Special Person's Day

I'm not even going to justify why I haven't posted for so long....

Max had Special Person's Day a couple of weeks ago and was able to have Dan come to school with him for the morning. I was able to sneak into the first little activity, which was a performance by the Kindergarten classes.

I had seen just a bit of them practicing one morning so knew exactly where to sit. Max was trying to be so serious but couldn't hold in the smile at times! It was really cute and all the kids had worked so hard making this a great performance!

They first did a routine with the ribbons and then moved on to instruments. They were really concentrating...

These are two of the sweet girls in his class, Katelyn and Maggie.

Great job Max! We are so proud of you!

Christmas Activites

Yes, I'm behind already in 2010! I have told a few people I would post a couple different things so these are a few things that we did before Christmas.

Here is our wonderful Christmas tree. Max is the only one in the picture because this was our second time decorating it and Blake was already in bed. You see, the first time, we were just about done and Max was at the back of the tree hanging up a really old ornament of mine (hence the back of the tree!) with a very long string. He had been warned not to reach up too high, but guess what...he did it anyway, and the tree came tumbling down! Luckily, the stand was the only thing to break...so after the Nebraska game was over of course, we went looking for a new stand. I was really wanting to get a new tree but decided that would wait until next year. I didn't have the interest to go out after Christmas to look for a bargain...oh, and it was snowing!

We decided to go to the Festival of Lights parade in East Peoria this year. It wasn't terribly cold and it is an amazing display of floats. We got there about an hour early and had to wait at least another hour for the parade to get to us. By the end of the night, we were a little chilly. We ended up sitting next to a family living here from Northern Ireland. It made us really miss our good 'ole Irish friends in England! Miss you Glenda, Warren and family! We'll bring you with us sometime!

Blake had his pre-school program on the 14th. It was the most popular event in town! They combined all of the classes that attend on Monday, Wed, and Friday. It seemed like a hundred kids! Each child must have had parents, siblings and grandparents all come as there were not enough seats in the gym! What can I say...there were 5 of us for Blake! He did a great job and I just love hearing him singing about Jesus. We were in the grocery store a couple weeks before the program and he was just busting out "I love Jesus yes I do, I love Jesus what about you??!!" This is Blake's teacher, Mrs. Hansen. Our parents are longtime friends so I was thrilled to know that she was going to be his teacher this year. She is just a little bit taller than the kids (hee, hee)....and is wonderful!

My mom and dad went to visit my brother, Sara and Clyde over Thanksgiving and brought back presents for the boys. They started a countdown on the 15th of Dec. Each day until Christmas they opened a numbered present. The boys had a great time with the game. Thanks Craig, Sara and Clyde!

Max also had a Christmas program at school. The Kindergarten class always does the Nutcracker. We actually took a field trip to Bloomington a couple weeks before so the kids could see the ballet. Max was Fritz and really did a fantastic job. He was so animated and played his part very well. We were so proud!! Max's teacher, Mrs Elsas, was my pre-school teacher and also a longtime friend of my mom's. She is about the same height as Mrs Hansen! Good thing my kids are used to short people!

Do you think they will still love each other this much next year??!! Hopefully many, many more! They really are the best of buddies! Love you guys!

Congratulations Kara!

Kara graduated from the U of I on Saturday. There were 365 December graduates and they were only allowed 5 tickets a piece. Dan, her mom (Michele), step dad (Lou), grandma (Carol) and her boyfriend (Pierce) were able to attend the ceremony. I offered to stay home with Max and Blake and get ready for the party. The boys would have had no interest in being there and they also had soccer that morning. Austin drove from KY to U of I on Friday night to stay with her on the last night of her college career! He was able to get into the ceremony at the last minute as there were a few empty seats. David stayed home with us and watched the boys play soccer. The proud Papa!! Kara graduated in Actuarial Sciences and will be starting at State Farm in January! We are so proud of her for working so hard in her classes and at her internship with State Farm the past couple of years. There are not many job offers at the moment and she was given an offer driving back from her interview this summer. It was a wonderful blessing for her and a huge accomplishment! Kara had some extra challenges (and opportunities) while in college as we spent most of that time in England and her mom has been in China for the last couple of years. Thank goodness she had Pierce and his family to help provide her a "home" away from school. They have been an amazing support system for her and we can't thank them enough! Kara and Pierce were able to have some wonderful experiences traveling the world too. I do think (and hope!) she is very happy to finally have some family in the states. Michele has to head back to China after the new year to complete the last year of their China assignment. I know that they are very anxious to get back home (to the USA!). Kara and Pierce are a little bit nervous about this new phase in their lives. He will be graduating in May so they will have a few months of a long distance relationship. I don't think they will go too long without seeing each other as Kara will be missing him and Reuben. She will be living with us but I'm sure will be spending a lot of time in Champaign visiting her boys! We had plenty of food and drink...and loads of desserts at the party. Pierce's family was able to make it, including his new half-brother, Croix, who was just 2 weeks old! (His dad married a woman named Jenny and they are now starting a family together!) My parents were also here to help celebrate. Michele's mom, Carol, was visiting for a few days and really enjoyed being with the kids. Blake is just happy snuggling with Reuben!

