A belated birthday celebration for Jude and Anna
The day after Christmas, Boxing Day as I refer to it, we were up early and off on the 10-hour drive for the annual New Year’s trip to Iowa. It was a chilly day to say the least with the temperature not getting into double figures the entire way. So, there was no outside time possible on this trip. We arrived around 7:30pm Iowa time and were greeted by Baba at the bottom of the street in festive gear.
The next day the cousins all came up and as we do every year, we celebrated Jude and Anna’s birthdays. Baba had baked birthday cakes with their age and we all enjoyed singing happy birthday again.
Lily, Anna and Ella horsing around in the living room
As usual the week was full of fun activities. It was very, very cold so there was not much outside time although the kids did go sledding in the front yard a couple of times. There were lots of card games with Baba, plenty of great food, other games and a couple of outings.
The regular cousins trip to Perkins for breakfast…look at those yummy pancakes
The cousins all played together well for the most part with the occasional fight of course. They did best when it was not all five together. The twins loved playing with Anna and Jude did ok one on one with Lily. One morning Lily and Jude went down to help Uncle Nathan build a ramp for their old dog Buddy.
Jude and Lily helped Uncle Nathan make a ramp for their dog Buddy
We also had our regular boys night although this time it was a boys lunch. Jude, Uncle Nathan, Grandpa and I went to watch the Iowa State football team play their bowl game yesterday at a local sports bar. It was a fun game and a great time, Jude really likes his time away from all the girls.
Doing the kids countdown for New Year’s at around 6pm as we get ready for dinner
We had the annual New Year’s celebration with party hats, shakers, balloons, streamers, confetti poppers and some great food. The confetti poppers were the biggest hit.
The kids celebrate New Year with some confetti poppers
Happy New Year!
Confetti everywhere