Game Night

New games are so much fun! 

 Here were are  playing a new favorite - Fibber!

Happy Holidays

Christmas Eve at  Gpa and Gma Carter's

 Preparing Christmas dinner with Grandma.

 Christmas Eve night opening gifts from each other.  Dakota got a DC Comics Ultimate Character Guide with Superman in it!

Anticipating Santa......

Christmas morning!

Look what I got, Dakota....She-Hulk!

Is it really...is it really..... - Julie's bunny Nutmeg!

Christmas night at Gpa & Gma Franklin's..

A surprise special gift for G-ma Franklin!

See You Real Soon........

RyAnne, Bailey, and Dakota just received a Portable North Pole very merry video from Santa this weekend saying he would see them real soon.... 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012 they saw him.  He stopped at Great Uncle Terry and Aunt Carol's house!  When he came in he gave Dakota his bells to take good care of.

Then he had the kids settle on the couch to open a few small presents since they have been good this year.

Dakota received a sounds and light tractor, Bailey a kitten like Half-Pint, which she has named Jingle.

And RyAnne the chiuaua she has always wanted - Chippy!

It was not long and it was time for Santa to go.  He is VERY busy this time of the year!

We hope you stop again - real soon, Santa!

What A Day....

First, Mom and Dad came home from work.  It was a long day and we were going through backpacks and getting supper ready.  Then, Bailey announced that she wasn't feeling well.  So, while Dad was busy in the kitchen and Mom was picking out clothes for the next day, Dakota decided to entertain sick Bailey.  "Dakota, stop jumping around!" Mom exclaimed.  Minutes later...."Dakota, did you hear what your mom said!"  Dad announced.  A few more bounces and Mom marched into the living room....just in time to see Dakota flying through the air then smacking his head on the railing!!!!!!

It was a small gouge, but after we realized we could see his skull, off to the the ER Dad and Dakota went.

In the meantime, Mom stayed home with Bailey.  By this time we realized she had the flu - BLAH!

And Dakota?  He got stitches in his head and didn't shed a tear.

The Entertainer!

Fall Celebrations

We carved our pumpkins. A dog for Dakota, cat for Bailey, and RyAnne carved her own pumpkin - a scary face!

Celebrated in our classrooms.

And went Trick-or-Treating.  Superman, the vampiress, and snow princess are ready to GO!

Trick-or-Treat!

Eugster's Pumpkin Patch

On a beautiful fall day, the kindergarten class visited Eugster's Pumpkin Patch.

First stop - picking pumpkins.  As you can see, the road to the patch, and the pumpkin patch itself, was very muddy!

Luckily, they moved a bunch of pumpkins to a grassy area.  Dakota's perfect pumpkin pick!

The boys in the group LOVED the BIG tractors.

Feeding baby goats....so cute!

Mrs. Rosin and class.

You are probably wondering - where's a picture of Bailey?  Well, here she is.....

she was sick!  Mom was sad that Bailey could not go :-(!  However, Bailey was so sick she didn't care.  Dad had to stay home with Bailey while Mom and Dakota went on the trip.  We brought home a BIG pumpkin for her and she was happy!

Treinen Trip

RyAnne's first field trip of the year - Treinen Farm in Lodi, WI.

Our first task was to make it through the farm technology farm maze.  We had a map, flag, and luckily another chaperone besides Mom to help us through the maze!

We made it!  A look-out tower to view the maze we tackled.

Princess in the pumpkin carriage.

We climbed the rolling hills and overlooked the farm and pumpkin patch we visited.

A proud moment...when Mrs. Treinen asked the kids this question, "At your age you probably won't know the answer to this.  Does anyone know when did Wisconsin become a state?"  And up when RyAnne's hand proudly.  Yes, Mom was a 4th grade teacher for years and RyAnne knows "Wisconsin become a state in 1848!"  Cha-ching!

Homecoming

As I was cleaning the house on Friday, I started thinking....this is surreal.  It didn't seem that long ago  that I was eagerly anticipating going to homecoming myself.  Fast forward 25 or so years - YIKES - and I am cleaning the house because Zach is bringing over his date for homecoming. C-R-A-Z-Y!  So I cleaned, and scrubbed, and made sure the three younger ones looked as cute as could be and waited for their arrival.

Zach had told us that he would like to come to Madison before the dance.  The plan was that he and his date, Trista, were coming to Madison to eat and Dad was driving them to the dance.  A couple nights before the dance, Zach calls and asks if we would like to eat out with them.  UMMMMM....no, this is your homecoming.  We're sure she does not want us to eat with them.   Next phone call ... would we like to make them dinner and they could eat at our place.  No, you should probably take her out.

On the afternoon of the dance, they arrived all dressed up and nervous.  After spending some time getting acquainted, we bring up what they should probably think about - where they want to eat.  They both say they would like to eat at our house.  After some convincing, we talked them into going out to eat.  They chose Rocky's.  Not exactly Prime Quarter but hey, it's on Dad's dime so he wasn't complaining.  What is most important is that they have fun (good clean fun).

Zach and Trista picture time.....wait for the hair sweep!

Homecoming 2012 - Zach and Trista

Homecoming tickets in hand and a picture on the iPad....we're all set!

After entering the Honda Odyssey Limosine........"Columbus High School, Driver!"

Hummy

On Saturday we walked out on our deck to find this..........

an injured hummingbird.

We could tell that it was still alive, but injured.  The kids named it Hummy and took care of it.

We built it some living quarters....

feed it.... 

and took it in for the night!

The next morning we took it outside.  We checked on it, and checked on it, and checked on it.  Just when Mom thought we were going to have to take it in again - it was gone.  Hopefully it migrated someplace warmer.

The kids thought Hummy was the coolest thing ever!