Decorating for Christmas

This week was an uneventful week.

Monday we had science explorers. We built rockets because this session of science explorers is all about Space! Noah had cub scouts on Tuesday. This time Hannah got to go with him, so she got to see the cool talk about fire safety from the fireman.

Saturday, we helped Daddy. We helped him bring things back to Menards and buy a few things he needs. Then we helped him shop for groceries at Sam's Club. He even bought us pizza at lunch for being good kids! Then we came home and cleaned our rooms. Clean rooms meant we got Christmas lights in our bedroom windows.

After cleaning our rooms and decorating our windows, we helped Daddy put up the Christmas tree. Mommy was at a tournament, so she was happy to see our tree up when she got home!

Today, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and had a nice quiet morning at home. After lunch, we helped test the Christmas lights and put them up so we could decorate the tree!

We were so excited to put up ornaments, that we forgot the lights needed to go on the tree first. Here we are writing out the steps of how to decorate for Christmas so we know WHEN the ornament part happens.

It was a super fun day of listening to Christmas carols and decorating the tree. It's beautiful now! Dad and Mom both thought we did a great job.

Adding his Tow Mater ornament to the tree.

Adding an ornament to the tree.

The final product. Our tree!

We're looking forward to a short week at school, a cub scout outing and Thanksgiving with Grandma & Grandpa next week. We're looking forward to seeing our cousins, aunts, uncle and grandparents. We can't wait!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!
Noah & Hannah

November 10-17

Winter is truly here! We had enough snow & ice last year that we're not quite ready for the snow to be here yet. But it is!

Monday, we woke up to snow on the ground. Schools just a few miles north of us were cancelled because of the snow. We had school, but unfortunately, our first week of Science Explorers was cancelled due to the weather.

Hannah did get to enjoy some time playing in the snow and trying to build a snowman, but it was already too cold for the snow to stick together.

Hannah wanted to get out and play in the very first snow of the year

Mom & Dad told us that we could have our very own Christmas trees in our bedrooms IF we cleaned off our windowsills. So, we worked really hard to clear off our windowsills and clean up our bedrooms.

We also had to take the time to call our aunt Dani to wish her a happy birthday! 

We LOVE being able to have our own Christmas Tree in our room. We love the lights, the decorations and the Christmas spirit.

Hannah's Christmas tree in her bedroom

Noah and his Christmas tree

We only got a few inches of snow on Monday, so Tuesday & Wednesday were back to normal. Play outside for school, come home, homework, supper, etc.

We were excited to get ice cream sundaes on Wednesday night as our special treat. We had a lot of fun adding M&Ms, oreos & toppings to our sundaes.

Ice cream sundae time!

Ice cream sundaes and fun with his sister

Mom says it makes her heart smile when we laugh & joke and have fun together - as long as we don't make a big mess! :-)




Friday night was supposed to be the school carnival, but they had to cancel it because they didn't have enough volunteers to make it work. We were bummed, but Mom & Dad suggested we go to movie night at church! So, after a trip to Target (to buy a birthday gift for a party on Saturday), we got ready to go see "Planes: Fire & Rescue" It was a good movie. And, it's always fun to see our friends at church!


Saturday, Noah went to help daddy run errands in the morning while Mom & Hannah wrapped Hannah's best friend's birthday gift. After dinner, Hannah left for the birthday party while Noah put together yet ANOTHER puzzle. Yes, he LOVES puzzles!

While Hannah was watching Frozen, decorating cupcakes and making snowman crafts at her party, Noah was working with Daddy on his Cub Scout requirements. After working for 45 minutes on Cub Scout reading, he helped Daddy put plastic on the window while Mom drove through the snow to get Hannah.

We weren't home long after Hannah came back before going to Waconia for a surprise birthday party. Lots of friends we knew were there, and we weren't ready to go home at 9, but Dad knew the weather was bad so we needed to head home. Of course, he got us home safely and we were tired out after a busy day!

