Another year..

Happy Birthday to me!!!  Well, it looks as though another year has come and gone.  Amazingly enough, I am still looking fantastic!!!(There's a reason I'm posting the candle- lit picture first:)

The kids and Darren bought me all my favorites - strawberry milk, tapioca, and (sniff, sniff) Hostess mini powdered donuts.  Also thrown in for good measure - Cabela's Big Game Hunter for the Wii.  Yes, go ahead and re-read that.  Yep, still the same.  Well, I already have ideas for Darren's birthday:)

And to make a good birthday even better Colby decided he'd just get up and walk.  Enough of this crawling.  So he did. And there you have it we have a walker!

Ok, his first steps were actually a week or two earlier, but this was the first chance I got to document it.  All in all I had a great birthday and am blessed to have such a great family!

Tetherball

Yesterday morning we got a call from the school secretary.  She wanted to tell us what happened that day before school started.

She had heard a ruckus out on the playground and peeked around the corner to see what the commotion was all about. That's when she saw a big group of kids standing together.  So she decided she better head out and see exactly what was going on.  When she got outside she heard the kids chanting "Abby.  Abby. Abby."

This is where I perk up.  Hmmm?  A school-yard chant?  For Abby.  And not just any old Abby but my Abby?

Abby. Abby. Abby.

Could it get any better?  This is what dreams are made of.  I smiled to myself. Then I closed my eyes and listened again. 

Abby. Abby. Abby.

 Abby was playing tether ball and she was queen of the court.  That's right.  Queen. Girls stood no chance.  Neither did the boys. She was taking down bigger, taller boys one by one by one.


At this point I'm grinning broadly.  I've never been prouder. In fact, I'm so proud that I'm reminiscing.  And I remember myself at the tether ball courts beating the boys.  Take that Rhett Lucero, the school yard bully who got his thrills from tormenting the twins.  While we're at it, take that Mrs. Lucero, Rhett's overprotective playground teacher-mother who at one time forbade myself, my twin sister and our best friend from playing together.  Ever again. That's right.  I haven't forgotten.  She was also the one who sent me to the "corner table", aka, the naughty table, for accidently tripping a boy in my class.  I was humiliated.  And righteously indignant.

 I was recently telling Abby stories of my elementary school years and Mrs. Lucero came up.  I had no idea that Mrs. Lucero was still around and that Abby had in fact had her just last year as a computer lab teacher.  She did  not get good reviews from Abby.  I wonder why, Mrs. You-can-never-play-with-your-best-friends-ever-again- Lucero.  Anyway, I'm off subject.

Let's get back to where we were going.

Abby. Abby. Abby.

Abby was doing me proud.  And when she came home that day from school I asked her all about it.  She beat "20 boys".  Or something like that.  Half the school was surrounding her watching and cheering.  But they weren't always chanting for her.  Later on in the recess they started rooting for the opponent when it became clear that Abby was dominating. 

Ahem.  Well, this is not exactly what dreams are made of. More like you against the whole wide world.  But, everyone does love an underdog.  Understandable.  (Unless you happen to be the champions mother, that is.)

That's when I picked up on a little nugget of humility.  "Well mom, I can beat most of the boys. Except Dominic.  He's in kindergarten and he's GOOD. He comes up to about right here on me (Abby points to her belly button) but like I said, he's gooooood. "

Wait. What?  Kindergarten?  As in 2 years younger than you? Like Brooklyn's age? And the size of a peanut?!!

At that moment my dreams were shattered.  Thoughts of elevators, ropies, and holdies left.  Ideas of a tether ball court in my backyard crumbled away.

"Anyways Mom, I can't spend too much time playing tetherball or the horseclub will kick me out.  I'm only allowed to play the first recess. Come on Lily!!  Yeehaw!"

And away she rode.

Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween!

My little pirate who insists that he would rather have been Spiderman (I didn't even know he knew who Spiderman was.  And then he starts throwing his hands out in weird finger patterns and asking me why  "it's not working". Huh?  Oh, right, the webs.  Why aren't they coming out of your fingers.  Got it. ) Don't worry, I just hit up Walmart for the 50% off sale and Spiderman is now hanging in our closet for next year:)

Abby really had no choice about Spidergirl.  It was the only one we had in her size (thank you last year's clearance pick up.  I know, I rock:)

Brooklyn took a little more convincing for WonderWoman.  She really wanted to be an angel.  Again.  Remember last year?  I said no.

My little lion.  No, he did not wear this all night.  In fact, we were lucky to get a few pictures with him even wearing it.

Ok, so here's the real story.  This was one of the only "good" pictures I got on Halloween with all my kids.  I was so disappointed that I couldn't get it off my mind.  I just knew we could do better.

So, we dressed back up today (day after Halloween) and did another photo shoot.  What a drag!  Don't tell my kids I said that :) I was much happier with the end results.  Really,  I am so glad we went to the effort. 

 But then I noticed Jaces pirate bandana. And how it looks more like a sloppy do-rag.  Or something.  And I'm a little ticked.  Not sure why I only notice these things after the fact.  I don't even want to talk about it.  And stop thinking I'm obsessive compulsive.  I'm not.  Not really anyway.  Whatever.  Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving!!  It's always seems much more fun to start in on the pumpkin carving than it actually ends up being!  All of my kids bravely attempted to clean out their pumpkins and then Grandma and Mom had to take over. (Dad was nowhere to be found.  He was salmon fishing in California! And Pa conveniently left just as the knives were being pulled out.)

