Grandparents sleepover

Every Christmas break the Niebuhr grandparents take all the grandkids for a night a fun and a sleepover.  The year they took all of us to Defy Gravity in the morning, then out to lunch at Culvers and then took the kids for the rest of the afternoon.  They usually have a theme to their night at this year my dad did a stamp collecting project with the kids.  Each kid had their own starter stamp collection and had to separate the stamps into countries.  Then they picked a few countries they liked and they got to mount them into their own book.  The kids really enjoyed it and thought it was a fun project.  They are looking forward to going back in a few weeks to do Disney and sports stamps.  They had pizza for dinner and watched the movie Matilda while eating popcorn (Callan's request). They woke up to a pancake breakfast and a well rested mom and dad when we picked them up at 10. The kids love this day of the year so much.  It was such a fun day for everyone (even the adults who got a free day and evening)

the were playing catch grandma and she got them

a dog pile picture

after an hour of straight jumping

here is a fun video of everyone jumping, including some slow motion

stamp project

everyone had their own station to work at

grandpa dale helping them mount the pictures

xander and will working hard

carter using the tweezers 

camden doing some sorting.

It's Christmas Day!

callan's hand tree he made (it didn't all fit into the scanner)

The kids didn't really wake us up this year.  I am not sure if I should be impressed or depressed. They just played their tablets quietly until Callan finally came in a little after 7 to see if we were going to get up soon.  Does that mean they are so spoiled that they are not excited to open presents?  Anywho, we got up and started opening presents right away.  We did stockings first and then on to presents.  The kids got movies and books from Santa, and clothes, legos, skateboards, pokemon cards, and mini basketball hoops from us.  Callan made us a hand print tree and Carter made us a coaster which was a fun little surprise under the tree.  Callan also made homemade cards for all of us.  He is such a sweet boy!  After gift opening the kids played with their new toys and Chad and I made food for our favorite Christmas brunch. I tried some new stuff this year.  I made breakfast taquitos, some with chirizo and some with just eggs, cheese and veggies. They were really good.  I also made a breakfast Hawaiian fried rice which also turned out pretty good. The food is always amazing and the leftovers are even better.  We stayed and chatted for a little bit and then went home to relax. The kids played and I tried to take a little nap.  It was a nice Christmas and we are a little sad it is over. It is our last Christmas in this house.  The house we brought all our kids home from the hospital in. Now it means we need to clean up our house and get it ready to sell.  Wish us luck!

money from a family friend. they were so excited!

cam opening up his skate board

he loved it!

carter opening a gift

callan loved getting his own football

one last picture of kids holding some gifts

callan also got a skate board

the aftermath of present opening

all the food!

the kids love this brunch too! especially when uncle brian gives them a full cup  of hot chocolate!

Christmas Eve

cousins pictures

photo bomb

On Christmas Eve we spent the day at the Niebuhr Grandparents.  We changed up the menu this year and had appetizers for lunch and then soup for dinner.  We had so much yummy food!  I didn't get a picture, but we had Shrimp, smoked salmon, pinwheels, a cream cheese puff pastry, crab rangoon dip with home made fried wontons, pickle cream cheese roll ups, queso and chips, pepperoni caprese bites, manchego and Italian cheese on a baguette, sweet kielbasa bites, stuffed mushrooms, jalapeno cranberry chicken meatballs, fruit, veggies and assorted drinks and wine.  Of  course we also had a lot of different cookies and my mom made a new cherry/dark chocolate fudge.  It was really good! We ate until we couldn't eat anymore and then had the kids open up their gifts.  They all got gift cards from uncle Gary and aunt Natalie and some other gift cards to target and the movies from Oma and their grandparents.

Our kids got an air hockey table as a combined gift from the grandparents and they were stoked! It was a hit for all the grand kids.  They didn't put the legs on it so it would be easier for us to transport back to our house. 

 As the kids played the adults opened gifts.  My mom had the best gift which was an amazon echo and two dots!  We enjoyed playing with Alexa and finding out all the different things you can ask her.  Hopefully my mom has fun playing with all the features.

Tatze was happy to join us. She found a lap to nap in.

The boys ready to go to church

a quick pic with Oma

We just sat around and chatted for the afternoon and then got ready to go to church. Our service was at 5:00 but we had to leave at 4:00 to make sure we got a seat.

a picture at church since we had about 45 minutes to kill before it started

The church service was good, even if we did have to sing Angels from the realms of glory (worst christmas hymn ever) instead of Joy to the World.  Afterwards we had to wait in the long line of cars to get out of the parking lot but we stopped at home to change into our christmas pj's. Then we went back to my parents house for soup and dessert. My grandparents Don and Trish Fiedler joined us and we got to enjoy watching my 88 year old grandpa try and understand the Amazon Echo.  The funniest part was that he kept calling her by different names.  First it was Alex, then Jane, Eliza, Gerdie, Gretchen, and Gertrude.  I think there were a few more, but I can't remember them now. We had a great time catching up with them and listening to them tell some stories.  We left around 8:30 and headed home to set out cookies and milk for santa and then off to bed!

our matching pj's (even though you can't see that we all have on the same pants)

soup and other delicious stuff like meat/cheese and jello pretzel salad!

A Very Scribner Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Scribner's on Friday the 23rd after I got off work at 4.  We had everything ready to go and headed over right when I walked in the door.  We enjoyed some drinks, appetizers and cookies while we chatted and the kids played ping pong and air hockey.  I also played some ping pong against Al, in which I lost hard.  The kids wanted to open gifts so we had fun watching them open everything up.  Aunt Carrie brought a game where the kids had to pass gifts around while she read a Christmas book.  Every time the work "the" came up they had to pass.  Then when the story ended they all got to open their gift and they got a big box of candy! We put some coffee on and let the kids watch some Christmas movies on TV and then headed home around 9. It was  great way to kick off the Christmas weekend.

grandparents and grandkids

present opening time!

lots of pokemon cards and pokemon games

camden loves pokemon

callan spread all his loot around in all the walking areas :)

camden and aunt carrie were playing a pokemon game

i tried to stop these two to get a quick picture

best buddies, callan and logan

playing carries story game

even pistol loves christmas, and he tried to steal carries chocolate

hanging out, eating candy and watching Christmas movies

Class Holiday Parties

The kids were finally able to have their first class party at their new school.  With the school being new and not having an active PTO in place for the first quarter it was hard to get things going and having a budget for a class party.  We got the  news that they were going to have holiday parties instead of fall ones.  I was able to make it to all the kids class rooms to see them having fun.  They all did a game, a craft and the younger ones did science experiments and story time.  The kids were happy to have a little break from all the testing they did this week. It is always so chaotic when I am there, and it makes me very thankful for the teachers and all they do (and put up with) day in and day out!

they raced to see who could get the most snow balls in their basket first

he did a good job of getting it there fast!

sitting next to his friend matthew

i found some of his work on the wall

getting help from Mrs. Engle on his project

putting together his reindeer

all finished

a holiday story! callan is front and center

camden working on his reindeer hat

playing holiday bingo

camden with his friend

learning about their science experiment with candy canes

his reindeer hat completed!

carter waiting in line to make his snow globe

he picked red glitter and white snowflake glitter

his completed project

a quick after school picture!