Birthday Presents!

 As the many activities of the even wrapped up, we made some time to celebrate Annah with presents!!

Sylvia was dancing around, so excited for Annah to open the gift she had gotten her.  It is a very carefully chosen Ken doll--or "boy Barbie," as the girls call them.  Apparently, Annah is very picky about what she wanted and did not want in a Ken, so Sylvia and I had gone through many photos online.  Annah is quite pleased with Sylvia's choice, although she laughed at the fact that this one is called "Cutie Ken."

This is another gift Sylvia chose for Annah--crackle nail polish.  It was also a big hit!

Although Annah is far beyond the reading level of the Magic Fairy books, she still enjoys them.  These are to her liking--Victoria the Violin Fairy, Brittany the Basketball Fairy, and Penny the Piano Fairy.

Lots of new tops/sweater/hoodies and a new pair of jeans...

She also received a microphone for the Wii, so she can play singing games, and a violin fact/activity book.

And, the biggest surprise of all...an iPod Touch!

You can see she was very shocked that Daddy granted her lavish wish!

He even threw in a great case for it.  

It also comes with a long list of rules, and I already set almost every possible restriction on it.  As Jeremy said, this is the "puppy" she has been wanting for several years.  

Happy, happy 11th birthday, our precious Annah Christine!

Armor of God

We had such a busy evening!  I taught 2 lessons, we had trick-or-treaters coming by our house for 3 hours, supper to eat, and Annah wasn't feeling well for a while and also had presents to open.  It felt a little chaotic, but we got through it with smiles and laughs.

The girls like to stay home and greet the trick-or-treaters come to our house.  They were planning to dress up, but didn't make the time to get their costumes on.  They did help with watching the door and handing out candy.  (We also handed these out this year too.)  

So, Jeremy took Caeden trick-or-treating by himself tonight!  

The kids all made these costumes in RECESS (kids' worship service) at church recently, and was so excited to wear it for trick-or-treating.  It is the Armor of God:

- Belt of Truth

- Breastplate of Righteousness

- Shoes of Readiness & the Gospel

- Shield of Faith

- Helmet of Salvation

- Sword of the Spirit (The Word of God)

I wrote Ephesians 6:11 on the back of his shield to help him remember.

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes."

-Ephesians 6:11

Fall Party / Annah's Birthday at School

I like to sign up to do something for Annah's Halloween party at school since it is her birthday too.  This time she wanted me to sign up to do a craft with the class.  She chose this little Indian corn magnet craft from Oriental Trading.  

Annah's teacher decided to start the party with Annah's birthday celebration.  Mrs. O. lets the birthday kid choose a special hat to wear.  Several of Annah's classmates wanted to help her choose her hat and her treat from the prize box...

Annah chose a bow (instead of a hat) to wear for her birthday picture.  Mrs. O. also has a special padded chair with wheels that the birthday person gets to have all day in her class, which Annah enjoyed.

The class sang, "Happy Birthday" to Annah.

I think most of the kids enjoyed putting the craft together.  A couple were reduced to tears instead of asking for help, which was discouraging.  But, I think we got them fixed up.  These guys were still smiling and successful...

Annah is a crafty girl, and she was able to help several others with their craft. 

Mrs. O. wanted a picture with the birthday girl too.   Annah is really loving being in her class this year.

Annah and some classmates at the end of the party...  (No, he's not mad.  He said, "I'm a football player; I don't smile.")  I think the guys in the background are football players too, but they love to smile!  ;)  

It was really fun to celebrate Autumn and Annah's birthday with her classmates and friends!

Blues Brothers

Jeremy and his co-worker Doug decided to dress up as the Blues Brothers today at work for Halloween!

A new way to brush

Caeden made us laugh this morning, when he stuck his toothbrush [with a suction cup on the end] onto the lid of the toothpaste and brushed his teeth that way.  So silly!

Odell Tourney #2

We went back to Odell today for the consolation rounds of the 5th and 6th grade girls' basketball tournament.  We had to be up very early to get Annah there by 8:30.  The girls played really well, even that early on a Saturday!

In their first game today, the girls were the "away" team and wore their blue uniforms.

Annah is getting braver and really getting in there when she gets put in the game.  

See...grabbing for that ball!

Here comes the pass!

Annah and Jeremy, chatting in the stands between games...

The girls won their first game today, and got to play in the Consolation Championship game!  In that game they were the "home" team and wore their white uniforms.

Jeremy told Annah earlier in the day that she should just go after the ball and that he didn't care if she got a foul!  Well, she did just that, and did get a foul!  Her coach even told her, "That was pretty cool!" She is becoming more confident each time she gets to play.  She still doesn't get to play more than a few minutes a game, but she is doing better when she does.  She even took a shot today too...missed, but still, she took it.

The girls lost the championship consolation game by 1 point as the other team got a shot with 6 seconds left.  So, they were the 2nd place team in the consolations.  All their games at this tournament were very exciting to watch.  We were really proud of how hard they worked and how well they played!

Punkins with Pumpkins

The kids and I had such a fun time carving their pumpkins this evening!  

I printed out several happy faces, and they each chose the one they liked best.  Annah and Caeden helped with scraping the seeds and guts out of the pumpkins, and Sylvia seperated the seeds from the guts.  She and Caeden like to squish their hands in the guts!  Annah helped with using the little poking and tracing tools to transfer the outline of the face onto the pumpkins so I could carve them with the knife.  They all requested we roast the seeds too, so we will.

