March is for Birthdays

We start with David - aka Pepper. We celebrated David's sixth birthday with nana and poppa S. David opted for a yummy ice cream and strawberry cake and had his friend Sam D over for gift opening on Saturday morning.

Wedding

Katie, Emie and Annie love weddings - especially Annie. We were all in our wedding finery for the wedding of a friend of ours from North Dakota. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Tea Party

The girls enjoyed a tea party the other night. Kasie (our PCA) was here and she had them bathed and all ready for bed - about 5 pm; so the girls took out their tea party supplies and had a nice little supper using about 350 dishes! David got to join too.

Gingerbread Houses

An annual tradition at our house it to make gingerbread houses; this year also included the triplets next door and later in the afternoon another neighbor friend of Davids' so in all - I think a dozen houses were made. The photos are included below.

First Snow

Last year was somewhat disappointing for snow. We never really had enough to do much of anything. Especially not sledding. Well - the winter of 2012 - 2013 is off to a nice change. Saturday night - it started snowing, and this morning it was still snowing and this afternoon - it is still snowing. Probably a foot has come down already. For me, it means snowblower time, for the kids - it means sledding. Two years ago, when we did sledding with Katie, Emie and Annie - they needed constant supervision and help getting on the sled, up the slope and everything in the middle. What huge progress we have seen in the past two years. All of them are doing everything on their own, they love the outdoors, they love to sled and play in the snow. Katie especially loves to be outside, throwing snow, sliding on the hill and playing in the snow. Today we were about for about 1 hour - it was very fun. Here are a few pictures - Anne snuck inside before I had a chance to get a photo - but we'll get one sometime soon.

Overdue

Several things in our life seem overdue. We have had 2 overdue library books in the past few months and with getting back to school and all the other fall activities - posting is also overdue. This is especially for Vikas parents in Ukraine. We email with them and this is the main way they can see photos of their daughter. She is happy and healthy and growing. Her speaking of English has really improved; she is using bigger words and also more words in sentences. Here are some photos from the last few months:

This is Katie and her sisters and mom and dad at a summer picnic.

with all her brothers and sisters

riding on a trailer to go get pumpkins for Halloween.

In the US we have Halloween - the children dress up in costumes and go out and get candy - it is very fun and Katie likes it very much!

Pepper off to Kindy

Our last one is off to school! Hard to believe - we have sophomores in high school and a kindergartener! The WBL schools are full of Shervheims' right now. We were wondering how the school transition would go with him - because he is somewhat a homebody - and just tolerated pre-school last year. However, we are happy to report the transition went well and the year is off to a great start. This guy is liking school - looking forward to it and he has a bus ride home with his big brother Sam - which is pretty cool that he has someone to look out for him and help him get from school to home everyday.