1.  How old are you? 5
2.  Who is your best friend? Alex and all my other friends
3.  What is your favorite thing to do? Play with my friends and family
4.  What is your favorite color? Blue and green
5.  What is your favorite food? Pasta
6.  What do you like to do with family? Spend quiet time with them
7.  What is your favorite toy? The dinosaurs I got yesterday
8.  What do you want to be when you grow up? A museum worker and a paleontologist
9.  What makes you happy? When my friends laugh and I laugh too.  And when you laugh.
10. What makes you sad? When people aren't very nice to me. (*whoever you are, I'm coming after you)
11. What is your favorite tv show? Wild Kratts
12. What is your favorite book? Library books and the baseball one
13. What do you love to learn about? Reading
14. What was the best part of your birthday? Presents and cake
15. Where do you like to go? To all of my friend's houses who are very nice to me
16. Who is your favorite teacher? Ms. Debbie (at his old school)
17. What is your favorite treat? Suckers
18. What do you think about before you fall asleep? My day
19. If you could meet someone famous, who would it be? A rockstar
20. What was your favorite birthday present? Party in the tub

Oh, Lincoln.  One of the sweetest souls I have met.  He's so sensitive and kind and so caring.  He also doesn't always listen and rebels in his own little way.  Then again, he's 5.

Tomorrow is the first day of Begindergarten.  Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Camping Close By

A couple weeks ago we camped at Sleepy Hollow State Park just north of Lansing.  It's actually a really nice state park.  Our site was nice and private and wooded.  We had people across from us and next to us but they were quiet.

There are 16 miles of trails around the campground, although, I only enjoyed one short hike because I bit it and totally twisted my ankle.  Typical me, I know!  I was limping around the whole time we were there.  Our site was a half mile walk to the beach and less than 10 minutes to a fishing pier. You all know about LJ's love of fishing.  One day he caught 10 fish!  The kid loves it.

There were a lot of deer around and Lincoln loved catching fireflies.  He also was on a caterpillar hunt.  This particular one he named Michael.  Cause everyone names their caterpillar Michael.

Kirk worked one day which is why we stayed close to Lansing.  It's hard being a campsite alone with two kids.  Even worse when it starts thunderstorming and you're in small popup camper.  We were all going a little crazy by the time Kirk got home that night.  The kids enjoyed the day by taking slefies while sneaking playtime on my phone.

Camping for less than a week is hard!  I feel like we just unpack and then it's time to go.  But, never fear, we are planning a fall camping trip for less than a week the beginning of October.  I am trying to talk K into going south for spring break and camping.  No luck yet.  

After our fall camping trip we will winterize the popup and put it away until next year.  I'm sad to even type a word with the word "winter" in it.

Another successful trip in the books!