Bike-A-Thon

Today was the annual Battler Bike-a-Thon.  It's an even sponsored by a local group called Gettysburg In Action to raise money for their group (they organized various youth activities in the community and help with other service projects and scholarships).  Half of the money raised was also designated for a community bandshell project.  Harrison has looked forward to participating every year as he watched his sister because the reward for their hard work raising money and pedaling for 30 minutes is a ride on a firetruck.  Well, this year Harrison was a bit nervous that it really was his turn to participate.  He hasn't completely mastered the skill of riding his bike but he gave it his all and managed to ride the entire time and enthusiastically said it was fun when he finished!!!  Hooray!  And, he got his coveted fire truck ride!  Great job Reagan and Harrison!

Homecoming Parade

It was homecoming week here in Gettysburg and today was the school parade.  The theme this year was a Disney theme.  "All your dreams can come true if you have Battler pride in you."  The kids simply had to dress as their favorite Disney character for the parade.  Harrison wanted something from Cars 2 so we fashioned a costume out of one that he had outgrown and made it work!  And Reagan decided to wear her Rapunzel costume from Halloween last year.  Unfortunately, just as the parade was about to start, I received a phone call from Reagan's teacher that she was starting to get sick to her stomach.  Bummer!  Luckily, she felt well enough to sit back in a chair and watch the parade and was happy everyone at least got to see her in her costume :).  We missed the game tonight but were happy to hear the Battlers won!

Reagan with one of her favorite boy friends in her class.  I am constantly making sure there is a space between those two words!!!!  Ashton is definitely her first crush!

This is Reagan after I grabbed her from the parade line up.  I don't think the color of her face is due to my camera or the lighting.  She was definitely sick!

Bismarck Birthday Bash

After starting the day with a Bismarck doughnut, we loaded up the car and headed to Bismarck.  Harrison decided instead of a party that he would like to go there so that he could eat at Space Aliens for his birthday.  This plan was completely a-ok with mom and dad!!!  His birthday conveniently fell over Labor Day weekend as well, so we were able to stay an extra day and take in the zoo and get some shopping done.  Madison and Kennedy spent most of the weekend in a funk, but Reagan and Harrison both said they had a great trip, so we were happy about that!

After the drive and a few meltdowns from the twins, we decided to save the actual birthday meal at Space Aliens for the day after Harrison's birthday.  So we stuck with our usual hotel routine of checking in, hitting the swimming pool and then ordering Papa John's pizza to the room while we get ready for bed.  It is another favorite of Harrison's so he was fine postponing the restaurant until Sunday.  We had a fun meal at Space Aliens (think a marriage between Chuck E Cheese and Dave and Busters....they still have all the fun arcade games of Chuck E Cheese and you can still earn tickets to trade in for prizes, but the food is actually good and it feels a lot less dirty!!!!  Win-win as far as we are concerned!)

We let our waitress know that Harrison was celebrating his birthday and so they made sure the alien made an appearance at our table.  He was excited to see him, but the twins were a little bit more uncertain!

We spent a large chunk of time at Lowe's picking out some things for our house addition.  The kids were as patient as one could expect.  They got a bit stir crazy and started climbing shelves.  We decided it worked to keep them contained and threatened to put them up for sale!

Our final stop was to the zoo.  Madison and Kennedy really enjoyed the goats at the petting zoo and everyone liked climbing through the tunnel to the prairie dogs (except for Corey who is simply too tall!).  The butterflies were a big hit along with all the typical joys (tigers and bears)

Happy Happy 6th Birthday to Harrison!

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Char Eliason who works down at the city office was telling Corey how her cat keeps catching baby bunnies and bringing them into her house to play and show off. Corey mentioned that she should call us the next time this happened because he had such great memories if his dad bringing baby bunnies home from the farm when he was little and he was certain our kids would love it just as much. Well, Char did call and she kindly caught the bunny and brought it over in a box. Reagan, who loves anything "baby" was in heaven. She loved it for as long as she could before school and then agreed that we could let it go and find its mommy. Thanks Char!

How Time Flies~

 Last year at his "surprise" party for his 5th birthday....

TODAY - Harrison is SIX years old.  Happy Birthday!