O Christmas Tree

November 24:  The Gorschs started a new tradition this year... we finally trekked to a tree farm and cut down our own tree!!  We loved searching for the perfect tree (and by perfect I pretty much mean the tallest!)

 In case you are wondering it was actually very cold on this day--Sadie just didn't want to wear her coat and that's a battle that I usually don't fight.  We were able to drive around Tammen Treeberry Farm.  (This is the same place where we picked blueberries several years ago--we now live much closer!)  They had so many trees!  This was definitely one of the tallest!

 Kinnick liked helping Marc use the saw to cut down our tree.

 After we finished at the tree farm, we stopped for lunch at a little diner that we used to go to when we lived at "Mr. John's House."  When we got home Marc measured the tree before he got it all set up--14 feet!  We loved putting our huge tree in our house... first Christmas tree at 1014 Bayside Lane!

 We had to use a ladder to put the star on top and to put ornaments on the top of the tree.  The kids loved having turns to climb the ladder with Dad and hang up their ornaments.

 Ready for Christmas!

Superhero Birthday Bash

 November 20th:  It only seemed fitting that Kinnick would have a superhero birthday bash this year--he is into anything and everything "Super Hero!"  We decided to follow my brother and sister-in-laws lead and let our kids do a friend party every other year.  This was Kinnick's first "friend" party.  We'll do even years for all the kids.  I was really bummed because I was not feeling well at all in the couple days leading up to his party (right before Thanksgiving).  I thought it was just pregnancy sickness but it turned out I had a stomach bug on top of it.  His party was Tuesday evening.  Wednesday (before thanksgiving) was my worst day--which wasn't good because we were preparing to host Marc's sister and 2 families from church.  Thankfully I woke up Thursday morning feeling MUCH better!  Also thankfully-I was able to make all the preparations for Kinnick's party and enjoy his big night.

I had some ideas in my head about different games I wanted to do and ideas for the party.  I made some sparkly superhero invitations.  The week before his party I decided to sit down and finalize my game list so I knew what I needed to do and buy.  I got the crazy notion that it would be a good idea to search "superhero parties" on pinterest... BAD idea!  If you want to feel like a failure at throwing birthday parties or making cakes just spend a little time on pinterest!  I did however pull myself together and chose 4 simple activities to make his party fun. (Some were pinterest inspired and some ideas came from my sister-in-law, Corinne who had a superhero party for Jaren several years ago.)

Activity #1:  Making Super Hero Masks

Activity #2:  "Vaporize the Villain"
Each boy (and girl) got a can of silly string--4 different colors for 4 teams.  I printed and laminated pictures of different villains and Marc hung them in the garage at differing heights.  Each child got 1 minute (4 at a time) to spray the bad guys.  The kids LOVED this game and my garage was barely breathable by the time we were done!

Activity #3:  Get-Away Challenge
Each child got a superhero car BUT--it was frozen in a block of ice.  Their challenge was to thaw the car by spraying it with hot water.  (I really wanted squirt guns but there were none to be found in November so spray bottles it was!)

Activity #4:  Pin Spidey on the Web
I was sure I had a big glittery laminated spider web in my basement (from my days of teaching Kindergarten--I saved everything!)  However I could not locate one... so at 10pm the night before I settled for a big piece of red poster board that I did find and I made a new one.

Present Time:

All Kinnick's Buddies... we have so many friends with little boys!

Happy Birthday to our favorite 4-year-old!

Best Birthday Present

So... my most exciting birthday present came a few days early.  On October 30th, we found out that we are expecting Gorsch baby #4.  My thoughts?  I'm thrilled, grateful, nervous, overwhelmed, SO excited... you get the point.  As I write this now, I'm almost 14 weeks.  I've been very tired, very sick, grouchy, and overwhelmed the last few weeks.  I've felt a bit like a failure this year with planning fun Christmas activities for my kids but when it was all said and done, the presents got wrapped, Santa came, and most importantly we celebrated Jesus' birth.

