4

Paulina turned 4 on December 30th

Winter

This snowman was so fun to make but lasted less than 48 hours 

The hill at McClumpha

Christmas

November...came and went

Keeping up with 7 kids and blogging about it isn't easy! It seems like these days we are down to 1-3 blogs a month - I'm pre-dating this so we have at least one in November!

 Isabel turned 15 and we took her and friend, Katie, to get their cartilage pierced (which they had hoped to do with Maria this summer, not realizing they needed a parent since they are under 18!)

The day before Isabel's birthday, on a whim I reached out to her high school bestie's moms and 4 girls from her 8th Grade class (all who attend different high schools) were able to get dropped off for a GNO at Red Robin - Isabel was totally surprised! Pictured below are: Grace L, Isabel is holding her littlest sister, Grace L and Cecelia. One more was to join the group later on!

Here's some pics after Felicity joined them!

 Knowing that some girls might sleepover I took all the little kids to the condo to give the big girls room to party. Mateo found grandpa's UM hat and blanket and went for the theme to match his shirt!

The other pic is a bamboo covered gel foam mattress topper I got to revitalize an old mattress that has now become my bed - it really made a difference!! Not bad for $89.99 + Amazon Prime delivery!

(and I got to avoid mattress salesmen. UGH.)

 Maria flew in on Thanksgiving Day and we went to grandma Paula's for the feast!

 We also celebrated Isabel's birthday with them :)

 Reunited...and it feels so good!

 Fun with Snapchat filters...

 At SSA the kids "dress up" for Thanksgiving Day - here's Mateo reading.

 And Peter was a pilgrim again!

 Maria wanted to take sugar cookies back to her roommates and mom was happy to oblige provided we got to keep half the batch!

 Of course Katie came over to spend time while Maria was home too! 

Here the beauties pose with their early St Nick gifts :)

 I was surprised to see Maria on the cover a book AMU was promoting on their Facebook page!

Happy Halloween!

Right before they left for SC, grandma Rose and grandpa Bob bought us some pumpkins on a Bronson/Sturgis visit. A few days before Halloween we carved them up with a pumpkin carving kit they also got for us - I was surprised how wimpy the boys were about the "disgusting" insides. LOL

 

While we carved we had some spooky fun with the Snapchat filter :)

  From Left to Right: Peter's, Paulina's, Mateo's and Mikey's jack-o-laterns

 I got quite spoiled on my birthday. Kate at work brought a giant spread 

and Maeve even sent me my very own sugar cookies! 

 Isabel and Carmen spent their own money to get my gifts of candy and coffee!

 Mateo also played his last Flag Football game. The last two were quite cold and a little rainy-ish.

 Another end-of-October tradition is the All Saint's Festival at SSA. The school is always closed on All Saint's Day and this year the celebration was on Halloween. From left to right:

Mateo/Blessed Miguel Pro, Mikey/Saint Paul and Peter/Saint Nicholas

 The weekend after Halloween a few of my high school besties had long planned a girls get-together in Grand Rapids. I knew it would be a long drive (and it was crazy rainy/thunderstorms) but it was worth it even to drive the 4 hours round trip just to see them all for a couple. 

They partied into the night long after I left but it was great to see them all and share yummy food and a flight at the Mitten Brewery!

From front left to front right around the table: Christina (Bates), Tara (Dessauer), me, Brenda (Muralt), Melanie (Erndtman), Michelle (Smith), Sara (Petersen)