Congratulations Kara. We are so proud of you and know that you will continue to have many more successes in this next phase of life!

It's wrestling time!!

Max and Blake started a new sport a few weeks ago...wrestling. They have practices 2 times a week and then we can sign them up for tournaments on Sunday mornings (yes, it is a horrible time!!). We just completed our second one today and it was from 7:30a until almost 1:00p. There was about an 1 1/2 hrs in between each of their matches. The matches only last a few minutes but they are intense! The first tournament was at Woodruff. It was a lot of fun for both of them as they each wrestled 3 people and beat all of them. Yes...the outfits are very sexy!! This was Max pinning one of his guys. He is one on top, of course! My camera doesn't take good pictures at all in the gyms.

Blake...the winner!! Check out that belly!

The boys with their number one fan, secret coach and brother!

We headed to Washington today. It wasn't as much fun for Blake as he lost the first 2 matches and one his last. He finished strong after shedding a few tears in the other matches. That is not very fun for a mom to watch! I absolutely hated seeing him cry and not being able to run down and give him a big hug. They keep the parents in the balcony just for that reason! Max won all of his today and got another first place medal. He also got a tooth knocked out! He had 2 very wobbly teeth this morning and I had a feeling that one of them would come out today. For some reason he just hates pulling them out! He lost one just eating watermelon. So hopefully the tooth fairy remembers to come visit him tonight.

The boys had a big cheering section today with Austin, David, Kara, Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad and some of our friends came too. Thanks for coming everyone! (Terry, Lisa and their kids had to leave so didn't get them in the picture!)

It ended up on a good note, but it was tough for Blake and Mommy today! We are signed up for one more tournament in January and that might be it. Great job Max and Blake! We are so proud of you!!

Another month gone!

Each month I keep telling myself that I will do better at updating the blog..and then another month just disappears. Life in the US isn't quite as interesting or eventful as living in a different country but it sure is busier! We really miss being able to travel around Europe and plan the next adventure. We have planned a road trip to Nebraska after Christmas and then a flight to Arizona in January. That will be our first flight since our return to the states in May! Not quite as exciting as spending Christmas in Paris, Spain, or Belgium.... We are able to take advantage of our frequent flier miles for that AZ trip though! Max started a new school on the 2nd of November and is now attending all day Kindergarten. He really enjoys having lunch at school, which I make everyday (not quite like the lunches at Copthill!), and being able to play outside a couple times a day. I'm not sure he is learning anymore, but he is having fun! Blake does miss having his big brother around but is happy they are going to the same school. I really do miss that bus picking him up and bringing him home each day! There are no buses at the new school, so I am now the official "bus driver"! Doesn't he look so sad....??? We have started a new round of sporting activities for the boys. They are both playing indoor soccer on Saturday mornings, which they LOVE!! We are lucky to have a wonderful facility in our town so that they can continue with soccer throughout the winter. Max and Blake are also signed up for wrestling! They have practices every Monday and Thursday nights and then can register to participate in tournaments on Sunday mornings/afternoons. I will post pictures next week as they are competing in their first one this Sunday. We need to be there between 7-8a and the wrestling starts at 9a. They will each wrestle 3 times throughout the morning. I'm told the tournaments last until about 1:00p and there is a lot of waiting time. We need to be prepared to bring something for them to do. It should be interesting. I'm just praying that they win one or two of the matches so they don't get discouraged. We have had some great weather this month and Dan and the boys were able to fish a bit in the pond across the street. It wasn't too successful, but Blake and Dan both caught one! Max loves to fish and could stay out all day, but Blake gets a little bored if the fish aren't biting. Can you blame him?! My Aunt Kay and Uncle Buddy stopped by our house for dinner one evening on their way from South Carolina to Chicago. My mom and I were able to take Kay out during the day and get quite of bit of Christmas shopping done! Thanks to my dad and Uncle Buddy for watching the boys play the Wii all afternoon!!...and jump on the trampoline, play baseball, play basketball, etc.. On the 13th of November, our town had a little community event to kick off the holiday season. It reminded me of why I love this place! I have to admit, it seemed a little early for Santa, but it was fun anyway!

