New Year's Eve

This year for New Year's Eve, we had Marc and Kenna and girls come over, as well as Anne and her kids.  It was one giant party, with lots of noisy little kids running everywhere.  We had pizza for dinner, then spent the rest of the night singing karaoke, playing Rock Band, and playing board games.

 Kate and her cousin Gabby enjoyed rides in the wagon.

 
 Anne brought her boyfriend, Gary.  Nate really liked him, and played with him all night. 

 
Aaron really loved the karaoke.  He sang and sang for hours (even after everyone else went upstairs to play Rock Band).  He wore his weight vest all night, too.  It helps him with his sensory issues when there is a lot going on and lots of people around.

Kate can't pass up a good pair of shoes (Anne's boots).

 We played lots and lots of Rock Band.

Sara, Brynne, and Savannah playing Apples to Apples.

Marc and Kenna left around 10, to go home and put little girls to bed.

Midnight rolled around and everyone was still going strong (except for Kate, who had gone to bed an hour earlier).  We poured everyone glasses of sparkling apple cider and watched the countdown on TV.  Anne brought poppers for all the kids to use at midnight too (which is why Nate was plugging his ears).

 Even though it was freezing outside (and Josh and Nate were both in shorts), the kids braved the elements to light sparklers to celebrate the new year.

Owen didn't want to go outside for sparklers, so we went out with the other kids.  While we were out there, he changed his mind, and decided to get shoes on so he could come out.  He wasn't quite fast enough.  We finished and came in just as he was ready to come out.  He cried and cried when we told him the sparklers were all gone.  

Scott sat down in the chair to comfort him, and he almost immediately fell fast asleep.

Sleep Over at Grandma Jo's

Grandma Jo invited the kids for a sleepover with all the cousins the day before New Year's Eve.  Kate got to stay home with us, since she isn't potty trained (a requirement for sleeping at grandma's).  Scott and I should have sat back and enjoyed the quiet of only having one child, but instead I planned a busy house makeover to surprise the kids.

We did take time to go out for dinner, on our way to Home Depot, and Kate loved getting to come with us.

We took the left over granite from our old kitchen (which has been sitting in our garage for a year), and cut it down to size to make a desk in Josh's bedroom nook.  He had mentioned to me a week before that he really wanted a desk there.  So, Scott and I worked till 3 in the morning getting the desk built so we could surprise Josh.

In between waiting for paint on the desk leg to dry, Scott replaced some light fixtures with some brighter white lights.  (With the old lights, that hallway was always way too dark.)

With the new desk in the nook in Josh's bedroom, we had to find a place for the chair that had been there.  It found a home up in Aaron and Nate's room, along with a little nightstand (I had an old nightstand in the garage that I moved into Josh's room, and took Josh's nightstand up to Aaron's room).

And just for fun, while we were out shopping, we found a pirate ship that was 50% off (making it $10) that we just had to get for Owen.

It was so fun to have the kids come home and discover all the new surprises we had worked so hard on while they were gone!

Nate's backpack

I love the treasures I find in Nate's back pack.  Here are a few of the things he brought home at Christmas break.

This totally made me laugh.  Aaron checked a book out from the school library about the elements.  He was fascinated with Platinum, and told Nate how it was the most expensive metal on earth. 

 So, what does Nate ask Santa for Christmas?  Platinum!  I was actually lucky enough to overhear him telling Santa, while sitting on his lap before Christmas, that he wanted him to bring him Platinum.  Sadly, we didn't find any lying around Christmas morning.

 

 These next few pages were from his journal over the past few months.  Halloween: "I like bats.  I like my mom.  I like my dad."

 
True boy: "If I were a space unicorn, I would poop out bombs".

I like leaf piles.

 I sense a common theme of him liking us.

Thanksgiving.

I like poptropica.  I don't like school.  I like my mom.  I like my dad.

I will put lots of candy and my gingerbread house will look like this!

Dino Book

Our kids draw names for giving gifts for Christmas.  Since most of them don't actually earn any money, if they all bought each other presents, it would amount to mom and dad buying all of them presents times 7.  So we draw names, and each person gets one sibling a gift.  Sara drew Owen's name, and decided to make his gift.  She made the most amazing pop up dinosaur book.  That girl is so creative and can make anything she puts her mind to.  She spent a lot of time researching pictures of each dinosaur, then drew each of them.  He loved the book!