September 30-somethings

We celebrated Alex's birthday a week early, since he was out of town on his birthday.  We had one other family over to help us celebrate.  They made the fun birthday crown for Alex.  

He got omelettes and bacon for breakfast, stuffed peppers for dinner, and chocolate cake for dessert!  I sent him off on his business trip with some M&M cookies and dark chocolate candy bars. 

I got french toast for breakfast, mongolian beef for dinner, and vanilla cake with raspberry sauce for dessert!  I also enjoyed my mint chocolate brownie cookies and big bag of Twix - they know me well.   

A true gem

More of my good friends moved away this summer - Vivianne, her husband, and son Guillermo moved to Utah. Guillermo was right in between Jared and Owen in age.  He fit right in with our Lego-loving boys.  Vivianne was assigned to visit me each month as my visiting teacher, but she quickly became a good friend.  I really enjoyed our conversations and getting to know her.  A "quick visit" often turned into a 2 hour visit.  I really appreciated her dedication to coming and watching over us, despite our crazy bunch.  Vivianne was always so willing to help - bringing pizza over for lunch or dinner, treats for the kids, or coming over at 7:00am so I could get a run in when Alex was gone.  She is such a great example of love and service, and I am grateful for our friendship.  I miss having her around!    

$1000 dog

While Alex was gone to Japan, I had to take the dog in to the vet to have 2 foxtails removed from her nose.  The bill was nearly $1000!  Pets are expensive.  But what can you do?  She was sneezing up blood and kept having violent sneezing episodes.  She was miserable.  The bad thing is that our yard is covered with foxtails, so it's likely to happen again.  I'm not sure we can afford this nearly free dog that we got from the humane society... 

She had an IV in her leg while they did the anesthesia and pulled out the 2 little weeds.  The kids were glad to have her back home.  She is a good dog.  If she wasn't, we wouldn't have forked over the money to get her well again.  

back to pre-school...

...starting with fruits and vegetables

I made the extra effort again this year to do pre-school mornings with Weston and Savannah - usually Monday and Friday mornings for this fall.  I still have a hard time getting Weston to sit down and do crafts, but I can usually get 10 minutes out of him... he's better with games, books, and snacks.  Savannah loves to do crafts!

We own this copy of "Ten Apples Up On Top" - fun book.  The kids painted the apples, and then I cut them out and made these headbands for them.  They didn't last long, but they were cute for a little bit!

I tried to give them apple slices and a few chips for snack.  It wasn't good enough... they ended up with strawberry applesauce and nachos!

We did a banana theme, so of course we also had to do Curious George.  We already had several of the books on our shelf.

Alex was out of town with the camera for these projects, so I only got a few pictures of the live action on the I-pad.  I snapped some pictures of the finished projects after I got my camera back.

I created a blueberry game for them to play, which is good for counting.  They each had a green "fruit basket".  They took turns rolling a die, and then put that number of blueberries in their basket.  The first one to get all their blueberries in the basket won.  

They love watermelon and cantaloupe!

They were excited about ice cream smoothies with berries, spinach, and apple juice.

They also had corndogs for lunch - that's in the vegetable group, right?  Ha ha. 

We did a paper plate salad craft, veggie books, and coloring - Weston wasn't happy about coloring.

We watched a couple of Veggie Tales episodes as well and had real salad for lunch.   

We had these cups out for a few days, showing how plants take water through their system.

Our mostly veggie dinner - plus salmon and veggies from a friend

I took them grocery shopping with me one morning - we explored all the different vegetables.  Weston just kept saying, "I don't like that." He does like broccoli though! 

Back-to-school

 Nathan and Jared weren't as excited this year to go back to school.  The enthusiasm for school is wearing off a bit.  Owen was pretty excited.  We don't really know anything about his teacher, but she seems really nice.  Jared got the same teachers that Nathan had in 4th grade - he was happy about that, and they were happy too.  (We told his teachers that Jared is the best behaved of our kids.)  Nathan was excited about his teacher and classmates.  He got some good buddies in his class this year.

Weston was old enough to go to kindergarten this year, but we decided to keep him at home one more year.  He and Savannah are still home with mom (which I am excited about).

Can you spot Owen in this picture?   :)  

(His teacher took some pictures on the first day.  There are some other blonds in his class - just not in this line-up.)  

Needs a little practice...

...putting on lipstick.

This was one of the other times she got into my make-up.  (I forgot I had this picture on the I-pad.)  This long-lasting lipstick was SO HARD to get off!  She ruined her pretty dress too.

Our SMART princess

 Savannah manages well with her brothers - she can be tough and bossy.  But she is not a tomboy.  She loves dresses.  Her favorite ones this summer were this blue one and the pink & white striped dress.  She wanted to wear those all the time.

Hanging out at swimming lessons... she wanted me to take pictures of her.  She knows she is cute.  But if you tell her she's cute, she might say, "I'm not cute.  I'm SMART."  I got a kick out of her telling me that!  

It's true though - she is a smart girl...

...smart enough to climb up and get my make-up, open it, and put it ALL over.  She even painted her feet and her tongue.  (A first for me, calling poison control... just to be sure she was okay with swallowing mascara.)

This was the first time she got into my make-up - but not the last.  She found it again a few weeks later!  I need a box with a lock... to keep Savannah in!  ;)