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)

Grace's birthday

Since we were having a yard sale on Grace's actual birthday, we had her dinner and cake, etc. on Sunday - a couple of days later. This was the first time we'd had anyone over to dinner in our new house. I fixed crock pot ranch pork chops (thank you, pinterest) which is one of the few ways Grace will eat meat. And she wanted a princess castle cake...it turned out so-so. Besides her big brothers and mommy & daddy, she had 2 great grandmas, 1 grandma and 1 grandpa there. She got lots of pretty clothes, some toys and books and had a great time. Hard to believe she's 3 already!!

Getting some help from big brother

With Great Grandma Donna

with Grandma Lorrayne

Grandpa Bruce

Big Brother Joshua

Big brother Nathaniel



Daddy kissing his birthday girl



With Great Grandma Darlene

The Three Amigos



the princess castle cake (purple of course!)



The cake - pink and purple were the requests so it's purple on the outside and pink (strawberry) on the inside. Not as pretty and fancy as I'd have liked to have done, but with yardsale, etc, I was just glad to get it done :)

Coming soon...Grace turns 3!

Grace turned three a couple of weeks ago. Her birthday was the first day of our Yard Sale...so we saved her birthday dinner, cake & ice cream with grandparents until a couple of days later. But here are a couple of pictures of her on her big day...more to come later.

At the yard sale

Recognize this bear, JoAnn? Joshua rediscovered the Winnie the Pooh he'd had as a baby, and gave it to Grace as part of her birthday because she loooooves Pooh Bear!

She so has the perfect facial expressions of awe and excitement for each package!

Miss Grace

Grace decided to unpack all the cat food out of the box...then she proceeded to stack them in large towers - each flavor in its own stack.
As she finishes she informs me, "Mama...I missing a cat food." I told her that we'd opened it to feed Shadow.  That answer did not make her happy. She told me that she neeeeeeeded it to finish her bulding.
She didn't get it...it was in the 'frig and would have made the house smell fishy :)

Sunday Grace discovered jewelry. I can't remember how it began, but I'd had my jewelry box down and she asked me something and the next thing I know, we're searching through my jewelry box for something special for her. I told her I've been saving all my little girl jewelry for years in hopes I'd have a girl some day.
The first thing she saw that she "neeeeeeeded" was a Blueberry Muffin (as in Strawberry Shortcake's best friend...the original early 80s version...I remember getting it when I was in third grade (1981) and I believe I'm wearing it in my school picture that year)
Then she told me she "neeeeeeded" a necklace...and I found a Tinkerbell necklace that my mom gave to me when I was a little girl (but older than grace) that was hers...and it's on a long chain so we could just slip it over Grace's head...she was ecstatic.
Her next request surprised me, because I didn't know she knew what they were but she "neeeeeded" a bracelet...and I found one that is a blue heart with a rose in the center (there is a necklace somewhere in that box...this was more jewelry that my mom had give me that had been hers first...I'm just continuing the passing down tradition).  Then she "neeeeeeeded" one for her other wrist. So I found a gold teddy bear charm type bracelet.
Life was wonderful. She hurried off to show Daddy and her boys.
They were properly impressed with her finery and riches.
Then I found a gold (of course none of this is real gold) teddy bear ring that I gave her...she hadn't realized it, but she "neeeeeeded" it to complete her ensemble.
She was quite happy to pose for me and show off all her "pretties"...yep, she'll be 3 in 8 days...she's growing up fast.

Happy Sixth Birthday!!!

On Monday, Nathaniel turned the big 0-6! He had his first party on Saturday - pirate themed (thank you pinterest!!). Sadly, only one of the 4 friends he invited came (one was on vacation and another was sick). But he loves Lucy and was happy and told us it was the best birthday ever! We played Pin the Patch on the Pirate (Orangebeard the Fierce), Pirate, Pirate, Matey (aka Duck, Duck, Goose), Red Light, Green Light and Dad was pretty darn cool and made balloon swords (and some animals...one of Lucy's older sisters loved that and took home a balloon zoo!) They had Pirate Punch, Buried Treasure Cakes and Cannonball Cream.

The cake isn't quite in proportion...the pirates are bigger than the ship (funny since they are all part of the same set) and it wasn't the greatest decoration job, but since we spent most of that day unpacking and moving stuff around, I'm just happy I got it done!

Our birthday boy!!

His backpack & lunchbox didn't survive kindergarten intact (well, he'd used them in preschool too, so I guess they lasted for two years). We went with a little higher quality this year (Target as opposed to Walmart) and Cars instead of Superheroes.  He loves that the lunch box clips on to the front of the back.

Grace had a hard time with the fact that she couldn't open the presents...we told her she's just got about 3 weeks to wait...then it will be her turn.

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)