Snow Day

Mac is off trying to run a PR at the Cascade Half marathon, but Mother Nature did not cooperate! The kids aren't complaining, though!

 Snow angel!

Snow Castle!

Dance Open House

In December, Megan's dance class has an open house. Megan was better than I expected, but she had to concentrate super hard. She had her tongue out the whole time!

Very Serious! 

Nice tongue!

And curtsey.

Christmas

We had a very merry Christmas once again this year. 

We made our pilgrimage to the Oregon zoo lights.

Three turkeys!

We had Christmas in the family room this year and enjoyed some football on our new TV.

But the best part was having family here to spend it with. Grammy and Grandpa came for a long weekend and the Bogardus cousins were here for ten fun filled days!

Luke, 2 3/4, Liam, 4 3/4, Brooke, 5, Megan, 6 3/4

And lots of Christmas morning excitement!

"You've Been Banged!"

So said the hair stylist to my daughter today. Umm, hello? She's six!! Though she does look WAY older with bangs.

Halloween: A Haiku

A few years back, I posted a "three act play" for Halloween. I don't have that kind of time anymore, so this year I offer you a haiku instead. It's literary and multicultural, but best of all it can be completed in less than 3 minutes!! And so without further ado...

Goodwill transforms kids
Kind strangers dispense candy
Way too much sugar

 Megan wanted to be a cow. "Mom, are you going to sew my costume?" she asked in early September. My first thought was "F*ck, NO!" But instead , I said, "Hmmm, maybe we can look at Goodwill first."

 No cow costumes to be found but I did get this cute pink poodle outfit. "Megan, I can take this back if you want me to keep looking for a cow outfit." But she was happy with the pink fluffy suit. As the saying goes, a pink poodle outfit in hand is worth two cows in the bush...or something like that. The collar says Mufti for my grandmother who had a poodle (actually two) with the same name.

Liam wanted to be an astronaut, but he wouldn't wear the helmet. he went around telling people he was a "space dude." Not sure where he came up with that one, but it sure didn't hurt his candy haul. That little charmer talked an extra candy bar out of just about every house! Unfortunately, this space dude was still under the effect of gravity when he stumbled against the kitchen chair earlier and bloodied his nose.

Oh, and those 70 pound pumpkins the kids are sitting on? Yeah, I grew those!! (three big ones in all plus all the little gourds, too). And if you look carefully, you can see our Halloween decor even includes a ghost in the window! BOO!

Fall Fun!

October 16th was our annual trip to Bauman Farms. Lots of fun for the kids...and maybe the parents, too. Although, Liam didn't think the monster golf was so fun as we dragged him through the muddy corn course.

All the traditional fun, and some new stuff, too.

 Getting lost in the blow-up bouncer

Enjoying some cider and goats!

The kids aren't the only ones having fun.

Hey - no spare tires on this family!

They had one more spot in the pie eating contest. Liam stepped right up (so much for wash your face before you eat)

What a sweet face! Some huge boy ate his whole pie in the time it took Liam to eat about three bites, but he had a great time and we all enjoyed the rest of the pie in the garden when it was over.

We also ran all over doing the scavenger hunt this year...I think Megan was pretty disappointed to learn we didn't get a prize at the end (Megan is a little over-obsessed with prizes these days), but it was still fun finding all the answers.

We are already looking forward to next year!

Big Milestones!

Last week we celebrated the use of parentheses and it looks like we will soon be adding paragraphs to the list!

This was a "top secret" letter to Megan's teacher. I wouldn't have even noticed except Megan said,"Mom! Do Not read this. It is NOT for you!" Which, of course, meant I was sneaking around to see it and then nearly died after I had!