Thanksgiving 2017

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We celebrated with the Storm crew in Minnesota this year. There was no snow or ice anywhere so the drive to Roseville was quick and uneventful. Well, as uneventful as we can get while traveling with these two crazies and our pup Ranger. ;)

 

We arrived in time for dinner and the children quickly embraced their baby cousin James. They love this little guy so much!

 

 

Reunited and it feels so good!

 

 

Lucy is getting very good at reading books out loud. Who wouldn't want to read for this little cutie pie?

 

 

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning, watched the parade, worked on food prep, and fought over who could be closest to James.

 

 

 

These two sure love their cousin!

 

 

 

We headed to the park to burn off some energy because it was a beautiful day. There are multiple parks/playgrounds within walking distance from Brian and Amelia's house and the kids love it. :)

 

 

Lucy asked me to hold on to her splint so that she could get a better grip on the monkey bars. Haha! I guess that finger injury is feeling a lot better!

 

 

Roman loves going through tunnels!

 

 

So does James!

 

Lucy helped make some Turkey Day place cards. Complete with Paw Patrol stickers of course!

 

 

Just look at this spread of food - it was amazing!

 

 

 

Lucy and Romy were so pumped to drink water out of the fancy glasses. ;)

 

 

The food was awesome! Although I think that my kids only ate cranberry sauce and dinner rolls. Sigh! They don't know what they are missing!

 

 

Even the pups were ready for a nap on Thanksgiving afternoon.

 

 

We took the kids to another park. I like this newer and safer version of a merry-go-round!

 

 

 

Later that evening we had a quick early birthday celebration for Uncle Brad.

 

 

And we flipped through photos - just look at this beauty from November 1977. :) We celebrated Ken and Nola's 40th Wedding Anniversary over the holiday weekend as well. There will be a blog post on that special event coming soon.

 

 

We have so much to be grateful for this year - a happy and healthy family, meaningful work and a beautiful place to live and raise our children. This year we are especially thankful for the marriage of Ken and Nola! Thank you for providing a good example for us! Love you!  

Miriam's Birthday and Other Happenings

We celebrated our dear friend Miriam's 6th Birthday at the Children's Museum this year. The kids were so excited to head up to Eagle River for the big event. 

Roman is getting very good at building these days. He was very proud to put this Russian style building together with Haba blocks. 

Lucy loves birthday parties. :) She and Miriam are 2 days apart in age. 

Our friends Izzy and Maggie from music class were there too. 

Balloons + cupcakes + my Little Pony coloring pages = happy kids.

Lucy and Maggie snuggled with the giant moose.

Lucy didn't let her little splinted index finger hold her back from playing. :)

We decorated a fun card for Miriam!

Happy Birthday, friend! 

The kids played hard and passed out on the way home from Eagle River. What a fun day!

In other news, we had our first fire of the season! 

Grandpa Ken came to visit us during the deer gun season and we had a great time playing with him! Lucy helped him make the breakfast of champions one morning. 

Roman has been working hard on some festive turkey crafts at day care. 

And Lucy painted this beautiful pumpkin in Art Class.

Lucy is going to be Suzy Snowflake in her Holiday Music Recital with Ms Joanne. She can't wait! She likes to practice the song in her white Snowflake dress.

Lucy loves doing artwork! Here she is painting some canvases that she got for her birthday.

These two enjoy playing Mouse Trap. Roman especially could play this game for hours. Literally. Hahahaha! This guy was lucky enough to have Grandpa Ken in the house to set things up over and over again. :)

That's life Lately!

Life Lately - Mid-November

Here's the latest and greatest from the Storm household.

Just a lot of silly time on the couch.

We enjoyed breakfast for dinner on occasion. :)

These two are so sweet when they snuggle together. 

Lucy is in Girl Scouts this year - she loves being a Daisy Scout! She recently had a Thanksgiving celebration with her troop. On this night she made a turkey decoration for the table.

Lucy is very precise with her cutting skills! While the girls worked hard on their crafts - Roman ran wild with Cooper (another little brother). Thanks to Mr. Graf who watched the boys do laps during Scouts!! 

Before Lucy headed to school in the morning she dressed her doll Isabelle with new clothes that she got from Grammy and Grandpa Storm for her birthday. So cute!

We kicked off our weekend with a trip to the Urgent Care when Lucy slammed her finger in the car door the other night. It was such a sad deal! Poor girl! We thought that she might have broken her finger but it turned out that she just had soft tissue damage. Ai yi yi.

One good thing - they had Little House on the Prairie playing in the lobby. I love that show! 

Here we are waiting for X-rays. Don't let this picture fool you - she screamed for about a half hour before the visit to the urgent care. She was in much better spirits before seeing the provider. 

And we returned home with a little splint! It was a crummy way to spend a Friday Night but we were very thankful that it was not a worse injury.

We went to McDonald's after music class the other week. The kids had some gift cards to spend (thanks Grandpa & Grammy Sharon) and they were overjoyed to get Happy Meals!

It's the little things! :)

Lucy's 6th Birthday

We had a blast celebrating Lucy's 6th Birthday this year! 

Lucy requested a funfetti cake and she mixed it up with her brother on the eve of the party. 

We had a little family celebration for our girl on Friday night. She was so excited to get some fun packages in the mail. :) Grammy Nola also played courier and brought presents from Brian, Amelia & James and Uncle Brad. 

Lucy loves to read and was pumped to get new books from Uncle Brad. 

She was so excited to get a canvas art set from the Cihacek family!

Lucy got a bean bag from Mom and Dad this year so now both kiddos can watch movies snuggled in their seats. No better way to spend a Friday night!

On Saturday morning Lucy woke up early to decorate her cake.

Her theme this year was Super Hero Girls. Mama gave a big sigh of relief as she re-used many games and decorations from Roman's superhero party in August. :)

Our 6 year old was so proud of her cake! 

As per usual, we held the festivities at the YMCA. 

Maggie & Sarah were excited to color super hero masks. 

This is Lucy's sweet friend Laila from Kindergarten.

Blowing out candles! It was magical! ;)

And just like that our baby girl is 6!

We are so lucky that many of our kids' friends are sibling sets. Lucy's buddies Kelsie and Khloe have a little brother Korbin -- Roman adores this guy! 

Everyone enjoyed cake including Noelle and Peter.

Evelyn was being goofy with her spoon. :)

The kiddos loved playing games like running around and dropping ping pong balls in hula hoops.

Lucy opened gifts from her sweet friends. 

Super excited to get a new Barbie!

After consuming lots of sugar, the kids rocked the bounce house!

Roman loves this thing!

Our birthday girl was a big fan. :)

It was madness! I would rather be a lifeguard at a pool than the person that manages the bounce house! Crazy kiddos! :)

We had a Super Hero girls piñata at the event! 

These silly eye covers from Old Navy have served us well at many a birthday party. 

Jacob took a swing at the piñata.

Lucy tried her best to break this guy open. 

Party time!

Little brother taking a swing at big sister's piñata. So much fun!

Lucy with her crew - Noelle, Kelsie & Khloe.

Adding Lilly & Laila to the pic! So blessed to have so many dear friends.

Thanks to everyone who made Lucy's birthday so special! An especially big shout out to Grammy Nola who assisted with party set up and clean up. Love you all!