Halloween 2010 in a Nutshell

Super Daddy and Pumpkin Parker

Uncle Icecream and the little pumpkin

Paislee the "ex-mummy", Uncle Bret and that smiling pumpkin again

Me, Heidi, some little girl I don't know, Kaylynn and Bret's hand

Ella and Kaylynn dancing in a circle

Grant the Green Dinosaur

The dinosaur and his friends swimming like little fish through the grasses

Cinder Kaylynn and the pinata, she was one of the first kids to take a whack and she scored a little smartie out of it

The Little Mermaid Ella, she has my hand/eye coordination and missed the pinata the first few times, this is her expressing her frustration with the swinging pinata

Three little princesses all in a row

The dinosaur taking his turn

Our little crew before the Trunk or Treat on Saturday

Muddy Pumpkins

We had a fun, semi chilly, very muddy morning at the pumpkin patch with a few of our friends from church. The kids absolutely didn't mind the mud and had so much fun on the farm.
Grant was so excited to find a pumpkin that sported his favorite color, green, that he had to get it! He even packed it around for a few minutes before handing it off to me. Later they learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin and when they showed the photo of a green pumpkin he was so excited and told the lady that it was his favorite color. He had so much enthusiasm he was yelling and jumping as he announced it.

Ella's pumpkin. She quietly walked through the pumpkin vines until she spotted the one she wanted. Once she had decided which one she stuck with it.

Grant with a fiesty little pony. These guys did not like their stable mates at all, there was some bullying and biting going around. Definitely not the greatest example for these kiddos to see but hilarious at the same time.

Parker the red nosed baby. It was a little chilly and since she wasn't running around she was a tiny bit cold. She had a shiny red, runny nose but was happy anyway (when isn't she)?

The ever popular hay maze, they ran back and forth through this thing for a good ten minutes. Every now and then they'd hit a dead end, turn around and run smack into another little kid, good times!

My little buddy, who insisted I take his photo. He cracks me up, don't you just love how he wears his hat like a little old man, crooked and askew.

The Big 3

We celebrated Grant's third birthday in September. He's growing so fast and is the funniest little boy! I asked him early in the week what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner. After a long pause he responded with, "Rotten eggs and snails". I had to laugh, then figure out how to make him what he wanted. For breakfast he had "rotten eggs" and bacon!
And for dessert he had snail cupcakes (they had green oozey stuff in the middle).
He asked for a green bean bag for his birthday and was so excited to open it, then go watch a movie while he sat on his own bag!

And for our activity we went bowling, he loves to bowl.

We invited our local family to come with us, above is his cousin Tripp.

Aunt Sarah with Parker.

Grant telling Grandpa Bret that he's three.

Grandpa Bret taking his turn with Parker.

Tripp became quite the bowler by the end of the night, he caught on very quickly and was throwing that ball down the lane like a pro.

Paislee and Grammy Shar.

Ella bowling left handed?

The wildest bowler of the night was Paislee, both her body and her ball were all over the place.

Uncle Allen and Parker. Papa Bill smooching on lil' P.

The birthday boy:

His favorite color: green

His favorite food: fruit snacks

His favorite toy: Buzz

His favorite movie: Toy Story

His favorite candy: Chocolate

Daddy and Grant, such handsome men!

KiNdErGaRtEn!

After much deliberation, prayers, and patience Ella started Kindergarten last week. After the lotteries last spring Paislee was placed in one charter school and Ella in another. We hoped that they would get into the same school eventually, Paislee started out as number 16 at Ella's school and Ella was number 7 at Paislee's school. Last Tuesday I received a call from Ella's school stating that they had an opening for Paislee. This was after she had already been attending her school for a week and a half, we had gone to the opening family picnic, and we were all thrilled with the school. I was torn, did we leave her there, hoping Ella would eventually join her?
So I called Paislee's school to see what position Ella was on the waiting list, she was now #1. We felt pretty comfortable with her position, that she would eventually get in, if not right away maybe later this year. So we left Paislee at her school and turned down the opening at Ella's. I felt sick to my stomach afterwards, had I just lost the opportunity to have my girls attend the same school?

And then the next morning I received another call, Paislee's school had an opening for Ella! We were estactic, she was in, they would be going to the same school. Everything had worked out exactly as we had hoped. And the next day Ella started Kindergarten. She loves it! She had her first homework tonight and she was so excited, right now homework is fun!

And this little guy, he gets to take a nap with his baby sister while his older ones are in school. And I? I have a few hours to myself to do whatever I want (er need) to do. Today it was canning spaghetti sauce, tomorrow I'm hoping it's finishing book two in The Hunger Games and starting book three!

A New Look

When it was time to get the girl's hair cut for back to school Ella had an idea. She wanted to go short, she wanted to have the shortest hair in the house (well, in comparison to Paislee and I). And she was determined. I was okay with it, in fact had been thinking about cutting it short for a long time but didn't know how she would react, but I wasn't sure what Jake would think.
When I asked him if she could cut her hair short his reply was, "She can do whatever she wants, it's her hair." I'm almost positive this will backfire on him in 10 years when she wants to dye it black, or hot pink, but hey, Daddy said!
And it really is cute! It's taken awhile to get used to. She loves it though, how short it is in the back, how easy it is for her to comb. It's darling to see her "fluff" it with the palm of her hand.

As you can tell she's perfectly happy with the decision she made, and if Ella's happy, well, it sure makes living with her more bearable!

Pool Time

We spend a lot of time hanging out at the neighborhood pool. It's so nice to have a place to go that's close, we can walk down, hang out for an hour and head home. It doesn't create a big disturbance in our day, it's just part of it.

Parker is a bathing beauty, we keep her out of the sun as much as we can. She doesn't love the water or hate it, she's content pretty much anywhere!
Grant is hilarious. The three older kids received new goggles this year, he insists on wearing his, even though he doesn't put his head under the water. Usually the green part hangs out on his forehead slightly tilted to the side, but on this day he was sporting them backwards. His favorite part about swimming? Talking to the other swimmers, he is such a friendly, outgoing kid!

This little girl has become an awesome swimmer. She loves loves loves the water and could stay in it all day.

The three little swimmers posing in the bright sun. Another benefit to the pool; they seem to get along better when we are there!

This one honestly couldn't get any easier. She fell asleep and slept soundly until it was time to go. Nothing like a nap on a hot summer afternoon, laying on a pile of towels on the concrete, in the shade.

There would be more pictures of Paislee and Ella, except their heads aren't above water long enough to capture their sweet little faces. I guess I could always photograph their floating toesies and backsides, but I think a grin is always the best!