Pokagon Trip, June 2011

Last month we took the kids to the beach at Pokagon and to ride horses at the stables at Pokagon. This was Colt's first time riding and he had a great time! I unfortunatle can't swim in lakes, so I got to bask in the sunshine : )

Picking Strawberries & Jam Making

Every year we take the kids up to Wawaka to LeCount's strawberry farm to pick strawberries. The kids have a great time and we get some pretty great berries. This year was especially fun since Colt got to really help. He was so excited everytime he found a berry, it was so funny!! That night, I made strawberry jam. It turned out so delicious, if I do say so myself! : )

Colt's Second Birthday

Colt got some really great gifts! Everyone was so thoughtful! The train was a really big hit with all the kids. I don't know if the girls thought it was theirs or Colt's but they have officially taken it over ; )

Colt's Party Decorations

On Sunday we had Colt's Second Birthday party. Of course, it was Spider Man : ) Many of the decorations were store-bought, but I decided to make a few:
On the treat bags, I hand made the little spider web tags. I found a Spider man movie font and typed the kids' names on white card stock and then drew webs around each name.

I didn't want to spend the extra money on a birthday banner, so I drew the same font as on the gift box tags on a larger piece of card stock and then did the webs around each letter. I then hand drew the Spider Man heads and threaded the letters and the heads together.

The cake was store bought. It had all the Spider Man characters on it.

We had a wonderful day with friends and family...we are truly blessed with wonderful people in our lives : )

Adventures with Peter Pan

Saturday, we took the kids to the Botanical Conservatory for the Peter Pan exhibit. It was great!! The kids a blast on the life sized pirate ship. There were sections filled with crafts and games, a snack area where the kids could make an edible fairy wand, and the fairy forest with bubbles. Colt especially liked the bubbles : ) I liked the little crocodile that made a tick-tock sound just like the movie. It was a nice way to get out of the mini blizzard that was hitting us in the afternoon.

Blizzard of 2011

Earlier this week we had two days of nothing but pure unabashed snow. Ft. Wayne schools closed for those two days and then had two-hour delays the rest of the week - which is really unlike them! Grace ended up having three snow days. I think we ended up getting somewhere between 10-12 inches total. We also had another blizzard of sorts Saturday morning/afternoon which gave us about 4-5 more inches. So much for all the shoveling I did : )

Happy New Year!

Yesterday we celebrated New Year's Eve at my parents' house. My brother Donnie brought his kids as well. It's rare that we get everybody in the house at the same time with our significant others : ) Grace and Kylee, my brother Donnie's oldest girl.

Ella and Peyton, Donnie's youngest girl.

Colt and my youngest brother, Tyler.

Unfortunately, Donnie's oldest boy Keegan was unable to join us and I didn't get a good picture of his youngest, Baby Remy.

Christmas 2010

The girls put out cookies for Santa. Ella wanted to take a drink of his milk just to "make sure it was nice and cold." We were lucky enough to be able to get the kids everything they asked for from Santa. Eventhough the reason for the season is not to get presents and material things, we love giving the kids presents. Among other things, Ella got her coveted Lalaloopsy dolls and the Littlest Pet Shop toys she asked for; Grace got her Nintendo DS and the Littlest Pet Shop toys; and Colt got a basketball hoop and a bunch of cars and trucks. Colt aslso got a Carhart coat just like Daddy's this year from Grandma Ruthie. They look like twins in their coats and Yankees hats : )
Every year before we go to Mass, we make the girls take their picture in front of the Christmas tree. They had really cute matching jackets and skirts to wear this year. I, unfortunately, didn't get to go this year because Colt was being very grouchy and uncooperative, so he and I stayed home while Chris took the girls.

Overall, it was a great year and a great Holiday season and hopefully we'll have a wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Singletons!

Merry Christmas from the Singletons! We hope your Christmas is a blessed one and you have a safe and happy New Year! Thank you for helping to make our year wonderful and we look forward to the year to come! ~God bless and keep you!

It's Cookie Season!

This weekend I decided to make Christmas cookies. I'm not really baker, so I only do lots of cookies this time of year.

Ella decided she wanted to be the big helper today.

Colt's first time helping with cookies. I'm not sure if he stirred more than he ate : )

These are my mom's famous cut out cookies. If you've ever had them, you know how delicious they are! I finally got them right after 11 years! They would usually come out really thin and really dry, but this year they cam out perfect! I'm so excited! I just wish the peanut butter blossoms came out as good.


These are all the cookies we made today. Santa better bring his appetite! The peanut butter blossoms came out way too dry and thin. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but they definitely are not like my mom's! I'll have to ask her what secret she has : )

Colt spent all evening trying to eat the cookies. He especially liked the blossoms. He'd eat the chocoloate middle then throw the rest to the dogs. This went on for a good 10 minutes before I caught him. He's definitely the little trouble maker!

