Tibbetts' Go to the Tree Farm!

We were hoping to wake up to a ground covered in snow today, but the weatherman was wrong. We were disappointed, because we felt snow would make our experience more magical and memorable.  Mom and Dad had grand visions of a wonderful time at the tree farm. Instead the children stomped around in a lot of mud, almost got blown away by blustering winds, and no one could feel their noses or fingers when we returned to the van. Ahhhhh....memories.

It took longer to pick out a tree than we thought it would! Some were crooked, some had funny stuff growing on the trunk, and others had bare or brown spots.
This is by far the largest tree we've ever had! We kept reminding ourselves that the tree would look larger once we got it in our living room, but we still managed to get a HUGE tree! But, we're happy with it. It looks pretty and smells wonderful!


Can you tell the children put the ornaments on? The ornaments are pretty heavy on the bottom. Over time, we'll try and fix that. Mom didn't want to hurt their feelings and re-do it. If she does it slowly over time, they won't really notice.

Our Mini Vaca in Hershey, PA!

Heath's Mom and her husband blessed us with a 2 night stay in Hershey, PA. We had a good time. The suite was nice. We enjoyed watching cable television (don't have it at home), swimming in the pool, playing in the gameroom, visiting Hershey's Chocolate World, and eating out at Red Robin....yum. The suite was wonderful for families. We were able to eat most of our meals in our suite because of the full kitchen. We were also able to dry all our pool towels and swim suits because they have a washer and dryer in every room. Thanks Grandma and Mr. James! We had lots of fun!

Chocolate World

The Suites at Hershey

Thankful Tree

L made one of these in her Sunday school class last week. Today, T and K made their own.

First trace around their hand for the tree branches, and then draw a trunk

Cut out leaves, and let the children write what they are thankful for.

Cub Scouts go to the Fire Station

Here's a picture of Tyler with his bobcat badge and special awards he received during last week's pack meeting. He was excited and ready to go to Cub Scouts last night, since it was a "Go See it" night. All the scouts got to go tour a local fire station. He came home with a lot of fun stuff, and taught his sisters all the fire safety lessons he learned.

Thanksgiving Projects

This week, we're taking a break from the books, and simply having fun as a family while we do activities together to plan for our Thanksgiving celebration! Kaitlyn made place cards for our family. She was very creative, and I think she did an amazing job! We made and decorated sugar cookies. I was most impressed with my son's decorative skills. He wanted his cookies to look just like some pumpkin cookies he enjoyed last month at his AWANA club meeting!

We are also reading "The Landing of the Pilgrims" written and illustrated by James Daugherty, and "The Thanksgiving Story" by Alice Dalgliesh.

We also plan on writing some poetry and stories to go along with our Thanksgiving theme.





Kaitlyn's place cards

This is what we woke up to Friday morning. Mom and Dad were still in bed. We woke up when we heard T running down the hall. He's a big 7-year-old boy, and we have wood floors all the way down our hallway. Let's just say, we were very much STARTLED by the noise of his running feet:-) But, we didn't stay irritated for long because he was so so so excited! He yelled, "It's snowing!" So, we got up and had to take a look for ourselves. So, of course the girls woke up from all the noise. L said, "Oh, I've been waiting so long for it to snow!"




Dad promised the kids to make his pancakes, and K wanted to help. Snow, pancakes, what more could a kid ask for?



T cleared off the walkway for us. This was our day to go to York, eat lunch, and get our grocery shopping done. While we were in York we also purchased two fun "snow toys." Here's some pictures of the children enjoying their new toys.

Bobcat Badge

Tonight was Pack Meeting night! Tyler was awarded his Bobcat Badge. Tyler, Mom, and Dad have been working hard to meet all the requirements! This was a very special night for Tyler. We are proud of all his hard work! He also won a prize for guessing the number of beans in a jar. He was very excited!