few fun things

A lot has gone in the past couple of weeks since my paternal grandfather passed away - but that is a post for another day - I'm not quite ready to do that one yet. So here are the kids and a few fun things from the past week or so.

Nathaniel and Grandpa Bruce (finally Grandpa was able to come to a Veteran's Day program at the school!  Joshua had been wanting that since we moved up here in 2008...and was sick and unable to go to school the day of the program - but Nathaniel was excited to have a Veteran there!)

Grace got her first reall haircut on Tuesday (as in by a professional, not Mommy)...bang trim and ends trimmed...and then she got her hair curled...she was so excited about it.  She then got to go spend a couple of hours at Grandma and Grandpa's and play with Geddy one last time before he had to go back to Utah - which she was thrilled about. She gave Geddy the flower (leftover from the flowers from her great-grandpa's funeral services over the weekend) and told me that she was going to give it to Ged, then he'd give it back to her and this was because she loved him and he loved her.  She then proceeded to have the whole conversation herself as we got ready to head to Etna that day.

She got a treat after her "short cut" (that is what she keeps telling us - that she went and got a short cut...and she didn't get much cut off - don't know where the short part is coming from :))

Yesterday was the school spelling bee for 4th and 5th graders. Last year Joshua, as a fourth grader, took 3rd. This year he achieved 1st place (he told me that it is his greatest achievement yet) and will go on to the county competition at C.O.S. at the end of January. He's got a lot of words to study :) He did a wonderful job...all the kids did. I never want the honor when I was in school and managed to make sure (though I spelled well) to not get into any of the competitions. Takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a lot of people and do this.

Halloween 2012

We had our own little Halloween party at home this year. There was one at church and the kids really wanted to go, but with Daddy being gone for school, and there being a large chance of rain (and it had rained all day pretty much) and mommy not having good night vision when driving, and Nathaniel has been sick, well, we stayed home. We trick-or-treated at Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma's house in Etna after school, and then went to Great Grandma's in Fort Jones and then handed out candy at home. We had a fun dinner, watched a couple of Halloween cartoons and went to bed too late - it will fun getting to the bus on time in the morning ;)

Smile? whatever...

The best we could get out of her...

Cute!!!

Yes, growing up is even evidenced in the choice of how to carve the pumpkin....craziness...

Cute smiles on both of them!

The one who did almost all the "gutting" of the pumpkins...yay dad!!

Cleaning it out...he did most of his own carving this year!

The little details...

Carving pumpkins

Halloween dinner - boo burgers, witch warts (Grace's sliced hot dog), mummy fingers (fries), giant's teeth (apple slices), dried flies (raisins) and foaming wizard potion (rainbow sherbert with orange fanta poured over it)....they boys were impressed - even more so when I told them it was all my own ideas, nothing from Pinterest!

Nathaniel's class party



Ninja's last Halloween parade...

Anakin Skywalker

Butterfly (like last year) she was supposed to be Snow White, but she informed me she's a butterfly...several times...can't aruge with that!
 

Now you can see the foaming wizard potion - and Grace got over some of her grumpies (napping from 4 to 6 isn't helpful)

First Day(s) of School

It's that time of year again...back to the ol' grind! We have a fifth grader and a first grader this year. Both boys have teachers that one or more of their aunts had at some point.
We moved to Fort Jones a couple of weeks ago, but are continuing to have the boys go to school in Etna. It's only a fifteen minute drive, which isn't bad.  However, they can also ride the bus from the junior high (which is half a block from our new house) to the elementary school and back each day. We are trying that out today so I can focus on unpacking and organizing today. They were thrilled to ride the bus (we'll see how long the excitement lasts...when I was in junior high and the junior high began (yes, the one down the street), I was so excited to finally be a bus rider after years of being a "walker." After a few weeks or so, I remember the newness and excitement wearing off and after two years, gladly went back to being a "walker" when I went to high school.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our first day/s of school. Grace was fine yesterday with leaving the boys at school...probably because we went to grandma & grandpa's afterwards to water their garden. Today, she was whimpery as we walked back to our house from watching the boys get on the bus...and when we came inside cried a little bit because her boys had left her...she's over it now. Amazing how a new Elmo's World video (yep, going old school...found some VHS's in storage) changed her outlook on things.

He was so excited to have a desk this year (Mom, it opens up!!)

 

No, it's not foggy or overcast...it's all smoke from a forest fire in Seiad Valley.

Croquet Golf

I wanted this Croquet Golf set as a wedding gift...we even had it on our registry. No one got it for us (maybe they thought getting married in December, we wouldn't have a use for it). Well, we ended up buying it with a gift card we got. That was back in Dec. 1999. The years pass by and it's June 2012 and FINALLY it gets opened!!!  The first summer we were married, I was recovering from a miscarriage and just never got it out...then we moved. The next summer, we just didn't think about it. The next summer we had little Joshua...it got moved around in the garage over the years, then put in storage when we moved up here. When we moved into our trailer a few months ago, and redid our storage unit, we put it to the front thinking it would be fun to do for family home eveing some week. A few weeks later, Joshua had his friend Calvin over to spend the night, and knowing that Calvin probably wasn't going to want to sit in our hot trailer and watch a movie or something, I grabbed it from storage. The kids loved it!! My kids hadn't really played croquet before, but Cal had. My boys have both minature golfed, plus Joshua likes regular golf. It was fun. Now that we're getting ready to move again, we'll still have a big back yard and they will enjoy it there as well.

Pouting for some reason...she's perfected that look.

Go nathaniel!! 
(see all the blackberry bushes in the back behind Joshua...they're getting ripe now...picked 8 pounds yesterday)

the back of our trailer...flag from the museum (still want to call it the library...that's where it was when I was a kid)

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

I totally forgot that I hadn't downloaded these pictures until I was downloading the pictures from Joshua's camera that he'd taken on our adventure the other day (another post) and found these. I will sometimes grab Joshua's camera and use it if 1) my battery is dead (happens often), 2) I don't feel like lugging the bigger camera around, and 3) if it is handier to grab.

This was a pinterest idea...cut the toe portion of an old sock and cut the bottom off an empty water bottle.  Unite the two, dip them in bubble solution and BLOW!!  And then you get Bubble Snakes. We had fun with these for half an hour or so one day at the end of June. My plan had been for me to get them started, and then I could go back inside and do the dishes or something (read). But it never happened. But we had FUN!

Grace did quite well...after we got her to understand that you exhaled not inhaled...and once the bubbles stopped coming out of her mouth :)

And as sometimes (but not often enough) happens, Grace was worn out and collapsed in the chair while I was getting things cleaned up and lunch ready.