Thanksgiving and more..

 I put a picture of this becaue I thought it was cute. The boys had a cake auction for boy scouts and this is our creation (we got the idea online). It's a robot, entirely edible. It's made from frosting coated cookies, cupcakes, donuts and candy. The kids helped a little, but Brian and I did the bulk of the work.

 A picture of the second cousins from Thanksgiving in Superior. From left: Eva, Jak, Will, Xander, Grace, Sebastian, Tobias (being held by Sebastian) and Ela. Not pictured: baby Max (too cold outside for him).

We had the kids lean for a picture. Inspired by this picture below, one taken on Thanksgiving when I was in college. This was probably 1996 or 97. Funny!

 

 

We had a low key Thanksgiving weekend on all the other days. So, the kids helped me put up Christmas decorations. They were pretty self-sufficient this year. They brought up the trees from downstairs, dug out their ornament boxes and went to town, pretty much without asking. Sounds fine to me! Kept them busy for an hour or so. It was hilarious to hear them reminisc about their ornaments from "so long ago". Anyway, the last picture is their final products. Another nice thing this year, is they take care of plugging in all the Christmas trees everyday. That's a nice change.

So to backtrack a little, we went to Superior for Thanksgiving. It was a nice day, we got to see some of my mom's side of the family we haven't seen in a while. We made the trip in one day, getting home around 10:30 Thursday night. We were able to sleep in, watch football and put up Christmas decorations on Friday (no shopping for me). Saturday we had Thanksgiving at the Niebuhrs, which I didn't take any pictures of. Sunday was a regular day of church, homework, and piano practicing to get back to the swing of things for the coming week. The day off were very nice, though and the weather was great, which is always nice!!

We have lots of fun holiday things coming up in the next few weeks, so I'll have lots of festive pictures to post. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for!

A few other happenings

If you can believe it, the kids had never been bowling until a few weeks ago. Brian's work had a family gathering at Sun Valley lanes with pizza and a couple of games of bowling. They LOVED it! They had a blast. The bowling alleys are kind of slick now, you can designate which bowlers in your group need bumper lanes, and they just pop up at the right times, so the kids always had bumpers and Brian and I didn't. Each kid got at least one strike or spare, usually bowling underhanded, although Grace started pushing it backwards from between her legs, that was funny.

 

 Our scores after the first game.

These pictures are kind of funny. The kids' classes had a 50's sock hop for the 50th day of school. So, we decked them out in 50's clothes and the boys even got their hair slicked back. Will's teacher invited me up to help with the party (I served root beer floats). Then they learned the Hand Jive. Xander's class watched a Leave It To Beaver episode and Grace learned the Twist. What a fun day!!

Halloween 2012

 All ready to go trick or treating. The weather was gorgeous this night, no coats or anything needed. Good thing, because I think Super Girl would have gotten cold if it was any cooler out!!

 The farmer joined us for Trick or treating. He didn't like Xander's mask, so stood beside Will instead.

 The farmer and his cow. Adorable!!

Our pumpkins. The painted on is Grace's. She chose not to get her hands dirty in pumpkin guts cleaning it. The boys actually cut their own this year. We helped them design them, but that's all. mine is the bandaged one and Brian's is the scary one!! We had a great Halloween, and we hope you all did too!! Bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas, they're right around the corner!!

Trunk or Treat 2012

So sorry for the no posts for so long. It has been a long, insane couple of weeks. I'll explain in a moment. But first, let me tell you about Trunk or Treat. On the 21st, we went to the annual multiples club Trunk or Treat with our Avengers themed trunk. And for the first time in 3 years, we didn't win anything! That is OK though, some other people came up with cuter trunks than we did. This was a hard theme, and combined with other busy things going on it didn't turn out as fun as my trunks have before. But, the kids loved it and it was a gorgeous day for being outside!! So all in all, it was a win!

Dayna Lynn Buss

1977- 2012



 



Here is the reason why things have been kind of messed up for me this week. On October 30th, my best friend Dayna passed away after a 2 year long fight with cervical cancer. She and I have been best friends since I moved to Lincoln, our sophomore year of high school. She was such a wonderful friend and the nicest person I've ever known, so this has been hard. I got to see her before she passed away. And while she didn't look like the Dayna I had always known, and it was extremely hard to see her in that state, I think she knew I was there and that she knew how much I loved her. That was Monday, and she passed away on Tuesday.  By the weekend, our friend Denise was in town and Brian and I spent the weekend with all of our friends. We went to the church and said goodbye to Dayna on Sunday afternoon. It was an extremely hard day. Our group of friends sang a song at her service, and it turned out lovely. So, as I said, it's been a bitter pill to swallow, losing your 35 year old friend to cancer, but I know she 's in a better place where she's not sick. That gives me comfort. Your prayers for her family during this hard time is appreciated!