Some gorgeous pics Dad took on his sailing trip

Maybe next time he'll let us go with him.  But, then again, the last time we were on the sailboat at 4th of july, I dropped my flip flop in the water stepping on, so maybe not!

Daddy comes to Helping Day!

Friday Night Fun

The kids decided to make a house for their little creatures from a big cardboard box.  There are couches, chairs, beds (single and bunks), a tent (that was Seth's) and a TV, playing Spongebob, of course (that is Ryan's creation).  Seth took most of the pics with all his creatures staged for the photo.

My bed was made...

My bed was made so they had to play on Ryan's bed and this is their pillow fort.  Lately they have been making a lot of pillow and blanket forts using every pillow and blanket in the house.  If they're not for a fort, then they are piled beside our bed so when Adam pushes them off they don't get hurt.  Gotta love playing with Daddy.  I was just the monster in this game.

Seth's Robot Pic

Seth drew this yesterday at school during free time.  It is so detailed and creative.  All the robots, ships and creatures are labeled "good" and "bad".  The robot's hair opens up so missiles can shoot out.  The green tank has guns everywhere.  The spaceship is attacking some poor guy saying "ahhhhh"!

No Karate for Ryan

At pizza night dinner on the floor, Adam announced that Seth wanted to start Karate.  I told Ryan that she could do it too.  It would help her balance and use her body (for dance, because I can't get her into tap yet).  She finally said, "Do you know why I will never do karate because they will kick me ... (pause) ... probably in my stomach."  That's our ballerina for ya!

Classic Halloween

A mummy, a witch, a wampire, and a werewolf... and then a Hawaiian guy and a pirate showed up!  What a night!  Ryan loved handing out candy with Grandma before and after trick-or-treating, but Seth was all about the candy.  We went around three different times to different streets.  Before it got dark, we all (Grandma and Grandpa too) helped The Brothers hide some of the cricket and frog noise makers around the haunted forest.  After dark, Grandma stayed to hand out candy while the rest of us walked through the forest.  There was a pirate show, an alien shuttle that crash landed on earth, a computer screen that if you said your name into the cauldron next to it would say "K.C. died in 2009 from...", lasers on the side of the house and a ton of different characters (R2D2, Darth Maul, Yoda...).  Seth's favorite was an RC space car.  Seth and Ryan even got to fight with the light sabers in front of the haunted forest.  It was crazy!  So after getting a ton of candy and handing out even more, having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and overall, having a great Halloween, our little princess witch and mummy fell into bed.

What a great Halloween! 

I've been "Boo-ed"!

We got Boo-ed yesterday (a paper ghost and a bag of candy on our doorstep) so we went out tonight to Boo three neighbors. In our pjs, headlamps and slippers (it was already past bedtime, but our pizza night went a little late after dance and soccer), we jumped in the back of the pickup to "sneak" around the neighborhood. Well, after the first house where we unknowingly walked right past Mr. Jeff working on his haunted house in the tree and while sneakily placing the bag on his doorstep, squealed, laughed and went running right back past him back to the truck when he asked "What are you guys doing here?". The second house she opened the door right as I was knocking and the third, Seth made it almost to the bed before they opened the door. So we were not quite successful on the "sneaky" side, but we had lots of laughs and fun. I told Adam it was like going TPing, only... as parents... with our 5 and 7 year old children... and getting caught. Good times!

Silly Seth

Seth being silly at the hotel in Lancaster, PA for Dayton's Bday.

After dinner we went swimming. Well, the kids and Dave went swimming. But while Adam was bent over helping Seth out of the pool, he was just a perfectly dry, fully clothed target that I had to push in the pool. After that, he threw me in and we repeated that a couple more times with Seth too. So after a lot of wet towels, clothes and laughs, we went to bed to get ready for Dutch Wonderland!

Swinging before school,...

after school, and if they had it their way, during school. They love the tree swings, especially Ryan. Seth takes breaks to ride his bike, but Ryan can stay on them from after school until dinner without even taking her backpack off. The other day, she was swinging while I raked all the leaves. She took a break to jump in the leaves with Seth. Being from California, we never really had enough leaves to jump into (Yes, that huge tree in the middle of the aviary that lost its leaves in spring instead of fall, but it wasn't what the stories always talked about). But this was definitely what I imagined! It was really fun and, lucky me, we will have more leaves and more leaves to jump in (and rake).

