6

Yup. My girl is 6. There is something so big girl about the sound of that number, don't you think?

Celebrations started w/ lunch at Panera w/ mom mom after school on Friday. (she's started wearing her stickers from school on her forehead...i don't know..)

Then that evening her two cousins that are her age came over to stay the night.

They made their own snack. We talked about how cowgirls would need to build a fire out on the range at night, so that's what they did. I loosely followed this as I remember doing it in girl scouts/brownies.

J is not to be left out!

After snacks it was bed time and not too long until they were fast asleep.

Morning brought her breakfast of choice, baked oatmeal. Then we were off to ride horses!

They LOVED the hats I bought them. (notice my e's belt buckle...was mine from earlier days)

After leading the horse out of the pasture,

brushing him, (his name was Mel)

little bro looking on,

cleaning his hooves,

making tractor noises,

stopping for a quick pose,

or two,

it was finally time to line up to ride!

Best moment of the day. This little one likes to play it cool, but she could not contain that smile. Priceless.

Everyone, including J, got a turn.

Even V.

Many thanks to Connie for making this happen! She went above and beyond.

Then it was back home for her lunch of choice, tomato soup and grilled cheese. A good choice for a dreary, cold day.

Then cupcakes!

Horse cupcakes, of course. They almost look just like the pictures in the book.

We finished things off with presents. This is a picnic basket that I covered for her, and I made the food. Sandwich (w/ lettuce tomato, cheese, turkey slice; apple and two mini cupcakes) It was a good day and thank you to all who helped make it special!

CA trip

This guy and I took a quick trip to CA to meet my nephew.


Also had lunch w/ some old girlfriends.


Celebrated dad's birthday.


And dad made BBQ chicken and ribs.



And when I wasn't sick, I held this little guy.

backlog

I feel like it's been a while and maybe it hasn't been terribly long but I have a random assortment of photos and videos that have been building up and this is a very long sentence. Anywho.....here's the last month or so.


V has taken to trying on all types of shoes.


And some leisurely reading. (he was laying on his belly kicking his feet in the air, but of course got up right as I snapped the pic)


Den got his mount of last year's deer.



It's no secret that we don't do Halloween, but E's class had a book character day and she chose to be Angelina Ballerina. I made the ears and tail, but we had everything else on hand.




I hear a lot about this batman she's sitting next to.


Making a puppet. She took such a long time to color it w/ detail. This is not from me.


Some friends from church offered us tickets to see Voices of Christmas at Living Waters, the smaller theater of Sight and Sound. We took my SIL and niece, it was a fun show. E was feeling stubborn and didn't want to go, was determined not to like it. I caught her singing a long w/ Joy to the World and at the end she confessed, "mommy mommy, i liked all of it." This was said very quickly, almost hoping that I wouldn't hear.


Videos....
#1 - V loves it when his daddy lifts him up to "pet" the deer. He gets this quiver of a laugh that cracks me up.

#2 - I have no idea what brought this on. He just started dancing and getting a kick out of himself. You can see j running around in the back, trying to get in on the action.

#3- SO, let me apologize for my daughter's yucky noises. When she first started doing this to make V laugh, she was NOT making gas sounds. But still, she had him going and I had to share that part of it!

#4- Please ignore the girl wearing the big melisa suit, and do pay attention to my son in the black shirt. This was at our church fall gathering and I talked him into being my partner and he tried to be reluctant about it. I think the serious hoe-down moves that Den captured speaks to J's true nature.

Serving

Last Wed. we took the kids to GAIN, with our friends who had been many times before. Den has been wanting to do this for a while and we finally found a time that worked.


We told the kids to head to the car and this is what I saw...sigh.


They started us how packing seeds for people to grow food to eat and sell.


The kids were really into this at first and were racing to get as many done as they possibly could, but then more people came and it was elbow to elbow.


So instead they made gospel bracelets.




I tied quilts.

I'd love to say that the kids were excited to go. They did NOT want to go. But once we were there they were troopers and really got into it. Praying their hearts grow more servant like everyday.


Two nights ago I made pumpkin cookies and he couldn't get enough. "No more" was not the answer he wanted to hear.

videos

The tubby ones are from this morning and the truck one is from last week. He was dancing to the sound the truck was making, but of course not so much for the camera. Instead you can see him getting frustrated with his big brother.

This and That

These are just a few from the past few weeks, a bit of this and that.


He loves the silliness of wearing something on his head. One night I tied a shirt around his head and he just strutted his stuff loving that everyone was laughing at him.



These are from one of the fairs we went to in Sept.

He wasn't content to just steer the wheel, he had to shift gears too.

I don't know if you can see, but there are ducklings that are climbing up a ramp for food and then sliding down. Twas hilarious.