That Saturday was Dad's weekend at U of I so after the soccer games, we all headed to Champaign for the last quarter of the football game. As bad as the IL football team is, it was amazing to see the stadium filled with orange! The boys really enjoyed it and it was a beautiful day. We spent the day with Kara and then ended it with Pierce's hockey game. Well, the little boys and I did. Dan took us to the hotel and went back to Pierce's house to party with Kara and a few of the hockey players and dads. Needless to say, he was not happy when Blake woke up at 7:00am the next morning! (I just can't imagine how he is going to be when Max and Blake have a Dad's weekend! Comments Holli??)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving (for some reason I didn't take a single picture!) with Kara and David. My parents were visiting my brother in CO so I did most of the cooking, with help from Kara. She loves to bake so we had more than enough pies! We all have so much to be thankful for! Now for December...wrestling tournament, holiday parties, Kara's graduation, a couple birthdays and Christmas! Luckily, I have most of the shopping and wrapping done!

School parties and Halloween

It is so fun being back in the states for Halloween. We know that our neighbors in England miss us this time of year...and we miss them too. They really enjoyed seeing the boys and the other American kids dressed up. It is not really celebrated much in the UK as they consider it more of a "dark" and "evil" celebration. We were invited by Traci, Andy, Max and Maggie to attend their party at church the weekend before Halloween. Max and Blake were so excited to wear their costumes for the first time. Unfortunately the years of the "cute" costumes are over.... Max wanted to be the Incredible Hulk because he is all about who is the toughest. Blake decided to be a Transformer, "Optimus Prime". He has never seen the movie but thought it was a cool costume. They were always trying to figure out who would win if their characters had a fight. We still don't know... They were able to play several games, decorate cookies, win 2 cakes in the cake walk, and come home with WAY too much candy! Thanks guys for inviting us!

The 28th of October was a very busy day. Max's class had a Halloween party and it was his last day at this school. We got called a couple weeks earlier from the school that has full day kindergarten. They had a spot for Max. It actually was a very difficult decision for us to switch him in the middle of the school year, but we felt it would be the best decision. (He was to start on Monday, Nov 2, but has been sick with a fever for a couple days. I'm hoping he can go by Thursday.) I had offered to help with the Halloween party so I was responsible for a bean toss game.

This was Max's class. They had a great time at the party. There were a few other mothers that helped with different games and activities. It was a lot of fun.

Since it was Max's last day, I brought in some flowers to thank his teacher. Thanks Mrs. A. You are a wonderful teacher and we will miss you!!

Blake had a program at his school at 10:45. He was supposed to dress as what he wanted to be when he grew up. I had forgotten about this little detail... Thank goodness for my parents. They were able to run to our house, pick up the race car driver costume and get it to Blake before the program. He would have been the only one without a costume! They sang several songs and he did great!

For Halloween, we went over to Traci's for trick or treating. We had such a great time and thank goodness the rain stopped and the sun was shining. It was pretty cold and windy though so we stayed out for just about an hour...which was plenty! We have sooo much candy. The boys don't even ask to eat it very often. I'm thinking that Dan will be sharing some with his friends at work very soon! Kara and Reuben also joined in on the activities. Kara is Luigi but forgot her hat....Reuben is a lobster and wasn't too happy about it. Thanks Mr and Mrs C for the candy and thanks Maggie, Max and Quinton for letting us join in with the family!

October happenings

There have not been too many beautiful Fall weekends this year, but there was one that we took advantage of and went to the apple orchard. It seemed like everyone else decided to do the same thing that Sunday! Max and Blake had never picked apples before so they had a great time finding them and getting a little lift from Daddy to reach the "perfect" apples. We had to taste a few along the way too! Max had his last football game...in the mud! This is his best friend on the football team, Braden. They were the speedsters on the team and just loved it. Now it is on to soccer! I signed Max up for both flag football and soccer at the same time and didn't realize they would conflict almost every Saturday morning! Football finished a couple weeks earlier than soccer, so Max was able to go to a couple of his soccer games. Both weeks it was a complete muddy mess, but he LOVED it!! He enjoys every sport that he does. I'm not sure how he will ever decide! He received his first trophy last week. He was very excited!

Blake has been wanting me to take off his training wheels for awhile now. Daddy did it a couple of weeks ago and he just took off! He is doing great and is extremely proud of himself! And he is thrilled that he learned at 4 yrs and Max learned at 5 yrs. Always a competition...

Max had to decorate a pumpkin to take to school. I had found something on the internet that I could handle. I am not a bit creative or artistic. Max didn't like my idea and wanted to make a rat. I let Daddy take on that project. This is what they came up with.

We live in a beautiful neighborhood with loads and loads of trees. This time of year though we are glad they are not in our yard...no raking! They have changed colors and fallen of the trees very quickly this fall, but we decided to take a little hike and check them out. We have seen so many deer, fox and other furry friends around us and thought we might find some on our walk. No such luck, but we did find a great view. Blake thought he could rip the corn stalk out of the ground. This was right before he pulled it and fell right on his bottom!

Happy Fall everyone! We are not looking forward to the very cold and snowy winter coming soon.