First Semester Finals Start!
Finals started today for the high school! Good luck Brittany and Sarah! They have been studying pretty hard and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that the studying will pay off!
Let it Snow!
Today was the first big snow of the season! The boys were totally pumped to go outside and play in it. They got all bundled up and had a chat about what they wanted to do outside. The first thing they decided on was to try and build a castle. That said, they got out their snow block makers and went to work…
That lasted a little while (no more than 15 minutes) 🙂 and then they decided to build a snowman. They used snowballs for the eyes and nose, drew a smile with their fingers, and added sticks for arms. It was pretty funny but cute. 🙂
After about an hour and a half outside, they were pretty cold and wanted to come in. They were frozen little snowmen themselves. 🙂 Nothing that a little hot chocolate couldn’t help!
Naperville Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast
Today was the Naperville Mayor’s Community Prayer Breakfast that they hold annually. This is hosted by the Heritage YMCA in Naperville. This year, Angela was on the board to plan and produce the event! 🙂 She was in charge of all of the music.
The program included music which Angela arranged, scripture and special guest speakers. Jack Lund, CEO and president of the YMCA of Greater New York in New York City, was the guest speaker and did a GREAT job. Food was provided by Belgio’s Catering, and Naperville Mayor George Pradel lead in the reading of the litany.
Musical entertainment was provided by Waubonsie Valley High School junior Josh Blue a friend of Sarah’s. Angela was very excited to get him to sing. He is also a pianist, trombone and bass guitar player and singer. He played Javert in the WVHS’s spring production of “Les Miserables” (which blew us away!) and frequently volunteers his musical talents at nursing homes, on church mission trips and for organizations like Feed My Starving Children and KidsMatter. He recently has been selected to participate in R.Ed.I (Restore, Educate, Inspire), a pop musical show that performs for Illinois high school students addressing issues related to peer pressure.
In addition, the group Friends in Harmony performed. This group consists of many friends from church.
It turned out to be a spectacular event and one that I wish I could have gone to. I stayed home with the kids while Angela did her thing there. Great work Angela!
The Builders!
Today was a day of building stuff! Ben is really into his blocks and building castles and such. He loves to build stuff and then when he is finished, he finds us and wants a picture taken…
Once the picture is taken, he then wants to see it to make sure it’s OK and he approves of it. He is quite the funny little guy!
Kirstyn built a beautiful gingerbread house today at Activity Days for church and couldn’t wait to show us when she got home…
She likes her picture taken with stuff she does as well. She doesn’t always ask to see the picture once it’s taken, however. 🙂
Great building job, everyone!
Black Friday!
This year, we are trying to take things a little lighter and not buy as much as we did last year. We want to spend more time this season contemplating the true meaning of Christmas and not spend it shopping! We got a large chunk of our shopping out of the way today and were very happy! 🙂 We try as hard as we can to stay away from stores, especially on Black Friday! Amazon is our new best friend in helping us out with this! The cool thing is that not one thing we bought today cost us a penny for shipping! 🙂
Thanksgiving Blessings
Today we had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a couple of families over to celebrate with us. Initially, Angela had said it would be very low-key, but I think my definition of low-key is a LOT different than hers! 🙂 We cleaned like crazy, cooked like crazy, and prepared like crazy to get ready for our guests.
The kids did a GREAT job on the Thanksgiving tables (we had to have 2 in order to fit everyone):
We had all kinds of wonderful food (some of the typical dishes you would expect to have at Thanksgiving) and were stuffed. We then just visited, relaxed, and enjoyed each other’s company. We wrote down on paper cutouts of turkeys and leaves (that Kirstyn made) all the things we were thankful for.
We love thanksgiving! It’s a time to enjoy thinking about the blessings we all enjoy and spending time together as family and friends. Unfortunately, many don’t see it that way. Halloween is huge and then people skip right to Christmas. It really bugs us that our society goes right from Halloween decorations to Christmas decorations in the same breath. The day after Halloween, you start seeing ads for Christmas! 🙁
Just Dance 2 Party!
Recently, Angela entered to win a Just Dance 2 Party and won (she seems to be winning a lot of this stuff lately)! She got the Wii Just Dance 2 Game for free along with a bunch of other stuff to host a party. She and the girls invited over friends and had a girls night party playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii and eating a bunch of food! They had a blast! Zach joined in because a couple of his friends came over and he didn’t want to be left out. 🙂
Unfortunately, when I went downstairs to check on them and got the camera, I wasn’t fast enough to get any pictures of the adults playing! 🙂
Creative Little Boys!
The boys had a very creative day today! They got out Zach’s Thomas the Tank Engine track set and built a person on the floor of the family room. They were SO proud of it!
We had to take some pictures because we knew that shortly thereafter, the wrecking balls (a.k.a Ben and Zach) would come sweeping through and create something else. 🙂
Great work boys!
Kirstyn EEP!
As we mentioned in an earlier post, Kirstyn applied for and was accepted to a girls engineering program at Northern Illinois University (Naperville Campus). It’s called NIU EEP (Northern Illinois University Enhancing Engineering Pathways) and is designed to get middle school girls interested in engineering fields of study. Today was her first day and she had a blast! There are about 75 or so girls involved and she knows a couple. This will help for carpooling! She will be doing this every other Saturday through February or March (I think)!
Primary Party and Church Production
Today, Zach and Kirstyn had a Primary party at the church that they went to. After that, I stayed home with Ben and the rest of the family went to Savior of the World. It was a great production put on by the Naperville Stake. It was a musical drama presented with a live chorus and stage actors depicting the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The girls really loved it. All together, there were about 180 volunteer actors, choir members and backstage crew from nine area congregations of the church. It was very touching. I wish I could have gone, but I would have been out in the hall with Ben the whole time. 🙂
Kirstyn Chorus Concert!
Tonight, Kirstyn had her first middle school chorus concert and did a GREAT job! Zach and Ben came too and we were floored that they also did a great job sitting still and quiet.
Right after Kirstyn sang, I took the boys and we walked home while the rest stayed and enjoyed the singing of the older groups. We knew the boys couldn’t last much longer! 🙂
Work Thanksgiving Party!
Today, we had the Grant Thornton Thanksgiving party. Our division was assigned to bring the main dish, so I signed-up to bring meatballs. Little did I know that my boss had just given the event planning group some money to buy all the stuff. 🙂 From the list, I looked like I was the only one bringing anything, so I was a little nervous. 🙂
I threw a bunch of frozen meatballs into a slow cooker and covered them with 2 bottles of Lawry’s Caribbean Jerk Marinade and let it sit overnight. I then brought them in and let them cook for 4 hours. Everybody LOVED them! There were a bunch of people who wanted to know the secret recipe and I just had to laugh as I told them. It was pretty funny!
I ate a TON of great food and was totally stuffed full of food by the time I was done. There were some great desserts as well and in total, I probably ate about 4000 calories! I wasn’t hungry for dinner when I got home. 😐
