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!

And so it goes...

Summer, that is. August. Really? Where did that come from? It is almost unfathomable to me that six weeks have passed since last I blogged. Ah well... we've been going so fast that the calendar for July is literally empty- there wasn't even a chance to write anything down! And calendar #2, the one I maintained on the fridge for scrapbooking purposes- is still on April (at least it is another "A" month now, right??).

Late June found us in Bend for Shad's Summer Regional Meeting at Seventh Mountain Resort. It was fun for the girls and I to meet some new people and see some that we've missed for the past year. Here's a timed family pic from the award banquet evening:

We drove down to Ashland for their annual Fourth of July Parade and festivities- live music, food booths, etc and were home and the girls were in bed before dark- no fireworks this year (neither the good ooohh-and-ahhh in the sky kind nor the not-so-good screaming fits of rage kind- it was a nice balance!).

Shad and some of the other EJ offices in town hosted an ice cream social on June 12- there was a live band, clowns, face painting, gallon upon gallon of ice cream (and maraschino cherries). Shad's first jobs at She She's and Freddy's Ice Cream Shop came in handy as he gave the other Financial Advisors a quick lesson in scooping ice cream. Grammie, Oma and Opa were all there as well as Sam, Hannah's bff from preschool and her brother and dad.

DFD sent me to Seattle for three days in mid July for some DonorPerfect training. The training was great and it was a wonderful opportunity to expand my knowledge of this area of our office. Traveling without the girls was liberating in a my-load-is-lighter kind of way. I took the stairs instead of the elevator, ate when I was hungry, read two books. I apparently have also matured to the point that traveling by airplane just isn't really very exciting- definitely better than cars for long trips, but the novelty has worn off for sure.

When I returned home the girls and I packed up for a weekend in Corvallis enjoying Da Vinci Days in Corvallis with our wonderful friends, Amy, Ryan, Aidan, Lauren, Bethie, and Ryan's family. The weekend was full of live music, arts, crafts, science, frisbee dogs, solar powered car racing, kinetic sculptures, etc but the highlight for sure was spending time with friends and eating Indian food (in that order). Hannah and Aidan seem to have matured so much now that they are 5 (har!) and can enjoy each other's company and we see Sarah and Lauren entering some of those tough two-year-old times (will we have to wait three years for them to interact in a more socially acceptable/enjoyable way??).

This past week we had some family photos taken and on Thursday we hosted a tie-dye party for some of our dear friends- eight children between the ages of 2 and 7, five mamas, a hot day, all kinds of white clothing. It was definitely an event! In the days leading up to it I knew that I would be lacking some key organizational and preparation points (I worked three days that week!) and I decided that it was more important to have the party and have fun than to be the ultimate hostess-with-the-mostess. This is a huge step for me. Luckily, I am surrounded by four amazingly capable women and together we pulled the whole thing off. And, being as there were four scrapbookers there, it says a lot that we don't have a single picture of the process! :)

And now we're in the less-than-a-month til school starts countdown- gasp! We've got the fair, an art class or two for the kiddos, library days, a visit from the Mayfields, and as much Katie time as we can cram in to look forward to.

I'll leave you with a few pics!

I think Katie is pretty enterprising- she's got the girls thinking that washing her car is a great way to spend a summer day. For what it is worth, she is WAY more diligent than I when it comes to sunscreen- which is good given the pale skin we've got around here!

This picture melts my heart. The girls have been spending some quality time playing together. I love it when they pretend Hannah is the baby and Sarah is the mommy. It's a hoot, actually. (Sarah's new word- as in "I'm Pocahontas, actually.")

Cutest little bag lady out there! Don't y'all wish you could pick some of this lovin up at the store??

Wonderful, crazy week!

I never cease to be amazed at just how quickly our schedule goes from empty to overflowing! This past week is a prime example:



Monday: Hannah and Sarah were absolutely tickled to have the company of M & E for a few hours Monday afternoon. These girls have been friends for coming up on 4 years and we've missed having regular playdates together as the girls have gotten older and school schedules have gotten more complicated. What fun they had playing dress-up and staging little plays.