Our punkins with their pumpkins...

Crazy Hair Day

The kids are celebrating Red Ribbon Week at school this week, and have had spirit days each day.  Monday was School Spirit Day, so they wore their school shirts and colors.  Tuesday was Mix & Match day, so they were mismatched sock and shoes and clothes.  Wednesday was Pajama Day--always a favorite.  Today, it is Crazy Hair/Hat Day!  

Caeden loves this hat, so I think he just wanted to wear it even though it isn't really "crazy."  Sylvia had me put a big plastic cup under her pony tail.  (She said she kept it in until lunchtime!)  Annah's hair was apparently a big hit at school.  We messed it up, sprayed it a lot, pulled some up and stuck colored rubber bands, paper clips, pens, pencils, and post-it notes in it!  Fun times! 

Odell Tournament

This evening Annah's team played in a tournament.  She said she was nervous, but we didn't even expect her to get in the game at all.  (We were told at the beginning of the season that it would be equal playing time during games--except for this tournament.  Since it hasn't been anything close to equal playing time, and Annah has been in a maximum total of 3 minutes per game, we didn't think she'd get to play at all tonight.)

But, she did go in!  (#3)

We like to watch her play defense.  She doesn't always get it right, but she doesn't let up.

going for the rebound...

Annah on the bench.  She had a great pass while in the game!

shooting at halftime

It was a very suspenseful game.  With 2 minutes to go at the end, the "star player" fouled out and coach put Annah in--not in her place, but into the game when they were down by 1 with 2 minutes to go!  The girls fought hard and played so well, but came up short by that one point.

They will play in the consolation games next weekend.

Taekwondo boy?

For years, each week when we go into the strip mall where the girls have their violin lessons, we walk past Kim's Taekwondo studio.  Over at least the past year, there have been many times Caeden asks to join the class.  A few weeks ago, when the notice for wrestling sign-ups came, we told him he had to choose between the two.  I think his Daddy's wrestler's heart is a little bit disappointed, but Caeden chose Taewkondo.  

This evening, Caeden attended a free trial class.

He looked really unsure and nervous at first!  It must have been intimidating, since the other kids all had uniforms, too.

The teacher didn't give a lot of audible instructions; the kids just seemed to know what to do.  Although, he was great at making sure he helped Caeden.

At one point, the students (all different belt levels) paired up and "fought" (I don't know any proper terms!) each other across the room and back several times.  Caeden was paired up with a girl, and seemed quite unsure about kicking and punching at her, at first!  

Master Kim came over and watched the two of them, and encouraged Caeden.

Apparently, he got over his inhibitions fairly well.

It was neat to watch Caeden in the class, unsure of what to do, but watching and listening carefully.  I liked the way Master Kim interacted with the students only when necessary, expecting discipline, encouraging and telling them good job when they tried things and did them right, but firmly correcting them when they didn't do what they were supposed to.

After the class, Master Kim asked me to take my shoes off and come into his office to talk about signing up for classes.  He gave Caeden a list of rules of discipline for children in the home, and told us that classes must be paid for 3-6 months at a time up front.  (Ouch!)  We are going to wait at least until after Annah's basketball season is finished, as Caeden will be expected to go to class 2-3 times per week.  We are hoping it will help with his discipline.

Basketball vs. St. Mary's

We all went to watch Annah's team play basketball tonight at St. Mary's Pontiac.

Annah got in the game, and got the ball.

She is #3.

Shooting at halftime...

defense

Leaf Project

Annah has been working on a big leaf project for her science class.  She's really enjoyed each part of it!  She and I walked around Arrowsmith finding leaves last weekend when it was so beautiful outside.  We used a couple websites to identify them.

Krampa had taken her on a special walk around his forest in Indiana over the summer and taught her about a lot of trees growing there, and about how he and his dad and Travis have worked hard over the years to grow many varieties of trees there.  She loved that!  So, she called Krampa and asked him if he could bring her some special leaves for her project.  The two of them really enjoyed going through all the leaves together and using Dad's leaf/tree books to learn more interesting facts about each one and how the various trees are related.  

Annah chose how each page would look, and carefully glued each leaf to its page.  Then we used my Zutter Bind-It-All to punch and spiral bind the pages together.  

She is pretty proud of how it turned out, and was looking forward to sharing it with a group in her class today!  What a fun project, and so neat she could share a family legacy.

"Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf."

- Proverbs 11:28

Den Valance

My awesome mom made this valance for our den.  I wanted something that gave height to the window, since it is shorter than the original one that Jeremy replaced.  So, I found an example of the style I wanted, and she drew up a pattern lickety-split.

We actually went shopping for the fabric together last spring at the awesome Fabric and Friends Quilt Shop in Roanoke, and found some good sales on each of these fabrics.  Mom had the valance made in no time--before we even had the trim back on the window and stained and sealed.  (And Jeremy had to redo the header altogether!  I was very impressed with him.)

I was afraid to hang it on my own, so waited until Mom could be here.  She and Jeremy hung it up late this evening when Mom remembered I wanted her help.

Honestly, it is a lot different than I imagined it.  But, I like it more every time I look at it.  It is so nice!  I need to get a shade or panel or something to put behind it to actually cover the window, but it really dresses up the room.

My mom is awesome!!!