Benjamin |

Ben is 8 (and a half)

So, these aren’t super late or anything…but we celebrated Ben’s 8th birthday in October. Haha, as of this week he’s now officially 8 1/2! We enjoyed cinnamon rolls that morning for breakfast.

Then had family over to celebrate that afternoon. Ben’s party theme was Lego Ninjago. I found this awesome costume on the Buffalo craigslist and Andy’s parents were kind enough to grab it for us. The mask was a perfect addition to decorations and the little hanging legos we actually reused from a previous party ;-)

Opening presents with friends and cousins!

Ben loves his cats!

And Legos, lots of Legos!

Paul even gave Anna a guitar stringing lesson while everyone enjoyed cake.

Happy birthday buddy, you’re the best!

Cumming Nature Center

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While down in Naples we visited the Cumming Nature Center. The kids love the little eco education corner inside and trails were beautiful outside. Ben’s map reading skills were on point while Cassidy was all about the mud! Buds were just starting to pop on trees and we heard lots of happy birds. We also encountered a forestry class from FLCC who were marking and measuring in the woods, Ben was fascinated with their flagging and notes! I wish I’d known about jobs like that when I was a kid!

We needed a little help with the origami craft…

Ben also loved the animal scat molds and took the opportunity to have Bear make the black bear poop ;-) It’ll be a sad day when he doesn’t bring Bear on adventures anymore.

After playing outside and exploring the trails we watched a little bit of Planet Earth in the theater. Kids were SO tired by the end of our trip, it was a great day!

Happy holidays from the Honeckers

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Christmas Eve day the kids and I volunteered at our town’s Community Support Shoppe while Andy was at work. We greeted people as they picked out free toys, clothes, housewares and lots of food! Our church helped with the free give away and it was great to just love on people. Afterwards we delivered cookies and jam to neighbors. And that evening we headed to the candle light service at church. Ben brought his battery operated flashlight candle he’d picked up at the Support Shoppe :)

We ended up having a white Christmas after all as it’s been snowing the past two days. Just enough to cover the grass but not make roads horrible.

Christmas morning before the kids were unleashed. Everyone actually slept in until 8, it was perfect! I knew we’d get there some day!

All smiles.

We read the Christmas story from Luke 2, opened stockings and then the kids started in on the presents.

Lamest parents ever…Cassidy received a booster “big kid” seat. She was SO excited though, haha!

Jack was not as excited and just wanted breakfast.

Kids got a few combined gifts like a set of magnatiles.

They’d also picked out a few gifts for daddy at the Support Shoppe. These included Christmas bracelets, tacky ornaments and a USB game controller for a windows 98 computer :D

When you’re an adult and order your own Christmas presents, you act surprised when you open them Christmas morning!

I was surprised by this awesome industrial desk lamp Andy made me. He’d been super sneaky working on it the past few weeks. The LED “filament” is all twisty and neat too.

Another present, I love stormtroopers!

Cassidy got to work building a magnatile castle.

And Ben spent some time with his new legos.

Ben’s big present was a Nintendo DS. It’s his “upgrade” from the Leap Frog video game he’s kind of outgrown.

Snuggly Christmas Colby during our Star Wars movie marathon. We got to stay home in our pajamas all day and it’s been awesome to just relax and enjoy each other’s company.

Merry Christmas!

From the Honecker family to yours!

Christmas pageant

by Heather | 1 Comment

The kids were a part of our church’s Christmas pageant this year! Ben was an angel and Cassidy was a sheepie :) We had fun piecing their costumes together with things from Goodwill (and lots of tinfoil for Ben’s wings). They didn’t have any speaking parts (Ben was nervous enough about getting up in front of people) but participated in the carols and some of the dances.

Practice before the big performance! Crystal and Emily did a wonderful job directing and choreographing the pageant.

The cutest bunch of little sheep, they’re from the 5-7 year old class.

Kids and teachers did such an awesome job!

Looks like Christmas

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I don’t think we’re in for a white Christmas, but we had snow a few weeks ago! The kids made an adorable snowman all by themselves and then asked for a carrot nose at the end. The carrot wasn’t cooperating so they had a little snack too!

Awkward family photos!

We set up the tree a few weekends ago too. Andy was out hunting so Jack was my helper. I brought down all the boxes from the garage and sorted out the ornaments for the kids to put on the tree.

Handsome fella!

The kids put up all the ornaments, on the bottom half of the tree :D Yes, we’re a fake tree bought 75% off after Christmas kinda family (although Andy grew up with a real one). Maybe someday we’ll do the whole getting a live tree adventure.

Afterward we pulled out their little nativity set.

And I put my ornaments on the top of the tree!

Time for movie and a snack.

This week Andy brought out the Christmas train set to put together with the kids.

I think Andy did most of the putting together though :) They do have fun playing with it and setting up the little village houses. Christmas memories!

Into the woods

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Before fall turned to winter, we went on a few hikes together. There are so many great trails around here and plenty of geocaches to explore. For the most part whining on the trail has ceased, but there’s still the ever present “Are we there yet?”

No, no we are not…keep walking…