Abby did all of the carving on her pumpkin by herself and was very proud about being the only child who had no help.  In fact, she mentioned it several times:)

Brooklyn chose to do a cat pumpkin.  We had one last year and really loved it.  Abby's was also a cat.  I'm hoping for something a little more spooky next year!! Brooklyn did a little bit of carving on hers and grandma helped with most of it.  I think Brooklyn's pumpkin was the thickest pumpkin we have ever carved in to!  I now know how some of those elaborate pumpkin designs are made.  Talk about having a lot of pumpkin to work with. 

Jace carried over  his pirate costume theme to his pumpkin. He did no carving.  He didn't even supervise.  He took off as soon as he got messy. 

But he was quick to get those pumpkins lit up after we had the mess all cleaned up.  Sorry Colby.   Next year after my tendinitis heals up and your dad is around to help clean out those pumpkins I'll carve you one.  I guess I could have at least put him in the picture, but I was worried about those flames! Anyway, don't they look great?  Happy Pumpkin Carving!

Pumpkin Picking

It's pumpkin time!!!  We love, love, love our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch and were a little worried it wasn't going to happen this year.  My Grampa Sim takes us to the pumpkin patch every year (he works for the farm) but this year he has been very sick and I had just planned on not making it.  Fortunately for us, Grandma Lu stepped in and said we were going!  Grampa even felt good enough to call us from the hospital in Denver while we were at the pumpkin patch.  It was almost as if he had a 6th sense and knew we were there....ok, I think he did know we were headed there and had to get in on the action.  We were just happy he called!

It's a race to find the best pumpkin!

It didn't take long for the girls to pick out their pumpkins.

Jace looked for ones that were just the right size for him and Colby.  He didn't want anything to do with the great big ones! 

Colby's perfect pumpkin.

Did I mention that Brooklyn found her perfect pumpkin right at the start?  And this was her 5th or 6th pumpkin.  Or maybe 10th.  I don't know.  All I know is that we had a van full of pumpkins.  Some for everyone - grandma's, grandpa's, uncles, great-aunts, neighbors.  You name it, we picked it. 

 I think Abby even found a giant squash-pumpkin.  It was a mutant of some kind anyway.  Oh, and  a white pumpkin.  It's very rare and very special.  And I didn't get a picture of it....

Here we all are.

With just a fraction of the pumpkins we actually picked!

Just Peachy

 Jace loves peaches.  He would eat them for every meal if he could.  And never tire of them.  It's unfortunate for him  that peach season is so short.  Although he doesn't mind if his peaches come in a can.  It all started as a sweet one year old.  Grandpa Sim still talks about the day that he and Grandma Lu came over for a visit and Jace was sitting in his high chair enjoying some sort of pureed meal.  That's when his eyes locked in on the bottle of home grown peaches that Grandma was carrying in.  His eyes never left  those peaches. At some point his legs started kicking and he began squealing in delight letting us know exactly what he wanted.
Well, that love for peaches still exists and Grandpa does his best to make sure that his peach tree gives his "little sweetie" the best peaches.

This year we were able to run over and help Grandpa pick peaches and the kids loved it.

Look at all of those peaches!  Grandma Lu just came today with another bottle of peaches for Jace. He makes sure to give her a phone call when he runs out!  Too bad peach season can't last all year round.  Jace would be in heaven:)  And I have to say, I don't think I'd mind it either.  I've got plenty of peach recipes that are to die for!

I miss peach season already......

1st Day of School





I just realized that I never posted our "first day of school" pictures!  Eeeek!  Well, better late than never!

 

I can't believe I now have half of my children in school all day!  Brooklyn was very excited to be a kindergartner and she was more than ready for it.   We have all day kindergarten so I was a little nervous about her being gone all day long.  And I have to say, I do miss her!  But she has done really well with it.  Our school district moved us to a 4 day school week with Friday's off this year so that has been an adjustment as well.  It just meanst that the school days are longer.  For the little ones it makes for a big day.  I didn't think that I would like a 4 day school week at all but it's actually been fine. It's kinda nice to have the kids home on Friday - when they're getting along that is:)

Abby started 2nd grade and she loves it.  She's an old pro at this school thing!  She was very excited to get back and see her "horse club" friends.  Yes, they've created their own club and they ride around on their make believe horses.  "Lily" gets fed often from the leaves of my trees.  And Abby is the club leader.  But she informed me the first week of school that occasionally she steps down so someone else can lead.  How nice. A democracy. 

Brooklyn also has a horse.  Her name is Jessica.  Not to be confused with Travis's new wife.  Our horse Jessica was actually invented before Aunt Jessica came to be:)

This picture was taken on the first morning of school.  The girls walk out at 7:10 am to get to the bus stop on time.  The other pictures were taken the day before when both of them had a required 30 min. test to take, which was officially the first day of school, but not really. ( I know, it gets complicated.)  Anyway, there you have it!  Jace is depressed that his playmates are gone and is constantly looking for the uncles that occasionally visit but are nowhere to be found at the moment. 

Which means that I have been doing a LOT of playing lately.....