Leftovers

I took the kids out TWICE in the last few days to take pictures for our Christmas card.

We're going with bold and colorful this year.

These are the ones I'm not using, the leftovers.

But they are too good to not share.

What handsome, beautiful, photogenic kids I have!

Look for our Christmas card soon in a mailbox near you!

Braggin'

I love parent-teacher conferences.

There's just something extra great about someone else, some non-partial party, telling you how wonderful your kids are. I mean, of course I think those things all the time. It crosses my mind almost daily how polite, fun, caring, loving, sensitive, intelligent, and cooperative my children are. It also crosses my mind how frustrating, whiny, messy, mean, annoying, and dense my children are, too but that's not what this particular post is about!

In the past couple of weeks Josh and I have attended conferences for both Morgan and Mason and we left both feeling so proud of our two oldest children. Their teachers said everything you would hope they could say--that Morgan is hard-working, kind, sweet, patient, funny, a good friend, pays attention, is always on task, very caring and SMART. The girl is reading on a 7.8 grade level, which means she reads like that of someone in her eighth month of SEVENTH GRADE. She totally takes after her mother.

Mason's teacher is wonderful and I just love her. Mason also loves her because "she said she would never yell at us and she said we could eat our dessert first at lunch." I'm always very curious about what his teachers are going to say about him because while he is caring and sensitive and polite and takes direction well, he is also loud, impulsive, and crazy at times. But Mason's teacher did not have one single negative thing to say about him. In fact, she actually called him DEAR. Yes, my son, my rambunctious, loud, impulsive, selectively-hard-of-hearing son is dear to his teacher. I don't think there is another word I would rather hear to describe one of my children. He is also smart, reading at a level G (by the end of first grade they want you reading on a level J so he is almost there only a few months into the school year). He is also very curious and asks LOTS of good questions. He totally takes after his father.

They are having an awesome school year so far and I feel so thankful. I'm thankful for great teachers who truly seem to enjoy having my kids in their class and thankful for such wonderful kids!

I can't wait til conferences in the spring!

Happy Halloween 2011

What a beautiful night we had for trick-or-treating! Hope yours was as lovely as ours!

This year two BIG Halloween happenings took place. 1. I helped throw an adult-only Halloween costume party with my dear friend, Elizabeth. It was so much fun and so! much! work! Took me a full two days to recover! And 2. I didn't completely make the kids costumes (see #1 for the reason). I only made a few things for Addie and Morgan and absolutely nothing for Mason. It was liberating and difficult all at the same time (I'll explain below).

First up, my first born as ANNIE!

I found this red dress in a cataloge and just had to add the white collar and belt. Easy peasy! She is quite an Annie fan, so this costume was right up her alley.

She even had a heart locket to complete the outfit (and she made sure I got a close-up so everyone would see it).

Next, the man in the middle, aka SPECIAL FORCES OFFICER!

I cringe at these pictures. Not only because he took too long getting ready so it was already dark and I had to use the flash (blah!) but because I allowed him to choose this incredibly expensive but very, very cheap costume out of a magazine. I think he wanted it because of the gun and (non-working) walkie-talkie. I knew that it would not be of good quality but I was not at all expecting that it would be pretty non-functional as a costume. Poor guy could barely walk because he was trying to hold up those knee-pad thingies and the holster attached to his thigh (which holds a flashlight and the walkie-talkie). They were even pinned on and they still wouldn't say put! Not to mention the gas mask the he could neither see out of nor breathe out of. This is the difficult part of not having to make him anything. I loved not having to slave away on the sewing machine but spending actual MONEY on this piece of junk just about killed me. Geesh. What a waste of money! Never again!!

He felt pretty cool, though. For awhile. Josh and I ended up carrying the gas mask and the holster thing while we walked the neighborhood. Oh well! Live and learn!

And lastly, the littlest one as none other than LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD!

She was so cute running from house to house in her little hooded cape! I only had to make the simple hood and cape. The dress I bought and she can wear throughout this winter.

And BONUS! Mom was also Red Riding Hood for her Halloween party (Daddy was a modern day woodcutter aka Lumberjack)!

Our neighborhood is awesome for trick-or-treating. It's not too big to walk and the kids get just the right amount of candy.

Next year I have already decided we are going to institute the $5 Halloween Costume Challenge. The kids will each get $5 to purchase things to add to costumes they come up with using only things we already have at home. I really want to stretch their imaginations and also save some time (sewing) and money next Halloween. I think it will be fun! I remember always coming up with my own costumes as a kid and I loved it. I also think the homemade ones are so much better and more original than anything that can be purchased from a magazine or sewn at home! My wheels are already turning! And now I'm off to sneak a Snickers before anyone gets home from school...