Tuesday: Hannah's last official day of preschool. I went to work that day and Katie picked the girls up from school and took them to lunch.



Wednesday: Sarah's last official day of school til fall. I worked all day Wednesday and Super-Dad and Super-Oma manned the ship including drop-off for Sarah at school, lunch out with Oma and a super-fun shopping trip to Wal-Mart. (And they obviously did an excellent job, I love coming home to happy kids and family!)

Here's a picture of the completely installed swingset (note Hannah playing in the fort) and, in the foreground, the new tree I won at a silent auction at work. The swingset is getting A LOT of mileage. It was a very sound investment and the girls, especially Hannah at this point, use it a lot. She runs out there by herself quite often.

Thursday: Playday at Hannah's school for all the students in her preschool program and the toddler group that Sarah attends. It was a blast! The play area was filled with teachers, kiddos, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, 2 bounce houses, face painting, bubbles, and picnics.

Hannah and Sarah decided on matching lady bugs at the face painting station.

It is a mixed crowd. There are students leaving for kindergarten, students who will be returning to the preschool program next year, toddlers who will move up to the preschool program, and toddlers who will be returning. There are also a few families who will attend a different preschool next year (although I cannot begin to imagine why!).

Here's a group of special friends: S, Hannah, Sarah, M, and E. Oh how we'll miss seeing those smiling faces each morning...

And Teacher Julie who has been Hannah's lead teacher in the Purple Class for the past two years. We love her and will miss her horribly until Sarah starts the preschool program there in a year!
The students who are moving on to Kindergarten get a special diploma in an informal ceremony during "Closing Circle" where we all gather together to share a book and a song. Here are S and Hannah with their diplomas. What big kids they're becoming!
Shad brought little balloons home to the girls on Thursday night as an end-of-school year surprise and we took them out to dinner to celebrate Hannah's moving-on from preschool. Hannah chose Matsukaze and we ate traditional-style at the low tables on the floor. Those girls can pack away the miso soup, chicken teriyaki, and rice!

I love this picture of Sarah just because it shows her absolutely crazy hair. I cannot believe how fine it is! It curls and waves every which way! ;)

Friday: Katie came to play ALL DAY while I went to work. It was a long day and it ended when I sprained my ankle trying to unload a bale of hay from our trailer (after Shad asked me not to, of course!). A trip to the Immediate Care and Pharmacy later and we were all tucked safely into bed for a good night's sleep. Shad is an excellent nurse and took superb care of me this weekend.

Saturday: Frog O' Faire. Hannah was heartbroken when we decided that it wouldn't be in the best interest of my ankle to traipse around the uneven ground at the park for this fun and exciting day. She's been anticipating it since the flyers went up over two weeks ago! Of course, Shad had an appointment scheduled and couldn't take the girls. We were very thoughtfully rescued by the P family who answered our call for help and took Hannah along with them. Hannah, E & M had a great time at the park. So much so that Hannah decided she wanted to go home with them for the whole afternoon and we didn't see her until almost 5! What a blessing- fun for Hannah and friends, naps for mommy, productive work time for Shad.

And, finally, Sunday: Father's Day! We slept in, went grocery shopping, took both girls to see Kung Fu Panda (Sarah's first movie at the theatre), and ended the day in the most appropriate way- eating barbecued burgers and corn on the cob on a blanket in the backyard, swinging on the swingset and in the hammock, and playing in the kiddie pool. Wahoo!
Yes, it is a strong a hammock. :) And no, I'm not actually laying on the ground, but I CAN feel the grass on my back! ;)Happy Father's Day Shad!! You Rock!!

And THE BIG NEWS is that THIS MORNING Hannah learned how to pump effectively. She keeps walking around (or swinging up high)saying "I am so proud of myself!" We ALL are! :)

So there you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about how we spend our time! I always heard that staying-home was all laid back and flexible schedule but I've got to tell you- I'm looking at our schedule in total disbelief at how the summer is filling up. Hopefully I'll survive these allergies (and all the meds I'm taking to try to alleviate the symptoms!) and update the blog again SOON- exciting times lay ahead!

Here's to summer adventures and time with friends (new and old!)- two of my favorite things!