Halloween 2008

A review of this year's costumes:
This year was a little different for Addie. The 5th and 6th grades do a wax museum for Halloween. The 6th graders choose a famous person from world history and the 5th graders choose a famous person from U.S. History. They have to do a report and then dress up like this person and be prepared to answer questions for the wax musuem. Addie chose Martha Washington - mainly because she wanted to wear the hoop skirt and dress from Grandma's costume collection. She did a great job on her oral presentation!

Indiana Jones - with a 5 o'clock shadow

The Queen - she couldn't be more regal

The Sultan

The Reclining Sultan

Looking Back...Halloween 2004 - 2007

Looking back to Halloweens past...

2004
The Tin Man (4 yrs old)

Dorothy (6 1/2 yrs old)

The Munchkin (1 yr old)

2005
The Gypsy (7 1/2 yrs old) and the Pirate (5 yrs old)

The....Princess? (2 yrs old) The little skirt was all we could get her to wear. Funny, because nowadays we can't get her out of a costume!

2006
The Chef (6 yrs old) and the Witch (8 1/2 yrs old)

The Princess - again (3 yrs old). I don't know where we got it but I swear she wore this dress every day for a year.

The pregnant Statue of Liberty

2007

The Bat (7 yrs old) and the Scorceress (9 1/2 yrs old)

The Fairy (4 yrs old)

The Cupcake - this was her intended costume but it was too hard to trick-or-treat in

You can read more about Halloween 2007 here.

Hmmm...I wonder what this year will bring!

Bro. Collins

In some ways it seems like it has been a series of funerals since we moved here two years ago. Six to be exact. Make that seven.

Stanley E. Collins passed away last Friday morning. Stan was my across-the-street neighbor growing up and the father of my best friend Elizabeth - Liz. Both being the youngest of five by several years - we were "the girlies" - pretty much inseparable during our growing up years. And so the Collins' home was a second home to me - and Stan, like a second father. A few knocks on their door and a "come in!" and there he was, always ready with a "Hey Em!" and a big hug. He was full of enthusiasm and always seemed anxious to do something special for "the girlies" - like a trip to 7-eleven for slurpees or to rent a video for the almost weekly sleepovers. Stan definitely had a soft spot for his little girl Liz - and we sometimes used that to our advantage. Like the time we really wanted baby bunnies for Easter. After my parents said "no" we asked Stan and as planned - he got us some bunnies! Stan had a great sense of humor and always had a story to tell. He was also a big gamer and many of my childhood memories of time with the Collins involved playing games - such as trivial pursuit and card games.

As the years went by and I got married - his love and generosity continued. He allowed Wes and I to stay in the Collins' cabin for part of our honeymoon - and even sent us off with a generous amount of spending money. And later when I was just barely pregnant with Addie, the Collins invited me to travel with Liz and her parents to New York City and to see some church history sites. I remember him being very patient with my first trimester complaints.

Stan was a good man with a big heart. This silly post does not even come close to expressing my feelings of love and admiration for this man. I am still in shock that he is gone. It became more real when I saw his picture and read his obituary tonight. Then the tears really started to fall. I just can't believe it. And my dear, dear friend Liz. My heart goes out to her, her mother and her family at this time.

You can read his obituary here.

Looking Back...October 2003

As an opportunity to remember years past (ie life before I started this blog), I will occasionally post a few cute pictures and memories that are worth recording. Of course, they will only contain pictures taken after 2003 which is when we started using a digital camera. Someday maybe I will get enough time and motivation to scan my old prints into the computer. But for now...

Looking back to Sept - October 2003....

We celebrated Isaac's third birthday. I was very large with child at the time. We had Isaac's party at the local park and invited some friends and neighbors. During the festivities, Addie, being the gymnast that she is, was doing acrobatics with some friends. I never actually saw what happened but I know it involved launching Addie into the air. Suddenly she came to us holding her arm complaining that she had hurt herself. 3 month old intern resident Dr. Wes did a physical examination of the arm and declared that it most likely was a sprain. We continued on with the party as planned with a subdued and wincing Addie cradling her right arm. Now don't judge us too harshly because if you know Addie - she gets hurt a lot and most of the time it turns out to be nothing! But I am sorry to say that we have actual video footage of Isaac opening his presents with Addie moaning in the background. My voice can be heard, "Addie! Just wait until Isaac is done opening his presents! You are going to be fine!" Nice.
After the party was over - yes, the presents, cake and ice cream and all - with Addie still in a lot of pain, Wes decided to take her to the ER. As it turned out, we had ignored a complete fracture of the ulna and a partial fracture of the radius - the two bones in the right arm. I felt awful! Here is Addie with her cast and sling (The date is wrong on the picture because we didn't really know how to use our camera at the time). Addie - 5 and 1/2, Isaac - 3

Cate was born two days later

Crazy Hair Day 2008

Another year has rolled around and it's "Crazy Hair Day" again! The kids won for their classes last year so they were anxious to get the creative juices flowing. I am not one that is good at doing hair - I never have been. That is why all my girls have bobs with bangs until the age of five. But we all put our heads (and hair!) together and this is what we came up with.


We are pretty sure most of the kids won't know who John Lennon is but we thought the teachers might get a kick out of it!
Update: Isaac won for his class but apparently the kids just weren't mature enough to get the humor of Addie's hairdo :-)

Scarecrow Festival and Pumpkin Plunder

Last Saturday we went with Eliott, Carlee, Jack and Tember to the Scarecrow Festival. The kids had a wonderful time. They went on the inflatable slides, scaled the rock-climbing wall and got balloon animals. And then we let each of them pick out a pumpkin.








This morning I woke up to find that someone had stolen 5 of our 6 pumpkins and had smashed one of them on our front sidewalk. I am trying very hard to not let this get to me but I am dreading having to tell the kids when they get home from school. This happened to us last year too!

The 2nd Annual Donuts in the Driveway

One Monday morning last October, I decided to have a donut party - that very night. With the help of my kids, my friends and my family (oh and my local grocery store who sold me 12 pounds of donut dough) - we somehow pulled it off. It was such a success that we decided to make it a yearly event - Donuts in the Driveway. This post tells the tale (it's actually pretty funny how it all happened) - and my one regret was that I didn't get any pictures. Well, this year I was better about taking pictures - but still not enough of the people and just one of the donuts!

Last year we had about 60 people and served 100 donuts. This year we had about 100 people and served close to 300 donuts!! Thanks to the family and friends that helped make it a success - the donut rollers and cutters, the donut cookers, the babysitters, etc. And I must give a special thanks to my kids! They worked so hard by my side all day to get ready. I really could not have done it without them!

This year we bought 17 pounds of donut dough.

The serving table with all the yummy toppings for the fresh-out-of-the-fryer donuts

We had a nice assortment of glazes including maple, chocolate, vanilla, orange, and butterscotch (thanks to the moms and grandmas for helping with those)

We bought an outdoor heater to ward off the autumn chill

The pictures of the crowd are a little fuzzy - and of course I only remembered to take pictures after it was dark!

Wes and Kip were the trusty donut cookers!
Hooray for another fun Donuts in the Driveway!

This Never Happened With My First Three!!!

We try our hardest to keep her away from the markers! At least she doesn't take the marker to the wall or the couch!
Daddy was in charge when this happened

This time was due to my neglect

Look at my hand, Mom!

Hmmm

Where's your nose, Sarah?