Christmas Program

Please forgive us for this technically challenged but none-the-less enjoyable video from Hannah's Christmas Program last night.

She's near the bottom in a bright green shirt (however, if you turn your head so that the picture is orientated correctly, she's on the far left!).

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday! (OR Out of the frying pan...)

That's 6 people, in case you were counting! We celebrated Hannah's birthday this past weekend with a rainbow party, at her request. We began with some rainbow t-shirt painting, played musical rainbow (our version of musical chairs) and pin the cloud on the rainbow. Above, Hannah poses with the rainbow she painted for the pin-the-cloud game.
Party girls with rainbow necklaces. (Not leis!) Hannah was excited to celebrate with some of her bffs and new friends from down the street.

We finished with hot fudge sundae style rainbow brownies. Yum! I don't know where the girl gets her taste in dessert! ;)

Shad came home at the end of the party with a surprise of his own (for ALL of us). Introducing Louie...

A young goldendoodle (golden retriever poodle mix), Louie has made some fast friends here. He's a real sweetheart!

The most wonderful time of the year!

What a month it has been! I have such an affinity for autumn- I love the bright brisk days, the changing leaves. Seriously- it is MY time of year. Where we used to live this season would last at least a couple of months. Here, we're lucky to get it for a month before the rain sets in and those sunny days are much much fewer and farer between.

That said, this fall has been full of all kinds of new, exciting, and different things. Settling in at Kindergarten brings a plethora of autumn crafts, songs, poems, coming home everyday crammed in Hannah's pink backpack!

Hannah and I are both new Girl Scouts this fall. She's a Daisy Scout and I'm one of her fearless leaders. (Mark your calendars, I believe cookie sales start in late January!) We've had two meetings which have been SO energizing. I've seen a new side of her- the more independent, growing-up side, and it is amazing.

Sarah really got into the whole idea of Halloween this year. See photo below for proof. :)

This year we made our annual trip to a pumpkin patch with the company of our friends Elena, Jeff, Sam and Anthony and enjoyed carving pumpkins and a yummy soup dinner at their house. It was quite a feat to get this photo of all eight of us looking at the camera at the same time!

My pumpkin is the uncarved one, third from the right, Shad's is the ENORMOUS white one, Hannah's spider and Sarah's little cat are on the far right. I did manage to carve my pumpkin a couple of days before Halloween.

I really had it together and we did a full-blown costume run two days before Halloween so we could troubleshoot any issues. I even impressed myself when I remembered to bring my camera and get some shots in good light of my little ladybug and gypsy queen:

We were optimistic this year- Hannah has planned on being a gypsy since LAST Halloween when one of her girlfriends was one. Oma scored some great finds at local thrift stores to complete the look. Sarah vacillated a lot (let's see there was shark, octopus, bat, spider, pumpkin... that's the short list) and she made Oma really nervous when she would say, "Don't worry Oma, you make it for me." (Hee hee! What confidence that girl has in her Oma!)

Friday I was able to help out with the Halloween party in Hannah's classroom. The girls changed into their costumes so we could head out to the College to visit our girlfriend Sue O., who has known Hannah since before she was born! Sarah decided on the way to the van that she didn't want to wear her ladybug costume after all so she went in her black shirt and pants that went under the costume.

Then we ran to the bank as Hannah was the Grand Prize Winner in their Halloween coloring contest. She won a pumpkin full of candy and she was really tickled. Sarah got honorable mention in her age group. ;)

We met Shad at home for the final push out the door for dinner with Jeff, Elena, Sam and Anthony and check out the hayrides and carnival games in their neighborhood. I'm still not sure where it all went awry. The girls hit the dress-up box at the VERY last minute and we ended up going out with a bubble fairy and a dancer, as well as an Ewok and a witch:

I'm not sure why Sarah looks so glum in this photo. She had a great time. It was crazy weather- stormy all morning, gray skies, and WARM. Poor Anthony was roasting in his fur coat. Our evening was an early one- the girls were in bed, asleep by 8.


And, on a wholly unrelated note, Sarah asked me to do her hair for the first time in months. Pig-tails. Couldn't you just eat her up??

Happy B-Day to me! :)

I'm so not one to toot my own horn BUT I had to share this card from my sweetie... he knows me so well! :)


Thanks, Mom, for a wonderful day with you, and Shad, of course, for helping make it happen.

Goodbye Friend

Elwood- good dog. Smiling face. Wagging tail. Swimming, running, fetching. We called her Mama-dog because she was such a mother to the other animals she shared her time here with.

We knew that this time would come and find comfort in the small joys she had this summer: lots of naps and rest- inside and in the warm sun, love and special pats. Watching her deteriorate over the past week was difficult. We were so blessed to have our vet and friend come out this afternoon so she wouldn't have to bear one more trip to his office.

It has only been a few hours but already it feels like something is missing from the house.

Elwood- run hard, eat cookies, get belly rubs, swim in the river, and keep an eye on us. We will miss you always.

Firsts...

Sooo, I recently received an obituary for my blog- eek! And we have news to share AND when I got on here to share the news I found this old post that I never finished AND it has some fun pictures so I thought I share it first!

Our end-of-summer tempera-paint the porch party turns into a tempera-paint your sister party!

Sarah's first day of Little Learners (for this school year, she went for a couple of months last year). Can you tell she's excited??
Hannah's first day of Kindergarten- she just keeps growing!
Sarah came home from school and I was aghast at the state of her hair (which is unruly at best)... ... so she had her first trim- bangs only. Still not sure if it was a good idea, but at least she could see! And, obviously, she was tickled with it!

Ok, now that I'm kind of up-to-date...

Big Week (Make that Two)

Ok, I found this post from August sitting in the to be published box. Can I remember ANYTHING else about this post?? No! But, I started it, there's a couple of pics, so enjoy...



I started this post LAST Sunday and now I'm just hoping I can remember all the BIG events from the past two weeks...
Hannah and Shad collaborated on a sculpture to enter in an art contest for the summer reading program at the library (Jackson County, of course, as we still don't have one!). You can see them hard at work below. They worked together on the flower and Hannah made the ladybug and worm all by herself. Shad made the caterpillar for Sarah. I delivered the flower, ladybug, and worm to the library and Hannah won one of the prizes- a gift certificate to a local bookstore- she was really proud and tickled!