For some reason, Colt takes his pants down when he's mad at me - I guess he thinks I'm somehow affected by it - so this was his reaction to me telling him no more "kiecoos" (his way of saying cookies)

First Time Rollerskaters

Last Saturday, Chris and I took the kids to Bell's Skating Rink for the day. This was their first time ever skating and I haven't skated since 8th grade. They did great for their first time, but unfortunately they were just getting the hang of it when we had to leave. It was great fun!

Trick or Treat!

Instead of going to any neighborhoods this year, we decided to take the kids trick or treating at the zoo here in town. It was Colt's first real time going and he had a blast!! You can probably tell by the red candy all over his face : ) It was fun, safe, and we got a few great pictures too!

Playing in the Leaves

I haven't posted much lately, Chris and I have been SO busy with school obligations (we're teachers) that we've barely had time do sleep! We finally had a day that no one had us doing anything, today we took the kids to Ligonier's Fashion Farm Pumpkin Fantasy Land. It was fun and the kids had a really good time! I hadn't been there since I was a kid and it seemed to be MUCH more then than it is now : ) I thought the kids would enjoy the fact that I had gone there every year until I was 13 or so. They had mazes, a pumpkin jumpy thing, a pumpkin display that had pumpkins dressed as famous people and cartoon characters, and of course we bought some pumpkins to carve.
Afterwards we raked up some leaves and let the kids run through them. Colt had a blast! This was his first time for this and they were a MESS, but they had a ton of fun!!

Science Central Day

This weekend we took the kids to Science Central for the first time in five years. We had a great time and Colt really enjoyed the toddler area with the slide and water table. I enjoyed the perpetual motion device - let me tell you that I am WAY too old to be that dizzy! : )

Back to School

This week was back to school time. Summer went by so fast! Grace was very excited to get to first grade and back to seeing her friends daily and Ella and Colt were excited to get back to Tara's and to playing with the friends they missed over the summer. Chris and I were not as excited to get back to the classroom - more anxious than excited, I guess : ) The week went surprisingly smooth for being off of our schedules for so long. Now we're all looking forward to Labor Day and the next day off ; )

Grace's Birthday and the Dunes

On Wednesday, we went to the Warren Dunes in Michigan for Grace's sixth birthday. We were pretty nervous on the way there because storms and clouds were rolling in about half way there, but the day turned out to be a beautiful one! Chris made her a sandy cake and she blew out her six stick candles : ) It was Colt's first time at the big beach and he loved the water and especially the sand - we had to keep a real close eye on him because he kept wanting to throw the sand at everyone (leave it to Colt) : ) We had a wonderful time and got a little sun and best of all, we got to spend some quality family time before school starts next week.

Summer 2010 Zoo Trip

Today we took our annual trip to the zoo. We had very limited time, so we focused on the new addition of our zoo - the African Safari Adventure. We fed giraffes, saw lions, zebras, and monkeys, and saw many beautiful floral specimens. It took about two hours to travel through the entire exhibit and there was a really net sky ride that Chris and Grace rode (Ella, Colt, and I stayed safely on the ground). There was also an exhibit of traditional African drums that the kids really liked! It was a beautiful exhibit and we are very lucky to have such a nice zoo in our city!

The Best Sound in the World

Hearing a baby laugh is the best sound in the world! Rarely will Colt stay still enough to be tickled much less be recorded ; )

Dancing Colt

I caught Colt dancing this afternoon with the girls. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE Beatles fan, so seeing him dancing to "Back in the USSR" did my heart a little good : ) Unfortunately, he decided to wing the Wii remote at the wall. Luckily he didn't do any damage : )

Ft. Wayne Tincaps Game

Last night we went to a Tincaps game vs. South Bend Silver Hawks. We had a great time!

Since we had Colt with us, we decided to sit on the lawn seats so he could walk around more.

It was soo hot when we got there, but after the sun went down, the weather was fantastic! We got some good pictures of the kids - Ella didn't care for the giant Johnny Appleseed Bobblehead, so I had to get on the pic with her and clearly Colt was too busy looking at the statue to look at the camera : )

Obviously, Colt has no interest in having his picture taken with his parents - too interested in Cracker Jack! Grace and Ella BEGGED for these big, pink #1 fingers. There were fireworks after the game and we were really up close! We were so close, at one point, I was hit in the arm with a big piece of fireworks part. The girls thought it was neat that the remnants of the paper on the fireworks was falling from the sky like snow. It was a really fun time and the kids had a ball (pardon the pun : ) )