Sunday, we went to Sunday School, then Mom took us to Half Price Books. She gave us each money and a coupon so we could buy our own books. We each picked out an activity book and immediately came home and started reading them and working on them!

Typical scene after a trip to the library or bookstore...

After a lazy afternoon of reading, playing & puzzling, Hannah helped Mom get a start on Christmas cookies. They made one kind of cookies (our favorite kind - funfetti cookies). Mom thinks we're going to freeze them for Christmas - we're not sure they'll last long enough to be around at Christmas time!

Trying to get a head start on Christmas cookies this year.

We're looking forward to our last full week before Thanksgiving week. It's going to be cold - we're not looking forward to the cold. But, we're looking forward to seeing friends again at school this week.

Have a great week!
Noah & Hannah

November 3-9, 2014: Capitol Christmas Tree, Pump it Up and Space Aliens

Thursday night, daddy took us to Mommy's office to see the Capitol Christmas Tree. It had been cut down in the Chippewa National Forest the week before, and it stopped at Lifetouch on the way to Washington DC. Though the tree was on its side in a truck, we still felt privileged to see the tree before the President of the United States gets to see it and light it.

We signed the side of the truck, so our names will be on the side of the truck as it travels to Washington DC, too. And, we even got to meet Smokey the Bear and have some hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. It was a very fun night! Especially since we each got a book about the 50th Anniversary of the Capitol Christmas Tree and got to have Subway for supper.

We got to meet Smokey the Bear and a Forest Ranger.

Us in front of the Capitol Christmas Tree

Our whole family checking out the lit up Capitol Christmas Tree

Friday, we got the day off school. We helped Daddy run some errands, cleaned our room and then got to meet our friends at Pump it Up Playtime for a fun night! We got pizza, craft time and time to jump on the inflatables while Daddy & Mommy went out for dinner without us. It was so fun!
After they picked us up, we went home and our friends Zachary & Grayson went home with us. Though it was late and we all just went to sleep, we were excited to have friends over. We were so exhausted after a long day, that we fell asleep quickly!
Mom woke us up in time to leave for Lego Minecraft Engineering Class Saturday morning. It was the last class for Lego Minecraft Engineering - we loved the class! It was so fun.
After class, we got to go home and do some work around the house and get ready for the coming snow.
We were so helpful that we even had time to go to the library. It was our first time checking out the Plymouth Library. While we were excited about new fiction books, we were thrilled to check out the Wookie Cookie Star Wars cookbook and the Fairy Cookbook as well as the Narnia Cookbook. (Since we've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia, it's fun to see the meals that we JUST read about last night!)
Sunday morning, we went to Sunday School then sat quietly with our books while Mom & Dad went to a meeting afterwords. It was a long, boring meeting, but we were so good, daddy decided we deserved a treat: a trip to Space Aliens! It was AWESOME.

Space Aliens was a super cool restaurant!

We even got to meet a "REAL" Alien

We had some yummy food, met an alien, checked out the arcade and had a little tiny bit of room for dessert. (We BARELY had room for dessert, though!)

Playing Hammer Heads (like Wack-a-Mole, but SHARKS!)

Both kids realized the crane machines looked easier than they really are and will probably rip you off.

The Super Nova Sundae... But, the final verdict was that Alien Ears were our favorite dessert.

After we got home, we played a game of chess and cleared our windowsills off so we could have CHRISTMAS TREES in our rooms while Dad & Mom cleared the garage enough to move Daddy's motorcycle. We also had to make sure we found our snowpants and boots because we're getting a foot of snow tomorrow. We're kind of excited, though, mom & dad don't seem very excited.

Have a good week!
Noah & Hannah

Daddy's charity game weekend and a great Halloween Weekend

Halloween is getting close!

The weekend before Halloween, we had a practice run.

The local mall was having a Halloween event. We went trick-or-treating through the stores.

Luke & Leia, ready to trick or treat at the local strip mall.

Hannah, trying out her angel look

After trick or treating, we decided to visit Daddy. He was playing in a 24-hour gaming marathon to raise money for sick kids at Children's Hospitals. But, we was happy to see us!

