blogillespie

Snow!

2009-11-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures of the snow last week. The kids had a lot of fun playing in all the snow--and James and I got a good workout shoveling a path through the 3 feet of snow in the driveway.

This is when public school might be more fun for the girls than homeschool--they had 3 snow days...but we didn't!

Trunk-or-Treat

2009-10-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to go to our church's Trunk-or-Treat (you trick or treat from everyone's car trunks...) last night, but THIS happened:

The kids were pretty disappointed, so we decorated the house, dressed up, and trick-or-treated from each room in our house. I had the kids give me a 10 second head start, and I ran to the next room, put a new costume on, and then they knocked and got the candy that I was going to bring to the party anyways. It was fun :)
Ashley said witches don't smile...

But I caught her!

Paigie Poodle

Michael is going to borrow a horse costume for Halloween, but we didn't have it yet, so we found the manliest costume from the dress-up box for him to wear. He really wanted to wear the smaller matching poodle costume, but I just couldn't do that to him, so we compromised--he's wearing the pink poodle pants underneath this outfit :)

Jack-O-Lantern Night

2009-10-27T19:23:00.001-07:00

We had a jack-o-lantern night tonight!
I found these Mr. Potato Head pumpkin pieces at the store today and was so glad--they were perfect! Michael loved the piggie side of his pumpkin!
And he had a bear on the other side:

Paige's first choice was the cat one:

And the other side was a dog!

This was the perfect activity for kids under five--it's not messy at all, they can do it by themselves, and the end results were really cute. I love Paige in the background of this one, thrilled with her work :)

We had jack-o-lantern pizza for dinner. I had to reassure the girls that it was just regular pizza that looked like a pumpkin, no actual pumpkin eating was involved. Ashley wanted to carve her pumpkin, so we put Michael to bed and worked on hers.

Spooky!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

The snow and freezing cold temps didn't stop us from going to the pumpkin patch today! We went with some friends who have girls exactly Ashley and Paige's age and had a fun time!
Hay ride: Michael thought it was more fun to kick the pumpkins than choose one :)

Self-portrait on the hay ride :)

Michael really loved the bunnies!

Ashley and her friend, Elizabeth--I think they were born 2 days apart:

Paige and Anna:

Snow!

2009-10-23T12:13:00.001-07:00

We got our first measurable snow this week! The kids had a blast playing outside and we went through an entire bag of mini marshmallows drinking hot chocolate! I know that Michael is wearing his sister's hat and boots in the above picture--that was his choice--he has very manly black and blue boots and several boy hats, but he wanted to get ready all by himself like the girls were, so I let him be independent :)

It's Finally Out!

2009-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

The tooth that has been hanging on by a thread for a week is finally out! Ashley pulled it out herself during church today. James kept it safe in his pocket until we got home and put it in her glow-in-the dark tooth holder. I hope the tooth fairy comes tonight!

Visit to Grandma's Farm

2009-10-15T09:14:00.001-07:00

The last thing we did this past weekend was visit James' Grandmother at her farm. She has chickens, horses, fruit trees, a barn owl and 2 owlets, and lots of swings! James' Uncle Dave and Aunt Christie came over with their three beautiful girls and his Aunt Ann came over, too. Uncle Dave saddled up the little horse and took the girls for walks/trots around the farm, which they LOVED! It was really fun to see everyone and to spend time with them!

Grandma Sarah pushing her great-grandchildren! She was so sweet and strong--she gave them rides up and down the driveway in this walker!
Uncle Dave and Paige:
Uncle Dave and Ashley:

Charie swinging the girls really high!

Look! No hands!

Annie pushing Michael: Fuzzy caterpillars!

Chickens! The girls went in and gathered eggs, too! Ashley really didn't want to give hers up and I couldn't figure out why until she explained that she really wanted it to hatch!

Jake and Lanie's Wedding

2009-10-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

Backpack Boys--Michael loves wearing his backpack, especially when James wears his!

Entertaining the babies before the wedding:

Michael and William: Aunt Charie, the best aunt ever :)

James' brother, Jake, got married this weekend. It was really fun to be there and see a lot of his famiy!

Weekend Trip

2009-10-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

We took a fun trip to Utah this weekend! The first thing we did was visit with James' best friend from high school, Doug, and his wife, Mickelle (and their cute dog, Cleo who does tricks!). It was great to get together with them! Unfortunately, I didn't realize I had my camera in my bag until the end of the night, when we were at the Planetarium. Here are the kids walking on Mars and the Moon:
My little Martians

Loose Tooth!

2009-10-05T20:43:00.001-07:00

Ashley has a loose tooth! This may be the last picture of her with all her baby teeth!

Family Pictures 2009

2009-10-05T20:07:00.003-07:00

Horseback Riding

2009-09-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

The girls went horseback riding today! One of the classes Ashley is taking at homeschool enrichment is "All About Horses." Today, they got to ride horses for the first time and they had so much fun, we signed up to do it twice more in the next few weeks. Paige was very unsure when she got up on the tall horse, but once they started walking, she had a big smile on her face and loved it.

