Great to be 8!!!

Erik turned 8 on Saturday. I can't believe it! I was hoping to have his party that day, but I really wanted his party at the church so we could play a bunch of sports, however, the church was being used for a wedding that day, so we had the party today!

On his birthday, he went to free indoor soccer trial and really enjoyed it. We stopped at the library as well. He opened gifts all throughout the day and played with them/read the books as he opened them. With our snow storm, we were way behind with our yard work and we thought we had only one more compost pick up before the 5 month break for winter, but it turns out we have next Tuesday as well. We didn't know that on Saturday, though, and worked really hard in the yard, raking, burning sticks, and cleaning up the leaves after they had finally thawed out. That seems to be something Erik will be doing on his birthday a lot, raking leaves!

He wanted to go to Wendy's for dinner.  Yard work increased everyone's appetite because they ate a lot. The best part was that Erik ate 10 chicken nuggets!!! I was shocked! The most protein he has had in his entire life! He actually didn't even finish his cake that night, probably because he was so full!

He really likes Nebraska!

After Wendy's, he opened the rest of the presents, we had Hulk cake that Karissa made, and watched Independence Day- Resurgence. We showed the kids the original a few weeks ago and they really enjoyed it, so it was exciting to see this one.

He loved all his presents!

One Blow!

We had to take another because he forgot to put a present in his pile.

Today we had off of school, so I took the kids to Airtime, a trampoline park where Erik had a free pass to for his birthday. They jumped and played for an hour, then we rushed home to get our stuff for the party at the church where Austin led some fun Dodge ball and tag games, I taught them a soccer practice game I learned at Erik's free birthday clinic, we played games with jump ropes and hula hoops, and Karissa and Victoria taught them Pac Man tag. Besides the cupcakes and ice cream they ate, and a few minutes of present opening, they were active the entire time! I'm hoping they all sleep well tonight and eat well tomorrow!

Karissa made fondant footballs.

Erik is a great kid! He's excited to get baptized next week and has been enjoying reading a preparation book with me for that. Speaking of reading, he really loves to read! He got a few books for his birthday and started reading them right away. He told me he only wanted cars from Kroger and a Bad Kitty book for his birthday. He's very easy to please. He's by far my most time-efficient child. He's ready early for things and is definitely aware of the time before we go somewhere. Two weeks ago, I met with his teacher at conferences and she said "he is the package deal. He's smart and nice." I can't say anything better than that!

On a side note: Erik got four brackets on his front teeth on Monday. He couldn't stop looking in the mirror at them!

This is the funniest face he has ever made and it's the exact same face his cousin Calvin makes!!

Happy birthday to this great kid of ours!

Updates

We've been able to make a lot of updates on our home over the years. I don't blog about every single one, but here's a couple of recent updates that I particularly enjoy.

Our driveway, that we replaced last year, was not finished yet because we wanted to add pavers by the apron so we would have a little more space to pull straight through, especially with a new driver around. We also decided that our basketball hoop needed to move over to the grass to give us that space back, so we had pavers put there as well.  This was taken before the snow covered everything.

The leaves stained our driveway a bit, but it still looks nice!

The other, even more exciting feature, is that we got a new oven and stove! We have been replacing an appliance each year over Black Friday to update our kitchen. This year, Jason found a killer deal before Black Friday, so we jumped on it. It was delivered on Halloween. I've had some time to use some of the different features on it, so we'll be ready for Thanksgiving!!

Pizza, slow cook, dehydrate, and bread proof are nice features it has. Plus the burner in the middle and it has a working light in the oven!

I made bread on our snow day and was able to put the muffins in at the same time and both baked perfectly!!!!

From Fall to Winter

We enjoyed a lovely fall day on Election Day. The kids and I had off and I convinced them to go for a walk with me on one of our hiking paths in the area, so we could enjoy the last of the fall leaves and decent weather. I had noticed that it was going to be considerably colder after that, so I told my kids that we needed to take advantage of that.

The stream looked beautiful!

Austin, Erik, and I went to a corn maze the Saturday before.

The wagon ride

I didn't know how right I was! We got a huge snow storm Monday morning that dumped about 8 inches on us all through that day and into the next morning, giving us a snow day on Tuesday, exactly one week after our beautiful fall hike. So, we took advantage again and went sledding on Tuesday, inviting our new friends from Florida who don't have much experience with snow.

Measuring before we got the final inch.

A lot of houses around here have pumpkins covered in snow. There are mums behind the pumpkins, totally covered. This belongs to the owner of Red Bell Preschool.

Temperatures have still been pretty cold, so we're still covered in a frozen wonderland. All the leaves are covered in snow and keep falling on top of it as most trees still have their leaves. It's kind of a mess and I don't know when we'll get to finish our fall yard work. On the upside, at least I don't have to do yard work today!

Soccer Studs!

Austin and Erik completed a very successful season in soccer. Erik's team was undefeated, again, and was listed as #1 in in their division! He was on a different team this season, since his team from last year went different ways, though he was still with a few of the other players, including Nilesh, who was the super-fast-speedy-aggressive-unafraid-shorter-than-everyone-else kid. That kid is on fire! The whole team contributed to all their wins, though, and this was their first time playing 7 on 7 with a goalie, so they each got to try out the goalie position as well.

Earlier in the season.

The last game.

Austin's team tied for second place in his division. The team he tied with happens to be the team his two best friends from church are on, so that's exciting for them all. They beat Austin's team and his team came around and beat them the second time. Austin's coach ended up being awarded "Coach of the Season", which is so fitting. Like Erik, Austin was also on a new team, for the same reason as Erik. His coach was new to us too and he was so calm compared to last year's coach, and still got the job done, even leading them to 2nd place! I was so used to last year's coach yelling all the time, that it seemed weird to me that Kevin would speak so quietly and calmly and the players would still respond. I'm so glad he won that award!

Austin against Owen- his BFF from church!

Getting ready for the last game.

A lot of winning around here lately with cheer competition and soccer. We're feeling like it was a great season for all!!

Erik's team listening to Coach after another win!

Austin's team

A fun sporting event for them occurred at Miller last month with the Fun Run. It's always a great fundraiser and great goal for those kids!

Erik, counting his laps.

Austin in the obstacle course.

Austin and Kaleb, buddies since kindergarten!

Cooling down

Erik's class