Thanksgiving in Minnesota!

This Thanksgiving, we trekked to Austin, MN to be with all the Gordens.

It was billed to be the warmest Thanksgiving on record...and my parents have radiant heat in their floors...their house gets HOT HOT HOT. Andy ran with the idea of "warmest Thanksgiving on record" and wore shorts and a short sleeved polo shirt. While the rest of us were sweating, he was comfortable! :)

This photo below starts off our trip with random cell phone photos I captured....
Top left--sign at the entrance to "The Tracks"....our favorite line is "Walk Gently"
Top right--8 cousins that walked off the turkey (or not turkey!) snooze desire...
Bottom left--Andy wearing the "Ove Gloves"
Bottom middle--vegetarian turkey ;)
Bottom right--the Gorden group eating dinner in the living room (is it still called that?!)

Cousin love was flowing this trip--we're sad that we just had a few hours with the cousins though! Colin and Oscar shared...er....fought...I mean SHARED Tucker's old John Deere ride on toy (vintage!) and the girls enjoyed hanging out, coloring, laughing etc.

More cousin fun....and who can resist Precious Penn?!

Here is Ellie on "The Tracks" behind Woodhaven Addition. As kids, we'd always go up to the abandoned rail road tracks. This is the first year that we walked the little kids across the tracks...let's just say that the grown ups were a little scared and the gusts of wind did not help...

A goal my parents had for Thanksgiving was to get a group photo for their Christmas card. We pondered on outfit suggestions and decided to go with matching pjs. Upper left photo below: it didn't turn out so well--Caroline (only girl not facing forward!) wasn't into this idea. My parents instead went with the upper right photo below for their card.

The Glynn kiddos didn't mind posing in their pjs with Grammie and Grampy (lower left photo above)....and the Glynn Girls and Grammie took a special Black Friday trip to Rochester to see The Nutcracker Ballet. Fun times.

After the cousins left, Colin got Uncle Tucker's John Deere to himself. Saying he loved it is a very large understatement. Thank you, Uncle Tucker, for refinishing it!

Another fun thing in MN is riding Grampy's toys. Colin always asks to take tractor rides and just loves it. In the upper right photo below, you see Colin pointing toward the ditch...he remembers how fun it is to ride the ditches in Grampy's gator!

And Ava even joined in the fun! If you click on the above photo, you can see her expression in the bottom right photo...priceless fun.

And finally....the photos from The Nutcracker. It was a beautiful production, enjoyed by all of us girls!

Ellie's Birthday!

11 years ago, Ellie Katherine Glynn was born...13 days overdue!

As usual....our birthday celebrating started early in the morning --serenading Ellie with "Happy Birthday to You...We Love You This Much"...and was repeated numerous times during the day!

In the bottom right photo pictured below, all 4 kids are enjoying a birthday lunch at Fuddruckers. I had arranged to take Ellie out to lunch on her birthday and the morning of her special day, she said "Do you think the girls could leave school too to eat with us?" How special...that an 11 yr old would want to have a meal with her siblings AND her mom? We had a fun lunch together!

This year's birthday theme was DOLPHINS. Fun fun fun.
Check out the COOL triple layer cake too...

For dinner, we had Ellie's favorite...spaghetti and meatballs. We had quite the meal--LOTS of laughter and funny stories shared. It was perfect. As you can see, the JOY has returned to Ellie's demeanor!

And the blowing out of candles....11 is a lot of candles, especially when you include wimpy star candles that almost melt away while you are lighting the rest of the candles!

We finally got to gift unwrapping....there were very thoughtful gifts given this year. Jayna gave Ellie a gift, but in addition, put a $5 bill in her homemade card--money for Ellie to go to Claire's and buy something for the both of them...something special just for "them". Sweet.

Ellie also got lots of new reading material. I think it took her all of 1 week to blow through the new books.

And, as you can see....Ellie's new boots were enjoyed by another little Glynn!

I like to call this photo below the "surprise" collage.
Ellie received an ipod stocked with contemporary christian music....she was shocked.
She also received something special from NHCS that Jayna had brought home from school. Ellie's old 5th grade class made her birthday cards. A few were touching in that they included apologies to Ellie. The surprise of this along with the apologies brought tears to Ellie's eyes.

