Evs and Henners

These two cousins are 8 months apart and quite possible the cutest pair ever.  Don't believe me?  I totally have the photographic evidence after they spent a week playing together like best buds:

See?  Told you.  Not pictured though - their even cuter conversations.  Nothing like seeing them grow from playing next to each other, to playing with but not really talking to each other, to now talking in cute little voices about the games they have imagined and even their arguing was pretty cute (at least for the first minute).  We used to take bath pictures of them every time we got together, but as the age approaches where that is a bit inappropriate, these playing pictures will be just as fun.  Can't wait for the next time they get together!

CCS Challenge 2014...

The beginning of a new school year also brings one of the school's biggest fund raisers, the CCS Challenge.  The students and their families are challenged to raise money for the school and participate in a walk/run/bike-a-thon they hold the first weekend in October.  The kids were really excited to participate, and while the too-much-on-our-plate parents may not have been so thrilled this year, we all rose to the challenge (pun intended, ha!) and did our best!

The day before the Challenge, they had a school spirit day where everyone wore Calvin shirts and had a pep rally assembly at the end of the day.

They got pretty pumped.

The morning of the Challenge started out pretty cold, so we put on a lot of layers and had a good breakfast.  Including a pre-race raspberry snack from Aahma and Papa Bruin...

...who came to ride with us!

Waiting for the race to start...

...and we were off!  It was nice to have multiple adults as all the kids were at different levels of riding.  I go to hang with Carsten most of the race.  He rocked it!
 

beautiful views of Lake Harriet
 

We caught up with Dadda and Henry at the end of the race.
 

Our Calvin kids after the bike ride!  

(the stocking hats were an incentive prize for raising so much money)

Our annual family photo after the Challenge.
 

Thanks to all who donated and supported us and our school this year!!  Go Calvin!

1st Day of School 2014!

First Day at Calvin Christian for Grace, Willem, AND Carsten!  I can't believe we have THREE kids in school already!

Carsten is a KINDERGARTENER.  (be still my heart!)  He is SOOOOO excited!

 Willem is in 2nd grade.  And not excited at all - you can tell by his face. ;)

 Grace is in 4th grade.  This is the first year she will have a male teacher which has her a little nervous, but he is an awesome teacher and we know she will love him.

 I actually should be in this picture with them, because this is my first year at Calvin as well - I will be teaching 8th grade Geometry and PreCalc 3 mornings a week!  I am excited and very nervous, but so grateful for this opportunity.  I don't start teaching until tomorrow though, so today I can just be a mom. :)

 Carsten and Mrs. Bierma

 Willem and Ms. Walstra

 Grace by her backpack in Mr. Kroeze's room

(No, she wasn't THAT scared of having a male teacher, it just turned out that the nice photo I took of them was deleted somehow.  She got over her nervousness in the first 15 minutes and he turned out to be one of her favorite teachers!)

Many families take pictures by the sign on the first day of school in the morning - we can't make that work, so we always stop after school and do it!

And finally, after school snacks with Mrs. Lynne (annual tradition) to tell her about their awesome days.  Made extra special this year with the addition of Katie (Lynne's daughter) and Aahma!  Aahma Bruin came for both Grace's and Willem's first days of kindergarten, so had to come for Carsten's too!  She has fun sharing in the excitement, and is a wonderful distraction for those left at home (kids and momma ;)

fun fridays, november 2013...

(fun fridays = a bit of fun after a busy week of school)

~ birthday tradition of going out to Noodles & Co...this time for both Henry and Steve's birthdays!

~ Steve's birthday celebration...favorite meal and cherry pie and ice cream for dessert.  (the best thing was seeing what joy the kids had in getting it making it all special for him!)

~ dinner and a show!  Steve had to work late and I took the kids to their school friends' musical.  It was so cute and they had a blast watching it! (ps, those flowers are not from us, we just happened to be taking a picture right after they got them from their dad - gotta give Mr. H. the credit!)

