Peaks of Otter Hike

A Penny took the week off after Christmas, so we got to do a few things together as a family.

My mom and Alex came to visit for three days, so we went for a hike with them to Peaks of Otter.  We got some great pictures of the view along with way.

It was one of the longer hikes we've done as a family (3 miles round trip, with some fairly steep stairs), but the kids did great!

The view of the top was beautiful - and bright!

The kids loved climbing on the rocks - I'm happy to be adventuresome with them.

AHG awards and other activities

A couple weeks ago Laine had her American Heritage Girls award ceremony.

She earned two merit badges for work done during her meetings and at home.  And she earned a service star (for 10 hours of service this fall) and a few other badges for participating in troop events.

I'm so proud of her hard work and her willingness to try new things!

We also went to Dickens of a Christmas, which is an event in downtown Roanoke on Fridays in December.  We checked out lots of lights, looked at crafts, and even watched a short ballet presentation on a street stage.

As we were heading back to the car we bumped into Frosty!  It was a fun, first-Christmas-in-Roanoke outing.

Seeing more cousins

This past weekend the kids and I went to Charlotte, NC to see my brother and his family.  The nephews were being baptized, so we joined them for their special weekend.

After church we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch.

It was a short visit with everyone, but we had a good time and are glad we live closer to be able to make these kinds of trips to see one another.

Decorating for Christmas

In between our two sets of visitors we pulled out all the Christmas decorations and transformed the house.

The kids love setting up the ceramic tree that came from Penny's house when he was a boy.

I got Santa hats at the dollar store for the kids, and they were a huge hit with the kids.

Don't they look cute?!

There's the finished product.

These guys are so awesome :-)

Friends from St. Louis

The same day Penny's brother and family left our house, we had friends from St. Louis come visit us for a few days.

Rachel and Stefan are good friends of ours, who also used to be our go-to babysitters whenever we needed (or wanted) to go out of town.  Penny did their wedding, and we loved spending time together in St. Louis.  It was great to have them here for a visit!

As with most visitors to Roanoke, going to see The Star is on the list of activities.  The Roanoke Star is on top of Mill Mountain, and it can be seeing from all over the city each night as it is lit up.

There are great short hikes at the top of the mountain, so we went on a hike with the Novosels once we arrived.

The next day Penny and I went for a longer hike with Stefan and Rachel, and little Silas came too.

We hiked up Reed Mountain and enjoyed the view at the top.

The kids loved having visitors over the break, especially spending time with the babies.

Thanksgiving visit

Penny's brother and his family came to join us for thanksgiving, and we had a great time.

The cousins enjoyed hanging out with one another,

and we played lots of games together.

It was fun spending our first thanksgiving in Roanoke with family - glad we live closer to one another to make these visits possible!

Enjoying fall

The weather is cooler, and the kids are loving being outside.

Cole helped rake leaves, and Laine helped bury Cole!

Cole's kindergarten class made Native American costumes out of pillow cases at school this week - turned out pretty cute!

Pumpkin carving

This year for the first time the kids carved their own pumpkins all by themselves.

They drew their own designs on their pumpkins and started carving.

They had a good time - Cole kept on carving, even after he completed his original design.

No matter, they all turned out nicely.  We left one pumpkin uncarved so we could keep it for decoration at our doorstep until Thanksgiving.

And here's one last picture I got of the kids after the costume parade.  Loved seeing my little cowboy and pirate getting off the bus!

Happy Halloween!

The kids had a costume parade at school - a first for them and a first for me as a onlooking parent.  There were so many parents there to see the kids, it was kind of amazing!

Laine wore her Indian costume, since clown costumes were not allowed at school this year due to recent (scary) events.

Mead was an adorable cow girl,

and Cole was a handsome pirate.

They all changed costumes for trick-or-treating though: Cole was Batman, with his cape and mask, Mead was the pirate, and Laine put on her clown outfit - she's been waiting a whole year to wear it!

We joined some friends from church and went around their neighborhood.  It was fun, and the kids got lots of (unnecessary) candy!

Happy Birthday Cole!

This week was birthday week - first Penny, then Cole.  We went out to eat as a family earlier in the week, and celebrated at home on Cole's birthday.

Traditional cinnamon roll breakfast, followed by one gift before school.

Cole was super excited about his marble run - he has a smaller set already but loves it so much we got a larger set to join the two together.

After school we had cake and opened more presents.

Of all his gifts, I think Cole was most excited about his new saw.  Who knew a six year old would love a saw so much!?  He's such a fun kid - loves working on things in the yard - and I'm sure he'll put his tools to great use!

The next day Cole had 3 friends over from school for a small party.  They jumped on the trampoline, tromped through the woods, built a fire in the fire pit, and played with all kinds of toys.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, and Cole enjoyed his birthday celebrations!