where's the snow??

this is SO different than our picture last year
well except for the coats - ha ha!
{ok, maybe ryan's coat is getting too small}

but we had the same fun adventure getting it...

hayride to the trees -

driven by santa {josie's favorite part} -

selecting the perfect tree -

and finally dragging the tree back to santa's wagon -

and now for the fun and warmer part...

{don't let the lack of snow fool you - IT WAS COLD!}

ps - do you like the color of boots garrett picked?
well at least they won't get mixed up at school!

thanksgiving {2010}

thanksgiving is about celebrating with family.last year we celebrated with the lees & this year with the vogels.
these pictures capture just a fraction of what i am thankful for this year...
the fun of having cousins

a big family & a cool husband{both often humor me when i ask for a group photo - ha ha}

and these 4 babies

happy thanksgiving!

one little, two little, three little...

...indians AND pilgrims!

to get in the thanksgiving spirit,

both boys had fall programs.

first up was ryan's class where had some yummy treats

that the kids made for us.

plus we got to hang out with a few of ryan's favorite buddies.

{some pictures might be a little embarassing when they get in high school}

next we had garrett's indian pow-wow.
all month they've been learning about michigan indians.
each kid chose an indian name and their teacher
has called them that name all month long - it's too funny.

meet rising son and a few of his friends...

it might look like garrett goes to an all boys school -
but if you look closely you'll see a few girls who will
be VERY popular when a 6th grade dance rolls around - ha ha!

{and you will also see a teacher who deserves a HUGE christmas gift!}

time at art museum...with very few pictures

this past weekend we had fun checking outthe princess diana exhibit at the art museum.
the only problem was they were super strick about pictures.the ONLY picture that we could photograph was the little sign.of course, i found this out AFTER i took the picture of olivia in front of the wall :)
so no real pictures in the exhibit - but it was definitely fabulous!olivia loved the room full of dresses and i loved reading all the little known facts.we both loved seeing her wedding dress up close - wow!it definitely took puffy sleeves to a whole new level :)

the only other thing we could photograph at the museum
was {drum roll please} the winner of art prize!

it was absolutely amazing.
one man and lots & lots of pencils.
i can barely draw a stick person, so it was mind boggling to me!

hand me downs

who knew that one day

i would be loving "hand me downs"

as much as i do today???

God is good!

mr. artist

the kids love entering the bookmark contest at the library,especially since someone won last year :)
this year the theme was "wild about books"and the kids had fun designing a "wild" themed bookmark.
and now we have a new winner in the family!

congrats mr. garrett!!

stop in the library
and be sure to pick up a really cool bookmark!

her favorite place to be

before

before it snows,
before it takes 30 minutes to get ready to leave the house,
before i decide that we should relocate to florida,
before our heating bill goes sky high,
before we go stir crazy inside,
we decided to take one last fall hike.

and before they could complain that the hike was too long,
i pulled out the suckers :)

goodbye fall hikes,
hopefully winter is short this year
and we can see you again before we know it!

after a bit of a break...

...she's back to writing.
check out what this girl has to say :)
and it just might make you laughand wish you were 8 again!

oink oink

to finish out a unit on local history,
olivia's class had their first field trip of the year...
they walked a whole 3 blocks to the Blanchard house.

the kids loved the house!
most had never been in this type of house before.
we had a great host who explained lots of history to the kids
and did a great job keeping their attention.

one of the kids favorite things was the purpose of a parlour.
in a parlour you host guests and just relax
BUT
they relaxed very differently back then.
the kids saw that the furniture wasn't comfy,
but rather required you to sit up very straight
and it was definitely not made for jumping on!
in addition, they kids learned that while sitting in the non-relaxing furniture
there was NO TV, NO IPODS, NO RADIO -
oh and they couldn't call their friends on the phone either.
the horror!
they also got to try out a sword chair.it's a chair with just at arm rest on only one side.why?well so your sword could hang down on the other side.obviously!

and now perhaps the coolest bit of history we learned...

when mr. blanchard wanted to marry his wife he went to ask her family's permission.
at the time, mr. blanchard was a poor farm hand.
his soon-to-be-wife's family thought pretty highly of themselves
as they were direct descendents of the mayflower bunch.
they were pretty upset at their daughter's choice of a husband,
and said he was so poor she'd end up living in a pig sty.

fast forward...
they get married and mr. blanchard becomes a successful businessman.
when they built this house, he handpicked the sandstone from his own quarry!
and to show his sense of humor,
he found 2 pieces of sandstone that {if you looked closely} had the outline of a pig on them. HA HA
if you look closely in picture below,
you'll see our host's husband with a long pole.
he was showing out group the "pig stones" :)

all in all, a very fun {and easy!} field trip.
the kids learned some cool stuff, and so did i :)
plus i got to show olivia where i once had a piano recital.
yup, back in my glory days of doing duets with my brother - good times!

i spy...

...one small problem in getting a good christmas card picture.
can you find it?

yes, it's pretty hard NOT to spy the problem!

i can work with awkward smiles, poor clothing choices & bad locations.

personalities, though, are proving a bit more difficult :)

a b a b

ryan has been learning patterns in school.

here are a few of the patterns he told me about in the car today...

red - blue - red - blue

joker - green lantern - joker - green lantern

wally west - clark kent - wally west - clark kent

person - girl - person - girl

i love my little 4 year old -

gender bias issues and all :)

***

do you know who wally west is?

what do you think?

do you think vogel family get-togethers are crazy?

do you think the cousins love being all together?

do you think we should form our own rockettes group?

do you think these kids are cute, or what?

if you answered yes to all these questions
{well maybe not the rockettes one}
then you'd be correct!

just a splash of color...

...makes crazy hair day at school just a little more fun!

rewind...

...and pretend i posted this when i should have!!

carving pumpkins this year was interesting.

we learned that 2 pumpkin knives were just not enough.
can you spot who was SO happy to finally get to use one?
everytime someone asked josie to use her's she yelled "JUST A MINUTE"
olivia & garrett decided that pumpkin carvingis best when you have a plan drawn out.
and ryan... well he just likes to be dramatic :)