I'm not sure what the next 26 weeks will hold but I'm ready to experience it all again... the magic of a first kick, the anticipation of finding out if it will be a boy or girl, watching our kids as they prepare for another sibling, the countdown to another birthday, and much much more.  I know this will probably be the last time I will be pregnant (but I'll never say never!) so that makes it even more special.  I'm thankful that God chose me to be this little one's mommy.  I can't wait to meet him/her!  I'll try to do my best to post pregnancy updates with pictures... my intentions are good!  Thanks to all of you who get to share this crazy journey with us.

Birthday 31

This year was a pretty low-key birthday (but fabulous nonetheless!)  I guess most of my birthdays are pretty low-key!  Our morning started with Marc and the kids surprising me with presents... too many!  I was spoiled for sure.  My birthday was on Sunday so we went to church and decided to go out for lunch.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse (which was fabulous!)  After lunch we took the kids shopping to buy shoe box supplies.  This year we made two boxes--1 for a boy and 1 for a girl.  We had a relaxing afternoon and spent our family time putting together our shoe boxes.  Perfect birthday for this girl!

80's Flashback

November 3rd:  Our church has an annual Gala to raise money for our building fund.  It's so much fun... fancy dinner, silent & live auction, yummy cake, ALL our friends... and NO kids!  This was the 3rd Giving Gala--the first two were dress-up events.  This year they decided to switch things up and go with an 80's theme.  At first I was not at all excited but once I went shopping with several of the girls, I got more excited.  (And just as a side note--I find it a little disturbing how easy it was to find "80's" garb--all us girls bought our outfits in regular stores, neon earrings, fishnet gloves, and all!)  It was such a fun night!! It was so funny to see how everyone ended up dressing!  We had a lot of fun...

Trick-Or-Treat

October 31st:  We had so much fun trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood for the first time (and even met a couple neighbors that we hadn't met yet!)  It was so fun to see so many kids out including lots of our neighbor friends and classmates from Sadie's school.  

Sadie's "Hello Kitty" Pumpkin

Our friends Dylan (Elmo) and Logan (Woody) came trick-or-treating with us.

Kinnick loved wearing his "Night in Shining Armor"  (passed down from his Big Cousin, Jaren)

The girls got these matching Rapunzel Dresses last Christmas

Marc stayed back to pass out candy--Macey joined him halfway through.

Daddy with his Princesses!

Sadie's Kindergarten Party

October 31st:  Sadie was SO excited for her first school party (and this mommy was excited to help!)

 We had some morning battles because Sadie was convinced that her dress was not pretty with a shirt and leggings underneath.  We finally compromised--she agreed to wear the shirt and leggings for school and agreed to let her choose what to wear for trick-or-treating.

Sadie with her "BFF"-Kemper

Sadie's class with her teacher, Ms. Zilm

Sadie's school always does a costume parade outside.  Families are invited to watch.  This year because Halloween was on an early dismissal day her party started at 9 in the morning followed by the parade at 10.  Marc was able to come watch the parade and Macey and Kinnick had fun wearing their new masks from Grandma & Grandpa!

Pumpkins!

October 28th:  We had fun decorating pumpkins as a family.  We carved one pumpkin, painted one pumpkin, and each kid got to decorate their own with stickers (which they loved and were super easy!)

 Ready for Halloween!

60's Murder Mystery

Some friends from church planned a murder mystery party for Halloween weekend.  Our story line was based on the show Mad Men (which Marc and I had never watched).  The characters are business executives at an advertising agency.  They are all meeting at a Hotel for a weekend conference when the president of the company is murdered.  

 Marc and I played a married couple--we were the only couple who got to be spouses for the night.  I accompanied him on the trip as his new wife who couldn't bear to be apart from him.

 When it was all said and done... I was the MURDERER!!  I was pretty surprised... although I was suspicious of myself.  We had a fun night.  Thankful for these crazy wonderful friends we have!