Happy Halloween!

Halfway to 18

Morgan turned nine years old two weeks ago. I know what you're thinking. Nine? How is it possible? But, it's true. She's halfway to 18. Gulp.

She wanted a Harry Potter birthday, so of course I obliged. This cake was a total pain in the rear even though it looks very simple. That black fondant kept cracking and I almost threw the whole thing in the trash. But it all worked out in the end (just don't look too closely). I found a similar cake online and copied it to the best of my ability (which isn't saying much).

Harry Potter fans will appreciate the red and gold colors edging the cake. Ten points if you can tell me why!

We kept things very simple this year. We allowed Morgan to invite 4 friends (which was so hard for her--she wanted to invite 20!) to the movies and then out for pizza. We all went to see Dolphin Tale and I snuck into the theatre (don't tell) bags of  "Gryffindor Popcorn" for the girls to eat (popcorn, pretzels, candy corn, and m&m's). After the movie we headed to the pizza place for presents, dinner, and cake.

The girls all had a blast and it was a very easy day for me (minus being up until 3 am finishing that cake).

The girls all kept their 3D glasses from the movie and popped out the lenses. They wore them all night long and looked so cute and funny!

What a great birthday!

And because I never got around to posting after last year's birthday (FAIL), here's a pic from when Morgan turned eight (This was the year she had a sleepover with about 10 friends. Never doing that again!):

My, how she's changed in one year!

You Can't Handle the DIRT!

(This is my favorite picture from this weekend. We are all waiting on Zach, my brother, to get the camera timer set and ready. Please notice the filth on my children. And how skinny I look. Thank you.)

We went camping this weekend. It's a fall tradition that we started when Addie was a baby (I'd post a picture from that first camping adventure but it would make me BAWL, so I'll link to that post instead. Click Here!). Our very favorite place to go is Robber's Cave but because of Josh's busy schedule and Morgan's many soccer games, it was not meant to be (For the second year in a row! Boo!). We hope to make it there in the spring. As is also tradition, my brother, his lovely wife Amy, and their son Triston came along!

This year we went to Keystone State Park. It wasn't ideal; not much hiking, our campsite was not as secluded as we would have liked, it was super dusty and way too warm for camping, plus Josh had a cold and was not feeling too great BUT WE MADE SOME MEMORIES ANYWAY, DARN IT. And the kids had an absolute blast!

Campsite.

View from campsite. The foliage is just starting to turn. I'm sure in the next 2 weeks it will be all ablaze with color!

We spent some time down at the water's edge. I'm so thankful I brought along the kids' rainboots. I'll never go camping without them again!

Mason spent the entire time improving his rock-skipping skillz. Yes, that's skills with a z.

Addie spent the entire time climbing on rocks, getting her boots completely wet, taking said boots off and putting them on again (many, many times), washing said boots off in the water (many, many times) and absolutely, totally, completely NOT looking at the camera. I didn't get a single decent shot of my girl's pretty little face!

Morgan, on the other hand, is quite the poser (and I mean that in a good way). She loves to work the camera.

And make funny faces!

These pretty white flowers were everywhere!

This was, by far, the dirtiest camping trip we've ever taken. My OCD tendencies have learned to take a back seat when we are living outside for the weekend and I've come to accept that everyone and everything is going to get pretty dirty while we are camping. But this was just too much for me. Our campsite was so dusty and dirty. There was so much loose dirt and there was no way the kids could avoid it (even if they had wanted to). I have never seen my children get so completely filthy in such a short amount of time. FIL.THY. These pictures don't even do the filth justice.

Mason was dirty, literally from head to toe. You would not believe the rivers of mud that washed off my children once we got home. I need to go scrub the bathtub. SO. FIL.THY! But that just means that they had the best time ever, right?

Thanks to our brand new 2-room tent and some comfy cots, Josh and I slept pretty well this year. As long as you don't count the loud crows, multiple train horn blasts, and unseasonably warm temperatures. Oh yeah, and that band that played until 11:00 down at the lake restaurant.

But overall we had a great time. It was great to make these memories. And sit around a campfire in the dark. And watch a racoon watch us from the treeline. And let the kids run amok in the woods. And bask in the brightest moonlight I've seen in a long time. So we will definitely be doing this again!

But the best part about camping is just being with each other! (And coming home to a hot shower. Amen.)