Old Fashioned Christmas Parade and awards

On Sunday, we headed down to our town square for their annual Christmas parade. Rebecca was walking it with her AHG troop. The boys and I headed out to watch her, while Bill took her to drop her off and to help with getting the parade started. Here are a few photos I took of this beautiful, but cold day. 

Rebecca's troop was dressed all in old fashioned costumes to fit with the theme. They won 2 awards for their troop--- they won the award for the "Best Youth Club and Organization." And they won the "Dan Emmett Best Overall" trophy which is the parade's top honor!  The girls were so cute! 

My parents came to watch the parade as well. Rebecca was happy to see them. 

It was a cold day, but a very fun and sweet way to help kick off the holiday season! 

Getting crafty!

On Sunday Rebecca walked in our town's Christmas parade with her American Heritage Girls troop. The theme for this year's parade was "An Old Fashioned Christmas." So the girls decided to just dress old fashioned with long skirts, capes and bonnets. Instead of buying items, we decided to make do with what we had and to make the items instead. 

I had a plaid fleece blanket that we have had downstairs in our basement never used for over 2 years that I knew I could convert to a cape. A friend posted a photo on Facebook of a bonnet that she had made using cereal boxes and duct tape. I asked my sister to help as she is an art therapy student and she came over on Friday to help Rebecca make her bonnet. The things that you can make with a cereal box, duct tape, a wire hanger, felt and ribbon. 

On Saturday night, I made Rebecca's cape and using another cereal box made a muff for her as well. I think they turned out really cute! 

Rebecca was happy with it and no money out of my pocket! Win, win in my book! 

Happy 11th birthday Rebecca!

11 years ago I became a first time mom with the birth of our precious Rebecca. These 11 years have been a wild ride, through the stages of baby, toddler, preschooler, elementary kid and now entering the age of being a pre-teen. I can't believe she is 11. When will time slow down?

This morning before I took her to school, I asked her 20 questions to see what is going on in her mind today as she turns 11. Here are her answers: 

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world?

Mommy

2. What is your favorite color? 

Purple

3. What is your favorite television show?

The Dude Perfect Show

4. What's your favorite outfit?

My emoji outfit

5. What sport do you like the best? 

Basketball

6. What song is your favorite?

"Roar"

7. What is your favorite cereal?

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

8. Who is your best friend?

Amelia and Becca

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

A singer

10. What is your favorite book?

"Wonder"

11. What are you really good at?

singing

12. Where do you wish you could go on vacation?

to the beach

13. What is your best memory?

Playing on the beach

14. What would you buy if you had $1000?

if it was enough, world peace

15. What vegetable do you hate the most?

asparagus

16. If you could have a wish, what would it be?

To have world peace

17. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

chocolate chip cookie dough

18. Who is your biggest hero?

Aunt Mary

19. What do you like to do best with your friends?

Play

20. What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday?

win the Battle of the Books

She said that she has had a good day so far! Tonight we will be celebrating with Wendy's for dinner (her choice) and then cookie dough ice cream at home for dessert along with presents. 

Happy 11th birthday Rebecca! We love you so very much! 

Thanksgiving 2017

Despite all the stress that we have been under, we were able to have a lovely Thanksgiving day. We spent the morning just relaxing and watching some of the the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Then it was off to the park for a walk. I needed to get out of the house and the sun was out for a bit. It was chilly but felt good to get outside.

The kids were excited because they found several painted rocks on our walk. 

Then it was time to head to my parents' house for dinner. My mom cooked all the dinner this year, except for the 2 birthday cakes that I made. We were in extra thankful mode this year as my younger brother (5 years younger than me) had a minor heart attack 2 weeks ago and had to have 2 stents put in. This year it was just family around the table---my mom, my dad, Bill, the kids and I, my brother Joe, his wife and their 3 kids, and my brother Josh and my sister Mary. It was a yummy dinner full of laughs and lots of love. 

Me and my siblings

The kids' table

The adult table

My dinner plate

My youngest brother loves rolls

My nephew

After dinner, we celebrated my niece's 13th birthday and Rebecca's 11th birthday. Lacie requested a "Poison Ivy" cake and Rebecca requested an emoji cake. 

Then it was time to just hang out and relax before heading back home loaded down with tons of leftovers, which we used for dinner on Friday.

It was a wonderful, low key holiday which is just what we needed as our weekend was going to be crazy busy. I hope everyone else's was as well. 

Nature Scenes for November 26, 2017

Sunday is meant to be a day of rest and relaxation and one of the ways that I rest is to spend time in Nature. I try to spend a least a little bit of time in nature each week. I have decided that I will use Sundays to share the photos of my nature adventures each week just as a way to relax and share the beauty that is God's creation with all. I hope you enjoy! 

I hope everyone had a lovely week and a wonderful Thanksgiving! I wanted to share with you all some of the photos that I took when Bill and I took the kids to Ariel-Foundation Park on Thanksgiving Day to walk and enjoy the beauty of nature.  

Photos from November 23, 2017 at Ariel-Foundation Park

For more nature photos, please feel free to visit:

Nature Scenery (September 24, 2017)
October 1, 2017

October 8, 2017
October 15, 2017
October 22, 2017
October 29, 2017
November 5, 2017
November 12, 2017 
November 19, 2017

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday and gets to spend time in nature! 

Crazy times-- flooding and lots to do

Time is continuing to fly on by over here in my little corner of the world. I go to bed exhausted at night and get up with my feet running in the morning. Better to be busy than bored, right? 

Right now I am taking a little breather from cleaning tasks that I have been doing. Getting ready to get Benjamin into the bathtub so I can mark that off my to do list. So what has been going on since I last hopped on here? 

Well, this past weekend we had some crazy weather. It rained all day on Saturday-- we got over 3 inches of rain. Many areas around us were flooded with LOTS of streets closed due to high water. To give you an idea of how much rain we got, the first picture below is one that I took last week during a walk with Bill (you can see the bottom of the river and rocks showing as the water was really low) and the second picture is one that the trail's facebook page posted on Sunday. Crazy.

Thankfully we only got a small amount of water in one side of the basement! The next day we were getting snow showers and on Monday there was ice on my windows in the morning!

Crazy weather and does not make me look forward to winter as I have a feeling it is going to be very wet with snow and cold. 

Other than that we have been just doing our thing. Tutoring, babysitting, etc. The kids have been extra busy at school with extra stuff-- like Rebecca went on a field trip to see the movie "Wonder" with her class. Ben's class had a Thanksgiving feast yesterday. Bill continues to have a hellish time at work. I am not sure how much longer he can stand being there. We are keeping our eyes/ears open for other possibilities but they are few and far between. 

Today the kids are home from school as they are on their Thanksgiving break. Bill is at work most of the day today as they have to put 2 newspapers together and then stuff the papers with all the black Friday ads. The kids have been watching Christmas shows on Netflix most of the day while I have been puttering around trying to get some things done. 

I have baked 2 birthday cakes for tomorrow (one for my niece and one for Rebecca). I have cut up 10 pounds of apples that we were given that were soft and they are cooking away in the crock pot. I went through 2- 10 pound bags of potatoes that we were given and picked out the good potatoes and threw the rest out. (I think they were outside overnight and they got frozen). I also have deep cleaned both litter boxes, mopped the bathroom floor, wiped down the counters and cabinet fronts, straightened up the pantry, got 2/3 kids baths, done 4 loads of laundry, taken trash out to the garage....it has been a busy day. 

Well, I should get off of here and get Ben into the bath so that I can keep going on my to do list. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!