Happy Birthday Mimi!!!
Well, first thing is first! Happy Birthday to my mom....Mimi to Madeline and Timothy!

We are all looking forward to heading down to Tennessee next week when we will get to spend some time with you in person, but in the meantime, the kids have some creations and a birthday message to share.

We love you so much, and have lots of birthday hugs and kisses to deliver once we get there!



The kids have been busy this week! Because of teacher conferences (which went great for both of my kiddos!) Madeline and Timothy had a short school week. Timothy had no school Thursday and Friday, and Madeline had half days. We took advantage of the extra time to spend some time together....jumping on the trampoline for a good hour one afternoon. That's a workout!
We went to Burger King with some friends Thursday at lunch. (Take note of the absence of french fries.....)
How is it that in a restaurant with a playland all the kids land in front of a TV?
Well, they did play some =)
We brought AJ and Olivia back to our place and played with play-dough, watched a movie, played Wii, and half a dozen other random activities.
We even went bowling as a family Saturday night. Mmmmm....bowling alley pizza.
What a ham! Madeline had a lot of fun bowling.....she did pretty well. Sometime she used the ramp to roll the ball, sometime she used the bumpers, but sometimes she wanted to just go for it with no assistance. (This of course resulted in a lot of fouling and just flat out dropping of the ball.)

Timothy thought he was quite the little muscle man, lugging his ball around himself. He had a hard time adapting to bowling in the real world. After becoming a pro on the Wii, he wasn't keen on the gutter balls he was getting in reality!

Time out for a hug!
And one last picture....
Looking forward to seeing many of you over Thanksgiving!

-shannon

Costumes, Candy and Sensory Overload!!!

Well, here is the "halloween blog." I've never been a big fan of Halloween. (Ask my mom if you don't believe me...) Unfortunately, Madeline and Timothy both came home from school Tuesday night with the knowledge of the fact that it was trick-or treat night and all of their friends would be out collecting candy that night.

They had found some costumes out shopping with Sang and Song in Michigan, so they were prepared in terms of wardrobe....all they needed was a willing chaperone, and with Mike in class for the evening...that left me.

We walked until our legs wore out and the kids had plenty to show for their efforts! They had a lot of fun, and even I didn't mind it so much. It did help that I was escorting, by far, the cutest kids in the neighborhood =)

Think they'll have enough to last awhile???Tuesday was trick-or-treat night, and Wednesday was the SHABANG at our church. (Shabang is Hebrew for "overstimulating experience"...I'm pretty sure of that.) We headed over to church with friends Drew and Derek and had quite the night! Here are a few pictures of our evening out at NMC. The kids had a lot of fun on all of the rides, they ran into lots of friends from Sunday School, and Madeline thoroughly enjoyed the comedian/illusionist that followed.

Well, I may not be a fan....but Halloween did turn out some cute pictures!

-shannon