End of November Fun!

It's the last day of November, the last day of Ellie's birthday month!!!!! As I was hurrying to update the blog, I realized that we really HAVE done a lot since moving into our new house 2 weeks ago--what a whirlwind month this has been!

The above picture is a collage of the Oshkosh Champions Swim Meet that Ellie participated in. It was quite the experience. One of the highlights at the meet was seeing a real Olympian swim! Dave Denniston was the "champion" that was at the meet and to read his story, it is quite amazing. It was fun seeing him race the young swimmers and Ellie even got a high 5 from him!

But back to the meet! This is all new to us, including the "be at the Oshkosh YMCA at 7am for warm ups"! When I woke Ellie up at 5:40am, she said "Really mom? It's not even 6am yet!" The next reality check was for Jayna and Ava--they INSISTED on coming to the meet to see Ellie swim, it was really sweet. However, they quickly realized how hot and how long the meet was. Thankfully, we drove 2 cars and the 3 little children did not have to stay the entire time.

Ellie did amazing. When I signed her up, I didn't know I could request a certain distance...so I didn't request anything! She just moved up into the 10 and under group when she turned 9 and the coaches put her in 100 yard races! She was a real trooper though, and she did wonderful....but boy, did it tire her out!

Here you can see 3 of the 4 races she swam:
100 yard freestyle
200 yard medly relay
100 yard individual medly relay

The week after the swim meet, Ava participated in her first preschool program; the Thanksgiving Celebration. Those of you who knew Ava when she was an infant will have a flash back, seeing the pilgrim hat on Ava--it made her look just like a little baby doll! She was nervous, but afterwards told me "Mom, it was SO fun!"

One of the things the teachers did was have each child draw a picture of what they were thankful for. Ava's creation said "I'm thankful for me and my mom." Awwwww....

For your viewing pleasure, a few snippets of their songs:
The B-I-B-L-E (a new variation!)
Jesus Loves Me (with sign language!)

It was a very cute celebration and fun to see Ava singing on stage!

Thanksgiving week--oh, we have MUCH to be thankful for--what amazing ways our lives have been blessed by God, the good and the bad--it is all something to be thankful for! The above picture was captured one morning before school. I heard "Quick mom, find your camera!"....Jayna had spied Colin and Ellie laying side by side watching Ellie's fish light. It was precious.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year--how fun it was to have enough room for everyone! Fun memories being made in our new house. The above picture was of the children and Uncle Ben all snuggled into the loveseat watching UP.

Much art was created with Rebekah, cousin Abby and Grandma!

And Grandma is quite the trooper--letting Ava do her make up! :)

Those were the only pictures we captured....but much more fun was had! Playing outside, playing hide and seek in the basement, Andy vacuuming the walls of the garage (it is VERY clean now!) with Ben, and Katie, Margie and Rachel going to Toys R Us at midnight Thanksgiving night. What an experience THAT was! We are thankful that we got to be with family on the holiday, and thankful for the love that we share with so many of you.