November 2007 - Misc

11/15/07

Britt's New Do

11/17/07

The Krops came over to make gingerbread houses

(Actually Graham cracker houses)

Krystin and Tyler did more eating than decorating :)

Time with Dad

The girls are becoming closer friends


On Friday, 11/30, Jenny came over to help me finally paint the Dining Room. What a good friend (I did provide peanut M&M's as a bribe and promised to help her paint the trim in her house..... but she would have helped anyway :)

I know it looks like we are painting the same color - but I forgot to take pics of the first coat - we are painting the second coat in these pics.
Ta-da! The semi-finished look

(I have more decorating finishing touches to add)

November 2007 - Thanksgiving Weekend

Our good friends - the Kropfs - invited us over to their house for Thanskgiving. This was the second year we invaded their home for the holiday :) Linn's parents were also there.

Besides spending the holiday with friends, it was almost like spending it with family as we discovered I (Britt) am probably 5th cousin twice removed (or something like that) to Linn.

Last year as we were talking with Linn's parents we learned that they know of relatives in Wayland, Iowa. Surely we have to be related somehow! :)

I was almost jealous - Krystin cozied right on up to Jenny.

(Actually, it warms my heart as I know the kids love their regular babysitter)

The "big kid" table

Isn't Jenny's center piece beautiful? She put cranberries in water and floated candles on top. She has her home very nicely decorated.

For dinner we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, breal rolls, and cranberry-apple salad. for dessert there was apple, pumpkin, or pecan pie. It was all very tasty! (Even the leftovers enjoyed for days!) There. See? I was there too :)

They introduced us to a fun card game called "Golf". the idea is to end up with the lowest score. Even Ethan got in on the action - he was pretty good.

The Friday following Thanksgiving is "put up the tree" day in our house.

Here the kids are helping get our fresh cut, er, our old beat up tree - out of the box.

They were so cute singing the "what's gonna work? teamwork!" song.

Britt's job is "floofing" the branches as much as possible

(and getting out/sorting the ornaments)

Dan's job is the typical manly "string-up-the-lights-while-trying-not-to-cuss-in-front-of-the children-or-at-them-for-stepping-on-the-lights" - job.

(not to give the wrong idea - Dan RARELY cusses - and was very patient with his helpers)

Ethan's job is putting on the angel - (finally new this year :)

Kaylin wanted a job - so we decided that from now on she is the "tree skirt put-er on-er"

Krystin did her job of staying out of the way

First ornament

First ornament

First ornament
(Gpa and Gma Collingwood - did you recognize the ornaments?)

Oops - I almost forgot the finished picture of our living room....

October 2007

OKAY - so it has been 3 months since my last post - and it is now 2008. BUT I thought I would make up for my long absence with many many pictures of the afore mentioned 3 months.

I will start with October (as the title suggests)

May these 50 photos (perhaps only 49, but who is counting?) appease my loyal followers.

See above postings for November and December 2007.

(Unless of course I haven't gotten around to posting them yet, in which case, you will just have to check back at an even later date. But don't worry - there will be PLENTY of photos posted for those months as well :)

Mid October we took the kids to a corn maze. The field also contained slides, a "bouncy mound", cow train, and hay rack ride. They also had a pumpkin patch in which we picked out a pumpkin.

Krystin LOVED this slide - and kept going on it while E and Kay went on the bouncy mound.

I though it was neat that our Sweetheart got the "sweetheart" cow :)



Waiting for the hay rack ride.



You can't see it very well in this picture, but trust me, her lip will show up in her birthday pictures. Krystin had just split her lip by taking a running dive on the uneven pumpkin patch hard ground. There was quite a bit of blood.
Fortunately I had a kleenex in my pocket.
(There, now you will know what happened)



Going to pay for our pumpkin.

And in case you are wondering, Krystin was fine by this point. :)


The tradition around our house is that you - and you alone - get to help make your birthday cake that you picked out.

Krystin decided SHE knew how to crack eggs.
Mama insisted on helping with the mixer, however ;)

(by the way - Ethan took this shot for me)

Yep - birthday kid gets to lick the beaters, too.

(see her lip?)

And after finishing touches by Mom, here is her cake.

And here is her cake being eaten.

She loves shoes and Mama's cowboy hat -

so we gave her Kaylin's old boots and a toy hat.

This was her main gift

And I had to include a picture of the 3 kids playing with Krystin's "pet vet" kit from Uncle Dave and Aunt Jacque. All 3 kids loved the keys and matching doors that locked.

HALLOWEEN.

Yep.

I did it to myself,..... again.

I decided to make the kids outfits. I forget how itall came about (maybe with a little prompting from Mom since I found Ethan's old carrot outfit) - but Ethan decided he wanted to be a pea pod.

Of course Kaylin wanted to be corn ---- since I had just sold her last years corn outfit at a garage sale!
And Krystin was Ethan's old carrot.

(this would have been a great shot if I had centered it.)

By the way - I got the general pea pod and corn idea from Parenting Mag.

Here I am - Farmer Britt - with the crops I am raising :)

Like every year - we took the kids to Dan's work for trick or treating.

Doesn't it look like Dan is lost in his cubey land and is thinking

"hmmm... my cube is here somewhere - but where? they all look the same!"

Afterwards we went out to KFC/AW with our good friends the Kropfs.

Linn works with Dan.

After supper, Dan took Krystin home while Britt took Ethan and Kaylin to a harvest party at the Kropfs' church. This was a big step as it meant they would be up until about 9:00. (Which as a side note - it is getting easier and easier to be more flexible with the kids in the evening hours. what fun to start doing more evening family activities!)

The church party had a Bible character theme.

So I wrote a note and stuck it to my overalls. The note read:

"Zechariah 13:5 - ......I am not a prophet, I am a farmer"

There - that made us legit to join the party :)

On the hay rack ride at church

Cupcake walk

Bean bag toss (with Kropf girls)

Grandpa and Grandma Collingwood sent halloween Mr. Potato Heads in the mail.

The kids had a lot of fun with them.

Ok - Remember the pumpkin we picked out at the corn maze??

Well - on November 2nd we finally got it carved!

Oh well - the kids didn't know we were supposed to have it done before Halloween :)

It was our "Family Fun Night" activity to carve our very first family jack-o-lantern ever.

Ethan chose the eyes, Krystin the nose, and Kaylin the mouth (from a selection drawn by Britt). Then Britt, with the help of Kaylin, drew the face onto the pumpkin.

Dan was the carver
Ethan was brave and was the first one to pull some "guts" out.
After much coaxing and introduction of a large spoon, Kaylin was finally convinced to dig out some slimey guts, too.

(to Britt's surprise, Krystin never did stick her hand in)
Dan expertly finished the gutting. He must have some of his father's gene in him, because he did a very thorough job - jack's insides were clean as a whistle!

Britt insisted on keeping the seeds to roast. Kaylin and Ethan were a big help sorting out the seeds from the goo.

Here he is - isn't he cute?!
And might I add - even pretty - all lit up!
The fruit -or seeds - of our labor.
Britt roasted them while Dan gave the kids a bath.