Fall Days

Halloween was a lot of fun this year with our BYU cheerleader, 50's waitress, and a Vampire. Hmmm. One of these things is not like the other.

We were so glad Hurricane Sandy was over so that we could go trick-or-treating (among other things).

(Thanks to a broken camera, I just got a couple quick pictures with my phone. Oh well.)



 

 

 

Before the storm came, we were enjoying a beautiful fall. Here's a picture of Rebekah and Danielle by our favorite tree - it's in our church parking lot.

 

 

 

Last month Gary went out of town, and my mom came up for a few days of quality kid time. She did all the cooking and kids' stuff while I re-painted and re-decorated the girls' rooms. It was so great! Danielle had outgrown her nursery, so now we have a couple of grown-up girl rooms. I'm happy with how they turned out.

 

Samantha has her own room right now. We love the twinkle lights with the bed tent. Still working on finding a desk for her.

 

 

 

I also painted the bunkbeds white. I really like them. I just need to work on making gray bedding and pillows now.

 

(I found a before picture):

(And here's after):

And the girls and I have worked really hard to get some organization in their closets. Ahhh, much better!

First week of school

The girls are enjoying their first week of school - 5th grade, 2nd grade, and preschool! Today I had four hours without any kids at home - I didn't even know what to do with myself! The girls are doing really well, and Danielle feels so grown-up because she finally gets to go to her own school.

Summer Vacation 2012

We just got back from a fun summer vacation in St George, Utah. We had so much fun with the family!

We loved Zion National Park - so beautiful! And they even have tame squirrels that come up to you and beg:

We found a little place outside of Zions that had ponies, a noisy donkey, and a spitting llama. We were having fun until we got caught in a little wind storm:

We always love visiting the St George temple and visitors' center:

Saw dinosaur tracks at Johnson Farm:

Got very wet riding bumper boats at Festival Fun Center:

Had a blast water skiing at Sand Hollow Reservoir:

Lots more swimming fun:

Of course the highlight of the vacation was Samantha's baptism. It was so special! Our sweet Samantha!

National Postal Museum

We had a great time at the National Postal Museum today for the first time - proof that no matter how long you live in DC, there's always more to explore. We had fun riding in a stage coach and a mail truck, among other things.

Summer break with kids

We are really enjoying our summer break so far! Thanks to Pinterest, I came up with some fun things to help us get off to a great start:

We made a summer fun bucket list of about 50 things we want to do this summer - everything from "have a picnic," to "visit the beach," to "try the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment." The kids love having the list up so they can see what fun or silly thing they want to do today.

(I copied the layout from here http://www.joyeverafter.com/blog/2012/5/21/summer-fun-bucket-list.html )

I updated our chore charts, and we have a good schedule going. We do our morning stuff, our workbooks, cleaning, play outside, the pool for an hour or two, lunch, reading time / quiet time, and then there's usually just enough time for the kids to play really well together (and not quite enough time to start arguing or getting into trouble). Just the way we like it.

Our summer cleaning is working well. I took pictures so that even my 4-year-old can keep up. They get to choose which chore(s) to do each morning, they write their intial on the chart (which is laminated), and by the end of the week our house is completely spotless (in theory).
(I copied part of the layout from here http://www.dandee-designs.com/2011/08/modern-toddler-chore-chart.html )

And I found the cutest thing at http://www.simpleasthatblog.com/2011/08/back-to-school-reading-logs-free.html  - reading logs for the kids' summer reading. And I added pages for the kids to do weekly book reports. And to make it fun - book worms (gummy worms). So great!

The best part about our summer break is that I haven't heard "I'm bored" once yet! I made a "bored" jar, mostly filled with chores to do (and a few fun things), for anyone who says "I'm bored." Am I a mean mom, or what?

Spring fun

We were so proud of Samantha at first grade authors' night. She did a great job reading her books to her class. First grade is my favorite - her reading and writing has improved so much!

Last soccer game!
Daddy's (unsuccessful) attempt at getting Danielle to play:

Samantha. A cupcake and a soccer medal. What more could you want?

And our Rebekah:

Our Danielle is constantly "great with child." Here she is expecting a hedgehog, an elephant, and a baby. One night after she fell asleep, I went in to check on her, and she had a hedgehog and a puppy in her shirt!

Soccer Saturday

Lately our Saturdays have been all about soccer.

Danielle "plays" for the Sabres. That's probably an exaggeration. What she actually does during soccer games:

Samantha plays for the Avengers. Unlike Danielle, Samantha actually plays in the soccer games.

And Rebekah is on Team Clash! She likes playing and does pretty well.