Happy 6th Birthday Connor

Wishing you Happy 6^th Birthday Connor. We celebrated today, with something a little different for us. When you have a large gang of six-year old boys scheduled for a party in December, you need a plan. Purdue do a pretty good deal for hosting parties at their recreation pool. You get a room to host everybody (aka cake), exclusive use of their play pool for 1.5hrs, two lifeguards and a student host. It was great and everybody was tired but had a great time.

Thanks to all who came to make it a special day for Connor, my Mum for his birthday outfit as usual and as always to Anne who baked Connor’s cake specifications, cupcakes this time around!

Hope you had a great time buddy, Mummy and Daddy love you, Happy Birthday!

Birthday Travels

Let me thank everybody for all the birthday wishes this week. They were greatly appreciated since I was traveling for work. As much as I like all my work colleagues, they truly are nice people,  sitting in a conference room for 8 hours is no real way to spend ones birthday.

Not everything was so bad, I did  manage this week to have some African, Syrian and traditional German food plus a little tour through the Mainz  Christmas Market to soak up the atmosphere,  and some gluhwein of course.

Nevertheless, really looking forward to seeing everyone again tomorrow, Anja's all-knowing smirk, Isabel's bashful grin and Connor's cheeky smile. Thanks you Lynne for holding down the fort. Love you and  see you tomorrow.

Saturday Morning Chess

Cold and wet Saturday morning here in West Lafayette and we are all back to our weekend routines, swimming mostly although we are getting the Christmas tree out this afternoon.

Connor and I were playing a quick game of chess, which he loves. He’s still mostly learning, I think the ability to “kill my pieces” appeals to him. I pulled my earliest picture of him and me at this, also shown below!

Great Thanksgiving Evening and Dinner

We had an incredibly relaxing Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. As we have done now for several years, longer than we can recall, a very gracious Webb-Ejendal family hosted us. Turkey was on the menu of course, plus many very tasty side dishes and desserts.

All the kids had a great time and we thank you again Kevin and Kaisa for a wonderful evening.

Peace Treaty

I found this little project that Anja and Isabel just finished amusing. It’s a peace treaty between their respective imaginary worlds, “Anjatopia” and “Isabellealand”. This treaty is in honor of Lizzie’s imminent arrival, she is our Elf on the Shelf who informs Santa of all children behaviors from now until Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody

Happy Thanksgiving to all out there. Wishing  you and all your families a relaxing day. 

Anja and I ran a 5km turkey trot this morning, her first ever race. She did fantastic, ran the entire distance and really enjoyed it. I was tremendously proud of her. Big turkey dinner scheduled for later this afternoon. 

Sisterly Love

So thankful these two great kids love each other like they do, so much so that they often dress as twins. All we have to do now is convince them of their love for their brother.