Christmas in Gowanda

Duane and I took the family to the annual Christmas in Gowanda event on Saturday.  Uncle Mike, Aunt Mary, Hayden, and Grandma and Papa all came, too.  We went on a train ride, and Santa was there!  The adults enjoyed the scenery, and the kids enjoyed their doughnuts, and everyone was happy :-)

We visited Jesse's Toy Box (a really neat little toy store) and all the kids received a free bendable toy for participating in the event.  After that, we headed to the theater to see Frosty the Snowman.  When we got home, the kids played outside for an hour or so and had fun playing in and building forts.  It was a great, wintery, super cold day!

Happy Halloween!

We did a couple of fun things for Halloween this year.  

First, we had our church's annual Trunk or Treat on Sunday.  Jonas dressed up as the black Spiderman and walked around and around the gym and got tons of candy.  Then we heard a fun devotion led by Mr. Willert.

 On Thursday we headed to Uncle Mike and Aunt Mary's church for their Trunk or Treat, despite the windy rainy weather.  Jonas dressed up as a shark this time, and Duane dressed up too.  Apparently I was the party pooper with no costume :-)  There were no hot dogs as planned due to the rain, so all 12 of us went to Pizza Hut for some dinner.  Yum!

In keeping with our tradition, we graphed all of our candy.  Duane and Bransen helped us out, and the candy bars won by a long shot!

I hope you all had as much fun with your families as we did.  Happy Halloween!

Grandparent's Day

Grandma came to school on Wednesday for Grandparent's Day.  The kids had fun doing activities with Grandma in all their classrooms.  Rebekah, Bethany, and Jonas sang "Jesus Loves Me" in the chapel service and did a really great job.  I love this Trinity tradition!

Happy Birthday, Jonas!

Jonas turned 7 on October 8th.  He is growing up to be such a smart, funny boy.  He is very interested in science right now, and decided to have a volcano birthday party.  We invited all his cousins, Brynn, Bransen, and his friend Denny from school.

"Hot Lava" game (like Marco Polo)

Making our own volcanoes!

Our balloon race - don't let the balloon touch the ground!

Presents!

Our volcano drawing contest - The kids actually got really into this!

Cake Time!  We put sparklers in the middle of the cake to be the exploding lava.

The next day we went out to Collins to celebrate Jonas' birthday with the Gabels.  Duane did a Mentos/Diet Coke experiment and the kids blasted off a rocket with Papa.

We spent most of the afternoon outside finding caterpillars, playing on the trampoline, and launching apples into the woods with a giant slingshot.

Then it was time for LOTS of ice cream cake!  

And, of course, presents!

Thanks to everyone for sharing Jonas' special day with us!  

Happy Birthday Hayden!

We celebrated Hayden's birthday in August.  He's 2!

Playing in the water

We got Hayden a Mickey Mouse scooter!

Bubbles!

Enjoying the camp fire

Sparklers and Fireworks

We love you Hayden!  We sure had a lot of fun at your birthday party!