Happy Birthday Noah!

Noah had two parties. Peter Piper:

10 kids...crazy fun.

And Nana's house:
He enjoyed getting his Wii target shooting game and robotic bugs. He's officially 6!



Drat! Out of focus!

Spirit Week

A couple weeks ago was spirit week, and because I'm a good mom, I helped the kids dress up.

Monday, Hippie Day
Sarah came home from school and informed me that she wasn't actually a hippie. She was a flower child. And the peace sign is called "the rooster claw." Okay, whatever. I'm a child of the 80's.


The crazy hair day was fun to do. She looked cute. Albeit, crazy.


Noah is a minimalist. A peace sign and hair spikes were enough for him. I offered a vest, headband, Koolaid hair dye...but no.

The other days were less exciting - pajama day, sports day, and...something else less exciting.

In case there was any doubt...

I'm raising monkeys.



Cute gummy, smiley monkeys.

Spree!

As long as I'm on here...

More pictures!

Cute kids:

(See what happens when I try to be all arty? At least they're all smiling...)

Sarah excited for her first day of 3rd grade!


Noah tolerating pictures for first day of 1st grade:

(barely tolerating)

Karen and Caleb at home while the big kids are at school:


Rich cameo on the blog:


Just because I love sleeping babies:

It lives!!!

*hand waving* You don't notice the missing year and a half on this blog...

Pictures!

Caleb eating solids:


Sarah's first project of 3rd grade, the Mexican Axolatl:


Karen's first day of preschool:


Sarah on Friday Fun Day, Clown Day:

(I did that make up. Cause I'm a good mom.)

New niece!!


With the kids (except Caleb - he looked scared in his pic):

(Check it out - Emily trusted Sarah to hold Lils!)

And with Aunt Shannon:

(What's up with my hair? I don't know. It was being funky.)

The End.

Anecdotes for the day

Today was Sarah's last day of first grade. She had fun at the park field trip yesterday, but was much more subdued today. She cried in the car when I picked her up. We'll miss Mrs. T.









Noah is a cutie. The Wii is teaching him to read. Specifically, Animal Crossing. There is a lot of text-based interaction with characters. He still makes me read a lot to him, but he's recognizing more words every day.





Karen makes a good grumpy face on command. Her story for the day: she left her binky on the table at the library while she was making sure she had one of each flyer available. More than one of the really important flyers. Anyway, on the way home, she realized she'd left the binky behind and demanded that Mommy 'go get it at the library so the bad guys don't get my binky!' Fortunately for Mommy, we had a duplicate binky at home.

I'm not dead yet!

Yes, the blog lives. It's just sadly neglected. What's a good excuse...? Er...we'll blame it on 'having a two-year-old.'

Speaking of two-year-olds... This was a fun project of Karen's. That's vegetable oil, with a healthy dose of olive oil, all over my kitchen floor. She was 'making a birthday cake for Mommy.' And then she realized that it was, in fact, a mess instead of a cake and she got some sponges and rags to clean it up. Points for effort Karen. But that was absolutely disgusting to clean up. The second picture shows how she's lived this long. She's so darn cute. (Especially wearing lots of chapstick all over her face.)

While Noah and Daddy were on the Father Son campout, and Karen was occupied with Blues Clues, Sarah got a sewing lesson. I helped make sure the fabric was straight a couple of times, and I did the square reenforcements on the straps for her, but other than that, she did it herself.

(Hint: It's a tote bag. Not a dress.)

Zoo trip!

Perfect capture of the kids. Sarah hamming it up, Noah trying to avoid pictures, Karen oblivious and patting another child: "Aww. Cute baby!"

Halloween (and this post) Go on ForEVER!

Sarah started out as a pumpkin, but we altered that to a witch for dance class. She was so cute, we kept it.

That's one saucy pirate. Arrr!


Karen the Candy Fiend, complete with wings. She caught on enough to say "Treat?" at doors. And finally, "No! No pictures!"

I swear, Halloween has turned into a week-long marathon. We've been busy with activities all week.

• The Trunk-or-Treat and Fall Festival carnival at Church was last Wednesday.
  
• We used Family Home Evening on Monday to carve Noah's pumpkin and make a plan for Karen's. Sarah and I used the clearance candy-making kit we picked up after Halloween last year.
  
