November 2020

 

Last day of rituxan

Thanksgiving

Got his driver's license!

Naomi and Ruth 

Isaac's basketball game

Hiking Manistee River Trail

Covid addition- hooks for drying masks

party games

He got lots of Harry Potter legos

Neighbor friends

Harry Potter

Party food

Party invitations

Celebrating Ruth's 2nd birthday

-The weather was pleasant enough for us to celebrate Ruth's 2nd birthday outside. She is babbling and loves to dance/sing to movies. 

-Isaac made the 7th grade basketball A team (again, so many boys went out that they had a 7th grade A team, B team and some 7th graders went on the 8th grade B team). They got 3 games in and then the state paused school sports due to rising covid cases. 

-Caleb got a couple indoor soccer games in and Julia got a volleyball game in before the sports pause. 

-Stacy has been working more since covid began as all foster parent trainings are over zoom and now she can train any county in MI.

-We celebrated Stephen's 8th birthday! This was his first birthday party year and he wanted the indoor trampoline park. With covid cases rising in the area, we decided against it. I promised him a fantastic outdoor Harry Potter party with his neighbor friends (as these kids already play together outside daily). I then pinterested like crazy for party ideas and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. We sent Harry Potter invitations to Parker and Adeline Blom, Bernadette and Charlie Fickle, and Sam and Ben Winningham. Thankfully the weather was pleasant! Each guest received a wand and each sibling set received a spell book and a wand motions sheet. The menu: Butterbeer (which we all agreed was gross), Harry Potter themed snacks and then frozen pizzas (Stephen's favorite) and cupcakes. We played games- Devil's Snare (wrap streamers around a friend), pin the scar on Harry, guess the Bertie Botts jelly beans (a mix of good tasting and disgusting jelly beans and you don't know what you'll get- the kids loved this game) and Pie Face (another kid favorite). We were going to play Wingardium Leviosa- kids have to keep balloons in the air with their wands- but it was too windy. The party was 2 hours and Nate and I were exhausted. We would much rather pay for a party at a trampoline park where everything is done for you-ha! Stephen said it was a fun party and the neighbor kids also had a blast- so a win overall! 

-Stephen is 64 lbs and is 4 ft, 4 inches. Stephen loves Forest School and gets along with all of his classmates. His closest friend at school is Andrew and then Parker and Sam in our neighborhood. Stephen can go with the flow with his older and younger sister. Stephen and Isaac share a bedroom and get along overall. Stephen's stuttering is mostly gone and he is done with speech therapy at school. Stephen has begun reading the Harry Potter books. He is smart, considerate of others, loves telling jokes, gives good hugs and enjoys nature and playing soccer. We love you Stephen!

-We celebrated Thanksgiving with just us. We had each kid pick a side or dessert they wanted to make. Caleb made stuffing, Isaac-strawberry jello, Julia-white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, Stephen-apple pie, Lexi- mac and cheese. We did a zoom with Stacy's family and spent the day relaxing. That weekend we went hiking with the Petersons. We hiked part of the Manistee River Trail- the weather was beautiful! 

-Nate had his last rituxan treatment ever! He's been receiving it every two months for the last 3 years. Thank you God for this milestone!