Happy Birthday, dear Ellie....you are a delight to our house....we all love you!

So Sorry, Squirrel Family

One Saturday morning, we woke up to VIOLENT sounds--I thought our roof was being ripped off by storm troopers or something. We determined that animals were fighting...however, we couldn't figure out WHERE they were fighting. There was no evidence of anything out of the ordinary happening. The kids were scared! It was LOUD! And then it ended. Nothing more.

3 days later, similar sounds could be heard in the walls of the pink room.
THIS prompted the call to The Critter Catcher.
Let me just say that The Critter Catcher is the nicest "service man" to ever come to our home.
He was also fast--Andy called him and within 30 minutes, he was on a ladder checking things out. (Well...that was a little of a misunderstanding--he thought we had animals fighting RIGHT THEN!)

After he climbed into the attic through Ava and Jayna's bedroom closet, he discovered that we have (had) squirrels living in our attic! He sealed 2 holes and set a trap on the outside of our house (left photo below). He then left for the day...
5 hours later, I discovered something IN the trap (right photo below)!

When it was all said and done, we had 4 squirrels removed from the attic. Ick. Amazing. Really!??!?! What an experience!

But back to The Critter Catcher--Colin really took a liking to him and was VERY impressed with the man's uniform--flashlight, headlight and tools...Colin took it upon himself to recreate the outfit himself...

Happy Birthday PARTY Ellie!

What a fun day we all had....

Celebrating Ellie with her new friends, 1 old friend and 2 beloved sisters!
The party was at The Fire...a paint your own pottery, do your own mosaic tiling, and glass fusing studio. Our girls had the option of mosaic tiling and painting pottery.

The party was just 2 hrs long, and the morning of the party, Andy and I became worried...what if the kids were all done in 1 hour? Would we have kids we had never met before becoming restless? Turns out, we had NOTHING to fear...we barely had enough time to finish projects and enjoy the "cake" and gifts!

The Fire is an amazing place--I highly recommend having a party there; and Ellie and her friends were the PERFECT age to do this sort of artwork. We were more than happy with the party room and the staff that helped us. Above, you will see Ellie by the chalkboard that was waiting for her in the party room, as well as the group shop before everyone started REALLY concentrating on their creations.

And here, some of the girls in attendance:

Ellie was just beaming the entire party; she definitely had her love tank filled that day!
Below, you will see Ellie with her swim team buddy, Mackenzie (left photo); Ellie with Bridget (1st friend she met at Spring Road--and she "met" her from Andy and her dad (who is Andy's boss!) exchanging photos of the girls via email prior to Ellie's 1st day of school; and then Ellie and Lily, a dear friend of Ellie's from the old school. Ellie and Lily took a sewing class together last January and Ellie was elated to open 6 yds of fabric as her gift from Lily!

The "cake"....which wasn't cake! Ever since Ellie learned that Manderfield's Sugar Cookies were safe, she was itching to have them as a birthday treat. Turns out, it was easy-peasy for me...first time EVER I have been able to order from a bakery for a birthday treat. It was heavenly.

Since we really did not know the girls coming to the party, Andy thought up a fun little ice breaker(s) to get them talking. We learned their nick names, favorite school subjects, and most favorite trip they've taken. Shortly after breaking the ice, everyone appeared very comfortable and I think all had a great time....what a blessed day it was!

And....one week later, we returned to The Fire to pick up the creations:

Fun...just fun!

(Note the plate in the middle....when you book the party room, your room fee "gets" you this plate made by an employee of The Fire. They take the "theme" of your child's birthday and a thumbprint of everyone in attendance and make a memory for you! It is VERY cool!)

Veterns Day at NHCS

This year, NHCS had another Veterans Day celebration, honoring Veterans.
The kids did a WONDERFUL job.

Since the program was mainly singing, I have many clips for your listening enjoyment:

(The kids always sing such beautiful songs...but hearing the 1-8 graders sing these songs just brings a tear to your eyes...it was VERY moving, as was seeing the Veterans stand for 'their' song.)
This Land Is Your Land....click HERE.
The ARMY recognition....click HERE.
The NAVY recognition....click HERE.
The AIR FORCE recognition...click HERE.
The MARINES recognition...click HERE.

