First School Program

Nate and Tessa had their first school program this past weekend. It was a casual affair just for the families of the students. Mac & Cheese and meatballs were served for dinner, both Nate and Tessa's classes performed a couple songs and then a magician performed for everyone. All week Nate practiced and sang his song for his performance. We kept asking Miss T what song she was going to sing and she would shout out the ABCs at the top of her lungs. She's in preschool so this did not seem far fetched. Well, it was show time. Nate was front and center on stage with his class. He didn't miss a beat, a word or motion and even managed to smile a little bit while he sang a wintery version of I'm a Little Teapot! Tessa, on the other hand, got up on stage and wandered aimlessly with a flag that she had made with her classmates for the performance. A flag? For the ABCs? Still didn't think anything. When it came time for the motions and song, Troy and I were a little surprised not to hear the ABCs. Not even close. And, there was Tessa, not singing a word.
The parents provided desserts for the event. Gotta love the mom that brought the green frosted Elmo cupcakes. Thanks for that.
This is a Baughman Blabbermouth first....VIDEO CLIP! Enjoy.

Kendall's 5th B-Day

Went back to Ohio on Sunday for Kendall's 5th birthday party. She had the appropriate girly-girl princess cake and all kids got a chance to blow out the candles....which takes a long time with all the Rosebrook and Neuenschwander cousins! Kendall has considerable eccentric flare, as many of you know. So, when she opened a flapper girl dress up outfit and a bunch of jeweled accessories, she had to try them on immediately. Not sure what Principal Wentzel will think when she shows up at preschool wearing this get-up?

Monster Jam

Troy and Uncle Todd took Nate, Cole and Keaton to the Monster Jam truck show in Detroit this past weekend. All of our favorite trucks were there including Grave Digger, Backdraft, El Loco Toro and the Detroit favorite Blue Thunder. It was loud and Uncle Todd and Troy treated the boys to a fine dinner of cotton candy!

Twenty Ten.

Happy New Year! The kids got their invitation nice and early this year and spent NYE at Gramma Gayla's house again. As tradition has it, she makes kiddie cocktails, they play games galore and get all gussied-up for Mr. Clark and the ball dropping. Well, no one under the age of 10 has even made it to the ball dropping yet (I'm not sure that Grampa Steve makes it either!?). Essentially, Gramma lets them run until they drop!

Brothers & Sisters

Nate and Tessa have your traditional brother and sister relationship. From day one, of Tessa's life that is, we have told Nate that he has great responsibility as a big brother. Big brothers protect little sisters. All the teachers at school have told us how protective he is of her. They give examples that he tries to check on her in the preschool classroom several times per day and he always saves her a spot in line with him. But, as most brother and sister relationships go, it's not all love-love. I hesitate to use the word hate because I used to get in trouble for saying hate, oh my god and sucks when I was a kid. But, where there is yin there is yang. Therefore, where there is love there is *@^#, you know. So they hug but they also hit. They kiss but they also bite. They share but they are also borrow without permission. So, when I found a small toy gun aimed at Miss T's face while she was napping on the couch one day, I wondered if her brother was showing love or not so much? It is not a secret that I am NOT a fan of guns. Toy guns included. But, I did get a little chuckle out of it all. And, I choose to believe that it was set there for her in case she needed to protect herself while her brother was busy playing Geotrax!

*I had to include the picture of Troy playing on the computer with the kids. His hair is looking rather Lloyd Christmas-y!

Final Round Presents - Baughman Family Christmas

Kelly and Sam hosted the Baughman family Christmas this year. This final stop of our Christmas vacation filled the van to the brim! We'd walked in the door and Gramma Gayla was already sitting the kids down and handing out presents. She explained that she had a gift that just couldn't be boxed up for very long. Mommy and Daddy's eyebrows raised and the kids were bonkers. Gramma brought out little hamster boxes that said PetCo on the side of them. The kids were screaming....the moms and dads were growling. We welcomed Chunk and NumNums into our family. Thankfully they were ZhuZhu pets and not the real deal. Otherwise, Gramma Gayla would have had a houseful of reject Christmas presents or hamsters! In true Gramma Gayla fashion, the ZhuZhu pets came with all the bells and whistles and accessories like running tracks, rolling balls, running wheels, carrying baskets and beds and linens.
Gramma didn't stop there though. After all the boxes were torn open and we were swimming in a sea of wrapping paper, she took all the little ones out in to the garage. Awesome, shiny new bikes awaited! Tessa's came with rainbow streamers and a baby seat attachment. Nate got a maize and blue hot rod decked with block Ms and a bell. Of course, right away, Nate commented how it would match his bike helmet and was asking to have the training wheels taken off. They zipped around the garage for quite a while and can't wait until bike riding season!

Cousin Cole got Nate the Batcave and that definitely ranked as one of the best gifts of the season!

Tessa was happy to try on her new jammies from Cousin Haley and couldn't keep from texting on her new kiddie cellie! Now she won't have to play with mommy, daddy and everyone else's phones.

Christmas with Papa O'Hara

Papa O'Hara still makes the rounds at Christmas every year. He starts out in Huron and then hits Sandusky, Napoleon, and Cincinnati all in one weekend. A mere 87 years of life hasn't slowed him down yet! He rolled in to Napoleon on Christmas afternoon. Papa 'Hara, as most of the kids call him, was on the super-nice list and we managed to get him a few presents to open too. Nate and Tessa were happy to assist with the unwrapping.