Seth's Blue Sharks

Seth's first soccer team and my first banner. I asked the coach if anyone else was making one and he said, no. I asked if it would be OK if I did because in California we always had these big banners. He looked at me kinda funny and said, "This is just a rec league." (I guess this area doesn't do banners) But I couldn't wait to do one anyway. I kept it pretty simple, but as I was putting it up the first game, the kids looked over and said, "Whooaaaa, look!" It was very exciting. A couple of moms said how cool it was and I told them "I know noone else has them, but..." They said, "Not for long!" I will report back on if and when the other teams get banners.

(FYI - I used the wrong glue which is why the ball is falling off, don't worry it's fixed now.)

Seth is having a blast on the team. He laughs alot and even jokes when his own teammate takes the ball from kickoff and scores on his own goal. His favorite position is goalie because he "can just stand there". But he has also scored a couple of goals! It is really fun to watch.

We were sitting there and Adam said, "This is so suburban!" I told him he's right and I love it! We were sitting there in our little folding chairs on gorgeous green grass surrounded by beautiful green trees in front of a felt soccer banner watching my son kick around a ball with Ryan wiggling around on our laps waiting for the game to end so we could make a tunnel for him to run under. (Yes, they do that here) Yeah for soccer and suburbia!

(Next time I won't go quite so crazy on the number of pictures, but I couldn't control myself this time, they all just brought back such good memories and such fun hopes)

Funny Grown-up Ryan

The other night at the dinner table she said, "Watch and learn, Daddy!"

General Conference and the Staring Game

We watched conference today which of course was great but Elder Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon was AWESOME!!! It was so powerful. In this society of tiptoeing around everything, I loved hearing the truth and what he/we really thought about it. It reminded me of a couple of years ago, his talk about us being Christians. WOW!

We played on the tree swings between conferences and then went on a walk around the block. I had just said how I wanted to get a bench to sit on while the kids swing and what appears, but a great park bench with a free sign on it at the sidewalk. I even found out from a neighbor that it was a 75th birthday present for a sweet lady who used to live there. So Adam and Ryan walked home to get the truck, we put it in the back, had a seat and Adam drove us all back home. It's a great addition to the front yard. Since the kids can play on the tree swings forever, it's a great place to watch them from (or from where to watch them.)

After conference, the kids finished scrapbooking and playing with the kitty, and we sat down for dinner. During which we played the staring game. Adam was immature enough to keep clapping to make Seth blink and then Seth and Ryan clapped back and forth at each other for awhile. The other night, they were playing the Silent game, which Adam loved. Ryan kept calling Pause and then saying the most random things (she's not very good at the Silent Game... obviously, it would be like me playing it, there are just too many things to say). Anyway, after a game, Daddy was saying something silly and Seth said, "I wish you would play the Silent Game!" It was so sarcastic. Hehehehe!

Seth scored a goal

I keep being so excited that Seth had such a great time at his soccer game that I keep forgetting to say that he actually had one goal and one assist. It actually seems silly to even report his stats because the game was so-not-competitve. I mean there were goals and all, but at the end "they tied", even though we really won. One time, Seth's teammate took the ball from kick-off and dribbled all the way to their own goal and scored. Seth said, "Not that way!" and then gave his friend a huge smile. Well, we're gonna be grateful for the friendliness now because he will be elbowing, slidetackling, and kicking girls in the stomack in no time. Wait, was that just me and probably Lacee and Misty, too. Now that doesn't sound very nice... hehehehe!

Trains and kitties

It's Sunday evening and I'm trying to catch up. We played on the trains and practiced their parts for the Primary Program. Yesterday and the day before we went around to the shelters looking for our new kitty. We found "Sharpe", soon to be "Sockeye" (salmon, for you non-Alaskans). We found him Friday, but went to another kennel on Saturday just to be sure. The kids were pretty definite that they didn't want a different one, so did the "please Daddy, can we go visit Sharpe again. You'd think we were adopting a child- the process takes forever. But we are finally going to bring him home tomorrow night. What a great FHE! The kids have been making toys for the last few weeks, so this is going to be one loved kitty. And Adam says he doesn't want a cat, but I've seen him hold them at the pound and I'll report back when Sockeye is snuggling on his lap every night.