Children's Museum Party

The Z pack had a great time at their friend Keira's birthday party. Here are a couple shots of the twins "milking" a cow! Zander was off enjoying a 3 story slide, so he escaped the photos-

Fort fun!

We love to play in our fort...thanks, Gummi Bear Oma!

Happy New Year!

This ecard personalized with Smilebox

More Christmas~

After Christmas we headed to "the Lake" for a Lander family Christmas. Rick took this great picture-

As usual, Zander LOVED spending time with his cousins-

Zack was a little excited about his Star Wars ship from Nana and Lalo...can you tell?

Here is Zack staking claim to the toy while big brother looks on saying, "wait, is that a Star Wars toy?"-

And our cutie-pie niece, "Princess" Hailey-

Beloved Nana-

A cousin pic with Nana and Lalo-

The girls-

The boys-

Not pictured...a delicious spaghetti and meatball dinner, followed by a fun Mexican Train game!

Christmas Blessings!

Truly with blessings like these, what more could we want? Thank you Mom and Joe, for the wonderful gifts...we miss you!

Wow, does Zander get excited about Harry Potter legos! Thank you Oma & Opa, for his latest set...he loves them! Not nearly as much as he loves his Gummy Bear Oma and Opa, though!!!

Guess what we'll be working on tomorrow?

Zan was also enthralled with his newest "Wimpy Kid" book...thanks Aunt B!

And just a little excited about the cash~ ;)

Zack can hardly wait to try his Leapster Explorer, thanks Nona and Papa Joe!

Forever our little helper, here's Zack helping Daddy carry Zoe's big surprise from Nona and Papa Joe~

Zoe LOVES her doll house!

She wanted to carefully examine the function of each piece. Sure to be continued tomorrow...

Can't believe that this is only our 3rd Christmas with the twins...though they were very much with me 4 years ago!Silly little monkeys~
Ready for Santa!

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Since Rick is working in the morning, we will be experiencing Santa gifts around 5am...way to early for photos. We should definitely have some wonderful pictures from our Lander family cousin reunion when we visit Nana and Lalo at the Lake next week! Lots of love from the Z Pack~ :-D

Best Christmas Present EVER!!!

Happy Birthday to our amazing 8 year old, Zander! We think that you are awesome, and your enthusiasm brightens each day. We love you!!!


This year we are especially grateful for the health and happiness of our sweet boy. Reaching 8 years old is a huge milestone in our family. Zander is officially out of a"high risk" category for developing childhood Cancer-hooray!!! We will be celebrating (big time) after his last abdominal ultrasound scan in January. Meanwhile, let's party!

Christmas Cookies

We had a lot of fun decorating sugar cookies this afternoon! Definitely a tradition in the making...

This and that...

Just wanted to share a few random pictures to hold us over until after Christmas ;). First we have Zoe and her friend, Marley, after dance class this morning. Marley is also a neighbor of ours and this is the 2nd year they have danced together. We are making plans for soccer next Fall! (By the way, Zoe's funny smile is due to the fact that she is enjoying a candy cane from class.)

Later we saw "Chip-wrecked", while our slow-cooker worked on a delicious dinner. We are building some excitement with the kids about boats and cruises...stay tuned!

And last, here is Zander with some scout friends, standing in front of his school. Last Saturday they picked up trash around the school grounds. Zander hadn't expected to find any, but their community service efforts were productive!

Harry Potter Party!

Zander and a group of friends had a wonderful time celebrating his upcoming birthday at our very own Harry Potter party last night! We had a "sorting" ceremony, feast, and several "classes"-potions, divination, care of magical creatures, defense against the dark arts, and herbology. We enjoyed lots of treats including chocolate covered frogs, "cockroach" clusters, and dirt cake. The boys really got into it and had a blast...they posed on their own for this first picture, with wands at their ready-

Market Days SUPER STAR!

Rick and I were overwhelmed with pride for our nearly 8 year old author, creator of Zan Man Comics, who sold 50 copies of a "Super Brothers" adventure. He worked all semester to create this awesome comic book, learned about economics and sales, while helping to raise money for the 2nd grade activity fund. His first grade teacher, who bought one of the last copies, called it "gifted and talented work", we agree!

Zander beckened to his customers saying "Get your comics...19 pages, eight chapters, only 50 cents...get your comics!"

Gymnastic Show

The twins wrapped up their short preschool gymnastics career with a cute show!