Annie!!!

Last Tuesday night we (well....Grandma...) took all of us girls to the Broadway Theatre Guild's production of "Annie". Zoe and Emmy are pretty obsessive about the movie and can often be heard singing rousing rendition's of "Tomorrow" with way too much vibrato. (I'm not kidding...) We thought they'd love the live version and decided to make a night out of it. We got the girls dressed up in matching dresses and went out to a really nice dinner beforehand. Really, it was just too much fun! Here are some pictures of our evening. P.S.- I have a couple more entries of our Thanksgiving weekend and our visit with the Hummel's that I can't wait to for you all to see, but Blogger is just being a pain in the B-U-T-T!!! Hopefully tomorrow.....

Halloween night

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Random pics from Halloween night. We had an absolute ball. We all gathered at Josh and Shelly's for pizza at 5. Unfortunately the pizza didn't show until about 6 so we thought we'd try to get some pictures taken. Try getting 7 hungry, excited, dressed up kids under the age of 7 to smile nicely at the same time. Yup, pretty much impossible. Seriously, it was a complete circus! Most of our core team came along for the ride and really were a big help. It always amazes me what a blessing it is living life together. Just for reference the kids you might not recognize are Brad and Sara Emerson's- Ethan is Darth Vader and Lily is a princess. It was pretty funny when Ethan and Elijah showed up dressed up as the same thing. Emmy was dressed as Dora (to Zoe's jealous dismay), Ezekiel was the cutest pumpkin ever, Noah was a cowboy and Zoe was an angry pink unicorn(see picture above...). Just another memorable night with the Syswerda/Greenhouse clan!

Annual Syswerda Pumpkin Carving

Pics from our annual Syswerda pumpking carving (hence...the title of post...). This has become one of our favorite holiday traditions. We have a hot dog roast outside (even if it is a bit cold). Then it's off to carve the pumpkins. You wouldn't think this would take long, but it gets pretty competitive and complicated! (See Josh's carving of Dora for Zoe!!!) After the carving, its pie time! This year- Mom's homemade pumpkin....delicious. The kids (and adults) had a rip-roarin' good time. (See picture of Zeke riding the tractor like a crazy person.) Bottom line, I feel TRULY blessed to have been born into such a loving, interesting, loyal, AMAZING (if somewhat crazy...) family. I was just going to write "it's such a joy watching our kids growing up together" but stopped myself short. Whoa- funny how it can turn that quickly... We went out to Ava's grave today to clean up the leaves; we also brought some flowers and a little pumpkin. I told Zoe we were going to see Ava and she looked at me REALLY weird and said, "Auntie Holly, Ava's up in the sky- how're WE gonna get there??????" Kids say the darndest things!!!
Well...I would apologize for lack of blogging, but that would require me being truly sorry. I think every 2 weeks is gonna be the norm from now on!!!

Happy Halloween from the Ladybug and Axl Rose!!

Pics from the costume party we went to tonight. Pretty scary, huh?

Cold Camping Crazy People...

A few months ago we scheduled a Halloween camping trip up in Big Rapids at my parents fave camping resort. The kids love it there and they have a fall festival that we thought would be great. What we didn't plan on was the Arctic Circle traveling a few thousand miles south and planting itself in Michigan! Don't get me wrong, we had a blast. It was just a cold one. I took about a gazillion pictures and I'm sure it'll be a weekend the kids never forget. I'm still trying to recover...taking long hot baths and chillin' on the couch. Some of the highlights...so cold my camera kept fogging up (in the trailer!!!), Zeke taking a long ride on the circle swing and then puking 3 times ("Mommy....Zekey get off now.. "), wathcing the pumpkins explode during the pumpkin smash, trying to eat dinner outside with the crew (my parents best friends and their kids were also there), seeing the kids Halloween outfits disappear under loads of winter gear.... Really, we are a crazy bunch. What can I say, I wouldn't like it any other way! P.S.- Apologies for the haphazard pic posting...can someone tell me how I can post lots of pictures easier???