First Day of School 2010

New clothes, new shoes and new glasses for 2nd and 5th grade. The kids were ready early and happy for school to start today. Hannah was a little nervous but we walked to school with her new friends and that made it more fun. We're looking forward to a great year!

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

Well, I seem to be posting quarterly rather than daily. It's been a busy season and living life has gotten in the way of blogging about it. That's probably a good thing. :) Here's a quick recap... H is still excited to go to school each day and is making new friends. V is in choir and was selected for the leadership club. In October we made the annual trip to the pumpkin patch where H struggled with the fresh apples because she had so many loose teeth. They took their cousin Olivia on her first trick-or-treating adventure. V (Veruca Salt costume) spread her loot out as soon as we were home while H (cheetah costume of course) organized her treats by type and size. They both ran their hearts out in the Jogathon and V danced on stage at our church's country music night. We haven't had a lot of snow at home but in November we made the most of what we've had and headed up to the mountains for sledding and bigger snowmen. Our Thanksgiving-in-Sunriver tradition thanks to Grandma and Grandpa continued and was fun as always. Though we wished for the whole family to be together, we were glad for Skype. In December we said goodbye to our "Papa" and were thankful for Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ, who gives us the promise that we'll see him again in Heaven. The girls were more interested in our Christmas traditions and talking about what it all meant than making a wish list this year. But boy were they happy when presents showed up anyway! There was fun time spent with family and friends, and cherished time spent at home, just the four of us glad to be together with a roof over our heads and food on the table. The girls often ask to pray for those who don't. It always blesses my heart and makes me forget about their messy rooms and the pre-teen mood swing earlier that day that made me want to lock one of them in her messy room. :)

Anyhoo, we managed to bring the camera along for some things so here's a few pics from the past three months or so to get us back up to date. They're out of order, but hey, at least I'm finally posting them...

Pucker Up

Remember wax lips? I loved these as a kid and I still think THEY. ARE. AWESOME! Thanks, Sue, for the waxy smiles—the kids love 'em.

Great News

At the kids' school, they give out what are called "Great News Awards." When a teacher notices a student doing something great, showing excellent schoolwork, etc., they send home these notes. V, being the overachiever that she is, has amassed quite a collection of these. (We had to get a magnet clip to hold the stack on the fridge.) H has been very aware of this and has mentioned in the past about how she hopes she'll get one when she goes to this school. (It's a big deal to her.) So just imagine the joy on her face when she brought this home her second week of school...

Super Rhino

Yesterday I was plucking thorns off of roses from the garden to give to a neighbor. H carefully picked up a large thorn, placed it on top of her nose (like a rhinoceros) and said...

Mom, I'm a rhinoceros. Hey! Now I can really fight crime!!

How you get from rhino to crime fighter, I don't know. I wish I could see inside that funny noggin of hers and how those wheels turn.

A New School Year

First Day of School.

H is a first grader this year and V is now in fourth grade.

They were both excited to go to school this morning.

As always, pictures by the front door…

But the following pictures show what they were doing before I convinced them to stand straight and smile (to compare their growth from year to year). It's pretty clear what they were particularly pleased with…

H is showing you her new blue tennis shoes. They SPARKLE!

V wanted a picture of her backpack. It only has one strap—which makes it much cooler.

End of Summer

It's been such a happy summer. Here's a few little peaks at the last bit of the girls' summer…

We hiked in to Marion Lake. It was H's first hike in and her strong little legs led the way the entire five miles. V had fun showing us all her favorite spots from her last hike in.

There was a weekend at the beach with the obligatory marine science center, sand castles, light house, and s'mores.

Summer would not have been complete without a "Surprise! It's banana split ice cream sundaes for dinner" night. A favorite tradition at our house.

I think we had chicken quesadillas for dessert.

Dessert is optional on ice cream dinner night, of course.