~ Drama Night.  HUGE night for Grace and Willem.  They had been preparing for it since school began with all the 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders, and were beyond ready to sing their hearts out for "Miracle on Main Street."  It was great for our family to see all the songs they have been singing in the context of the musical, and the joy in all the kids' faces really helped bring home the message of the true meaning of Christmas.  Their music teacher does a great job!  And thanks to Auntie Christy and Greta for coming to watch (really made their night)!

~ games with Evie at the farm...a little sesame street uno and where is sock monkey - good stuff!

(what a good month of fun fridays!)

thanksgiving triple threat...

2013 Roskamp Thanksgiving was a triple threat (which means this will be a long post =)!  Thanksgiving at Aunt Rochelle's with Grandma and a lot of the Kole relatives, photo shoot for Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary, and new nephew Liam's baptism.  Steve was able to get special permission to take off an extra day for the baptism (otherwise Costco does not allow any vacation days to be taken between Thanksgiving and Christmas), so the plan was to leave Wednesday afternoon and be at the farm until Sunday.  Woot!  We were ready for a roadtrip!

...aaaaaaand then Grace got sick on Tuesday.  And continued to be sick through Wednesday afternoon.  So obviously since we didn't want to bring that sick to anyone, we decided to stay home from Thanksgiving, and when Grace was feeling better, if no one else was sick, we could still go for Liam's baptism.

Thursday morning no one else was sick yet (yay!!!), so we planned to lay low in the morning and make sure no one else got sick, eat lunch and then pack up and drive to the farm.  (Steve was quick thinking enough too to grab a rotisserie chicken Wednesday before he came home from work otherwise we wouldn't have had anything for a Thanksgiving meal ourselves since we didn't have much food left in the fridge.)  The trip was uneventful and quiet (no one else was on the roads!), and we go to the farm in time for bed.

 Friday was a day filled with meeting and snuggling baby Liam (what an adorable sweet little guy!), and lots of farm fun.  And we were so happy my cousins Grace, Marshall, Sarah and Norah drove out to the farm to visit too since we missed them the day before!  Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures with them though.  Amy has a good one of all the kid cousins and more on her blog post about the trip. 

Wait!  I did find one on my phone.  Sara was selling beads for Bead for Life (click on the link, they do good stuff!), and brought them along for an impromptu bead party in the livingroom.  So much fun and such a great cause.

After they left, Liam fell asleep on Steve (my family proclaims him the "baby whisperer"), and I went out with Dad and the kids...

girl cousins in the corn pile!

boys helped Boppa get the extra corn out of the combine to go put on the pile my dad has to feed the pheasants all winter

kids also got to help put out the Christmas lights, which is a Friday after Thanksgiving tradition

beautiful SW Minnesota sunset

when the boys found out that their new cousin was a boy, they were most excited to wear matching shirts with him - Grace and Evie love to match clothes, so they insisted on getting in on the fun.  we quick got a shot of them before everyone got in jammies for the night.  

Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary was this year, and Mom wanted to take family photos while we were home for thanksgiving and baptism.  She asked a photographer friend to come out to the farm on Saturday, and we all dolled up the best we could.  (All the boys will roll their eyes remembering the countless calls, messages and photos being sent back and forth to coordinate clothes, but we thought we did pretty good!)

I love my family.

Thank you Mom and Dad for being such a loving and faithful example to all of us kids.  We love you!

Saturday night we Grandma Kole came to stay overnight since Liam's baptism was the next day, and we had our own family Lasagna Thanksgiving, since we couldn't be with them on Thursday.  Followed by dominoes.

Henry just couldn't get enough of Liam!

I couldn't blame him because I couldn't get enough either.  =)

 Sunday was such a special day - Liam's baptism!  And Lucas and Jessica involved all of us siblings.  Marcus baptized Liam, Steve and I sang, and Amy accompanied us.  It was a beautiful service celebrating Liam as a child of God.

 (yeah, this was seriously the best cousin photo I got.)

After church we had lunch for friends and family in the fellowship hall.  Lucas made the sloppy joes and Jessica made the cake - so yummy!

 

then we had time for one last matchie cousin twirl...

...and one last Liam snuggle before we headed for home.

What a wonderful weekend full of family blessings!