*Margaret (Curtis) McDaniel + Curtis McDaniel = Curtis.Squared

March 10, 2020

Anna's Seventh Birthday & WinCon

Our sweet girl turned 7!
She was thrilled to celebrate at Abe Martin Lodge in Brown County State Park with all her "big friends" at RUF Winter Conference (WinCon).
We call it "the big friend's pool" because we regularly get to spend time in the small indoor waterpark! Drew loved the water!
It's a nice break from the winter months that we look forward each February. 
We eat lots of great food...
...and worship God together!
A common theme was a lot of sweets! Drew was pretty possessive about his rainbow ice cream. 
We go to the same candy/ice cream shop annually in Nashville, Indiana.
On Anna's actual birthday, all the students sang to her. She loved it!

Our kids also love getting to spend time with other RUF kids! This year, WinCon had 10 RUF midwest campuses attending. Several of the campus ministers' kids came and spent time together during the weekend.
 
Drew was very spoiled for Anna's birthday and thoroughly enjoyed all the sugar! 
It was a great weekend with our largest group ever (44 students)! Anna continues to celebrate her birthday as we prepare for a joint party on Friday. Another post to come soon!

January 13, 2020

2019 Christmas

Here's some highlights from our Christmas, mainly in pictures:
Enjoying the kid-size gingerbread house at Purdue
Drew loved being around Christmas trees! We had to teach him to stop taking bows off presents and ornaments off trees, but eventually he understood it all! He would request the Christmas tree lights to be turned on every morning.
I organize a local parents group and we went to McCord's to see the candy cane tour! It's a favorite that we do each year!
Kate loved shaping her candy cane!
Drew went straight to eating his!
We had some girls from RUF come over to help decorate cookies and make delicious desserts in preparation for our annual Christmas party!
The girls LOVE their "big friends!"
This one makes me happy!
Our baking/decorating group! We wore PJs!
And then it was Christmas party time! Kate bonded a lot with Grace. :)
I'm posting the funny picture to show that we can have a good time in our ugly sweaters and our white elephant exchange (that's where the big poster came from). Haha!
Students left, and Kate had her Christmas program. I love this one because Kate is giving this princess wave to us! She did an excellent performance!
Then, Anna had a fun Grinch Christmas party!
She loved every minute of it!
Drew and Kate also enjoyed it!
Then, our kids met Santa and Mrs. Claus! Drew had the "deer-in-the-headlights" look; Anna was ecstatic to share her Christmas list with him; Kate was scared stiff! It was hard to get her anywhere near him!


Drew wears an outfit that Curtis's mom made for Curtis!

Our Christmas Eve picture at Faith Presbyterian
The girls held their own candles!

Drew was mesmerized!

One of our traditions: the kids opened one gift on Christmas Eve. Warm pajamas for Drew; mermaid tail blanket for Kate; unicorn hooded blanket for Anna! They loved it!

Another tradition: cake for Jesus every Christmas!
On Christmas Day, I documented Drew "opening" this gift.
400 ball pit balls!!!
He was in ball heaven! It was hard to get him to open other gifts after that!
I'm not going to be able to document all of their gifts because our families were very generous, but I'll point out a few things. The girls loved listening on their new headphones!

Even Drew gave it a whirl! :)
Twister was a big hit, too!
I got the movie Home Alone from the white elephant gift exchange and I showed it to the kids. They loved it! We realized Drew kinda looks like Macaulay Culkin too!
Here they are in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Day. After all the gifts were opened. I think they loved Christmas this year!
But it wasn't over yet! Papa came to town the day after Christmas for a few days and we had a lot of fun with him! The girls made homemade pizza with him.
They also put together a gingerbread house!
I hope you guys enjoyed celebrating Christmas too! Happy New Year too!