Early Halloween picture

My kids think I am a mean fuddy duddy.  They were allowed to wear costumes to school, and I don't let them wear their trick or treating costumes.  We have two bins of dress-up clothes to choose from if they wish, but I am not letting them get this year's costumes dirty before the evening.  So, Annie wore an old Sleeping Beauty dress, Maddie wore Emma's old Hermione Granger robe, and Elizabeth wore part of her mummy costume from two years ago.

I am going to Annie's classroom party later.  Sounds like fun!

Pumpking Carving

We literally had hundreds of pumpkins this year.  It was insanity.  Ryan did a great job planting, and the plants took care of the rest.  We invited the church primary children to come and grab some pumpkins, and that took care of some.  Ryan invited people from work, and I put an invite out on Facebook for people to PLEASE come take pumpkins home.  Free pumpkins?  Anyone?  We still have some left over, and this is after we've decorated our porch and front steps, and set pumpkins on top of fence posts....

Tonight we carved the kids' giant pumpkins.  We opted to not do this in the house.  The pumpkins varied in weight between 56-92 lbs.  Our kitchen table should not be holding all 4 of those pumpkins at the same time.  So we set up shop in our garage door-less garage.  (The previous owners remodeled it into their business office.)

Ryan did all of the cutting and carving with his jig saw.  Those pumpkins were mighty thick, and power tools was the only way to go.

 The kids got to draw out the faces and we all did some scooping.

With the jig saw, the carving went a lot easier and faster than I had anticipated.  We are now ready for Halloween!

Student of the Month, Maddie edition

Ever since Annie got student of the month in September, Maddie has been obsessed with getting it herself.  Nearly every day since, when Maddie gets home from school she tells me that she was so good and a great helper.  I have talked to Maddie's teacher, and I know it really is the case.  But oh boy, if Maddie didn't get student of the month this month, there would have been heck to pay.  I would not want to be Maddie's teacher when it was announced.  

So when I got a call last evening inviting me to the student of the month assembly, I did feel relieved.  Maddie's teacher wanted it to be a surprise, so she likes to call the parents rather than send home notes.  

I'm sure it was a giveaway when Maddie and Annie saw me and Ryan in the back of the cafeteria.  Maddie knew something was definitely up, and she was glowing.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad Annie and Maddie got their awards at different times.  That way it was special for both of them.  It's also a good lesson that not everything will be the same for them.  But it was a long, long lesson to live through when you are 5 (and the mom of said 5-year-old).

Scary

Annie brought home vampire teeth from the prize box two days in a row.  They are so much fun to play with!

{K} Extended Family

*These pictures were taken on this date, and put on the blog at a later date.

My in-laws wanted some updated family pictures to display.  About two months ago we were given a date to cross off our calenders and start thinking about what colors to wear.  After much discussion on Facebook messenger, a decision was reached.  We were supposed to be in Leavenworth at 10 am, smiling, dressed, and ready to take pictures.

It's a 2.5 hour drive for us.  We packed up the kids in their pjs, and made them change in the car when we arrived.  Ryan and I were both sick, sick, sick, and it was raining.  We can thank the miraculous power of Photoshop for happy, glowing pictures.  

 If you look closely, I heavily borrowed from our own family pictures.  Our assigned family color was teal (I guess so no one would confuse which kids go with which family) so the kids each have a new $5 long sleeve t-shirt from Walmart.

 My mother-in-law has this picture of me in between shots, wearing my coat (have I mentioned it was cold and rainy and I was sick?) and.... not smiling.  If she sends it to me, I will upload it here.  My face in that picture really shows how I was feeling.

*Update 12/10/2014 Here's the picture:

After the pictures, we drove down to Brynne and Curt's house.  Our van got side tracked and stopped at the Aplet and Cotlet factory in Cashmere.

After our detour (and candy stop), we joined everyone for pizza at Brynne's, before heading home so Ryan could work on (you guessed it) more homework.

Glitter

Maddie, like so many other little girls out there, wants to be Queen Elsa for Halloween.  I find myself covered in glitter as I've been working on the costume.  You can't see it very well, but I took a picture anyway.

Sick again

Some new bug hit our family.  I'm telling you, the year you have a kindergartner is brutal.  And if you times that by two, well.... you are in for it.  You may as well buckle your seat belt and hang on for a rough ride of sick ups and downs.

Annie woke up complaining that her head was "banging," her throat was really sore, and it hurt to move her eyes.  She had a fever, and as the day progressed, a rash too.  I took her to the doctor, and we got antibiotics.

All told, Annie was out of school for three days.  At least we were able to have some nice times together.

Little by little, the whole family came down with this bug.  When I first heard of the kids saying their eyes hurt to move, I thought they were being dramatic.  As it turns out, they were totally right.  My throat hurts, it really does hurt to move my eyes, and I feel dreadful all over.  Everyone (except Ryan, and he should have) has stayed home from school as we try to get over this.

I took Emma and Elizabeth to the doctor, and thankfully the doctor was able to prescribe for the rest of us via the phone.

Family Pictures

My friend Natalie took our pictures again.  She did such a great job.  I love printing off the new pictures, and putting them up.  

Maddie

Annie

Elizabeth

Emma

Squeal!  Our family pictures are here!  This post is dedicated to Emma's personal pictures.  More to follow!

Pumpkin Patch

*These pictures got loaded in the opposite order, but I am too lazy to change them around.

I got to go on a field trip with Annie and Maddie to the pumpkin patch.  I had to chose only one classroom to go with, so Maddie got it this time.  It's harder being a parent of twins than singletons.  This is the first year I haven't had other kids home, so this is the first year I didn't have other kids to take with me.  Which means, I got the honor of actually riding on a school bus with Maddie.  (Gee whiz, those seat are a lot smaller than I remember!  Leg room?  Pshaw.  What leg room?)

 Maddie and preschool buddy Jaxon.  Jaxon is in Maddie's kindergarten class.  I was glad that Maddie would know someone in her class, as she was away from Annie.  Maddie only rolled her eyes at me.  A boy?  A sweet boy, certainly (Jaxon really is so sweet), but a boy is supposed to make her feel better?  Ha!

 I snagged a picture of Annie with her pumpkin.

 This photo spot was not well thought out.  Notice how like one or two of the kids is actually looking at the teacher (to the right of me) who is taking their picture.  The sun was really bright.

 There was dried corn to take off the cob (and a nifty machine to do it) and feed to the ducks.  Those ducks were so full of corn.  They weren't even slightly interested in coming over when it was our turn.  But that's ok.  Kindergartners are happy just throwing corn in the water.

Another sneaked picture of Annie.  The classes stayed together, so I would have to run away from my assigned class to get a picture of Annie.

Maddie's class.