Dance Class!

2009-09-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

The girls had dance class today! It was so fun--they had a blast!

First Grade!

2009-09-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Ashley had her first day of school this week! We are doing a combination homeschool/charter school this year and are really happy with it! She goes to school two days (and wears a uniform :)), goes to enrichment classes one day, and is home the other two days. We actually started homeschooling back in June, to see if it would work for us, and it really has. I love being so involved in her education, letting her move at her own pace (especially in math and reading--the one-on-one has been amazing!), and being able to spend more time together as a family. She's taking watercolor, literature, exploring, and horseback riding at a huge homeschool co-op by our house, and reading, writing, grammar, Spanish, art, music, and gym at the charter school. She and Paige both start ballet next week, too, so we've got a busy year ahead of us!

Zoo Trip!

2009-08-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo on Friday. Here's the cute new zoo baby! Michael kept saying, "baby! baby!"

We probably should have left at this point--Michael was throwing quite a fit. The rest of us were having fun, though, so we stayed :)

Dance Party!

2009-08-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

We had a dance party tonight--with the "demo tune" on our keyboard. It's pretty amazing :)

Michael's New Robe

2009-08-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

Why I Got This Dryer...

2009-08-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

When James and I first got married and were picking out a washer and dryer, I HAD to have the front-loaders. Not because I really want to be energy efficient or to save water, but because I wanted our future children to be able to enjoy watching their clothes spin around and around like I did when I was little. We lived in Europe when I was in elementary school and had front loaders--Elizabeth and I used to love doing just this! You're welcome, children, for the amazing entertainment the laundry provided today. I've been planning this for years :)

The Big 3-0!

2009-08-19T15:43:00.001-07:00

I turned 30 on Sunday! Crazy! We had a fun day. Lauren had a party for me and made me a peppermint dream cake-yum! She saved candy canes from Christmas just to make my cake--what a great friend! Chris and Emily (SiL) drove over with their 3 little ones, and Shauna (cousin) and her cute girls all came over. It was quite a party! We even had party favors--my parents sent pink m&ms with my picture on them to give out--how fun!

My new outfit from my parents--one of the girls took this pic.

The 1960's birthday look :)

Our Little Duck!

2009-08-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Michael loves ducks! He doesn't usually like to perform, but here he is saying, "quack! quack!"

Beach Buddies

2009-08-09T21:28:00.001-07:00

James, Michael, Paige, Ashley, Madeleine, Katherine, Jeremy

Lauren just sent me this picture from our trip to the beach a few weeks ago. It was a great day! After driving for an hour or so to get to the beach, we set everything up, the kids ran down to the water, and it started POURING. I'm not talking little raindrops--it was a torrential downpour. The kids and dads in the water thought it was great and Lauren and I were alternating between crying and laughing, while trying to keep her 6 month old baby under the umbrella(regular umbrella, not beach umbrella, by the way). There was an actual river draining down to the sea right where we set up camp. Ten minutes later it totally stopped and we had a wonderful day, with the beach to ourselves.

Slip 'N Slide

2009-08-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today, we went hiking and as we were driving home, I made a wrong turn and found a Sonic. It also happened to be after 2, so there were 1/2 price drinks! It was a delicious wrong turn. When we got home we were still HOT, so I broke out the slip 'n slide. Fun day!

Around the House

2009-08-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here is what we've been doing at home recently.

smelling the fake flowers:playing peek-a-boo:
posing daintily (it is a word--I looked it up!):

sleeping (and being woken up from a nap by a crazy mom taking pictures):

Paige at the Dentist

2009-07-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the dentist this week for the first time in a few years. Paige sits down in the chair and the dental hygienist says, "So is there anything you want to tell me about your teeth?" Paige's response, "um...I don't brush them very much..." The hygienist was awesome, asking why not, explaining that cavities are little bugs (and Paige of all people does NOT want bugs in her mouth!), and giving her non-spicy toothpaste that is only hers, but she can share if she wants... I had to go out of the room because I was laughing too much at the conversation. Even with her self-proclaimed poor oral hygiene, though, the girls and I had no cavities and I'm happy we found a good dentist!

Check out her pearly-whites!
James and Ashley went to the movies this weekend, and Paige and I did her very favorite things--play dollhouse and bake cupcakes. Michael helped us eat them when he woke up from his nap! I think he's worried about the crumb on his hand...

Since we've been home...

2009-07-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ashley made us a fruit salad all by herself! And ate a lot of it, too.

Paige slipped...
but we hugged it better!
We've done some experiments with vinegar and baking soda.

This one was my favorite--you put baking soda in the balloon, vinegar in the bottle, then put the balloon around the lip of the bottle and shake the baking soda down. The balloon blows up!--idea found here

And we've played in the tub.