Hiking shots

We recently spent a sunny Saturday hiking. I got some cute pics.

This little girl is turning 4 soon! I call her my "understudy" because she talks to her siblings like she's in charge. She has her "I mean it" tone, her sweet tone, and even an "I know you don't like it but I'll explain sympathetically" tone. It's too funny.

O-oh-oh-oh sweet child o' mine

Here's the baby sitting by our piano. She's starting to sing little songs.
And today I was exercising to music & both little girls came over to join in. Their dance moves were great. It made it really fun. It might even inspire me to exercise again before NEXT New Years comes along!

Kid Christmas Survey

I've worried that having our kids write out a wish list fostered the wrong focus on the season. Yet, my better half felt differently, because he wants to give them specific gifts they want. This year we came up with an idea my husband & I both loved...a Christmas survey!

We printed out questions for everyone like, "What's your favorite Christmas tradition? What is one new thing you'd like to do this year? What are some things you'd like for Christmas?" 3 lines were provided to answer the gift question, so we have a few ideas, but are not building expectations they they'll get everything they can imagine. Plus, we like to surprise them with gifts not on their list too.

The last question was "who do you think we can help this Christmas and how?"
It was good to hear what makes Christmas feel special to them so we make sure we do those things.
And I like that their lists were not just about gifts, but about memory-making and serving others.
Hope your Holidays are sweet & filled with what matters most!

Fall Festival Games

Hope your fall has been fun! I can't believe it's November.
I've been helping to get a few games together for our school's upcoming fall festival.
Like this, for instance...

We have a duck race where kids use squirt bottles to squirt their floating racer towards the finish line. This is my favorite game to compete in...I mean, ahem, to "test out" to make sure it's fair and that each squirt bottle has comparable stream strength.

Soda bottles make great bowling pins.

And we put together some obstacles and targets for mini golf.

The windmill box turns the ball 90 degrees. Plus we have a ramp for hole 7. With a ramp and a windmill, that's legitimate put-put, right?

The best part about this is how much fun our kids have trying out the games! It's been fun to have them help me.

Wedding Photos

My youngest brother got married this weekend!

It was BEAUTIFUL & we were so happy they included us.

Miss H was thrilled to be a flower girl!

Curly here was supposed to be one too, but got cold feet & didn't walk down the aisle. Oh well, better her than anyone else!

Here's my sweet new sister-in-law. She is fun, talented, kind, creative, pretty, organized, & so great with all the nieces & nephews.
They did so much themselves: their own flowers, table decorations, cute things for the kids, and a smores bar-- super great, super fun idea! And their favors were little jars of honey in honor of our G'pa who was a beekeeper. My photography skills don't do her flowers justice, but I wanted a pic anyway.
Our boys got spiffed up as well.

Their colors were grey & yellow.

This brother is so lovable. One of my favorite stories about him was when we were at a reunion. A lot of us arrived at the same time so the hotel parking lot was filled with family. But when one of my brothers drove up, his daughter leaned her head out the window to yell, "It's Uncle Brent!" She was more excited to see him than to see all the rest of us combined! Hahaha. Last time he came to visit us, he played hockey with D and complimented my house decorations (kept saying, "that looks like it came from Pottery Barn" when most people would probably think, "this all looks like it came from goodwill.") He has lots of enthusiasm, is funny, and is a good buddy to our cousin with down syndrome that lives close. Here's a pic of all 4 of my brothers.

Father of the groom.

Mother of the groom, sister, & niece.
Two of our older nieces were junior bridesmaids.

WE ARE SO HAPPY FOR THE BRIDE & GROOM!

Super Seven Year Old!

This kid has the audacity to keep getting older!

It doesn't seem that long ago that HE was the baby.
He's always been really fun-loving, even as a tiny guy.
He's now growing so tall, smart, & witty. He cracks us up all the time.
He had a dinosaur party with friends. We did some dino-themed games & had fun.

In preparation, I found lots of things on the web I wanted to mimic, such as:

So cute, isn't it? But I realized that 6 & 7 yr olds care a lot more about playing with friends & eating yummy food than they do about admiring matching food labels.
So, I confess I printed food labels, but I really tried to remind myself that I wasn't creating enviable decorations, I was aiming to make it simply fun. So, I borrowed a cardboard sign from a generous homeless person & called it good!

Camping with kids

Miss H recently turned 9.
To celebrate, we rented a cabin from the forest service & had a fun camping adventure in the mountains.
It surprised us what entertained the kids that weekend. For HOURS they played with the janitorial mop bucket on wheels, taking turns riding in it down the cabin porch ramp. They also liked searching the area for animal bones. They found a book about insects on a bookshelf in the cabin which came in handy for a science project D was assigned. It was a really fun get away.

I used to love camping as a kid... the smell of pine trees, napping in a hammock, enjoying nature & drinking hot chocolate in the mornings. Camping was simple, relaxing, & fabulous.
Then, we became parents.
Camping was no longer simple OR relaxing.
I noticed this taking D camping at age 2. You have to stop little ones from eating bugs or stumbling into the fire. You have to be vigilant so they don't drown in a creek, sit on a cactus patch, fall off a cliff, or try to chase a skunk yelling "come back kitty". You need so much more stuff. Kids don't sleep well, so neither do you. And no more naps in the hammock to compensate for the less than optimal sleep. There's no time for that because you are busy trying to convince your children that even though the outhouse is scary & stinky, they can't just hold it for the whole trip.
CABINS ARE THE WAY TO GO WHEN CAMPING WITH KIDS! There was a shower and a real potty. We had actual mattresses & everyone had their own bed. You can still smell the pine trees and hike with beautiful scenery, but when you make your hot chocolate in the morning, you can heat it up in the microwave rather than chop wood and start a fire.
Marvelous.
We're doing it that way again.
For gifts, she picked out these cute boots & a top. It's fun to shop with her.


For her school birthday celebration, Miss H wanted to do a minion craft, so we decorated yellow water bottle labels. This was a fun, cute, quick project that complied with the school's new "no treats" policy. I think it worked out well.

You can see the baby's growing. She's taken a few steps. Her giggle is adorable.
Life is good.