Hormann Elves do the Charleston

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Hormann Elves do Disco

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Brrrr! It's cold outside!!

Two birthdays and Thanksgiving have passed and I am needing to catch up on my blogging! Cal and Lydia didnt have traditional birthday parties this year (holiday weekend and lots of friends were out of town) so we changed it up a bit! Cal celebrated at school. He gave each classmate a gift that we made in honor of his birthday, thanking them for being his friend. We took starburst jellybeans and wrapped them up in corn husks to make them look like Indian Corn... The kids sang happy birthday to him and he loved it! I cant believe he is already 7 years old! Chris kept thinking about how in another 8 or 9 years he could be driving... personally I wasnt going to go there!

Thanksgiving was a quiet one spent at home! It was nice to have everyone home... the Turkey was tasty (and a nice deal for a Jenni-o for 77 cents a pound if I do say so myself!) Cal and Lydia did the wishbone breaking... this year Cal realized that Lydia has a good grip... he won by a sliver... it was almost an even break! Next year Ty will want in on the action... I'm going to have to figure that one out!

The day after Thanksgiving this year was Cal's offical birth date... so we opened presents from Oma and Opa. Cal went first and was really excited about his puzzle and books. Lydia of course cant get enough of Tinker Belle and so a movie from us and some clothes and books from Oma and Opa were perfect for her. She is especially proud of her first offical necklace which has a momma and baby horse... or as she says, her and Oma! Ty loves it when he gets to participate and so he had several 'un' birthday presents too! Puzzles are a huge hit with him and he can even put one together while it is upside down... I have already caught him late at night working on Cal's puzzle!

On Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Hormann came to visit. We sang Happy Birthday to Cal and then to Lydia and dug into the cake. Afterwards the kids sat down with Dad and Grandma Hormann to write Santa their wish lists. Grandma took them back home with her as their town had a special mailbox for Santa's letters. Cal did a great job writing out his list with some pictures from a toy catalog. Lydia and Ty cut pictures out and Grandma helped tape them to the page

We had flurries all day Saturday but on Sunday morning we had some snow on the ground! We bundled up and headed to church. Afterwards we were treated to a birthday lunch at the T-Rex cafe! (kind of like the rainforest cafe but with a dinosaur theme) Lydia chose to spend her birthday money on build a dino... she chose the pink one and named her Pinky. Cal and Ty bought dino pens and Cal is saving his money to buy something after Christmas. Smart kid! He knows that the after Christmas sales will allow him to buy more.

Once we got home there was just enough time for the kids to go outside and play in the snow. We have some slight slopage (is that even a word?!) and the kids had fun sliding down the hill. Here are a few pictures and videos. I am sure we will have a lot more this winter~

Lydia, our Ballerina

Lydia's tumbling and ballet classes are a lot of fun for her. Parents were allowed to view one of the practices recently and so I took a few short clips of her class. Needless to say she isn't very coordinated or graceful... but in her head I am sure she is the belle of the ball executing every move with precision and fanfare! Enjoy!
This first clip (she is in pink) is of the class doing some tumbling exercises... Lydia is doing the somersault... By the way, pause the music at the end of the page so you can view the videos!



Now for a little marching .... Chris was very impressed! ha!

Lydia is learning French... phrases anyhow!

Can you tell she just ate breakfast before going to lessons?!

Balance... hmmm.... maybe not!

A repeat... sorry, couldnt delete unless I started over.... no time for that!

For this next exercise they are supposed to pretend they are all princesses going to the ball. The instructor asks them what they are supposed to do first (the answer is to put on their dress)... one girl yelled "take a shower first!"... anyhow, they are supposed to walk forward holding their hands out as if holding huge ball gowns out... then curtsy and then turn around gracefully.... enjoy this one! Chris was laughing so hard he couldn't speak... (he had to watch the videos as he stayed home with the boys)


Back to tumbling.... here they get to shake their pom poms while doing a listening exercise... Lydia is a bit of a warrior with the poms... almost takes out a few ballerinas!

Poor Chris... Tyler doesnt mind letting Lydia dress him up... later that night he had hair accesories and was singing 'i'm a ballerina' over and over while playing with his tinkertoys...

So this is our Lydia... she will be 5 on Dec 2nd and will be going with me to see the Moscow Ballet Company perform the Nutcracker.... I can only imagine what creative dancing we will have after that! Run Tyler and hide!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We'll post more later!

Home of the Free,

Because of the Brave

Yesterday was Veteran's Day and we were able to attend the oldest Parade in our Nation (89 years)... it was also the largest one west of the Mississippi! The parade was held in downtown Leavenworth and ended 2 hours after it began. New recruits took the oath, the Governor was there and every club, band, organization, car, truck, horse, patriot guard, veteran and official participated! (over 200 organizations!) The most moving part was when the parade came to a halt and Taps was played. Every hat was removed, salute and hand over heart was placed and I was wiping tears off my face. It hit me that this was the first parade in America that my kids were attending.... There wasn't one protest sign, rainbow flag or other public personal agenda situation present to disrupt the purpose of the parade and it made me proud that my kids could experience a good 'ol mid American patriotic parade. Lydia and Cal had fun seeing all of the vehicles that the National Guard brought out... esp since they have been in each kind! Ty loved the old Chevy nova and mustangs (so did his mommy!) and loved it when the Patriot Guard roared their motorcycles by... he really loves motorcycles! The rain started 30 min after the parade ended and the day turned out to be one of the best since we've been here.

Lots of pictures!

Well, time has flown by since the last time I blogged... whoops! A lot has gone on, soccer season has ended and both of the boys earned certificates and medals. Each were able to keep their t-shirt/jersey as well! Cal will be starting basketball in January and Chris will coach his team! Earlier in October there was an Apple Festival in Missouri. It was a nice day and we wound up at the park in the center of town... so here are a few pictures that we took! Cal's new school has a fun playground so we spent an afternoon playing and taking pictures! Here are some of Calvin...
Lydia was the social butterfly and made friends with the older girls who were playing ... she would walk up to them and introduce herself and then her brothers.... parents... and then proceed to tell them everything she knew!
Ty ran everywhere and climbed anything he could! His asthma is a little better... we're starting to see it pick up due to the chill in the air. We are encouraging him to be active and hopefully he will have stronger lungs for it.
Halloween crept up on us this year! Our neighborhood had a fall cookout and gave away all the pumpkins for free! Ty and Lydia had fun carving, Cal was a little less interested this year. Cal was the ninja, Ty was a blue power ranger and Lydia wanted to be a princess and have wings... so we combined the two. It was a beautiful day (70's!) and made for a perfect night to walk around!

With the warm weather came lots of lady bugs! We were swarmed with thousands of them outside and had tons in the house. We have now gotten them out but they didn't really settle well with Tyler and Lydia learned that they can bite. It was neat for the kids to see so many different varieties! We have seen wolf spiders (lovely) and a brown recluse (already dead!) but there are two that we see all the time and have no clue what they are. They are very big and pretty interesting to watch! I will take them anytime over the formentioned spiders and cockroaches in Georgia!!

Chris is staying busy with school and is going to be brushing up with his basketball knowledge! Charlene has been doing well with the gym (lost over 20lbs and 5 weeks ago had lost 6 inches!). She has taken up yoga and ball (along with weights and cardio/running) and Tai Chi. Cal has gone with her a few times and participated.

The weather man is telling us we have a 50% chance of snow comming in on Monday so it looks like we are going to be taking an inventory of our winter gear! That should be fun! Maybe we'll have more pictures! Ok, that's it for now... until next time!