Partied Out!

We've been partying for 5 days straight! This is a picture of Kelly and her friends at her b-day party on Thurs. We brought them to Lazer Tag and then came home and had some pizza and they watched movies and played in the basement. They actually did get some sleep and slept in!

I had planned on taking them all home before lunch but right about the time I would have asked them to pack up, they started playing the Wii. I had them call their moms to see if they could stay for another hour or two, fed them lunch and let them play for a while.

We finally brought them all home around 2 in the middle of a snow storm!

That night, we went to our friends, the Riekse's who were having a party to watch the Spartans lose in some Bowl game. FUN but we didn't get home until after 11!

The next morning, we left for Dave's Mom's for the Feenstra Christmas. (We were an hour late because someone (Dave) got caught up playing Guitar Hero!) We had a fun day with everyone there.

The kids all got a turn to try and beat Uncle Dave on Guitar Hero. They all did very well and practiced until they could finish a song.

We stayed overnight and went to Eva's early afternoon.

We had a delicious turkey dinner with the VanderWoude's and Borst's and enjoyed a day of fun playing (can you guess?) the Wii and Abbey's new Speed Stackers (A cup stacking game-check out world champions on You Tube) and some dice games.

We got home about 11 and went right to bed.

Today is New Year's Eve. We might be too partied out to party tonight. We're going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks at 3 and we'll see what the evening holds after that!

Happy New Year!

Bright and Early

We started our Christmas morning early at the Feenstra household. The girls jumped on our bed and turned on the light at 7a.m. (Too early for me!)

We started with opening our stockings and then got to the good stuff...

Everyone was excited! With a few hiccups (GH3 had a few cliches)we are now playing it and having lots of fun. Even Jenny is playing Bowling and can always beat me.


We left our fun toys and went to Allendale for the Feenstra Christmas. The girls got to show off a few toys and see their cousins and we also got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Great (Both are in their 90's!)

Yesterday we had Matt and Gail out for a little Wii play and today we are having a sleepover for Kelly's 12th b-day. It's never a dull moment here!

Created a Monster

Abbey had a Girl Scouts meeting on Sat and they decorated cookies with the fancy tips and bags and special homemade frosting (I brought the cookies!) Most of the girls just drew lines or made a pile of frosting but Abbey took the time to make little flowers or stars and decorated the whole cookie like that. It was very cool!

When we came home, she wanted to decorate more but we didn't have any frosting so on Sunday, she begged to do more decorating so we went to Meijer, bought some decorator icing, colors and used the tips I had gotten at a garage sale this summer and she spent another hour decorating the cookies.

Now she wants to take a cake decorating class at Michael's! I think we may have created a Monster!!!

Lots of Firsts

We've had quite a week of Firsts!Everyone had their school Christmas Programs this week.

Abbey and Jenny had their Christmas Concert on Tues and it was Jenny's First time being up on stage and in the program (after attending it for the past 5 years) and it was Abbey's first performance playing her recorder (She played Jolly ol St. Nick and a parts of a few others) They both did very well!

Then, last night, Kelly had her first band performance. Kelly plays the trombone and the whole band played 3-4 songs together and then each instrument stood up and played a portion of a song (the trombones played Santa Claus is coming to town) She did great for her first performance. I hope we're in for many more years of band concerts.

Basketball

Kelly and Abbey had basketball games on Sat. and they both scored a basket! It was a good day! Abbey had a shot, missed, caught the rebound and shot again and made it. (She is in the 1st pic--yellow) Kelly had a break-away and brought it all the way to the basket and put it right in! (She is in the second pic--no. 12) They have been having a lot of fun with basketball this year. They have pretty big teams so they get limited playing time but they are doing great when they are in. I remember playing b-ball when I was this age--I'm sure I looked just like they did! It's fun to watch.
Jenny is taking the time to socialize during the games. There are usually 1-2 girls her age at each game so she brings a stuffed animal or coloring books to keep them occupied. It will be interesting to see if she plays b-ball or just wants to hang out with her friends. Right now, I could see her in a play or two. We'll see.
Dave and I went to see the Transiberian Orchestra on Friday. It was an incredible show! Half the show was Christmas music--mostly hymns and the second half was some metal music--but it was mostly classical music with guitars. We really enjoyed it.
We have a little snow here and some gusty winds. I feel bad for you AZ people who are also having a cold snap--in the 60's? All the MI people feel for you! Later, Sue