Gender Reveal!!

Yesterday was a gender reveal party for baby Kreider! You should know already by the color type I am using what the sex of the baby is!

Megan and Jeremy had a small party in the afternoon with about 10 friends where they put off some explosives to reveal the gender. Up until this time neither of them knew the sex of the baby. At the ultrasound, they had asked for two sealed envelopes with the info inside. They dropped one envelope off at one of their friends who agreed to set up the explosives for them. The other they gave to a neighbor who has a small bakery to make cupcakes. 

You know how you always have a feeling that you know the gender? I was convinced they were having a girl and both Megan & Jeremy thought so too. Imagine their surprise, when this is what the explosives revealed.

I see a big fireball with a little blue in it :)

The second party was in the evening for grandparents and siblings and cousins-to-be. For Jeremy's parents this will be their 10th grandchild. Their oldest is a girl and after that they have all boys! So they were all wishing for a girl. For Steve and I, this will be our 9th grandchild and we currently have 5 girls and 3 boys. We did not have a preference, but like I said, I really thought it was a girl. We all gathered outside Megan and Jeremy's house and they distributed cupcakes to all of us. We counted down from five and at zero everyone bit into their cupcake. Inside was a nice little glob of blue icing! 

Can you believe that none of us thought to take a picture of the inside!

All ready to take a bite of our cupcakes

After we had eaten the cupcakes, Jeremy set off a little blue smoke bomb. We hadn't realized it, but until then some of the little boys were still oblivious as to what sex the baby was. They had happily eaten their cupcake but the blue blob didn't mean anything to them. Suddenly when they saw the blue smoke they started jumping around and excitedly yelling "it's a boy!" We all got a good laugh out of that.

Very blue smoke

The children checking out the smoke. I believe that is Awstin with his head right in it.

Here is a picture of the happy couple!

So much to be thankful for

I can't wait to meet the little man! February will be here before we know it!

Follow-Up of our Choo-Choo Barn Masked Experience

 

Masked and ready for entry

As I mentioned in a previous Blog, I agreed to take Awstin to the Choo Choo Barn if he was sure he could keep a mask on for the entire time. Bless his heart, he tried, he really did, but this is what it ended up looking like most of the time.

Not quite covering his nose and mouth

As soon as I would mention to him that he wasn't wearing his mask properly he would push it back up. Thankfully for us, there was hardly anyone else there and we were able to stay far away from those that were. We had a wonderful time and I was really glad that we went. However, I wasn't sure if I should try it again in case there were a lot of people there. I decided to take him one more time before school started so we went last Wednesday. You can see from the picture why he was better able to keep his face covered.

A shield is so much easier to keep on than a mask.

Our experience was a good one this time too, but there were a lot more people there, so I was very thankful that he was properly wearing a face shield. 

I am including this picture because I just like it. What is better than a Grandpa and his grandson taking a nap together?

Grandpa and Bryce

Also, I am so excited to share that we have another Blogger in the family! Check out https://goattoomanyacres.wordpress.com/ to find out who it is!

Alexis' Birthday and Jay & Kristen's New House

 

Birthday Girl and her littlest sister :)

I can't believe that Alexis is 11 years old already. She is such a fun-loving girl and a wonderful big sister. She loves babies and as you can see from this picture she wanted to include Janae in all her birthday pictures. Here is the traditional birthday video.

We very much enjoyed Alexis' party and it was especially special because it was in their new house! Jay and Kristen moved a few weeks ago and now they have so much more room than before for all of them to spread out. It is absolutely wonderful!

Here are a few pictures of their house, which I just took today. Steve's mom is staying with us for a few days, so she and I visited with them for a few hours this afternoon.

The outside

Kitchen

Another view of the kitchen

Living Room

Entryway

Mom loved holding Janae...

...and Janae loved it too because she soon fell asleep!

Another Letter from Awstin

In a previous post, I showed you a letter that I received from Awstin, asking if he could come over to my house. I wrote him a letter back, suggesting a date that he could come to my house and that we would go to the Choo-Choo Barn on that day.  I have always kept Awstin one day a week since he was small, and one of the things we started doing when he was big enough to really enjoy it was go to the Choo-Choo Barn in Strasburg. I purchased a season pass for both of us and we would spend hours there at a time. It is something Awstin just doesn't get tired of. The Choo-Choo Barn is always closed from January to March and since COVID hit in March they were not able to re-open so it has been a long time since we have been there. Recently, their Facebook page said they are open with all of the COVID restrictions--face mask, 6 ft distancing, number of people allowed in the room, etc. I wasn't sure if Awstin would be able to handle all the restrictions so put off going, but after talking to him about it and him telling me he thought he could abide with the guidelines, I have decided to give it a try. So I sent him a letter inviting him to come to my house and go to the Choo-Choo Barn with me. This was his reply to my letter. 

My heart melts with his closing - 1,000 loves

His envelope was a little better this time. I believe he had some adult supervision :)

Awstin references the move that Steve and I will be making this Fall to the apartment at the store. Like all the grandchildren, Awstin loves to shop and help with the register at the store, so I guess he thinks it would be a lot of fun to live there! We will definitely be letting the grandchildren take turns staying overnight with us when we move so they can get a little experience of operating the store with us. We are so looking forward to this move and I will eventually dedicate a blog to all the renovations that we have been doing as we prepare our cozy little (but surprisingly big) apartment.

Funniest Home Videos

Here are two videos that make me smile every time I watch them. The first is of Awstin feeding Bryce (the ending is the best part and makes me laugh every time) and the second is of Jay & Kristen's children playing with their bubble guns. Their dog Buddy gets in on the action too. (Please excuse my nonsense talking in the background.)

Lydia & Clara's Birthday Parties

Lydia turned 9 in May and Clara turned 3 on July 16. Here are a few pictures from each of their parties.

Beautiful Lydia :)

Grandpa helps Clara take the candles off her cake.

Don't you just love the excitement on her face?!?! Kristen said she was so excited for her birthday party.

After Clara's party the children took me over to see their new house that they will be moving into in a couple of weeks. Here was our mode of transportation with Alexis chauffeuring.

"Little angels"

Goofy picture

Inside their home to be

The kitchen with two silly girls posing :)

Sweet Janae

Kristen even coaxed a smile from her

That's it for the birthday pictures so far. Awstin had his 7th birthday on July 12. He had some of his church buddies over to celebrate and it sounded like they had a really good time. 

Mother's Day Flowers

I know it is well past Mother's Day but I want to be able to look back on my Blog and remember these flowers that I received for Mother's Day this year. I have gotten so much joy from them as they greeted me every morning with their lovely colors as I stood at my kitchen sink.

The ones on the sill were given to me by Josh & Julissa and the hanging basket by Jay & Kristen. Every morning when I looked out my kitchen window, I would see the beautiful blooming pink flowers on the windowsill and the combination of red and purple hanging from the porch. They both stayed beautiful into July, but unfortunately the last couple of weeks the hot, dry weather has affected them. I am still watering them daily and hope they make a comeback.

A closer picture of the bright pink petals that bloomed so beautifully.

Even though I have always enjoyed looking at flowers, I have never had the green thumb to have beautiful flower gardens. This year I have no flower gardens at all, so these were the perfect gifts to allow me to enjoy a snippet of beauty each morning.