Sarah's Wedding

This past weekend we went out to California for our niece's wedding. We attended the rehearsal pizza party on Friday night.

Here's the bride, Sarah, very excited to be getting married the next day.

We had to take this picture of Dan's brother, Greg, playing with Mia because he is not what you would call a "kid person".

The next day Becky and I had some wedding stuff to do, but we also got to go to the park with Max!

He does the same scrunchy nose face that Becky did as a baby, but I was not quick enough with the camera to capture it.

The wedding was at a golf course and was fabulous. We got a quick mini family picture when I noticed we were all wearing green. I'm thinking it might be our Christmas card this year as we won't get a full family picture until Becky's wedding in January.

The bride and her happy parents. Oops, too much light behind them.

Happy Wedding, Sarah!

Little Mermaid

Last week the girls had croup. They sounded awful, especially Anna. So much for my post about how they never get sick! Combine that with a weekend wedding trip and I'm behind in blogging!

By Thursday they were feeling well enough to go to a play. We saw The Little Mermaid Jr., a shortened version of the Broadway play. It was wonderful.

The girls paid attention through the whole 90 minutes. The old songs from the movie were great to hear and I loved the added songs from the Broadway production as well.

Afterwards we bought some food at Noodles and Company and headed to the park. It was a beautiful fall day.

I love taking the girls to plays and they are so reasonably priced around here! I pay between $5 and $8 a ticket, the price of a movie! What a bargain! Tomorrow we are going to see Pinkaliscious, one of their favorite books brought to life!

Our Weekend

We had a pretty quiet weekend. Dan left yesterday afternoon for business until Wednesday. On Saturday we ran errands, took the girls to lunch and then later went to a charity dinner. I had to take a picture of the salad that was served. It was so cute with the personal bottle of dressing. What a great idea!

The theme of the dinner was Western and we got to see Lee Greenwood, The Oak Ridge Boys and Lonestar. It was a very good show and they raised a ton of money for Volunteers of America. Many of the dinners we go to for Dan's work are pretty boring, but this one was fun!

Sunday morning we went to a pancake breakfast at church and then piddled around the house. The girls played Wizard of Oz for two hours.

Mia knows the whole movie practically by heart. Anna will say whatever Mia tells her to as long as she gets to wear the red shoes!

Nature Center

The girls are on Fall Break from preschool this week so we have had a little extra time around here. We went to Monkey Bizness on Tuesday. Yesterday we went to a nature center where they got to wear their Halloween costumes!

First they learn about bats, spiders and Trick or Treat etiquette.

Next they decorated Trick or Treat bags.

Then we went out for a little parade.

Afterwards we went over to the old homestead on the property and walked in, on and around.

We picked a few fall leaves to make Christmas presents for the older kids. Psssst:If you are not sure what they are when you open them, think coasters!

This has been the best fall color since we have lived here. It's not the peak anymore, but we have had color for four weeks now!

Hope you are all having a Happy Fall!

Another Very Quick Trip

Anna and I took a quick trip to California this past weekend for my stepdad's 80th birthday. Here is Jim with my mom...

...and with little Anna.

We stayed at my sister's house and enjoyed some sunshine and got to visit with lots of family.

My Aunt Helen and Uncle Bob came down from Northern California. We've all always been close with them.

We got to see Baby Max...

...and my nephew Matt and his longtime girlfriend, Lauren.

It take three cakes to hold 80 candles!

Happy Birthday, Jim!

American Girls

American Girl dolls came out when Beth was a little girl. She really wanted one, but they were way too expensive for us at the time. And honestly, I never envisioned that so many people would pay those prices for dolls. Boy was I wrong.

They were still popular when Becky was growing up. We probably could have afforded one then, but we had to be fair. So no doll for her.

Twenty years later we have three American Girl dolls in our house. But...I have not bought a single one. The girls each got Itty Bitty babies from their aunts for their adoptions. And Mia got a regular size one from our neighbors for hers. Mia is just starting to play with it now. She always likes stuffed animals best, but that is starting to change a little bit.

The next county over has some great library programs. A while back we attended the Wizard of Oz sing along. This week we went to an American Girl Halloween Party with a friend.

The girls made a plate of cookies, a napkin, a cupcake and a drink with a straw for their dolls.

They also made masks and bracelets.

At the end of the party they got to have punch and cookies too.

It was a lot of fun!

She Has an Opinion

Anna has really come out of her shell. She will always be introverted, but she is getting really good at telling us what she likes and dislikes these days. It is usually in the form "I don't like fill in the blank" or "I looovvve fill in the blank."

The girls have not been in gymnastics for a few months as they canceled Anna's class. And I took them out of swimming lessons for awhile when Anna had new tubes put in her ears. We have been able to fill those afternoons with plenty of visits to the park. But now that it is getting chilly we have signed up for a new activity. Karate!

Before she went, Anna said over and over, "I don't like karate." She didn't know what it was but she somehow hated it! Right after the first class, she said, "I looovve karate!" Unfortunately, she spent 50% of the class doing whatever she wanted and laughing. Some of the activities were a little too hard for her, even though it's a class for three and four year olds. So she coped by goofing around. Her motor skills are a little behind. We will give it a couple of months and if she doesn't improve we'll have to sit her out until she's a little older. Mia also loved the class and did well.

On the way home from the doctor yesterday I was following the GPS. Anna yelled from the back seat, "I loooovvve continue on the current route." She is too funny!

Museum Free Day

On Sunday I took the girls to free day at the Museum of Nature and Science. It's been a long time since we visited this museum.

The first thing we came upon was a life-size roaming T-rex. Anna was a bit afraid, but Mia wanted to pet it.

Next we headed for for the space exhibit. The girls spent a lot of time playing spaceship in the kids' area.

We bought tickets for a Sesame Street planetarium show and they really enjoyed that.

After that we walked through the gems area. I thought they would like seeing all the crystals but they were not interested at all. So we headed for the Discovery Zone. We spent the rest of our time in here,

putting bodies back together...

digging for fossils...

and putting on puppet shows.

We didn't stay too long as Daddy was coming home from the mountains! On our way out we stopped and heard a little about Australia and listened to some aboriginal music.

When we got home we were very happy to see Daddy after six days away!