New School Year

Today was the first day of school for my kids. They are getting so big! We had a very fun summer, packed with lots of adventures and special days, but it was time to head back. The last two weeks of summer are always our hardest. The kids are tired of playing with each other so much and the sibling fights seem more frequent. They are ready for a regular school routine, and so is this mama! Here is to a great year, full of all sorts of new adventures in learning!

School Year Day 1

Project 365 Day 52

 Gretchen got her cast on today! Of course, bright pink.

And when we got home, we blinged it out by hot glueing rhinestones

for a bracelet, plus random other stones onto the cast.

Best looking cast ever!

 James' mom, Grammy Pammy, sent us a couple of late

Christmas presents to open today.

James had an old 1958 set of books, Through Golden Windows.

She was able to find two more sets, and sent each of the kids their own sets

to add to their personal libraries. Pretty cool, and they loved them!

Project 365 Day 50, part 2

Girl Scout Thinking Day

Our Troop chose Zimbabwe as our country. Each girl learned how to bake 

Sweet Potato Cookies at a troop meeting and then had to 

make a batch at home with an adult and bring them to 

Thinking Day to earn their Cookie Baking Fun Patch.

Gretchen getting ready to make a shaker from one of the countries, 

although I can't remember now which one!

Trying to get 15 little Daisies to all look at the camera nicely 

together is impossible, with a certain redhead being one of the craziest!

Project 365 Day 49

Gretchen sporting her new hard splint and wrap that the doctor put on her today. We had a well-child check already scheduled for her and Daniel, which ended up being very convenient! He took a look at her x-rays, and it is indeed broken enough to need a cast. That appointment is on Thursday, so until then, its the wrapped splint and sling. He also found ear infections in both ears, the right one worse than the left. So 10 days worth of meds for her.  She's up to 3'7-3/4" and 40 lbs. Daniel is at 4'1/4" and 40 lbs. Daniel also has his very first loose tooth, which he is super excited about!

Project 365 - Day 33

Butterfly 6th Birthday Party

We celebrated Gretchen's 6th birthday today with a butterfly theme.

We had quite a lot of mostly 6 year olds - and they can make a lot of noise!

Our good friend Karen made her butterfly birthday cake and it turned out super cute!

Project 365 - Day 30

Gretchen asleep with all her dollies lined up next to her.

Sweet dreams my ginger princess!

Project 365 - Day 5

First day of basketball camp

Beautiful Eyes

The challenge on I Heart Faces this week is Beautiful Eyes. I had a few different photos that I wanted to enter, but I finally chose this one of Gretchen. We had gone camping one weekend this summer, and in a little town near our camping area they were having a festival. We drove in for it, and I found a great little fairy headband for her that perfectly matched her shirt. I took this photo as we sat to have some lunch along the river. I love her beautiful blue eyes, and the sparkle in them when she smiles!

Please click on photo to see it larger.



See more photos of beautiful eyes at I Heart Faces.

Oh, I wish I were....

...an Oscar Mayer Wiener!

Guess what we found today - the Wiener-Mobile! We were in the drive-thru line at Jack in the Box, and saw it go down the road past us. After we got our Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and Fries - yummy! - we took off to try and find out where it had stopped. It was in the parking lot of the University. We parked nearby, and took some fun photos. The kids thought it was hilarious! And then I told them how their Uncle Nick made a replica of it when he was in Royal Rangers. I wonder if he still has that car?

Doctor, Doctor, give me the news....

....I got a bad case of.....Giggles!
I was putting together my quiche for my MOPS meeting this morning, and I heard Gretchen giggling like crazy in her bedroom. I quickly grabbed my camera, readied it, and peaked around the corner of her bedroom door. I found her and Daniel playing doctor, and she would giggle crazily every time he tried to listen to her heart or tummy!
They were so stinkin' cute! I had to remind them, though, that we don't play doctor below the belly button. Silly kids!

My Three Little Reindeer

My brother Nick took these pictures of my cuties when he was over on Christmas Eve. I love how they turned out!

You Capture - Faces

You Capture has chosen Faces as the theme for photos this week. I caught this photo of Gretchen tonight, peacefully sleeping in her bed. Notice the blanket up near her face - this is how she always sleeps. She has to have that silly blanket bundled up near her face all the time - I think it is the smell that she likes, although I can't imagine it is very pleasant since she drags it around the house everywhere with her! She's such an angel when she's sleeping! When she's awake, she is full of energy, spit, and vinegar! I love having a redhead in the family - she definitely keeps me on my toes!
Check out this week's You Capture for more wonderful photos.

Gretchen

The many funny and beautiful faces my Gretchen likes to make!

I'm not tired!

Yea, that's what they always say when they are near the point of exhaustion. Case in point:

My ballerina

Gretchen is now taking very beginner ballet classes at the Y. Today was her second day of class. She is very fickle about it. One minute she loves it, the next she wants to leave. I'm finding that if I just drop her off, then go take the boys to the play center and drop them off, I can then watch her from afar and she does fine. It's when I'm sitting right in the classroom with her that she wants to go home. She enjoys the dancing, and does all the moves well for a beginning 3 year old dancer. She's just so stinkin' cute!

Faceless Photos - today's inspiration

Over at the inspirational blog post for the day was on photos that don't necessarily have faces in them. This brought to my mind one of my very, very favorite photos that I took last summer while at Gearhart Beach, Oregon. Thanks to Twila and Susan I was able to do some fun editing of it. Hope you like it.

Peaches!

We decided to go pick peaches this morning before our playgroup date. The kids picked a bunch that weren't quite ripe, but we still got a big boxful of yummy ones. Now I'll just have to get them all skinned and chopped up and into the freezer so that I can make jam out of them once the kids go back to school.


They enjoyed riding the farm tractor back to the farmhouse.

We took some time to play in the pea pit. It's like a big sandbox only with dried peas - dusty, but lots of fun.

We even said hello to the goats and ducks on the farm!