Christmas 2011

Our elf Scout showed up like clockwork on December 1st to watch over the kids and fly out at night to report back to Santa. The little guy always whips the kids into shape leading up to Christmas.

One of our new activities was a gingerbread house making contest at Briarlake Baptist. It seems like we do everything there except actually belong to the church?? The kids had a blast and made a pretty good looking house too (sorry the finish photo did not turn out).

The Lego King got into the holiday spirit by building a Christmas village to display in the Lego room (dining room) throughout the season.

We enjoyed the holiday program at Midvale and got to listen to different "holiday" songs from around the world. Catie was proud of her performance in spite of the fact that she was the only kid not wearing red or white... nice going mom and dad!

This was our year to make the trip to Grandpa and Grandma Moe's house in Eau Claire. The kids love visiting and exploring the house, finding old toys from when their mom was a kid. Here they are raring to go as present opening time was approaching on Christmas morning. 

Abster was excited to open one of her too many presents!

Catie had a blast going through her stocking and finding all the little creative treats that Santa selected just for her.

Abby is into winter hats and thought this one was a winner!

 

 Jackson doesn't care much for receiving clothes as a gift but who wouldn't want to be Clay Mathews!?!? 

Thanks Uncle John! 

 One of our outings was going to the indoor waterpark for some indoor water fun. They have all kinds of huge slides and a cool lazy river. These huge water playgrounds are all over Wisconsin, kind of like Waffle Houses in the Southeast. 

 Usually, you can count on a white Christmas in Eau Claire, but this year there was no snow when we arrived. In fact, there was no snow when we went into the waterpark. We were surprised to find several inches of the fluffy white stuff on the ground when we left! 

A Christmas Miracle! 

 Catie got to visit her buddies Calvin and Sierra. She was so excited to be reunited with her hairy friends. She took them for walks, and fed them but did not pick up their poo during the walks.

She found a new friend Alli the cat...Alli is the boss of the household. So she and Catie had a lot in common.

Jackson's Birthday Party

 

The soccer season finally ended, and we were able to fit in Jax's birthday party at Stars & Strikes. Of course, it was a Lego theme.

Catie and Abster worked together to hand out the Lego cupcakes to the guests.

The balloon figures were a hit. Most of the boys requested swords and ran around fighting with them before lunch. What else did you expect???

Lizzie and Catie hamming it up.

Abby loved hangin' with big kids and had a blast.

A few of the dudes waiting for pizza.

Laser tag is the main draw for the kids, and they loved running around and shooting each other. It was fun to stand in the corner and watch them move around like rats in a maze.

The dreaded air ball blaster!!!

The birthday boy got to enter the "Fun Machine" that blows hundreds of tickets in the air that he had to grab and hold on to. It was fun to watch Jackson scramble!

Thanksgiving

Atlanta Half Marathon

 We started the day off early by running the half marathon with several friends. It was a perfect day for running a distance event. As we like to believe, it provided us with a license to eat for the rest of the day!

  We had Thanksgiving at our house this year and... surprise, it was a casual event. Grandma Schwartz, Grandpa and Grandma Moe and John and Ann came down for the weekend. We gave thanks with a wonderful meal that Moe created and then watched the Packers destroy the Lions. What a way to spend the day!

Check out our ornaments

  

The morning after Thanksgiving, it is tradition that Stiv and Jax put up the tree while the girls sit around and eat bonbons. Once the hard work is done, the whole family goes into decoration mode while our favorite holiday CD, a Charlie Brown Christmas, is piped in throughout the house! 

Jackson is the architect of the decorations.

Grandma "Swartz" with the kids in front of the tree.

Yes, the guinea pigs are still thriving... and stinking up our living room...

Happy 10th Birthday Jackson!!!

Jackson turned 10 years old this month and we are so proud of the fine young man he has become! He was so proud to have turned double digits and get a "raise" to $10 for his allowance. We celebrated with his sisters by opening presents and sharing ice cream cake.

As you can see, Legos are still by far his favorite pastime. He is excited to have his "real" party with his friends in two weeks at Stars and Strikes.

4th Grade Rock Eagle Trip

Legendary Rock Eagle

The Kittredge 4th grade class takes an annual overnight trip to Rock Eagle 4-H center located about 1.5 hrs away from Atlanta. The site sits on a beautiful 1,500 acre nature preserve and a 110 acre lake. Steve went along with Jax and the 127 other kids on the trip, hoping to get some quality time with Jackson and his teachers.

  

Stiv and a few other dads were the chaperones for 16 boys in a 45 year-old cabin! They had eight boys to a room each made up of four bunk beds with 45 yr-old mattresses. There was not much sleep going on and it reeked of smelly feet, but the kids thought it was the Four Seasons.

 This was only a small section of the bags and gear needed for all the campers and chaperones. The dads loaded and unloaded an entire bus full of gear twice by the time the trip was over. The whole process of loading and distributing the the gear to the correct camper was actually pretty smooth.

We are ready to start our adventure!

Calm in the middle of chaos...

One of the main activities was leaning about pioneers and how they used tools. This year, we learned how to make roofing shingles. It became clear early on that today's asphalt shingles are the way to go!

Jackson was learning how to use a special saw to cut a piece of wood so it could be used to start the shingle process.

Here Jackson is learning to use some contraption (forgot the name) that allowed the pioneers to shape the shingle into a usable piece.

Jax and dad enjoying the feeling of working hard to produce something out of nature with their bare hands. This was a first for BOTH participants.

"Check out my massive bicep.."

Here they are, preparing for the big hike up to Rock Eagle. The trail through the wilderness was absolutely gorgeous this time of year as the leaves were at peak color and the temperatures were nearly perfect.

Albino corn snake anyone?

Thursday night after dinner, we had "snake class" and learned the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes. We even got a chance hold four snakes! The consensus was that the corn snake felt like a wet noodle.

Our final activity was a canoeing excursion. Once we completed our instruction session and life vest fitting, Jackson and his buddy were ready to hit the water. 

The group all worked together to launch the canoes into the lake. No help was allowed from the chaperones!

"Wow, this life vest has great neck support!"

Busted! This was taken with all the lights off well past bedtime. The boys were up making mischief into the wee hours of the night!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

The kids have been counting down the days to Halloween and the big day finally arrived! We started the evening off carving pumpkins on our back deck before heading over to the Wilsons for the pre-trick or treat party.

Catie decided that she wanted a tiny pumpkin this year and was proud of her finished product.

Hey, look what I found!

Abster was the only one who was willing to do the dirty work and pull the "innards" out of her pumpkin. Jax and Catie thought it was "too disgusting" and  stuck to carving their pumps.

Man, I can't get enough of this pumpkin goo!

We carved four pumpkins and cleaned up in 25 minutes before heading out for the evening... a new record! 

 Jackson and Dad were both hyper-focused on completing their creations while Abby sorted seeds from the goo.

 The gang in front of  the Escoffery's illegal Halloween decorations. They were put on probation by the ARC for excessively large holiday decorations.

 Abby was so proud of her Cat in the Hat costume!

 Jackson picked out his man eating shark costume months ago. We thought it was kind of a poor choice at the time, but it was the hit of the season! Everywhere we went, people were talking about "the shark".

 

Catie was really into it this year. She was the first kid to every door. Here she looks like she is getting ready to flip the bird but she was actually excited by the awesome candy she had just received.