Our Extended Weekend

Wednesday, November 25th

Road Trip!

We're off to St. Joseph, MO to visit Grandma and Grandpa Voelkel and lots and lots of Voelkel cousins. All 5 of Ben's brothers (and their families) were there and 1 of his 3 sisters.

Thursday, November 26th

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Feeding a horde of people can be quite an undertaking. But the Voelkels have it down to a science.

Much like the clown car at the circus, Grandma's kitchen can hold an alarming (and often amusing) amount of people! Historic! :)

Friday, November 27th

Lovely weather for the park and a picnic.

Any Day Ben is with his Bros

Ben and his brother Josh are arm wrestling. Raw humor and rough housing abound when Ben and his brothers get together. From food fights, to wrestling, to football, to target practice with guns, these boys know how to have fun. Favorite quote from Ben's mom: "Before you guys start fighting, will you hand me the newspaper." True story. :)

Saturday, November 28th

Macey Kate Voelkel's Baptism

Congratulations to our niece, Macey, who took the big plunge this weekend! :) Daila is getting ready for some family photos after the baptism. She said she wanted to do this for every photo. We all tried out the pose:

Playing outside at Uncle Brian and Aunt Jenny's house:

Sunday, November 29th

Christmas Tree HuntingWe found the lucky tree and Janae has volunteered to chop it down. Okay she's doing great but this may take awhile. Let's let Dad take over. :)

Hey let's see how old our tree is! Dad teaches the girls how to count the rings. Turns out she is a 7 year old beauty. Just a year younger than Janae. Looks like we have another member of the family. Aww she's not that heavy . . . she's our sister!

Good thing we have 9 foot ceilings cuz this is a big 'un.We can't wait to decorate her, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. What a great end to a wonderful weekend.

We are so grateful for the time we spent with our family. We love you! Happy Holidays!

My Adventures as Mom

As a working mom, I don't get enough of these kind of days. Here is what I did today:Anna and I went to Daila's grandparents' breakfast. Daila is making a card for Grandma and Anna is helping the little ones at her table draw hearts.
Next stop, Anna's orthodontist. She is playing a Cars video game while she waits for her turn.

Look at that smile! :) So much improvement! Next visit she will be fitted for her nightly headgear.
Anna presenting her personal narrative on setting goals. She reflected on her 3rd grade goal and how it was accomplished, and introduced her 4th grade goal and with her plan to achieve it by the end of the year.

A lunch date with my girl. Janae didn't have an event going on today at school, so we made our own. :)

I am so grateful for these kind of days!!

I'm Bored

Anna came to me today and said those two words a mother/teacher hates to hear . . . "I'm bored." I asked her if she could do anything in the world, what would she do? She said, "I don't know." I explained how that was exactly her problem. Being bored isn't a matter of having something to do, but how our mind works. She made a list of things she could do and still nothing appealed to her. So I suggested she make a movie. Well that got her interest. She wrote a script and enlisted Janae's help and the following movie is the result.

Anna and Janae starring in "I Didn't Know I Could Do That"

Part 2: "What Do You Want to Do?"

This last video was a solo act by Janae. I like to call it "Jim's House". Jim is our neighbor who just got a brand new window. A brand new window without any window coverings. A brand new window in a city neighborhood where a person's home is so close to her neighbor's. A brand new window you can see right into from upstairs.

Here is our peeping tom starring in "Jim's House".