Visiting Daddy at his charity gaming event. 

It was such a great day, we got to go eat supper at PIZZA RANCH!

yummy PIZZA RANCH for supper!

This week brought the dropping of the leaves in the BACK YARD.

Playing in the leaves in the backyard.

And, we got our pumpkin carved JUST in time for Halloween!

Helping get the pumpkin guts out...this is clearly not her favorite part of Halloween.

We got to wear our costumes all day at school on Halloween.

Noah had TWO Luke Skywalkers and TWO Darth Vaders in his class (not to mention the mom who came as Princess Leia to help with the fall party). Hannah was the only Star Wars Character in her class.

They were surprised to see Mom wearing Day of the Dead face paint when they got off the bus!

After a yummy supper, we put on layers for a COLD night and went out trick or treating!!

Ready to check out the new neighborhood to trick or treat!

By the time we got around our block, we were cold and ready to come inside! We had plenty of candy and were ready for a warm couch and a blanket.

We woke up bright & early the next day for a class at the community center called "Lego Minecraft Engineering". It was a lot of building with legos and creating Minecraft places. It was so fun! We can't wait to go back next week.

After class, we came home to eat and help with yardwork. We helped bag up 25 bags of leaves! (After playing in them). We worked so hard that Daddy bought us all Freeziac after supper.

Sunday was daylight savings time, so we could wake up and be lazy before Sunday School. 

Afterwords, we came home and played before our friends Zachary & Grayson stopped to play for a short time. Then we got to relax after a busy weekend.

We even had a family movie night. We watched Monsters Inc, ate pizza in front of the TV and roaring fire, and Mommy made us s'mores for desert.  

Hannah doesn't like chocolate on her s'mores, but discovered a new tasty treat: Peanut Butter S'mores.

The s'more traditionalist enjoying a chocolatey, marshmallow treat.

What a great weekend!

Apple Jacks & Missing Teeth (Oct 19-24)

We had a fun weekend over MEA break.
Daddy took us to a park and took some pictures while we enjoyed the fall colors.
We also got to play in the park for a little while.

We also spent quite a bit of time cleaning our house & our rooms. The Divas, studs and all their kids came over to play at our place. It was a fun party! Then, Mommy took Hannah to her tournament then next day for a fun day of playing with the Diva kids. Noah spent the day with daddy at Noah's best friend's house while Daddy helped cut logs for firewood.

Cleaning the house meant we also had to clean up all the leaves in the yard:

We helped clean up the leaves in the front yard, but got to play in them a little bit, too.

We also had to have our annual trip to the Apple Orchard. We love our trips to Apple Jacks!

There's a couple of trees that we have our picture in EVERY YEAR:

A lot of people were taking pictures. Mommy likes to take a lot of pictures there, too. It's a beautiful place, but a fun place to play.

Hannah took her turn on the jumping pillow while Noah enjoyed the corn maze.

The annual ride in the cow train

The annual ride on the cow train

bouncing on the jumping pillow

Noah and Mom making their way through the corn maze

Giant pumpkin!

Noah went through MEA weekend with two very loose teeth, but his goal was to lose them at school. If you lose your teeth at school, you get to bring them home in a cool treasure box. So, he held onto the teeth...

 Noah lost his FIRST TOOTH on October 23rd.
Then, he turned around and lost his SECOND TOOTH in the same afternoon. Two teeth.

Noah kept it a secret from mom until after school and after parent teacher conferences. (Which, went very well. Both kids are doing exceptionally well in school and the teachers are very pleased with their performances.)

So, the tooth fairy came. And, she settled a very long standing debate: Does the tooth fairy give BOYS glittery money?

Two teeth, lost in 1 day. Tooth fairy did NOT give him glittery money.

The answer: NO. They just get regular money.

So we have two kids missing two teeth.
"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..."

Though, one is growing in for each of them. Noah had an adult tooth growing in before he even lost one of his baby teeth!