catching up- Winter

Yikes, here's some old photos I'm just catching up on. Winter.  Geesh. 

Daddy and Lou at basketball.  So much basketball. 

The kid's got rid of the pumpkins for us! 

Staff Christmas Party.  I gave the best white elephant gift this year.  I saved up all the gift cards I had gotten in the past year (some with a bit of money, most with none) and gave them away as a bunch.  The family that got them said they spent a happy afternoon calling the number on each card and found a total of $8.50 on the cards! 

Bee went to a Christmas Activity at school.  Take note it was NOT a dance, it was an activity.  

She said I could not go as a chaperone... but I had friends chaperoning and several sent me pictures.  (She absolutely has a tank top on under the dress, it's ivory.)

Turns out there was dancing. 

We decorated our doors for Christmas at school.  My goal was quick, easy, but cute.  I printed out a large picture of the Elf and invited people to take a selfie with an elf.  Even people in the building for tours stopped by to get their selfie taken. 

Our favorite December activity- the food drop at our church.  We take the Thanksgiving week's offering and use it all to buy wholesale food.  It arrives via semi trucks. 

Hundreds of volunteers offload the trucks. 

Then we fill orders from the local food pantries. 

Then we deliver the food to fill the empty shelves

Ok, let's move on to warmer weather. 

catching up- thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is brought to you in picture and caption form only.  Cause basically it's April.  

It was time for family games again.  

My brother took the kids for motorcycle rides on my dad's bike.  The Bible says we can't live in fear, right?  This mama was watching closely though!

Nephew love.  Oh my, I could eat this little dude up with a spoon. 

My dad won chess against Lou, but was impressed with some of Lou's new strategies he's picked up at chess club.  

Hubby and I had to hand off the trophy to my sister and her hubby.  

We went to an escape room, which is like my favorite thing to do ever.  We were so close.  I blame a slight error in the room!

Meeting my littlest sister's new guy was a highlight.  I pretty much interviewed him the first chance I got!  Don't tell him, but we like him tons.  We'll keep him!  It's good for him to sweat a little though. 

We went to see my grandma. 

Puzzles, dinner, good company, a sweet toddler- a wonderful time was had. 

catching up- Fall

This seems to be the way things have gone around here... No blogging... a big catch up... no blogging, catch up, repeat.

I have broken my catching up into 4 posts... here's catching up: fall. 

Bee played soccer again this fall.  She loves her team.  The core of them have played together for years and are such sweet girls. 

Lou played baseball of course.  He did a little pitching this season.  He spends the rest of his time at first or catcher.  

He hit a home run this season!  I think I called it last year when he was still in his leg cast.  I can now say the recovery is complete.  It took a full year to be back at 100%.  

He's had several others that have been so close, but he finally got it this year! 

Tippy got to go to some games.  I didn't think it was fair that he was alone all day and then alone in the evening too.  

  It was a busy fall.  

So busy, I forgot to order enough school pictures.  No one will notice, right?

As soon as baseball was over, basketball started.  Hubby coached again, he's off to the right here.   Lou has a great team.  They didn't win a lot, but they sure had fun.  

Being back with my school buds is great (missing one team member here). 

It's been a challenging year in many ways.  I'm trying to make sure we still get to do my favorite classroom activities- although there never seems like enough time in the day.  Here we are doing my favorite 'Growing Up Where Jesus Lived' cumulative activity.  It's a taste testing event and who doesn't love that>

Enjoying our school's big fall fund raiser.  Missing the same sweet teammate :)  

Raising money for the school requires some pie in the face!  At least it wasn't my turn for the dunk tank this year.  

This poor cat... He's a jerk, but he's awfully cute.  Seriously, this marks his 15the year with us.  We joke that he'll outlive us all.  

We took our annual fall break trip with friends (2016,  2015, 2104).  We traveled about 5 hours this year, instead of our normal 45 minute trip.  It required a parking lot picnic, which embarrassed Bee to no ends!    I had hoped to find a little park or rest stop or something... but it didn't work out.  What if she saw someone she knew?  At a Walmart parking lot in the middle of rural Kentucky!

We love traveling with friends.  The mamas plan out the meals and prep before we go.  Planning and prepping is part of the fun! 

This new place we stayed is on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky.  Only a few made it all the way down the hill to the water.  

It was steep! 

Bee was in her happy place, just the two of us, alone in the quiet, looking for fossils.  

We found so many fossils.  It was a science teachers dream location! 

We took a more kid friendly trip to the marina. 

It rained a good bit one day but we had plenty of indoor games to play. 

girls vs. boys pictionary

partner kan jam tournament

Group shot- final day

On our way home, we all stopped at Mammoth Cave.  We love caves! (Blue Springs Cavern, Merango, Squire Boon Cavern)

Fall break also gave up time to hit up my FAVORITE place, Escape room! We did the enchanted library room this time, and again, we almost made it!

Our school staff made a trip to Holiday World right before they closed for the season.  

I got a new car in the car and promptly backed it over the railroad ties on the driveway.  It took three friends, a bundle of wood, several texts with my dad, and a giant jack to fix my problem.  

Daddy-o was busy at work, so the kids and I had to go get pumpkins, just the three of us- so we took Tippy along.  Sometimes payroll falls at inconvenient times, but since he pays up both, we like for him to complete it on time!

He can't get the whole selfie thing! 

We trick or treated with friends.  I didn't get any pictures of the kids in costume?  I did get a picture of the candy sorting and trading the next day.  

Bee and her principal and two friends hit up the escape room too!  They made it out! 

No broken bones, no surgeries!  It was a happy fall indeed!