Thanksgiving Thankfulness

 This Thanksgiving was very different for us in light of Covid - for the last several years we have joined a large group at a friend's house but this year that just didn't seem prudent.  But we had such a wonderful day that it just reminds you - change is different, but it can be just as wonderful and heartwarming!

The day started off with Karis taking both boys on the annual golfing trip, along with Jeff this time!  They had a great time, and Jeff and Zach paired up for the group win!  Zach has been enjoying golf, and Jeff was able to give him a few tips to help improve as Jeff is quite a good player!

Afterwards, we congregated at our house with Mom & Lyle, Jeff, Niesha and Sadie, and of course our crew.  We had a great day - lots of yummy food, puzzle (for young and old), and of course time out on the soccer field!

The soccer field has been a fun addition to our yard - so glad that we took the plunge and did it.  

There was also reading books.....

And doing puzzles....

And sitting on Daddy's lap (she is so precious!)

We ended the day with a group photo to memorialize our time together.  What a great day we had!

That weekend, Karis and Kaleb also decided to make perogies by hand. They made the normal potato perogies and they also tried their hand at blueberry perogies.  Kaleb wasn't too sure about the blueberry ones, but we devoured the potato ones.  Yummy to our tummy!

We also put up our Christmas tree.  Last year we took the plunge and purchased one that was pre-lit, as well as it has a remote that makes it rise or shrink - so no trying to take it apart - just make it shrink down, put the cover over it and then roll it into the storage room!  That was super easy!

We had another weekend with the Steinke's as we had planned on playing video games at Thanksgiving to no avail, so we did it the next weekend.  The weather was beautiful, so we played basketball and enjoyed the outdoors for a while before coming in.

And in a random picture - Addison decides that if she is cold, she should climb into her Dad's shirt -- making them siamese twins!

Back to In-person School

 The kids have been begging for some time now to be able to go back to school, so we finally agreed that for their mental health we needed to put them back into school.  FLEC has done an amazing job of keeping the students safe, and until that point, there had not been any cases in the school (since then some of our family friends did get it, so now we can't say that but we would have had the chance of being exposed to it anyway seeing as we are friends with them - thankfully we did not have close contact with them prior to them getting sick so we think that we're safe, and thankfully their symptoms are all mild).

All ready to go back, they were so happy, even though they have to wear masks!

Addison is in grade 2, and this is their "flexible seating" spots in the room.  So funny, imagine thinking that a clothes basket is comfortable! :)

With the fact that the boys are back in school, they both joined the school Varsity soccer team and the Varsity basketball team.  Amy was able to catch a game of both over the last 2 weeks, which was fun to see the boys playing on the same team together. The Z family is obviously much more familiar with soccer, and our school basketball team isn't very good so it is interesting to watch the two different games -- Amy is more of a soccer lover than a basketball enthusiast but it is nevertheless fun to watch the boys.

Basketball game

Soccer game - Zach scored 3 goals that particular game, and Kaleb is defense although he got a chance to play up at striker

The regular soccer season is done now - Kaleb's team can in 4th in their division and Zachary's team won Division 2 - so they both did really well and had fun with their team.  Both sets of coaches are great, so it has been fun to see the teams bond and improve.

We are thankful to have friends whose kids are on the team, as it is fun to catch up with them on the sidelines!

And Addison's little friends played Duck Duck Goose - what a great old game - while watching their older siblings play soccer!

Kaleb and Jonny

Last weekend, we headed out to the park to let the kids play on the playground, and Amy/Kelli walked a 5K around the lake there - it was a beautiful day to enjoy the cooler weather and clear skies!  Amy usually does the 5K each year with a friend Stephanie, but with Covid there isn't any travel and Stephanie lives in Texas, so Amy was pretending in this picture to be hugging Stephanie in abstentia

It was super fun to walk with Kelli and catch up, we haven't had a good visit in a long time, so it was just nice to re-connect.

Afterwards, the Johnsons and Cochrans came over for dinner.  The little kids played all kinds of dress-up - and Devin somehow was coerced to put on a princess dress - he thought it was so funny so is just laughing up a storm in this picture! :)  Love their creativity!

Speaking of creativity - Addison has a habit of hiding her vitamins instead of eating them, and she had to do lines about not lying -- she decided to get it over faster by taping two pencils together!  Gotta give her points for thinking with her head and problem solving! 

Never a dull moment with Addison - one morning she came out with a red elastic on her nose and told Amy that she was Rudolph!

Kaleb has been growing like a weed this year - he is now several inches taller than Amy and starting to edge up closer to Karis!  We caught this picture with a beautiful sunset behind us - what blessings God gives!

Amy has been scratching her head how to wash and dry the masks without them becoming a wrinkled mess - she finally figured out a way to air dry them inside without having a big mess everywhere!  Yay for these pants hangers!

Fall Fest

With Covid, the church has done a good job of trying to still do fun activities in a safe manner - so instead of the huge Fall Festival this year they did a scavenger hunt - thus you drove around town taking pictures of the things on the list and don't interact with others.  We did it with the Cochrans, so it was fun to have some company as we drove around like mad-men looking for things! Kaleb didn't come as he had a soccer game, but Zachary came and helped "man" the candy shooters.

Our team came in 4th - good job guys!

After we got back to the church, they did have a few activities for the kids such as a few petting farm animals, candy shooters (Karis made them!) and a balloon artist.  Addison had a great time!

Getting candy from her big brother!

The next week we had the Adventurer outdoor picnic with the biking honor.   Amy took Addison (again, the boys stayed home - having older boys is not as much fun when they don't want to come to these "little kid" events! :)).  Sad that it is getting to be the norm that our pictures all have masks on them, but we are thankful that it is providing us with some measure of germ protection.

Left to right:  Maiya, Addison and Elin

In other random pictures, one morning Addison woke up and decided that her brothers were being too loud, so she got painters tape and secured a pillow over her ears and came out to breakfast like this!  That girl is nothing if not creative!

As Amy mentioned, she was self-isolating in the house for 2 weeks after being exposed to a friend who was Covid positive, and Addison definitely did not like it as Amy always lays down to snuggle with them at bedtime and that wasn't happening, so as Amy got to the end of her isolation, Addison was overjoyed and wrote this little note to Amy.

Precious!

We thought that the Orbeez beads had left our house, but Addison went with Karis to Target a few weeks back and they came home with more Orbeez....Addison decided to make a hand bath / spa treatment out of squishing the Orbeez in this bowl!