Lincoln's 9th Birthday... Harry Potter!

It was the birthday party theme Jenn had been gearing up for, Lincoln's 9th and... Harry Potter!!! And, oh boy, did she go all out. From the decorations to the cake painting to sorting to Quidditch (thanks, Grandpa Doug!) to Honeydukes to owl post to potions (thanks Auntie Haley & Eli!), it was like a mini Hogwarts at our place. Most rewarding was the reaction the kids gave to their parents at the end of the party. They loved it!

Jenn arranged to sort the kids into the four houses by making their drinks turn the color of their house. Then we set up Potions Class in the dungeon, er, garage with all sorts of "experiments" that bubbled, exploded, and did other odd things. The kids made their own wands with modeling clay and unique sticks. And while it rained most of the morning and into the beginning of the party, it let up soon enough to get a game of Quidditch in!

Lydia's 6th Birthday

We've got a new 6-year-old in the house!

School & 95th Birthday

The first day of school:

We celebrated Grandma Gates' 95th Birthday!

Lincoln is... 8?!!! Really?!!!!

Lincoln's 8th birthday has come, and this year's theme was Calvin & Hobbes. As usual, Jenn went all the way with the theme, from the cake to the party games.

We owe big thanks to Grandma Paulette & Grandpa Doug for helping with the art and decorations and to Grandma Laura & Grandpa Dave for helping with house-prep.

Lincoln continues to impress. He and his buddies were a pleasure to host, and it's neat to see them maturing along as time goes by. And he's making his mom and dad proud.

Mid-November Catch-Up

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve experienced…

Henry’s Symbol Breakfast at Old Trail School. A big part of the development program among the 4-5 year olds is the use of their symbol. Because the kids aren’t yet reading, they each choose a symbol to represent them, and they use the symbol in many ways during the school day. Henry’s symbol is a set of binoculars, and we made a special sweatshirt for him.

Recently Lydia informed us that she doesn’t get as much play time on the playground on Fridays because she’s “busy solving everybody’s problems.”

We finished the Summit Metro Parks Fall Hiking Spree, discovered a number of really neat hiking trails in the area, and we each earned our hiking sticks. And one of my new favorite follows on Facebook is Summit Metro Parks with their sharing of many good professional and amateur nature photographers.

Henry’s fifth Birthday came, and we now officially have a pair of five-year-olds in the house.

We didn’t have a Halloween Party last year ‘cause we were at Disney, but we returned to the tradition this year, and we had a blast doing it. Jenn’s Minion cake was my personal favorite part of the party.

We watched as Haley played her last home match at Bowling Green. It was fun to see her play here and there over the past four years. It'll be something The Nuggets remember for a long time.

Last home match for a great @bgsuwsoccer captain, @haleyparkinson. #soccer A photo posted by @rggates on Oct 25, 2015 at 10:16am PDT

And between interacting with Old Trail or Buckeyes fans during games, I've been having fun with Instagram & Twitter. Here are some fun ones...

A photo posted by @rggates on Oct 8, 2015 at 5:41pm PDT A photo posted by @rggates on Sep 23, 2015 at 5:25am PDT This may be the last nice day of the season for #running. #cvnp #fitbit #mizuno #indiansummer #autumn A photo posted by @rggates on Nov 5, 2015 at 10:52am PST