A day filled with birthday excitement

Last Wednesday Lucas, Tyler and Joey successfully turned 6.  From the moment they woke up until the moment they went to bed it was a party!  Mia's gift was awesome.  She cut out their first initial and then made up a word for each letter of their first name that described them and then stuck a dollar in the envelope with it.  To cool, Mia!  Great job!
Then there were the  cards from Grandpa and Grandma R.  Their cards are always filled with a dollar bill for each year they are old and then an extra dollar to give to each of their siblings.  It's mahem for a few minutes until everyone has the right amount of dollars.
By 10:00 a.m. the friends were starting to show up for their first ever friends party.  They invited all the boys from their kindergarten class and most of them could come.  (Thanks to Kate, she reminded me that I have 1/4 of the boys in the class)  :)
This matching game is an oldie but a goodie! :)  I remember playing it at one of my birthday parties when I was little and I'm sure my sisters stood there "running the show", too! :)
Easy, fun little party favors in a ziploc bag. (bag topper idea courtesy of Becky Higgins)
I was sick of frosting cake by the time we were getting ready for the second party of the day so Tyler stepped in to help.
 
Aunt Joan helping Tyler read a card.
They got new shoes for basketball from Grandpa and Grandma VH.
A great day and we all passed out and headed to bed because there was no slowing down as we went full steam ahead into Christmas festivities.

More Christmas Cheer!

This is one of my favorite pictures right now.  Emma came home from school with the kids last week, it was the day L, T and J celebrated their  birthday at school.  They are looking through the birthday book their class made for Joey.

Friday was the elementary school Christmas program.  It was AWESOME!  Almost 400 kids singing the Hallelujah Chorus is just amazing!  The spiffy white cakes with red bows have been a tradition since the 1950's.  Eric even wore one when he was in elementary school.  
Sunday afternoon video chattin' with the whole Reimink gang.  It was fun and got a little chaotic on our end. I think it's because my monitor isn't nearly big enough! :)
Yesterday we decorated "ginger bread" house.

Then we headed to Aunt Joan's for more Christmas cheer.   Thanks, Aunt Joan, for loving this crazy bunch!

And then Uncle Dave showed up. (actually Mia invited him for dinner)  He felt that he might have been invited for other reasons, too, so he had a little trick up his sleeve.  He had mentioned that they had to open their Christmas gift from him before the boys birthday.  So he had them all put their heads down on the table while he went outside to get it.
Then, he told them to look at what he got them!  New #2 pencils and red pens.  
Not quite sure what to think. 
Then he FINALLY went back outside to get their "real" present.
MARIO CART!!!
But I do think Lucas still liked his pencil better.  :)

December, it's flying by!

I can hardly believe we're only 12 days until Christmas!  The weekend after Thanksgiving we headed up towards Mt. Baker, stopped at the Ranger Station and got a permit to chop down our own tree.  It was a rainy morning but we hiked around the hillside and found "the perfect" tree.

Had to stop at Grahams for hot chocolate to warm up!
Mia and her Willow Tree ornament collection (thanks to Grandma R)
For her birthday, Holly wanted her ears pierced! She did great!  (Thanks, Karla!)
Were occasionally finding little notes like this left on our bed at night! :)  So subtle.
Mia had her first orchestra concert.  She's hiding somewhere back there in a green sweater.  They played during a 5th grade chapel.  They did so great! 
Holly and Mia also had a piano recital last week.
And today we had our church Christmas program.  It was one of my favorites, I think!  They all sang so well, Holly played the roll of angel perfectly and Lucas, Tyler and Joey said their lines just great!  When we left church it was snowing!
December is off to a great start!  We look forward to what the rest of the month holds as we anticipate celebrating 4 more birthdays, Lucas, Tyler, Joey's and Baby Jesus'!