Christmas Tree Day

On Friday, we made the trip up to Rockford to Hart's Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas Tree. As usual, we ran into the VanderVelde's in the parking lot. We took the tractor ride out to the Fraser Firs and found the perfect 9' tree. The rain even held off for us! Then, we went into downtown Rockford for hot dogs at the Corner Bar. The VanderVelde's joined us and our other friends, the Jones's showed up and got a booth right next to ours. It was a fun morning and started the holiday season! We got the tree home and into position. The boys were invited to a pizza party from 5-7 so we decorated the tree when they got home. Then, Airplane rejoined the family on Saturday morning and left the boys a 500 piece Polar Express puzzle which should keep us busy for a while! Go Blue!

Train Day

On Wednesday, Grandpa came down to set up the electric trains. The boys look forward to this day every year! This year, they decided they wanted the Christmas tree in the middle of the track which looks pretty cute.  While the boys decorated the tree, Grandpa cleaned up the tracks.  Then they carefully unpacked all of the cars and put them on the track.  

Peanut Allergy Update

Alex had his annual allergy appointment earlier this fall. They decided that based on his previous blood scores (6.5) and the fact that he hadn't had any reactions, he should go in for another blood test. If his number fell below a 2, he would be eligible for an in office oral peanut challenge. We went in for blood work and the results came back at 1.98! So, we were able to get the food challenge on the calendar. On Tuesday, Phil took Alex in for his appointment. They started off with a scratch test. They gave him little pokes and put peanut butter directly on his skin. Then they waited 15 minutes to see if there was a reaction. He just barely passed the skin test but they decided to proceed. The next step was to put some peanut butter on his gums. He passed that without any problems. Then they moved on to ingestion. He ate four peanut butter crackers but developed hives around his mouth and sniffles. So they had to cancel the test. They gave him Benadryl and monitored him in the office until everything went back to normal. We are still hopeful that he may still outgrow his allergy. We will go back for more blood work in a couple years.

Heading in for Testing

Fingers Crossed!

Skin Test

Gum Test

Peanut Butter Crackers

Hives.  :(

Rough Morning - But Grandma make a good pillow

Feast of Favorites

on Monday, William had his "Feast of Favorites" at school. They have been learning about proper nutrition as well as the first Thanksgiving. Each class was given a food group. They designed fancy hats and brought in a snack that fit into their food group. Then, instead of a normal lunch, the kids had a feast!

Grape Hats

Mrs. Roger's Class

What a spread!

First Snow!

The boys took advantage of the first snow fall!

Pizza with the Players

On Sunday afternoon, we were invited by KOHA to "Pizza with the Players" at Lawson Ice Arena. We had an open skate with all the WMU hockey players. After the skate, we could get autographs and have pizza. It was a very fun event. Alex did a great job skating around the rink - he's getting to be a decent little skater. We couldn't keep up with Will - but he was nice enough to stop by to say hi to us every now and then. William, who is normally very chatty, was pretty shy around the players despite the fact that they were all very nice. Alex had a few players stop to give him a "high five" when they saw him getting up from a fall all by himself. Alex had CHUM's "Little Bear" this weekend so we took him along for all our adventures!

The Red Wings have the rights to #22

Alex loved having Little Bear

Soap Box Derby

William and the rest of the cub scouts had their soap box derby this afternoon. It was a beautiful day - we were so lucky! The boys all got to race the car down the hill "against the clock." William took the car down twice - once for warm up and once for an official time. The older kids had slightly heavier cars and were much better at steering!