Centrals Christmas Celebration

We had a great party at Central, a casual affair with everyone bringing their favorite Christmas time treat. Bennet was into his cupcake, and ran around and around afterDaniel was thrilled with the amount of treats and also had a cupcake (red) lol

It also happened to be Pastor Bruce's birthday. He was sporting his ultra cool Chewbacca tshirt he got from Levi

Playing catch up

Ok, so Facebook severely stunted my blogging, I apologize. And here we go!

First up, in no particular order (except maybe where the pics are on my computer)

Daniel's holiday party! It was pajama day, the kids were so adorable in their pj's

He made a wonderfully creative gingerbread-type house.

After the crafts and snacks, the kids settled in for a cartoon until the parents came.Daniel's friend Elly has a great sense of humor

teehee

*rubbing hands together excitedly*
I've been prototyping christmas presents :)
I could show you, but then I'd have to kill you.

swine flu fun

So when you're at home for a couple weeks straight...you come up with ways to amuse yourself. Like trips to the swine flu infested ER (Daniel has cellulitis on his elbow!)

Terrorizing kittens with home made sweatersAnd finding creative ways to use leftovers. This would be "Ranch Bacon Cheeseburgers a la Laura"

Fire Station Open House

We had a GREAT time at the firestation open house that we went to on Saturday!
We met Big Lug. Alexis called him out as being "just a person in a costume" and kept harrassing him about it lol


Alexis tried to fill some pretty big shoes :)

Daniel was in gadget heaven and would have stayed all day if I had let him

The kids also got a chance to sit in a helicopter! Sparrow's Life Flight was there and generously allowed anyone to sit in the EMT's seat. So much fun!

It was a chilly day but we had a great time and learned a lot about fire safety. The fire fighters were awesome!

What I said, what he heard

Today, due to extreme naughtyness that was discovered right before dinner, I informed the children they were in trouble and they would be punished after dinner. Let them stew a bit, right?

Daniel keeps casting me these worried looks and finally asks "Where are you going to punish me?"

I looked at him for a moment, trying to decode just what he meant.

"Are you going to punish me in my tummy?"

oh my word, my baby was worried I was going to PUNCH him in the stomach after dinner!!

Talk about feeling like the worst mom ever!

Quickly I corrected that "punish" is another word for "consequence" which he is very familiar with lol

Adventures in Michigan...

Even pedestrians have detours in Michigan!
Daniel and I did a couple of miles on Riverwalk before being eaten alive by mosquitos!

Daniel got a great haircut by Phil "like Dr. Phil!!" says Daniel
He's all ready for school now!

Daniel discovers comedy

Daniel's formula for every joke he tells:

Why did the *random item* cross the road?

To get to the other *random item*!

for example "Why did the blue milk top cross the road? To get to the other Diego!! HAHAHAHAhahahh"

Lazy (but productive) days

The kids have been having a ball having sleepovers in each others bedrooms

I decided to clean out the storage room aka, my bedroom. Here is Mt. Washmore before:

You really CAN move mountains!! see my cool Barbie phone too?

After watching High School Musical 3, we were inspired to have a picnic with pizza and chocolate covered strawberries. They were delish, the kids went nuts over them of course!

I think every Chin has one of THESE in their house!

My garden is doing wonderfully, I have actual blossoms on two out of three tomato varieties. A cucumber plant is growing despite my complete neglect of it (thought it was dead, whoops!) I'll post a few pics soon :)

Fun at the cottage

The kids and I had a wonderful week at the cottage. We did some swimming (well they did some swimming, I hid in the shade a read my book!)

and we visited Grandma and Grandpa King up in Gladwin

Grandma gave the kids some 'do-si-do' rides on her walker

Grandpa had a pocketfull of pennies for the gumball machine

We had a great week, but are relieved to be home :)

a couple of fun weeks

We had a couple of fun weeks! We went to my cousin Nyaring's graduation open house. She had some wonderful Sudanese food there, it doesn't get more authentically ethnic than that!
Outside their church there was a really fun wooden train the kids had a ball on!




The next Saturday saw us at Craig and Mollie's wedding, Alexis had her first dance with a nice young man, they even tangoed lol

I am also making headway on my container garden. I've got two sorts of heirloom tomatoes planted, I can't wait!

Darn tourists!

today we were tourists in our own town! Since we only had a few hours to tour, we decided to spend our time in East Lansing. We started at the Bug House where we met Rosie the Tarantula



Met a very cool walking stick
And some hissing cockroachs from Madagascar!
Second, we went to the MSU dairy store and all got some wonderful ice cream
Alexis enjoyed mint chocolate chip

and in typical Daniel style, he got Death by Chocolate

On the way back to the Cata bus, we came across this interesting lab

Truly a Chin

After talking to her dad outside on the phone, Alexis called my cell phone to put in her order for dinner. Keep in mind she was about 20 feet away. And the screen door was open.

Daniel's wish

I almost forgot to tell what Daniel wished for when he blew out his candles!

"All the chocolate bars!"

that's my kid for sure!

Daniel is FOUR!

Daniel had a very happy birthday!
Since Alexis is at 1st grade camp, Daniel and I had the day to spend together!
We started the day at Chuck E. Cheese. Did you know they open at 9am? me either. But it turns out when you go that early there is practically no one there, and the people who are there are grandmas with toddlers :) I took Daniel for lunch and fun at Miss Char's house. He ended up staying for break and then having cupcakes and icecream with his friends there.

After Miss Char's, we came home for some dinner. Daniel had requested Spaghetti and mashed potatoes for his birthday dinner. After asking him several times to confirm that is what he REALLY wanted....that's what we had!

After dinner was present time!!

Daniel got a new Spiderman umbrella

"what is it!!!"

A Diego toothbrush!

A cars metal lunch pail, complete with 4 dollars, 4 dimes, 4 nickes and 4 pennies

And the new VeggieTales movie from mom :)

I know it's not chocolate...but Daniel is so impressed with these angelfood cakes every time we see them I thought he would love it!

He was impressed;)
It was a very happy birthday with calls from friends and family, lots of quality mom time.

We're anxious to pick up alexis tomorrow when she gets home from camp!