The Boys' First Bowling Experience

The first weekend in December, we made a plan with my friend Angie from high school (and her husband Matt) to take the boys and her son Brooks bowling, which was a first for all of them.  We met at the nice Brunswick Zone near our house but they were completely booked.  Plan B was an older, dumpier bowling alley, but the good news is our city is smoke free, so at least we weren't contending with clouds of smoke.  The boys LOVED it!  Poor Charlie was still sporting his sling, and our plan B place didn't have ramps for the littles to use.  He did fine; we just had to help him get his ball up to the lane, where he would push it.

Apparently I neglected to get any pictures of Brooks, but he was there and loved it too!

Angie was the big winner!

New Pictures

After Thanksgiving, I asked our friend Chrissy to take some new pictures of the boys.  I was hoping to do some new family pictures but couldn't quite get it together, so we tabled that idea for a later date.  We took the boys up to Westhoff Park and she got some really cute ones (some of which we used for our Christmas cards).

We will definitely take advantage of Chrissy's talents again some day!!

While we were at the park, the boys wanted to "play" tennis.  Of course I didn't have any of the necessary equipment with me, so they just pretended.  Funny guys...

Thanksgiving and Goforth Visit

The week of Thanksgiving, my sister and her family came to visit.  It was so nice to have them here for a full week!  We had lots of time to just hang out and let the kids play, and we did a few fun things too.

On Tuesday we went to Myseum.  It was kind of a bummer for Charlie with his day-old injury since he couldn't climb on anything, but there was enough there to entertain him.

Even Uncle Greg got in on the fun...

On Thanksgiving, we had the normal three-party busy day.  We went to my Aunt Jan and Uncle Lynn's house first with my mom's family...

Then it was my parents' turn to host my dad's family, so we headed there next.  It was a very short visit and I don't have many pictures, but the boys had fun doing puzzles with my aunts and of course playing with Parker.

 Our third and final stop was at Grandma and Grandpa Clayton's house.  Paige was with her mom that day, but we had a nice photo opp with the other four cousins and the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa...

One of the highlights of the Goforth visit was the night after Thanksgiving.  My parents' awesome neighbor (Mr. Matt, as the boys call him) drives a limo as a side job, so my parents hired him to take us to see Christmas Lights in Tilles Park.  It was a surprise to the kiddos (their first limo ride!) and was so much fun!!

 After we got home, we played a dice game that Uncle Greg taught us.  Jack joined in and had a blast - he even won a couple rounds and was so proud of himself!

Parker enjoying a last night snack

A few other random pictures from the week:

 We had a great visit, but like all fun things it too had to come to an end.  We're looking forward to meeting up with the clan again in Florida!