• Then on Tuesday, Sarah's dance class had a little Halloween party where the girls showed us some dance moves - kangaroo jumps, skeleton walking, ghost gliding, something or other leaps...basic dance things with Halloween-y names. And then they exchanged treats (Sarah brought Halloween suckers made from the kit).
  
• Thursday, I took Noah and Karen to the library for storytime and trick or treating around the library.
  
• That night, Noah's karate class practiced for 10 minutes then spent the rest of class doing 'fun drills' - a ring toss, bean bag toss, bowling, sack races... I was in charge of the bean bags, which got interesting when Karen insisted on being held while I did squats with 30 pounds trying to pick up bean bags for the kids.
• As if that weren't enough in one day, I took the kids to the safe house run by the firefighters at the town hall center. It was CRAZY. They said they were expecting 4000-5000 kids over the two days. All I have to say is that if they were expecting that many, why on earth did they cram it into the tiny center?? We pushed our way through the crowds so the kids could play some carnival games, get some candy, and earn some prizes. They handed out paper money for winning games that the kids could exchange for prizes at very reasonable rates, I must say (great options for 1 or 2 'dollars'). Although, we really didn't need to come home with four more stuffed animals. I wish they'd gone for the glow sticks instead. And the highlight for the kids? Getting to ride in a real bus that shuttled us from the high school parking lot to the town center. Highlight for Mom: getting to round out the lower body work out with some upper by carrying a tired Karen the whole time. Love it. Love the pain.
• Friday finally rolled around. It's Rich's off Friday, so he took Noah to his art class and took Karen with him. I got to catch up on laundry and dishes. I also made a big pot of Russian tea to combat these nasty colds and sore throats that have been plaguing us all week.
• Sarah went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Apparently the patch called the teacher yesterday that they were OUT of PUMPKINS! Nice. You can't tell a 1st grader that. They worked quickly and made a deal with Walmart. They trucked a bunch of pumpkins from the store out to the patch, and some volunteers went early to set them out in the field. None of the kids any the wiser.
• I went over to the school to help set up for the Halloween party when the kids got back from the field trip. They kept sugar to a minimum, having popcorn, fruit, veggies and dip, and juice. Just a cupcake and a few pieces of candy to take home.
• Halloween night...finally. Rich and I browbeat the kids into actually eating dinner. Then we dressed up, Sarah a witch, Noah a pirate, and Karen a ladybug. There is no photographic evidence, but I was 'The Night." All black. And then I took a white jacket so I wouldn't get run over. Trick or Treating was fun. We only went once around one side of the block...the kids were worn out. Then they had great fun sitting in the driveway handing out candy. Karen tried to put half eaten pieces of her own in kids' bags, but I think we caught everything except a piece of popcorn.
  
• And by this time, I'm thinking I should have been blogging all week, because this post is turning into a book. Sorry. At least I put the pictures first, right?
  

And now the candy. Lots of candy. Here's my latest trick. I just learned about this book from another blog. I was going to give the kids a day or two with the candy to enjoy it then set it out for 'the Halloween Fairy,' but they were so excited they ate some tonight and put it out. Sarah was sooo excited, she put hers on the front porch without consulting me, and it promptly got dumped in some teenagers' sacks. Grr. She was really sad when she found out I'd meant by her bedroom door. She knew the fairy didn't get it because nothing was left behind. We put some other candy by her door, and 'the fairy will understand.' I'm leaving money instead of toys because #1, I wasn't on top of things enough to get something when I went shopping early in the week, and #2, I think it will be fun to take them to the store to pick something out themselves. We'll see how it goes.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

So, here's my big girl. 6 years old.

The cake was all her idea. It's supposed to be a castle with a ballroom on the roof.



Happy Birthday Sarah!

Just before Fall Break, they had Spirit week at school. Magic Monday was fun with fairy wings, Twin Tuesday was typical jeans and T-shirt like her friend Abby, Wacky Wednesday had clothes on backward and a side ponytail, and Pajama Thursday was pretty darn easy. So, we weren't the most elaborate participants, but we did it.

This is from Hippie Friday. Who has child-sized hippie stuff? We made do, and she looks like she could totally be a flower child...

Here's her quarter-end school project, a desert shadow box. She did everything herself (except cut the box opening). My favorite part is the pipe cleaner ocotillo.