Pilgrims and Indians

Meet my little Indian friend, Bright Lightning.


Tyson's pre-K class had a special pow wow party this week! They sang songs, played drums, and did some dances for the parents!


Trevor's class had a Thanksgiving feast for lunch on Friday! They dressed up as pilgrims.


Trevor always does a great job performing on stage! He is so animated! Imagine that! Ha!

Food Pantry

We served in a food pantry today with a group of our friends. Jim and I took the children and organized boxes of donated food items. We labeled boxes and the kids helped us sort fruit, vegetables, beans, rice, noodles, cereal, canned meat... Jim and I had to check the expiration dates on all the cans before they could be shelved! The kids did such a fantastic job! They worked so hard. It was such a great experience for everyone!



Adam and Carri can both speak a little Spanish, so they helped at the front desk. They helped families sign up for a turkey for Thanksgiving!


Liz and Shelly helped bag up the groceries. Each family is given enough food for a week. We helped serve over 220 families today!

Guess Who

It's a killer whale!


Guess who! Freaky, huh?


It's a creepy swamp thing with a dragon!


Dressing up is so much fun!

Pumpkin Carving

We designed the faces we wanted on our pumpkins and then Dad helped us carve them!


Pumpkin guts!!!!!!! Yuck!!!!!!! We picked the seeds out and toasted them in the oven. They were good!


Smile!!!!!!!!!

More Party Pics

They picked out a "Monsters vs Aliens" birthday cake! Trev wanted chocolate and Ty wanted vanilla. So I got a layer of each with butter cream frosting in the middle! It was yummy!


Thanks to all of you that sent us birthday money! We put it all together and got this really cool electronic drum set from Costco! The boys (including Adam) LOVE it! This is a gift they will never outgrow! I love the fact that they are so quiet, small, and have head phones!


They are enjoying all of the new gifts they received. Birthdays are the best!!! ...At least they are when you are 8 and 5! Ha!

Party Animals!

Trevor and Thomas have been best friends since we moved to Chicago. They were in pre K together!


Now Ty is in pre-K! Here he is with Jimmy and Ryan. Jimmy used to live next door to us, so he and Ty have been best buds since we moved here as well.


All boy table...


And the table with the three girls at the end...

Cosmic Bowling

They had a Cosmic Bowling Party to celebrate. (They will always share birthday parties for as long as I am in charge of doing them.) They invited 17 boys and 3 girls! They had a blast!


They even wore glow stick necklaces!


As you can see, the necklaces also became head bands and Frisbees.


Everyone had so much fun! It was the best party ever!

The Birthday Boys

We celebrated some birthdays around here last weekend. Trevor turned 8 on Sat., 10/10, and Tyson turned 5 on Sunday, 10/11. They were thrilled to open up their presents from Pete, Lori, and their cousins!


Do you remember when you were young and birthdays were so full of joy and excitement? At what age does that all change?


They were just giddy to get new toys!


This pictures says it all!

Doin' Da Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch!



Every year we meet Uncle Pete, Aunt Lori, Madie, Noah, and Livie there!


We had a great time!

Ty the tender hearted soccer player

Ty had his first soccer game this Sat. He is a pretty good player! He loves it! He especially likes playing with his best friend, Jimmy.



He shoots! He scores! I think he made about three goals during the game.

When we got home, he said he had fun but felt sad for his teammate, Ben, because he didn't get to make a goal. (Sweet boy!) He said he would let Ben make one of his goals next time. I'm so proud of him for his team spirit and tender heart...it's not about being the best or winning...it's about having fun and helping others. Way to go, Tyson!


Trevor was cheering him on from the side lines! That sure made Tyson feel special as it is usually Ty on sidelines cheering for Trev!