Gingerbread Men party

Tonight was the Christmas Party for Hayden's Cub Scout Pack. Each scout family was asked to bring cookies to share. We chose to make gingerbread men. I have never made them before and had a recipe that was sent to me last Christmas (Thank You Aunt Deb!) so we figured we would try. So yesterday afternoon, along with Hayden (wearing a Yankees apron and chef hat), we went to work. Now I can't just bake cookies. I have to decorate them as well. So here are a few pics of our finished project. Todd said it looked like they were having a party in our kitchen and I guess they do. I hope they had fun!

Once they got to Scouts, the party was over!
Here is our Cub Scout in action!

Santa comes to the Meadows..

This is what awoke me from my nap today... (No, I don't usually nap, but I am fighting another sinus infection and the pink eye that came with it..yuck!)

Every Christmas, Santa goes through all the neighborhoods in our area on the fire truck. Today was that day. As you can hear, they go all out with the lights and sirens and Santa rides on top. His "elves" have a bag of candy for each kid and oranges for the adults. This was extra cool today since this was the same truck that Hayden rode to school a few weeks ago and the firemen remembered him from that day.

This is another one of the benefits of living in a "small town"!

Merry Christmas!!

Our many blessings..

We were able to get back to Denver for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. On Thanksgiving morning, we drove up to Aurora to visit with Angie's Aunt Becky and her family (who are more like siblings than cousins). The entire family was there and we finally got to see the precious little girls that we have only seen through pictures! Even though our visit with them was short, it was great.

Then we headed back out to Todd's parents in Larkspur where we were joined by the rest of his family for Thanksgiving and football. Todd's younger brother Patrick and Teresa were not able to join us, as they were at the hospital in labor (okay, Teresa was in labor!).On Thanksgiving evening, they had a little girl. We were truly blessed to be able to share that with everyone and to visit our new little niece in the nursery. It was so cool to see Hayden go in to see her. She is beautiful and we can finally buy some pink!!

The next day we did family pictures at Arrowhead golf course, which was gorgeous. We also went up to see the house that Todd's brother is building for his family. That was gorgeous as well. We can't wait to see it when completed. The views are fantastic and reminded us of the beauty of Colorado.

On Sunday, the forecast called for flurries so we expected to wake up to a little snow on the ground. But when we got up, there was already about 3 inches, and it snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed! When it finally stopped that evening, the flurries totalled 16". We just sat and watched the snow while our Jets were romped by the Broncos! It has been awhile since we have seen that kind of snow and it was "magical". This is what saw out their family room window!That evening, we took a photo of the "boys". The next time, they will have to make room for the little lady! The three older boys had a sleepover/camp out for 2 nights downstairs and played Star Wars for 4 days! Hayden had a wonderful time with them. The youngest was content to hang out with the rest of us upstairs and be my buddy!

It was very hard to leave everyone back in Colorado, but we know that God has his plans for us and that for now we are to be in PA. We love you all!!

Now the pics...

Here are some pictures of Hayden's day. The firemen picked him up at the house at 8:15. He was the first one on. Then they went and picked up the 4 other winners. At about 9:00, the winning classrooms went outside to wait. The fire truck pulled into the school, with lights and sirens going, to drop off the kids. It was a pretty neat experience for an 8 year old!!

The large photo is all the winners along with our principal and the two firemen that picked the kids up.

Monday Morning...

Here is a quick video clip of the fire truck arriving at school this morning. The winner's classrooms each came out to greet them as they arrived. It was pretty cool (even though it was about 30 degrees out)!

First Place goes to...

What a day! I am not usually at school to work until later in the morning, but on Wednesdays I volunteer in Hayden's classroom. Our school has Lion-TV every morning with the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance (yes, we do still do that!) and then announcements. This is all done by our 5th graders. As I am there later, I do not get to see Lion-TV very often. When I arrived at Hayden's room, he was not there. His teacher told me that he was going to be on Lion-TV but she did not know why. To make a long story a little shorter, they were announcing the winners, by grade, of the poster contest for our local Fire Department. All 3 winners from 3rd grade were from Miss Murphy's class so we all waited to see how it would play out. They announced each grade winner by 3rd place, 2nd place and then 1st. Hayden wasn't 3rd, then wasn't 2nd, so obviously he was 1st!! You could tell by his reaction on the TV that he was completely surprised! I was so proud of him and it was cool to watch his class react as the names were announced. I don't have a picture of the poster that he made, but here is a picture of him with his First Place blue ribbon!
Check back on Monday evening for pictures of the prize! All the first place winners will be picked up at home on Monday morning by the firetruck and will ride the firetruck to school! How fun!!

Visiting Gettysburg

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today, in the 70's, so we decided we had to do something outside. As we are only about 40 minutes from Gettysburg, we headed down there. The tree colors were amazing considering it was Nov.1st. We visited the Military center and then took the 24 mile auto tour. The tour had about 16 stops to get out and look around and hike. It was a chronological tour of the battle that took place there. It was pretty cool to see where each infantry/brigade from each state was located during the battle, and to walk around on the same ground that these troops did back in 1863.

Here are a few pictures from our day!