Valentines Day 2012

Before I can begin my post on our wonderful trip to California, I want to fill in the first part of February, or more specifically, Valentines Day.

Our Valentines Day was fun in that the kids loved getting gifts and donuts in the morning, they all had fun parties in their class, and I was in charge of Alyssa's class party, and therefore in the class to execute the whole thing.  It was great and I loved being there! We made dinner fun by picking up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. 

Some pics from the day:

Presents and Hostess Donuts await the kids in the morning.

I bought this fun game from Oriental Trading for Alyssa's class party.  It was a big hit, and it got double duty when I walked it across the hall  for August's class party that afternoon! When we brought it home after school, the Schaal kids had some fun with it in the living room.

Pin the Heart on the Bee.  Also a fun game in class and at home.

I can't remember what Alyssa was doing here...

On Friday the 17th, August's class held a "Fairytale Ball" that the parents were invited to attend.  It was sweet! The kids broke up into three groups and performed a well known fairytale for the audience.  August was a forest creature in his play, "Little Red Riding Hood".

August and his teacher, Miss Glenn. She was dressed like Cinderella. She could easily pass for a Disney Princess, she is so beautiful!

Alyssa wore her Princess Dress to the Ball;-)

Some refreshments! Reagan wore her Cinderella dress.

One more of August with Miss Glenn.

A Day to Give Thanks 2011

Everyday is a day to give thanks for, but this day is a day to really feast on with family, friends and share our Thankfulness.

We had a great Thanksgiving with my Dad, Candy, Sean and his Girlfriend, Catherine, Eric and Sarah.  We had all the good stuff: Honeybaked Ham, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, rolls, carrot casserole, green bean casserole, jello salad, delicious appetizers, and let us not forget about desert: pumpkin pie, peach pie, cherry pie, chocolate pie, pecan pie and fudge...Candy made perfect fudge this year.  YUMMY! Whew!  Needless to say, we are still stuffed today (by "we" I really mean "I").

Our after-dinner events consisted of pouring through black Friday ads around the table.  This is actually pretty fun! 
The kids played flashlight tag upstairs and hide-and-seek in the dark (upstairs).  Our festivities carried on until 10:30 P.M.  Everyone was having such a great time we didn't want the night to end!

Here are some pics. from our evening:

No family get together or blog post would be complete without one of these.  It's the Mike signature pose.  Don't copy it...I know you want to!

I love to wear my "Chef Roxanne" apron Robin gave me one year for Christmas.  It is perfect!

Sarah, Eric, Sean's Adorable and Sweet! Girlfriend, Catherine, and Sean. I call her Lady Catherine because she reminded me of her!

Everyone is ready for dinner, even Minnie, Tangled and Snow White.  My Dad was looking to sit down and pulled the chair out and Reagan was like, "oh no, that seat is TAKEN!"  She didn't say that, but she gave a look that said it all.

......and you thought this one wouldn't make it on the blog!  Sean isn't getting ready to punch his girlfriend, he is excited because I had just told him the pictures I took were going to make it on my blog:-))

Pumpkin Patch 2011

It's that time of year again....time for a trip to Jubilee Farms Pumpkin Patch.  Now, there are several great pumpkin patches in the area, but this is the one we have gone to every year since we moved up here, so we hate to break tradition!
Saturday was chilly, but not rainy, and that is key!  A pumpkin patch in the rain and cold is not so much fun, not to mention the mud!  So, on Saturday we headed over and took part in the tractor hayride to the patch, the selecting of the pumpkins, the hay maze, feeding the pigs, and a second trip to the patch when we saw our chance to take the horse-drawn hay ride.  We always aim to get on that one, but it holds so few people compared to the larger ones pulled by the tractors, plus all the kids around want the horse-drawn ride, which makes it difficult to catch. 

We had great fun, and since we didn't have a nap to work around (Reagan takes them when we are around, but they aren't an absolute requirement these days), we decided to go after lunch rather than before, which was a nice change.  We were there late enough to head straight to an early dinner afterward.  Followed by an early bath, and an early bedtime:-)

The kids got very excited about the goards. Reagan wanted the perfect small pumpkin, but small ones were hard to come by...they were all big!

I see you.  The boys played hide and seek in the hay maze.  They could have played in the maze a looonng time, they were having so much fun!