Again, there was a slideshow of all the Veterans related to the students/staff of NHCS. Amazing number...just amazing. To view the Gorden/Glynn relations, click HERE.

And finally....there was a SURPRISE for this year's program. One of the students at NHCS has a father who plays the bagpipe!!!! To view this beautiful playing, click HERE. (And I do apologize for the 3 yr old commentary--he was equating this musician with one of the Wiggles who had played the bagpipe on a recently viewed DVD!)

Thank you ALL VETERANS, for serving our country!!!

First Snow of Winter 2011

SNOW!
Who knew it was coming?! It was a shocker....but what a fun surprise for the kids.
I think it lasted less than 24 hours...and it was a good thing that the kids played in it the afternoon it fell! (Because here we are on December 30, 2011 with NO snow since this first snow!)

It was also a good trial run as to our readiness in coats, boots, hats and mittens!
Fun times. We're ready....bring it on. (Please?!)

How to use an Epi Pen....by Ellie.

One day this fall, Ellie showed up REALLY REALLY late from riding the bus home. I was freaked out--immediately, I thought she had had an allergic reaction and I had not been notified.

Turns out, there was a mix up with a bus driver and the bus company had to find a new driver for their route. Upon calling the bus company, I got into a discussion about Ellie's allergies and how different bus drivers would be made aware of Ellie's situation.

One little question turned into a big issue--how should the bus company handle kids with allergies, how can they enforce rules such as "No eating on the bus" and what IF Ellie has an allergic reaction?

There is not a good answer to this problem and due to the release times of the 2 schools, it is near impossible to drive to both schools every day to pick up all 3 kids. SO....we came up with a temporary Plan B.....which needed to be done anyway.

We taught Ellie how to inject an Epi-Pen. After all, if she is starting to stay home alone, she'd need to know how to do it if an emergency arose. She did great and I feel comfortable that she'd be able to inject it, if the time ever comes.

To view her instructions, click HERE.

2 weeks after I showed her how to do this, a new law was signed in Wisconsin--children can now carry their Epi Pens with them instead of schools being required to lock them in the office or teacher's room. Laws like that are music to an allergic family's ears!

One Last Hurrah...

One last hurrah?!

No...she's not done swimming....but this was the last meet she could swim as a 10 year old.
Have you ever seen Ellie up close? She is not big...and a lot of the 11-12 yr old swimmers appear like giants around her! (Kidding of course...maybe not giants...but taller girls with bigger feet!)
Ellie LOVES to swim...

...and had an awesome meet--she came away with a ribbon from her relay event and 2 more ribbons. Just what a young swimmer needs from time to time...tangible encouragement!

Here she is doing the backstroke...she is quite good at this stroke, and due to one OLD mistake of not counting right and then hitting her head, she steers away from selecting this one. But she does great in it!

And here she is doing her beloved freestyle. And no...I have NO videos to share!
This meet was a home meet, but there was no spectator seating on the pool deck...we were watching from above through the glass. It was not hot at all...and we had great seats! Can you even believe all of these pictures were taken through glass?!

Another thing Ellie loves about swimming is her friend Mackenzie. These two are 2 peas in a pod. They love each other

and it is so fun to see them grow as friends and teammates, encouraging each other and sharing similar interests. Not only do they swim together, but they love to have sleepovers together...and they are hoping that next year, at Horace Mann, they'll see each other at school!

BLUE hair!

Yes, that is blue hair you are seeing.
Yes, it is "allowed" at the new school Ellie attends, but not at her old school!
And, it is actually Ava's birthday gift to Ellie!
It is REAL hair....dyed blue....and attached to her own hair with a smashed bead. (It is hooked on TIGHT!)
And, as of this blog entry date (12/31/11), she is still wearing it....we've had it re-done as it grew out a couple of inches and it has really not faded, even with all the swimming Ellie does with swim team!

And finally, what did this streak of blue hair do?
Ellie LOVES it...she had wanted it for quite some time but the rules at her old school didn't allow it--I'm not sure she will ever want it removed!

This little streak also humbled her parents...no longer do we think that colored hair = rebel. We've grown to accept it and know that it is no big deal. It is tasteful and has not been a controversy to our knowledge!